Clementine x Louis

Chapter 1

Clementine's POV

Louis, the new guy I just met burped.

He seemed cool and a bit cute if I had to say so myself. Marlon, the leader of the group was sitting across from me and burped as well.

AJ joined in on the fun and burped too. He had the soup we were sharing all around his mouth and I shook my head but let out a burp as well. Everyone laughed once more but the southern girl, Ruby, I think her name was, seemed irritated and walked off. Talk about uptight. I didn't blame her though. I kind of was a bit harsh towards people as well.

"Goodbye, Ruby," Louis said. He faced me and smile, continuing to eat his soup.

I felt a tug on my shirt and looked down to see a sad AJ. "Clem." He whined. He looked toward his bowl that was completely empty.

"Sorry buddy," I said, "I'm sure they shared as much as they could." He slumped down in his seat. I kept eating.

"Heads up, little man," I heard someone say. Louis had slid his bowl over to AJ with a smile on his face. How was he so nice? Was he trying to impress me?

"Are you sure?" I asked. He stared at me intensely.

"You bet. I wasn't that hungry." I could tell he was. "Besides a strong man like myself already has enough meat on his bones." He then flexed his arm showing no muscle. I couldn't see anything through his coat that was all the way to his ankles.

"Whatever you say." I smiled at him softly only shortly after I heard AJ finish his SECOND bowl. I didn't blame him. We hadn't had a good meal in about 2 years. It was good to feel safe and secure for once. I mean could you ever feel safe with walkers. . . Walking around everywhere.

"All done," AJ said as he nodded.

"Well, I think its time for something very important," Louis said with a rasp in his voice and cards in his hand that he had pulled from his coat pocket. I looked at him very confused. He waved the cards in the air. Everyone whined and started to head in. "Oh God, Goodnight," said a girl with auburn hair as she rolled her eyes and walked in the school. Violet, a girl I had met earlier joined Louis, Marlon, and me at the table. She hadn't given me the best first impression but she did compliment me on my walker skills. If that was even a thing.

"What are we playing tonight Lou?" Marlon said as he leaned against the table.

"A game as old as man... War." He smirked at me. I didn't know what the feeling was but my stomach started to turn every time he smiled at me. Maybe the soup had something wrong with it, not to insult Omar's amazing cooking. I shrugged, trying to ignore the strange feeling.

"Never played it. But whatever the game is, you all are gonna lose." I said with spunk in my voice. Louis was still shuffling the cards. "Oh shit, I like that." I glanced over to him. Marlon was smirking at Louis with a suggestive face. Louis looked annoyed and just rolled his eyes. So did Violet as she realized the faces they were making. I didn't get it.

"It's easy," Violet started. "Everyone gets a stack of cards. Everyone draws the cards and the highest one-"

"Gets to ask Clem a question," Louis interrupted. My eyes widened along with everyone else's. He noticed the silence "What? I want to get to know you... We all do."

Sure. I wanted to get to know him as well... Like I did everyone else. I shrugged it off as so did everyone else. They drew a card as I did the same. Shit, I had the lowest. Maybe I shouldn't have hyped myself up. Violet had gotten the highest card.

"So about AJ what happened to his parents? You guys don't seem related so. . ." I went silent for a while. Rebecca, Alvin all the people I knew had died. I couldn't lose anyone else. "They're dead. They were good people. For the most part. His mom kind of hated me at first when I joined their group while she was pregnant with AJ. She almost killed me, her and this guy, Nick."