Best Friends

Little Judith Grimes could count her friends on one hand: Hershel, Gracie, Uncle Daryl, and...Negan.

Negan wasn't supposed to be her friend. Mama and Daddy said so. But Judith was pretty sure that Negan was her friend. He always smiled when she snuck into the tiny 'jail' where Negan had to live.

She was almost five now, Mama said. That made Judith a big girl. Judith knew that was true, because Mama said, and Mama never lied to her even when Aunt Carol would raise her eyebrows and shake her head at Mama.

"Hi," Judith said to Negan. She had brought him some flowers from the garden and one of the alphabet cookies she had made with Aunt Carol when she visited yesterday. Aunt Maggie said it was spring time now when she brought Hershel from the Hilltop to play that morning.

Judith stuck her hands between the metal bars to give Negan the flowers and cookie. "I got you blue, 'cause you're a boy."

"Thanks, Princess." Sometimes when Daddy was being silly, he called her Judy Booty. Mama always called her Baby Girl. Uncle Daryl called her Little Ass-Kicker, and it always made Daddy smile and shake his head. And Negan called her Princess. "Did you make this?"

Negan held up the alphabet cookie. It was shaped like a J. Aunt Carol said making the cookies would be a fun way to help Judith learn her letters.

Judith nodded her head. "Yeah? What letter is it?"

"J, for Judith!"

"Look at you, already smarter than half the people I've ever met. What've you been up to, Princess?"

Judith smiled big to show Negan her missing bottom tooth. It was the first one she ever lost. "The tooth fairy brought me pretty river rocks for it."

Negan made a funny face when she said 'tooth fairy'. Maybe he didn't think she was real, but Mama said if Judith put her tooth under her pillow then the tooth fairy would bring a surprise and she really did!

"And Uncle Daryl let me help pull the feathers off the birds he got, so we can save them for Aunt Carol to make pillows and stuff."

"Sounds like you've been busy." Negan stuck his hand through the bars this time, to give her a piece of apple he was eating. Judith took it even though she didn't like the apples they had at home. She liked the ones Aunt Maggie had at the Hilltop better.

"Daddy told me a secret, too."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Mhmm. He said you killed Hershel's daddy, but I'm not s'posed to tell Hershel, 'cause he doesn't even know he's s'posed to have a daddy."

Negan chewed his apple slice for a long, long time before he swallowed it. "Yeah, I don't think you should tell Hershel that, either."

Judith liked that Negan called her 'princess' and shared food with her. And she liked when he pretended to play hide and seek with her, even though there was nowhere for him to hide in his cell except behind his hands. That always made her laugh. It made Negan laugh, too, when she pretended she couldn't see him.

There was another reason Judith liked to come see Negan, though.

When she asked Mama or Daddy a certain question, they would cry, but they wouldn't answer her. Uncle Daryl always pretended he didn't hear her. But when she asked Negan, he smiled. Every time.

"Will you tell me about my brother again?"

Negan smiled really big, just like Judith knew he would. "Shoot, yeah, Princess! Your brother was the most bada... I mean, brave kid I knew! Remember, me and your daddy were fighting then, and Carl snuck onto one of my trucks to try to scare the sh...I mean, poop out of me!"

Judith always heard the same stories from Negan, but she loved to hear them over and over again. It always made her laugh when Negan almost said the bad words Uncle Daryl wasn't supposed to say around her even though he always did anyway.

"Tell me about the night he tricked you and saved everyone," Judith asked, sitting down in front of the cell. On the other side, Negan did the same.

"It was cold," Negan started the story the same way he always did. "And I was mad, because your daddy had just attacked me at the place I used to live at. So I came here to get back at him, but I didn't see your daddy at the gates. I saw your big brother…"

She always told people Hershel and Gracie were her best friends, but it wasn't true. It was a lie, and she felt bad telling it, but she knew if she told the truth, both her and Negan would be in trouble.

Negan was her real best friend, because he was the only one who would tell her about Carl. Judith just couldn't tell anyone that.