scars • clementine x louis

Chapter 36: Best Friend

"So... you're saying... you've never had a pop-tart?" Millie echoed for the third time. Clementine laughed while nodding. Millie scoffed. "Dude, literally, they were the best! At the orphanage, the food there was totally shitty. But every 3 weeks on Fridays, we were able to have pop-tarts for breakfast. I would always steal money from the adults and trade it for pop-tarts with others. I kept it up for 3 years. Nobody knew."

"Damn, as a kid, I was a goody-two-shoes. I was a terrible liar." Clem laughed.

"I had practice."

"Really? How?"

Millie's face fell once the words left Clem's mouth. She shifted a bit as she cleared her throat. "I mean... it was just at the orphanage. I learned it... I learned it there." Before Clem could say anything, Millie stood up and dusted the imaginary dirt that laid on her legs. "I have to... yeah."

Clementine stood up with her. "Okay. Do you... want me to come with you--" 

"No!" Millie yelled. She widened her eyes as she realized how much of a scene she was making. "I mean... no. No, it's fine." Millie fled the room, not allowing Clementine to even say goodbye. 

Clem rested back on the bed, querying what she had done wrong. She groaned, throwing her head back on the pillows.

***

Louis held up his hunting knife, observing his surroundings. Although he didn't need to go hunting like back at the school, he wanted to blow off steam. In reality, Clementine would've scolded him for putting himself in danger, but he was alone most of the time because of all the time she had been spending with Millie. 

He spotted a walker, standing in an eye's view, practically a mere foot away. Attempting to not attract its attention, he snuck up on it, eventually diving the knife in its head. He pulled the knife out, watching the walker go limp.

All of a sudden, he felt excruciating pain at the back of his head, soon realizing that he had been hit by something or someone. (nOT a bULleT i rEPeAT NoT a bULlEt) But by the time he realized, he had already passed out from the impact.

***

He arose from the bushes, spotting his new prey.

"Oh, how peaceful you are." He whispered to himself.

Picking up a rock, he charged towards it, swinging it onto the prey's head.

***

Louis' eyes slowly fluttered opened as he groaned, rubbing the back of his head. He looked around, noticing he was still in the same place he was in before. He slowly got up, stumbling from the fall he had taken earlier. He looked around, realizing his knife was gone.

Limping, he walked in the direction of the school.

***

Walking into the room, Clementine could hear her muffled sobs in there, becoming more clear as she got closer. There she was, Millie, sitting on the ground, with her back faced towards Clementine.

"Millie?" 

Millie sprung up and wiped her tears before turning around. Her eyes were puffy and red, making it obvious she had been crying. "Hey, Clem." She croaked, her voice sounded so fragile to the point it could break any second.

"Millie, what's wrong? I was looking for you all day after what happened in my room. I just wanted to apologize--"

"No." Millie cut her off. "You didn't... you didn't do anything wrong. Just.. me and my insecurities." She laughed at the end of her sentence, her smile quickly fading away. Clementine sighed as she walked over to Millie, sitting down next to her.

"Can you... tell me about it?"

Millie hesitated, looking down. "It's stupid."

"C'mon, it can't be stupid if you're crying about it." Clementine pointed out in a soft voice. "If you don't wanna tell me, it's fine. I can wait."

"No, it's okay, it's just... I've never... really talked about my feelings..?" Millie wiped her lingering tears while taking a deep breath. "It's a long story."

Clementine nodded, giving her time to relax.

Millie tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, looking down at the ground. "So... when I was born. Right... Uhm... I was born in a toxic family. I always get blamed for everything, and always get put down by my parents. You see, my mom had a boyfriend in high school. Uh... junior year. They never had a lot of money and my mom got kicked out of her house anyway. So, her way to get money was prostitution. She had a one-night-stand with a man and... her boyfriend found out. But... by the time he found out, she had already found out she was pregnant with me."

Clementine slightly widened her eyes in shock. Millie sniffed, feeling her eyes watering already.

"Her boyfriend left her so she moved in with the man she had a one-night-stand with, which is technically my biological father. She just didn't know how bad he really was. Once I was born, my life seemed pretty normal. But when I was about 5, that's when things started getting weirder. My dad started going out. He would be gone everyday and come back in the middle of the night. My mom just thought of it as work, but I always noticed that maybe his sock would be missing and his hair would be all sorts of fucked up."

Millie paused, calming herself down. "I soon found out he was out with other women. But by the time I found out, his behavior got even worse." Millie's eyes started to water. "He started to... bring me in his room for 'games'. Me being the dumb 5-year-old, I listened to him. But they weren't games. He was just... touching me. This one time, he even undressed me and..."

Tears trickled down her face, dropping onto the ground. Clementine placed a hand on her shoulder before Millie started talking again. "He would do all these perverted stuff to me as I grew up like watching me in the shower, or like I already said, 'games'. That was until I was about 7 or 8. My mom pulled me to the side and told me all this. About what happened in her life. I was so shocked by the news, I immediately started crying. My mom hugged me and started crying too. That's when I realized, everything she did was for me. I mean, of course I'm not forgiving her, but... I'm grateful. But, the next day, they sent me away to the orphanage. They lied to them and said that my parents died and they couldn't take care of me. So, yeah. I was just sent away like that. Like I was nothing to them."

Millie wiped her lingering tears, no longer upset, but angry. Clementine hugged Millie tightly as Millie nuzzled her face in the crook of Clem's neck. She pulled away, a smile finally forming on her face.

"Thanks, Clem. Y'know, you just might be my best friend."

Clementine laughed. "I thought I was already your best friend?"

"Well, you are now." Millie chuckled. The two stood up, walking out with their hands entangled together.