Two days later
"It's so quiet." Hershel stated. "Does anyone have any good stories?"
We were all sitting around a campfire in the woods again. It was really quiet and boring.
I looked around, no one said anything. I have a few good ones myself, but I'd rather someone else tell a story first.
"Come on," T-Dog said, "someone has to have something."
It was silent for a moment.
"Okay. I've got one that comes to mind." Glenn spoke up. Yes. I was already smiling before he even started telling it.
"So, this one time, I was supposed to deliver a pizza to this one house that was pretty far away…"
"You were a delivery boy?" I said laughing.
"Yes, as a matter of fact, I was." He pretended to get offended, then laughed.
"Okay, so," Glenn continued, "I started driving, and I got lost about a hundred times, then finally I found the place. I had to go down this road that was supposedly a private area. So, I'm traveling down the road, when I see a cop behind me."
I looked at my dad when Glenn said cop.
Glenn continued. "I get pulled over, of course because that's my luck, and he tells me that I'm not supposed to be down here. So, I told him that it was okay, that I'm just delivering a pizza to a house somewhere down the road. So, he shines his flashlight in the car, it was dark by the way, and he goes, "so where's the pizza?" I turn around and look…and I forgot the pizza."
I busted out laughing along with everyone else. It was nice to hear everyone happy for a change.
I was about to say that I had one, but Carol beat me to it.
"This is kind of embarrassing, so I'm going to make this story as short as possible." She stated. "So, when I was a Freshmen in high school, I bought myself this pair of white pants. I wanted these pants so bad, and so…I saved up my money for a long time and finally got them. So, I was really excited to wear them to school the next day. Everyone kept giving me complements all day, until after lunch." She paused and awkwardly laughed. "As I was walking down the hall, I heard people snickering and saying, "should I tell her?" I was beginning to get real self conscience. So, finally I got to my class, threw my books down, and headed for the bathroom, still hearing the other kids laughing. So, I got to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. I didn't really see anything wrong with myself, I couldn't figure out why everyone was laughing at me. So, I turned around, and…on the back of my pants was this huge brown stain."
Everyone started laughing.
"I must have sat in pudding or something in the cafeteria."
"Oh sure, Carol." My mom said sarcastically. Everyone laughed harder.
"Oh, you!" Carol said laughing.
When everyone stopped laughing, I finally said, "Alright, I have one, and it's kinda like your story, in a way." I said pointing at Carol.
"Okay so, this didn't actually happen to me, it was something that my friend did, but when he told me about it, I thought it was hilarious. I don't even know if I'll be able to tell this story without laughing." Some people already started to laugh.
"Is this the butterfingers story?" My dad said in an annoyed voice, but smiling.
"Yes! But don't say anything!" I said waving my hands at him. He just laughed.
"Alright so, this one time, I was in the cafeteria, and I pulled out a butterfinger. I saw that it was all melted so I was like, "aw I don't want this, it's all gross and melty." So, my friend said that he'd take it. So, I gave it to him, and he put it in his pocket and then walked into the cafeteria bathroom. A few minutes later, we hear a scream, when I look up, I see this kid running out of the bathroom." I started laughing. "So, my friend comes out laughing, and I asked him what he did. He said he wiped the melted chocolate on toilet paper, and threw it over the stale to the kid next to him, and he screamed, and ran out." Everyone busted out laughing, even Daryl! Glenn and Maggie were laughing so hard they had tears in their eyes. It made me feel real good. I always liked making people laugh.
One week later
It was beginning to get dark, so my dad said we should turn in for the night. We were sitting in the middle of a field, hidden by weeds. The campfire was starting to go out, and it was pretty cold that night. Glenn got up, and said he was going to go take a pee. He took his hat off for some reason, and sat it on the ground.
Carl stretched his legs out, and accidentally kicked Glenn's hat into the fire.
"Oh crap!" He yelled. I got up to get it out.
"No! Just let it go." Daryl said. "Sides, it's already burnin."
I sat back down.
"He's gonna be pretty mad when he finds out." Beth said.
After a moment, we all started laughing. It was mean, but I mean…it's Glenn, so it will probably be funny.
"No one say anything to him, until he notices." Maggie said.
A few minutes later, Glenn came waltzing back over.
"Sure were gone a long time for takin a piss." Daryl teased.
"Yeah, yeah." Glenn said. He sat down. Some of us smirked waiting for the fireworks.
Glenn reached forward, and seemed confused when he didn't grab anything.
"Hey, you guys seen my hat." He asked looking around on the ground.
Everyone was silent, just smirked.
"Yeah, it's keepin us warm." I said. Everyone immediately laughed.
It took awhile for Glenn to get it, when he finally did, he said, "What? You threw my hat in the fire?" We laughed at his astonishment.
"I should get your hat now?" Glenn joked. I liked that he was a good sport. I can't say I would be the same if that happened to me.
A few days later
"Why are you all covered up, Abby?" Glenn teased. "It's not even that cold out today."
"I am covered up because…the mosquitos love me." I said. A few people smiled.
"This reminds me of the one time when my grandparents took me and my cousin camping." I started.
"Oh here we go." Glenn said laughing. Suddenly, everyone seemed like they gave me their attention.
"Okay…so…I really wanted to go to the park, but my grandparents said I couldn't go unless Franky came with me, and he didn't want to go. This was a campground, by the way, it wasn't camping out in the woods like this."
I heard Daryl snort.
"So, I begged him to take me, and finally he gave in." I swallowed. "Well, not long after we got there, this kid showed up with a remote control airplane. Franky and him started messing around with it. I got bored and wanted to over by the bog, but Franky said no."
"Oh, I remember this story." My dad said.
"Me too." My mom nodded. My dad ignored her. They haven't really been on the best of terms lately.
"Anyway," I continued, "I looked at Franky, and he was like mesmerized by this stupid airplane, so I just walked away. He didn't even notice. I got over to the bog, and there was like all this…thick mud. And I always loved playing in the mud. I stepped on it, and it seemed pretty solid…at first." I raised my eyebrows. "So, I was jumping on it and stuff, and eventually I sunk right down into it. I was so shocked and started screaming. This guy had to come get me out with a rope."
Everyone started laughing.
"Oh my God!" Carol said. "You didn't get hurt, did you?"
"No." I stated. "But I didn't even get to the best part yet." I giggled.
"So, what happened?" Hershel said.
"Well, the guy took me over to where you can clean fish after you catch them, and was hosing me off when Franky looks over at us and comes running over screaming, "what happened?"
"I told him, and he started laughing at me, and saying that I was going to be so much trouble once we got back to the trailer. Then, I got really scared because I didn't even think of that, and I was like…terrified to go back there." I laughed. "I was dreading it the whole way there. So, finally we get back and tell them what happened, and my pap looks real angry at Franky and says, "why weren't you watching her?" I started laughing along with some of the others. "I remember the look on Franky's face. He looked so dumbfounded. I was so worried about getting in trouble and they weren't even mad at me. They were mad at him." Everyone giggled.
"You have the best stories, Abby." Beth said.
Later that same night
"This is so creepy." I said. "I feel like jeepers creepers is gonna come down and swoop me away."
Daryl laughed. "Well, he does live in these woods." He teased.
"I'm sure he does." I smiled.
"If he does," Daryl started, "ya know yer the first one he's comin fer, right?"
"Why is that?" I said sarcastically.
"Because ya always draw attention to yerself because ya never shut up." He stated. Everyone laughed. "And besides, you're probably the easiest to carry." Glenn added.
I snorted. "That was lame." I raised my eyebrows.
"Well, you know what they say…" Glenn said, and when he didn't finish his sentence, everyone looked at him.
"What, Glenn?" I snapped. "What do they say?"
"Why do you always pick on me?" He said dramatically. It made everyone laugh again.
One month later
We wandered around and came across an old fire station. They had beds! It was kind of awkward though, because we all had to sleep in the same room. I was happy to be under a roof though, it was starting to get really cold outside.
Hershel, Maggie, Beth, Glenn, Daryl, and I were setting things up while my dad and T-Dog were standing guard and my mom and Carol doing God knows what in another room. Carl was off somewhere too. He started acting different and wanted to be alone more often.
Suddenly, a scream came from Beth, who was sitting next to me. When I looked, I saw that there was a spider on her leg.
"Get it off! Get it off!" She yelled.
I calmly picked it up, and held it in my hand.
"Ew, Abby!" Beth yelled. "How can you just touch that thing?"
"Seriously, Abby, you're like the only girl I know that would do that." Maggie stated.
I just stared at the spider in my hand.
"I wouldn't even do that!" Glenn said. Daryl laughed.
"Well, she's a brave soul." Hershel smiled at me.
"They're not so bad." I said. "Once you look into their eyes, they're not so scary anymore."
"No, thank you." Maggie stated.
"I think you're disturbed." Glenn teased. Glenn and I had that brother/sister bond, so we always picked at each other.
I gave them a weird look. "Think I'm disturbed now?" I said. "Watch this." I put the spider on my chin, and let it crawl on my face.
"Oh my God!" Glenn and Maggie said in unison. Beth screamed and ran off.
Even Daryl had a shocked expression on his face, with his mouth gaped open.
Hershel just laughed at all of us.
Later that same day, we were all sitting around doing our own thing. I pulled my iPod out of my pocket, that finally died a few weeks ago, and pressed it. To my surprise, the screen flashed for a few seconds, and went back off. It was enough for me to see the date though. It was Halloween! That means tomorrow is my birthday! I turn seventeen!
I got excited and was about to tell everyone, but I had a weird thought that made me change my mind. So, I didn't say anything.
The next day
Well, I'm seventeen now. It's really weird though, you know when it's your birthday and there's always someone who asks you that lame question? "Do you feel any older?" Or "How's it feel to be another year older?" Something like that. Well, to be honest, I actually do feel different. It feels like there's this big change from sixteen to seventeen. But how? It's only one year difference. In that moment, I did not feel happy. I did not feel like…myself. The thought kind of worried me. I wanted to be alone, and so I wandered off into the bathroom. Whenever I closed the door, it got really dark inside. I usually don't like being in the dark, especially alone, but I didn't mind the darkness at the moment. And so, I locked the door, and sat on the cold ground. Out of nowhere, I began crying…
One week later
We had to leave the fire station last night because it had gotten overrun. Of course. So, we were back on the road again.
Luckily, we found a baseball field a few miles down the road. We would be able to hear if walkers were coming, obviously with it being fenced in.
We were sitting around a fire talking and eating a deer that Daryl got. It was so good; it was nice to have food that didn't come from a can.
It was pretty quiet for the most part. The only noise was coming from the campfire. I guess no one had anything to say.
"So quiet." T-Dog said.
"There's not much to talk about." My mom stated.
Things were getting serious.
Hershel looked at me. "Abby, ya got any more stories?"
I nervously scratched at the back of my neck. "Not at the moment." I shrugged. The truth was, I had about a million stories I could tell, but…I just didn't feel like it.
Three months later
I wish I could say things had gotten better, but if I did, I'd be lying. It was fucking freezing outside, and we couldn't seem to stay in one place for more than a week. We were low on food and supplies. My mom being months away from giving birth had to be worried the most. Not to mention my parents not speaking to each other.
We had found a storage place to get out of the weather. I found a bag of weed in the of the units! I couldn't believe it!
Once we were settled in, we all sat around together and talked. Now when I say talked, I actually mean no one really said anything unless they had to.
"This sucks." Carl said.
"Yup." Glenn replied.
After maybe an hour of silence, Hershel said, "Abby…I'm dying to hear one of your stories. We haven't heard any in awhile."
"Yeah." Beth agreed.
"I don't know…" Was all I said.
"Come on." T-Dog said. "We know you got one."
I just kind of smirked and shrugged.
"Yeah, come on." Glenn urged me. "It doesn't even have to be funny. Just say something. Tell us anything."
"Well, doesn't anyone else have a story?" I suggested.
"No one tells 'em like you do." Maggie said.
"Yeah." Someone, I'm not sure who, said. Suddenly, everyone was urging me on, "Come on, Abby. Abby, come on."
And so, I didn't have much of a choice. Well…okay…" I sat up and cleared my throat. "So this one time, I was at my friend Ally's house, and we ordered pizza. Ally was always kinda awkward, like she was afraid to hand the guy the money for some reason, so I said I would do it. And so, I drew this little smily face on a piece of paper and put it inside the money so he would open it later and find it, maybe he would think it was funny and brighten up his day," I paused, and heard a few laughs, "well he came to the door, and said the price, I didn't even really hear what he said, I wasn't paying attention, so I handed him the money, and he said something about change. I was like, "no that's yours." So he said okay and left. Well, I came back inside and Ally was like, "we didn't give him enough money." And then I was like, "why didn't you say anything? Like I had more money with me, I could have given him more. I wasn't even paying attention when I handed it to him." I figured I had enough. So, with us not going him enough money, he probably saw the smily face and thought…"
"You were trying to be a smartass." Glenn finished for me.
"Yeah." I said. "It made me feel pretty bad. That's what I get for trying to do something nice."
"We used to get ripped off all the time, so don't sweat it." Glenn said.
"Yeah, but, you haven't even heard the best part yet." I stated, in which everyone laughed.
"So, maybe like three weeks later or something, I was at Subway and the guy making my sub kept looking at me, and I didn't know why. He also looked kind of familiar, but I couldn't remember where I had seen him before."
"Oh my God." Maggie said and laughed. She got it before anyone else.
"I didn't remember until a couple days later." I laughed. There was a brief pause.
"That was the kid who delivered the pizza that you ripped off?" My dad said.
"Yeah!" I said. Everyone laughed.
"I never heard that story before." My mom said.
"But like, what if we got him fired, and that's why he started working at Subway?" I laughed.
"Probably." Glenn said.
"I bet that kid spit a nice loogie in yer sandwich." Daryl said.
"I know! Ew!" I said. "That's the first thing I thought of after I realized it was him!"
Everyone laughed.
It was a nice moment. I wished it could be like this all the time…but it wasn't…
