Emma's P.O.V
Its now morning and Shane is back, but without Otis. I fell asleep on the floor next to Carl last night sometime around dawn because the sun was starting to come up but somebody must've moved me because I woke up on the couch, although we're technically supposed to sleep outside in tents.
Carl has been through surgery and everything seems to have gone well. I walked into his room to check on him and found Hershel and Rick having a conversation.
"You can't give him anymore blood, you've given him too much already." Hershel stated.
"It doesn't matter, he needs it." Rick said while pulling up his sleeve revealing his arm.
They kept arguing back and forth meanwhile oblivious to the fact that I'm there. Then it dawned on me.
"Take my blood. He needs it, I've got enough." I said holding out my arm waiting for Hershel to take my blood.
"That won't work, you guys most likely have different blood types." Hershel stated blankly.
"Plus, you're petrified of needles." Rick said.
"Thats not important right now. I'd do anything for him. That opens up a lot of things too. Compared to somethings, giving him my blood his nothing." I said not changing my mind.
"Now, Hershel take my blood." I added.
"Like I said, I can't do that. If your guys' blood types are incompatible that wouldn't end too well." he argued.
"My blood type's O Negative; the universal blood type... Now take my blood before I do it on my own." I said, sure of myself.
Hershel proceeded to take my blood and when he was done I felt a little dizzy but its worth dealing with if it'll get Carl to wake up faster. I then walked out of the house to go find Glenn. Rick followed me though.
"Hey, Emma." He sorta shouted.
I then whipped myself around to face him. He kinda sped up to catch up to me faster.
"Thank you for doing that, I hope you know you didn't have to. Just know that it will remain greatly appreciated by Lori and I and I'm sure with Carl too." He said.
"Oh, I know I didn't have to but really it was no problem. Like I told you in there; I would do anything for him, no matter what it is." I said. "Sorry to cut this conversation short, but I really need to talk to Glenn." I said
He patted me on the back as I walked away. Now off I was to find Glenn.
"Hey! Glenn!" I shouted with excitement. I found him near the horse stables.
"Oh, hey." He said whilst spinning around with binoculars in his hand.
So, I walked over next to him to see what he was looking at and quickly realized he was looking at Maggie.
"You like her don't you?" I asked with a smile.
He said nothing, he just avoided eye contact.
"Oouuuu, Glenn! You like her!" I shouted.
"Hey, keep it down." He said turning all red.
"Oouuuu, Glenn! You like her!" I whisper shouted.
"Fine, yes I do but keep that between us." He said still blushing.
I acted like I was zipping my mouth shut.
"Oh, and if you tell anyone about this I'll tell everyone who you like." He said sounding as if he was joking around yet I couldn't be sure.
"What're are you talking about?" I said really confused.
"Carl, I know you like him." Glenn said in all seriousness this time.
"No, I don't." I said very slowly and sassy to make sure I got the point across that I don't.
"Yes you do, and you know it and so do I. I can tell, you try to be careful about it but the hints come through. Don't worry though, I'm 100% positive I'm the only one who knows, besides you of course." He said, although I'm pretty sure he's messing with me, and even if I did like Carl I wouldn't tell him, I wouldn't tell anyone.
"Listen to me Glenn, I'm telling you in 100% honesty. I. DONT. LIKE. CARL." I semi-shouted.
"Yes, Emma, you do." He said chuckling at how worked up I'm getting.
"Fine, if you're so sure of yourself tell me what you mean by 'the hints come through'." I said making little quotation marks with my hands when I quoted him.
"1) I've caught you looking at him for a suspiciously long time on multiple occasions. 2) Whenever you're with him you seem to be a little too happy. Now get ready for the really convincing ones: 3)Before we left when we went to go look for Sophia you said you promise to NEVER leave his side and then you looked at him regretting-ly leading me to infer that you said something you don't want him or anyone to know. 4) Yesterday, when Lori and Rick came back into the room they told me that they saw you holding Carl's hand, since I already suspected you like him I just took it as more of a reason to think so, don't worry though, they don't suspect anything. 5) When you said you'd never leave his side you meant it a little more than you realize you did because you haven't left his side, I bet this is the first time you left that house since you got here. 6) I overheard you in there when you were arguing with Rick and Hershel to take your blood, you're petrified of needles yet you were willing to do that, and you said you'd do anything for him no matter what it is. Like I said, Emma. You, more than friends, like Carl." He said, at this moment I realized he wasn't kidding.
I stood there clearly annoyed, I don't like Carl, he's just a really good friend of mine, "Okay, get this through your head, I DONT LIKE CARL AS ANYTHING MORE THAN A FRIEND."I said very seriously.
"Now, I'm going back to check on my FRIEND Carl."
"Now you're going to seem him, even more convincing that you like him!" Glenn shouted.
I turned around and stomped towards him, "You say anything else about me liking him, especially in front of him and I'll break your leg, cut it off, and feed it to the walkers, got it?" I said, while resting my hand on my knife.
"Got it." He said scared.
"Good, and again I DONT LIKE HIM." I said as I stomped off.
When I get to Carl's room Rick is by his bed. Carl is awake and smiling, he's wearing Rick's hat, he scoots over a little and pats the bed signaling for me to come sit, so I do.
"So, what's the story, is the hat yours now?" I glance to him then Rick. Carl looks to Rick and Rick shakes his head yes.
Rick and Carl keep talking while I sit there deep in thought about whatever I was. My brain was all scattered.
Shane comes to the room and takes Rick with him. Although before he left he still managed to get in a glare at me, although I'm not worried I returned the favor so no biggy.
I wish there was a way I could tell if Carl remembers me grabbing his hand. I sat there trying to think of a way I could ask him. I don't understand, if I don't like him why do I want him to remember it so bad. The only thing I can think of was so he knows I care. Which I hope he realizes that by now. Suddenly I was quickly brought out of thought by Carl.
"Hey Emma." He said while tapping me on the shoulder.
"Hey, Grimes." I said mimicking him.
"Can I talk to you?" he asked.
"We're talking right now." I said being sarcastic... as usual. "I'm sorry, that was mean of me. Yes we can talk." I spoke just above a whisper, regrettingly.
"I feel like a thing happened but I don't know if this thing actually did happen, I don't know if it was some dream I had while I was out or what."
"What was the thing, did someone hurt you, because I'll kill them." I said, which made him laugh, his laughter made me laugh, as I said, him being happy makes me happy. I wasn't joking about killing someone for him though, he's practically my best friend.
"Well the thing is, I don't want to say what it was because what if I'm wrong and it was just a dream." He said, now avoiding eye contact with me.
"Well, if you're wrong theres no one here to laugh at you or anything, there's only me." I said reassuringly.
"I don't know. I don't want to say something stupid." He said.
"Here, how about this. If you tell me the thing and you're wrong or I can't help you but only under those circumstances I'll tell you anything you wanna know about me, deal?" I said with a smile.
"Deal" with that we shook hands. "Okay, so the thing is, I think we held hands while I was out, and now that I'm saying this I'm realizing how much this isn't a big deal." He said, I started to blush and I don't know why, he's just my friend, my best friend.
"Yeah, that happened. Also, don't worry it's not a big deal that you asked." I said blowing it off as if it was no big deal.
He glanced down at our hands for a second then back up to me. It was kinda silent for a second just us looking at one another. It was a comfortable silence though. "Carl, this is kind of a random question but who's your best friend? Oh and don't feel obligated to say me just because I'm the person asking."I said.
"It is you though." He said smiling.
"Good because you're my best friend too." I said smiling as well.
"So, to make life a little more interesting, whats that thing you wanted to know?" I asked trying to change subject.
First thinking about it for a second he asked, "What happened to your mom? If you don't want to talk about it its okay." He said.
"No its fine, do you want the long story or the shortened story that barely reveals anything that hasn't already been told to most of the camp?" I asked.
"The long story; I've got a lot of time." He said.
"Okay, well it all started when her and Daryl were young and in love. She ended up getting pregnant and never telling him. She just ended the relationship. She never told him because whenever she actually tried to she tried to ease into the news by just asking him if he ever wanted to have kids. She told me that when he answered her question he said he was unsure and she just took it as he never did because of the vibes he gave off. Well, when I was 8 one day I asked my mom what happened to my dad and she told me that. She said she regretted not telling him and thats a call she never should've made. A few hours after she told me all this I found her in her room on the floor with blood gushing out of her wrists, I called 9-1-1 and an ambulance came and took her to the hospital. I went along with her and they stitched her up and sent her home after she got some rest and got fluids in her system. My aunt came and picked us up when she was discharged. My mom never seemed the same after that day. She went from being the most loving and caring person to being this cold hearted shell of who she once was. On the ride home my mom made my aunt stop by the store where she bought alcohol and cigarettes. About two weeks later I went into her bathroom and found some drugs hidden in her bathroom. I wasn't looking for them, just some hair detangling spray. When she walked in on me and found that I had found them she freaked out. It was the first time she ever intentionally hurt me. She smacked me straight across the face and I could tell she used all of her force because she made a sound of struggle with the hit. She used to do things like extinguish her cigarettes on me, push me down the stairs, those things sucked but I got over it and it made me stronger. But the worst and last thing she ever did was the day I was put into a coma. I don't know what I did to upset her so bad," tears now flooding out of my eyes I took a deep breath and continued, " she told me we were having guests so I took my homework from the table and went to put it in my room. I don't know what upset her but she lost it. She took the scissors and jabbed them into my leg, then put out her cigarette on my hand, and I was already on the ground, I had my eyes closed for whatever reason and she broke a bottle. She took the broken bottle and stabbed it into my stomach. The pain was too much and I blacked out. I kept waking up on and off throughout this next part, at some point her lowlife of a boyfriend showed up and helped her take me out into the alleyway that backed up to a field that was behind our house. I woke up on and off for a while but it stopped eventually and I didn't wake back up until the same day your dad did, I also had to kill a nurse who turned into a walker right when I woke up. If you were wondering I haven't seen her since the day she did all of this and I hope I never do. I have Daryl along with some pretty great people right with me." I said finally smiling since I started telling the story.
"I'm really sorry all of that happened to you Emma. I will personally make sure nothing like that happens to you ever again." He said wrapping me up in a hug. I hugged back of course.
"Thank you Carl." I whispered still crying. The hug broke and I began, "Not just for making sure I'll never get hurt like that again, just for everything, for being my best friend, and really for just being you. If you ever need anyone to do anything feel free to come to me. Thats a promise." I ended not only my sentence but the tears stopped too.
He shook his head, and began, "Speaking of promises, you know how you promised to never leave my side before we left?" He asked and I could already tell where he was going with this.
"Yes." I giggled.
"You really kept that promise, I'm okay now and you're still here." He said laughing back.
"Yeah.." I laughed. "Oh and another thing, did your dad tell you anything about this morning?" I asked sorta eager to tell him the good deed I had done for him.
"No, why what happened?"He asked.
"Well you needed blood and your dad had already given you too much and he needed to recover from that, I gave you some of my blood and I'm terrified of needles, so whenever I say I'll do anything for you just know thats a promise." I said light heartedly.
"Oh, well thanks, but you've never told me that you'd do anything for me before." He said seeming confused.
"Oh, well just know that I will no matter what it is." I said leaning my head on his shoulder.
"Oh, Thanks. Me too, you need anything come to me." He said making me laugh with the way he said it.
"Oh, also heads up, now that we're officially best friends I might begin to do things like lean my head on you, and joke around with you, and tell you anything... but if you dont want me to do those things just tell me." I said.
"No, you're fine." He said.
We just smiled at each other and Rick came back into the room with Lori this time.
"Oh, I'm sorry... are we interrupting something?" Lori asked.
I paused for a second confused then it dawned on me, I was laying my head on Carl's shoulder. "Oh, no. Carl and I were just talking." I said keeping my head on his shoulder.
"Yeah, she's my best friend" Carl said smiling.
"And he's mine." I said smiling.
Lori and Rick sat down as I yawned. I haven't gotten much sleep in the past few days. This is the first time I've been calm and haven't really worried about much. I'm not too worried about my dad because I know he can take care of himself. He's supposed to come here along with everyone else tomorrow.
With that thought I started to drift off to sleep while Lori, Carl, and Rick were talking right next to me. I finally fell into a deep sleep with my head still on Carl's shoulder.
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I hope you are all enjoying this story so far. Those of you who want Carl and Emma to end up together don't be disappointed. Now I'm not saying it will happen for sure just don't be disappointed. I also made this chapter extra long because I'm still trying to make up for not posting for a month.From now on I will try to post once every weekend and during the week if I can at all. If you enjoyed don't forget to leave a like and if you have anything to say about anything in this chapter don't forget to comment, I read them all. :)
Much love, the random girl who wrote this book -<3