Poker Face

Chapter 68 - Not Your Friend

"Negan was supposed to be taking me away from the Sanctuary," she began. "He said he was going to let me leave but instead he took me on this three-day-long goose chase where we ended up back at the Sanctuary...well actually, we ended up at the abandoned outpost the same day you attacked it. Just me and him, found everyone dead...People were burning, my sister-"

"Stop trying to guilt me," Maggie snapped bluntly. "I believe you when you say you've been through a lot but I know you're playing it up on purpose."

"On purpose?" Aven spat, convincingly offended. "You weren't there. You didn't see his face, like he'd just lost everything he cared about and it was his fault."

"It was his fault." Behind Maggie, Jesus just stared at the floor, taking in the scene but trying to avoid the tension. He supported her but was hoping not to make a bad impression with Aven, since she was already adverse to the people from Alexandria. He was ready to play the good cop if necessary, so he stayed out of the dawning argument.

"No it wasn't, it was yours," Aven replied forcefully. "And Rick's. You'd never even met Negan, you didn't know anything but his name and his reputation and-"

"What, you're defending him now?" Maggie interrupted.

"I'm not your fucking friend, Maggie. You've made that clear, keeping me chained to a fucking bed. You yourself took one of the only two people who meant anything to me so don't you dare fucking fault me for defending all I have left."

"Tell me how you met Daryl or I'm leaving and not taking the cuffs off like I intended," Maggie said steadily. Aven glared at her but took a deep breath and forced her anger back down.

"Negan was taking me away," she repeated, "and we'd already been on the road for a day or two and I'd had it. I knew he was bullshitting and I got out of the car to leave but he followed. We were arguing and Daryl stepped in-"

"Arguing about what?"

"Just about me leaving. I told him he didn't have any authority over me and he tried to drag me back to the car." That's not quite how it went, but it was close enough. "Daryl shot an arrow at him and there was a little bit of a standoff but then a bunch of biters came out of nowhere and I got surrounded but Negan saved me...which he's done on several occasions," she added. "We got to our truck and it wouldn't start and Negan pulled a gun on Daryl and went for his bike. I didn't agree with it, we could have outrun the dead, but he didn't listen and they ended up on the ground and Daryl was going to kill him and I couldn't let that happen, so I made him stop."

"You used the bat," Maggie said as more of a question, observing Aven as carefully as she had while listening to her story the night before.

"She...it rolled over to me and my gun was empty. I wasn't actually going to use it but it made him back off. But then he came at me and the rest was self-defense."

"That vest you're wearing meant a lot to him." Maggie motioned to the leather still draped over Aven's heavy jacket. "Why take it?"

"It's a nice vest," Aven mumbled with a shrug.

"Why not kill him? He attacked you."

"But he was just trying to help me and Negan turned it into this whole big thing...he does that, you know."

"Then why take anything at all?"

"I knew Negan would be mad if I didn't. He told me to kill him but he didn't deserve to die so I just took the vest. Negan hasn't shut up about it since, he keeps mocking me and calling me weak for not doing it." As she spoke, another easy, horrifying lie dawned on her. "He punished me for it," she added quietly.