Crestfallen ↬ Carl Grimes (old version)

H A Z E

"Eugene-"

"What are you doing dude?"

Amongst the cries of my peers, I can't help but smirk at the audacity of the man as he attempts to raise the bottle to his lips, only to have it smacked away by the red-headed Abraham with only a harsh glare to defend his actions. Selfishness was what it was, but if he was willing to drink it, what exactly was the harm? If it were truly laced with something, then that would be the perfect way to test it. Besides, Eugene was more of heavy-weight to the rest of us anyway. If we lost him, it wasn't like we were truly losing something.

Moments like these are times when I feel glad that the people around me can't read my brain as well as my father used to be able to.

"We can't," Rick states, his voice loud and clear even with the amount of exhaustion that was painted on his sweaty face.

Something that surprised me most about this entire situation, though, was not the fact that Rick absolutely refused to allow us to take even the slightest drink from any of the bottles, but the fact that even though I could feel the exhaustion and thirst throbbing from the depths of my bones, I was still prepared to argue for my own sake and for the sake of the others around me who were so tired of walking and fighting underneath the influence of dehydration and fatigue to even speak up. Even now, with my mouth open and ready to say something, anything, to convince the stubborn leader, the universe seemed to have other plans.

For that's when the sky opened up.

With a large flash of light that cracked through the thick clouds and a loud clap of thunder that drowned out whatever words I had prepared, it took less than half a heartbeat for a light drizzle of rain to shower over our heads in an almost euphoric feeling. Large, fat, warm drops of water scattered throughout the air and landed every which way, earning all of our attention as we turn our eyes to the heavens and open our mouths to welcome the refreshing, yet scarce, amount of water that we were able to catch. Even though the water was warm and most likely something that would go away in less than a few seconds, I still took the time to scrub my face and tighten my already dripping wet ponytail, a loud laugh erupting from my mouth as the cheers of others make their way into the air, mingling with the rain and humidity. Guess my argument about not being able to find water anytime soon wasn't so valid after all.

Using his hand that was still resting on my shoulder, Carl takes this opportunity to spin me around so that he could look me right in the eyes, a large smile adorning his face as a chuckle of his own bubbles through his lips. Using his free hand, he grabs the dark brown sheriff's hat off of his head and places it on my own, the perfect shelter to protect my half-hearted attempt that had been cleaning my hair just yesterday. And, now with both hands-free, he takes no time to grab a hold of my waist and pull me to him, gently cupping my cheek with a calloused hand as his lips press against mine as if the world depended on it.

The entirety of it was soft. It was the only way to describe kissing the boy. In a world as sharp and lifeless as this, the only soft thing was this boy, the way his eyes looked at me from underneath those ink black eyelashes, and how carefully his thumb ran over my cheek as we chuckled in the bare centimeters of air that was left between us. Underneath the pouring rain, finally feeling alive and somewhat forgetting about the exhaustion left in our bones, I had never felt so...soft. At peace. At home.

"We're okay," The boy smiles, quickly followed by another thunderclap overhead and the giggles of the group members around us.