Allostatic load
Having been stressed for the last few weeks had honest to god wore Ron down to the bone, his neck and chest were caked with a vibrant red. The recent days have been longer due to the season change, leaving the citizens of Alexandria to fend off violent sunburn and heatstroke. Even then the whole town was spending the afternoon cooped up in their houses. Jeans were swapped with shorts and bandanas to sun hats, anything to shade from the heat. Ron paced his room for the seventh time, wondering solemnly what he could do to pass the time. He'd decided to shut the shades after the heat had crept in through the window. This wasn't a normal heat, it was humid, not a dry heat. The subtle breeze was the only real thing stopping him from slamming the thing shut. Eventually the dark shades would absorb the heat and become hot to the touch.
About 45 and a half paces in is when he heard it.
The pitter patter and crumble of shoes on pavement, a few of the other yelling, calling for Deanna. Spencer flew by seconds after, making a beeline straight for the main gate. Ron thrust open the shades and stuck his head put the window. His beanie fell into the bushes below. The intensity of the sun caused him to squint but he could make out the faint figures of spencer and some others standing by the entrance.
"Hurry up and get those gates open! Aaron's out there!" Eric shouted, nearly falling over his feet trying to get to the gates. Ron ran downstairs in a fit of curiosity, his mother nearly on his heels trying to get him to come back in fear of potentially exposing her son to danger.
He stopped by a nearby tree, peering around the width, which was just about wide enough to hide him. The adults had gathered in a tight circle. All he could make out were hand gestures.
A rustle caught him off guard and he quickly tensed up. Enid dropped out of the tree to his right, startling him but somehow still expecting it.
"You hear about the new people too?" She asked, pulling twigs and dirt out of her brown locks of hair.
"Heard Spencer and Eric runnin' down to open the gates."
She smirked, one of Ron's favorite things to come from his girlfriend. He pulled her hand closer to his and squeezed it as they watched the adults pull the doors open to reveal a rather large entourage of survivors. The one standing in the middle reminded him vaguely of a Greek god, he couldn't quite remember the name of him, not after three months of other irrelevant schooling, he was holding a child; little girl by the looks of it. By his side were about 9 other survivors, they all looked torn. Hair tangled and oily at the tips and skin coated with uneven complexion, bruises, and soot. Their bodies reddened from the sun. Baked evenly and as skinny as a calf, bones nearly protruding from their thin t-shirts. They all were in need of Alexandria. The concern was if they would take it by force. Ron didn't notice the absence of Enid's hand until he clenched his fist. He looked around, a bit concerned but he knew she was only off to investigate. He overheard Aaron talking to the group as they spread out into different parts over the town, they were going to talk to Deanna and then choose their houses. Ron knew so far that the couple, that was going to move in next to him was Michonne… and Rick, with his son Carl and daughter Judith. As soon as they began walking closer Ron bolted for the shoreline of the pond, running along the edge until he was able to casually walk out of the de-elevated area and onto the sidewalk like nothing happened. As soon as he entered his house again his mother grabbed the hem of his hoodie and forced him backward. Ron could almost feel his own dignity being ripped from his body, it made it even more excruciating to know that his brother was standing in the doorway watching their mother draw on and on.
"Ron do you understand how dangerous people are? After all, of our talks you still don't get that?"
She droned on endlessly to the point where not only was he numb to the matter at hand that he simply didn't care enough to even keep his eyes open.
"Ron! Are you listening to me? This is important!" Jesse said, gritting Her teeth together.
"Sure mom, I get it. I do, really."
She rubbed at the skin between her brow with her thumb like she always does when she's stressed, especially and specifically when she was stressed with the boys.
"I'm sorry mom" Ron whispered while running his fingers other the spot where the hoodie had been snatched.
A few tears slipped from her eyelids as she pulled her son into an embrace.
"I'm sorry too, I don't wanna see anything happen to my baby boy."
Ron slightly cringed at the Nickname while hesitantly backing away from his mother to avoid her squeezing the life out of him. Once he was out of her reach he ran up to his room and looked out his window to the other house. He spotted Carl on the couch. He looked peaceful with the toddler cradled in his arms, brown hair leaking out of his cowboy hat and onto the cushion of the couch. His eyes traveled to the porch just as the woman… Michonda or something was leaving. Ron hastily directed his attention to a nearby bookshelf. He pretended to fiddle with the cover of one of his favorite horror books. Once she was out of sight he went back to creeping on his new neighbors. The man, Rick was in the bathroom cleaning up. Ron looked away, flushed and sunk down to sit on the floor, hoping that he didn't see him. Yea, that would make for a good first impression.
Eventually, he came to the conclusion that that was enough snooping for today, even after he managed to take glances every so often but nothing too long or too prude.
The evening was bound to cool down the hot air, Jesse had him convinced that he needed to step out of the house for once and show the new kid around. She insisted on going over and bringing supplies, she stayed for about a half an hour more to give the man a haircut. It could have been born out of kindness or lust but Ron despised the way his mother would look at Rick with eyes full of love, he hated it. Ron knew that his mother was daring enough to pay a lick of attention to the parade of potential psychopaths, not with their dad around of course. If His father found out they all knew they'd have a storm comin'. Alexandrian's knew about the Anderson family, they knew that Jesse would trade bright purple bruises with throbbing red slashes across her face and neck. Pete had his demons, some stronger than others, the one that always seemed to win was a 25-ounce bottle of Jack Daniels.
Ron pushed his memories aside. locking them in the far away parts of his brain for later when he actually had the mental capacity to handle such things. He took a peek out of the window once more, the sun was done baking the air and left the town in a cloud of a warm comfortable atmosphere. The scent of the monsters was highlighted significantly more now than previously during the morning. It was faintly putrid, the thought that made him gag was the smell of burning flesh. Ron's eyes wandered down from the sunset to the window of the neighboring house. Steam lightly caked the window, which was still uncovered. The new resident stood on the tile undressing. Ron covered his mouth and watched as the teen took off his hat and set it delicately on the countertop, along with his flannel, folded neatly. His undershirt was off in a matter of seconds and folded up in the same pile. The teen began to unbutton his jeans and that's when he couldn't take it any longer, Ron thrust the window shut, pulled the shades down and slammed himself against the wall, shielding his eyes. Staring was rude and that's initially what he'd chalked it up too but this was borderline stalking. To feel this amount of guilt was unbearable. Ron groaned into his palms and attempted to go back to a relaxed state. A sudden pressure was felt against his jeans. His all so familiar friend.
"God Damn it"
