ELLIPSISM – a sadness that you'll never be able to know how history will turn out.
Andrea finds Glenn sitting by a tree some ways away from the camp they've more-or-less set up near the highway. In the few days that had passed since the chaos of the CDC, since Rick found them, since Amy… well, they hadn't spoken much. It wasn't like they were particularly close before then. He and Amy had talked, though, and frequently. They were around the same age, and Amy liked him, so Andrea liked him. Her sister had always been a good judge of character.
It wasn't that she was seeking him out, per se. She was just checking on him, really. He'd walked away after they'd eaten whatever rodents and plants Daryl had killed and foraged, and it had been some time since he'd gone. In the interest of preserving those few members of the group that hadn't screwed her royally over, Andrea figured she'd check on him, at least make sure he was okay.
When she finds him, he's crying, which kinda puts a damper on her whole 'just make sure he's still alive and then escape' plan. She bites her lip, then crouches down next to him. "Hey," she says quietly. "You okay?"
Glenn hiccups, hugs his legs tighter together and buries his head further between his knees. "Everything's fucked!" His breathing hitches and he coughs, for a second, and his lungs ache. "Everyone I knew is dead, everyone I care about, and we were almost dead, and you wanted to be dead and I don't even blame you! It's all completely fucked and I just want to go home to that shitty apartment I couldn't wait to get out of and the shitty cable that never worked consistently and my shitty parents who at least never actually tried to rip my skin off with their teeth!"
Andrea's eyes are wide, and scanning their surroundings for any movement. She gently and cautiously places her arm around his shoulder. "It is," she says. "It is indeed completely fucked."
Glenn laughs, but it's watery and half a sob. "I delivered pizzas and played video games. That's why I'm good at what I do. That's it. All my survival skills come from my shitty minimum wage job that everyone disapproved of me having instead of going to college, and the things I wasted my money on instead of saving it. Of all the fucking things – everyone I know is dead, everyone who's ever looked down on me or refused to tip. I don't know if I even wanted to go to college, if I ever was going to, if I ever would've and it's just – I'm just – this is just –"
Andrea snorts, leaning into him, and it's a bit hysterical. "My dad taught me how to fish, Glenn. I was a teenager. I have a great WPM, though, you should see me with a keyboard. Hot damn."
Glenn makes a strangled noise in the back of his throat and uncurls a little bit, tilting his head into Andrea's shoulder. "I'm glad I at least have my hat. I like this hat."
"I like your hat, too," Andrea says with a smile that Glenn doesn't see, but feels in his hair. "But you should let me wash it. It's getting pretty gross."
"I'm glad you're not dead, Andrea," Glenn whispers. "I'm sorry you didn't have the choice, but I'm… glad you're not dead."
Andrea's face twists, and she doesn't really have a response for that, but her arm tightens around Glenn's shoulders, and he leans into her more. Thankfully, she is saved from the uncomfortable silence that was sure to follow by a new voice. "Glenn, Andrea? Are you two okay? What's going on?"
Glenn groans and falls sideways until he's splayed across Andrea's lap, arms around her middle. Andrea laughs, and says, "Well, Rick, the world's fucked and Glenn really doesn't get enough hugs."
"I concur," comes Glenn's muffled voice from the vicinity of Andrea's belly button.
"Well," Rick says, moving into a crouch in front of them. "We'll just have to work on that, now won't we?"
And with that, he launches himself forward, fingers digging into Glenn's sides. Shrieking laughter fills the area, and they really probably should be more concerned about safety, but Andrea can't recall literally ever seeing Glenn smile like that, or Rick, for that matter, and she can't recall smiling like this herself, in some time.
When Rick finally grants mercy upon Glenn, the three are a mess of limbs. Glenn's head is on Rick's chest, and one of his knees is wedged between Andrea's. Both of their arms are wrapped around him, and, the world may be fucked, society as they know it may have taken the ultimate shitter, but Glenn, for the first time in a long time, felt safe. Loved. And he felt it in a way that wasn't exactly something people usually felt, with the way the world had been.
He never would've met these people. He'd have met other people, loved other people, people who have died, some people who may never be born, now. He'd never get any job but delivering pizzas. He'd never move out of his shitty apartment. They are hardly even factors, they don't translate into the life he has now.
Glenn wonders, briefly, what would've happened to him, had the world not gone to shit. It only takes the warmth of Rick's hand on his back and the weight of Andrea's arm across his side to make him realize it doesn't matter, now. That what matters is the people beside him, the people at camp, the people in the RV, Sophia – wherever she is.
There may be a version of history where he goes to college, gets a job, meets someone cute, gets married, has a billion kids, and probably still plays too many video games, but that's not how things played out for him. And he can't even bring himself to regret what his life has become. Not yet, anyway.