xLuvStruckIdiot- My exact thoughts of Carl at the moment but he's hurt because he thought that she would tell him something like that. He'll be coming around soon enough I think.
lunasky99- I agree with you, Hayden and Charlie having a bond would be just adorable, the mean little redneck and the little boy so I'm going to try to put it in while keeping the characters in their personalities.
HermioneandMarcus- Thank you for your continued support! I'm glad you like it!
Yuna Reina Gasai- Carl doesn't hate Hayden, he's just really mad at her because he thought that they were good enough friends that she would tell him something like that. He is really still the same little boy from the start of the apocalypse on the inside, maturing too quickly in all ways but the relationships aspect. He figures that since Hayden hurt him, he should hurt her.
reader: You are obviously quite confident with your writing skills, haha. I am one to believe that shorter better chapters are better than longer more boring chapters. But I've taken your advice to heart and will try to make the chapters longer.
PaganButterfly- Thank you so much for following my story!
The next time that Carl saw Hayden she was outside with Charlie, the boy watching in awe as she drove a pipe through a walkers forehead. The older boy had been sent by Carol to go get Charlie since it was time for him to go to his reading lesson. He had put off going out there for as long as he could but when Carol had seen that he still hadn't gotten the seven year old, he had been ushered out as she muttered about how she should've just done it herself.
Hayden was laughing at something the little boy had said, clutching her sides in an attempt to not fall down. When she saw Carl glaring at her she stood back up and looked him square in the eye. "Carol wants Charlie." Was all he said and he turned to walk back up when he heard Hayden say goodbye to the boy and he stopped. Watching, Carl saw Charlie run inside and Hayden didn't move.
"How could you?" It left his mouth before he could stop and he saw her tense.
"How could ah what?" She was testing him, seeing if he had the balls to call her out on it.
"Not fucking tell me!"
"Not fuckin' tell ya what?" At this point her eyes were narrowed into murderous slits and she was clenching and unclenching her hands
"That your a sociopath."
"Ah prefer tha term 'antisocial personality disorder'." She said with a snicker but he glowered at her.
"This is not funny!" He bellowed. "How could you not tell me?"
"WHY DOES IT MATTER?" She shrieked, shoving past him but he latched onto her wrist.
"Because I thought we were best friends! Best friends tell each other this type of stuff!"
"Well ah've neva had a best friend before so ya can't blame me!" She yelled at him attempting to tear her wrist from his grasp.
"Yeah, it shows." He snapped letting go of her arm and throwing it so it moved back in its socket. Disgusted Hayden stalked away, but not after shoving Carl right onto his back in the dirt.
"Maybe ah don't wanna be friends with tha likes a' ya." She snapped angrily over her shoulder before continuing on inside.
"Just answer one question for me." Carl yelled after her. "Did Jimmy know?"
She paused before she turned around. "He figgered it out on 'is own 'n 'e didn't mind that ah didn't tell 'im. He understood."
Carl stared at her back for as long as he could before she disappeared inside after slamming the door behind her. For a fleeting moment he wondered why this world seemed so confusing and hard, and wondered what he would be doing if this had never happened. What would anyone be doing?
He was pretty sure he would be sitting in his living room with his neighbor playing video games, drinking Mountain Dew and working on homework. What big tests would he have coming up? He would've had his school semester finals a week or so ago wouldn't he have?
Hayden would probably be doing what she was doing now, trapped in a prison with a group of people, some of whom she liked and others she constantly fought with. Carl knew for a fact that she wouldn't care about school if she was in it, preferring to steal or something.
His mom, Jimmy, Dale, Jim, Jacqui, Shane, Dr. Jenner, Duane, Amy, Sophia, Patricia, T-Dog, Andrea and millions of others would still be alive. But at the same time people like Ed would still be inhabiting the earth, free to do what they wished to those meeker than them.
Lunch that day was awkward to say the least, Merle and Sean would be going out scavenging with Daryl the next day, the three wanting to look for certain car parts. Since they were familiar with mechanics they were going alone to the nearest traffic snarl so they could collect the parts. Rick wanted to be able to leave whenever since the threat of the governor was still there. So everyone was tense as they always were whenever anyone left for a scavenging trip and that included Merle.
Hayden was showing Charlie something at a corner with Sean laughing with Beth next to them. Daryl was holding baby Judith and Carol was talking to him and Rick. Merle watched it all with a certain disdain but he couldn't help but notice the happiness mixed with angst on his daughter's face as she hung out with the kid. The kid who looked just like him. Merle knew that his daughter might be subconsciously associating this black haired little boy with him, but no one would ever replace Dean in Hayden's heart. No one no matter how much she hoped it would. Only one thing could bring Dean back from the dead and according to Sean it had.
"Y'all be safe now." Hayden barked as her entire family left in a grey pick up truck.
"When ain't we darlin'?" Merle teased, ruffling her hair before getting back in. Sean nodded grimly at her and Daryl muttered a 'bye'. When they left Hayden watched until they were out of sight and the gravel road had righted itself once again. Only then did she turn around and go back inside.
Inside most people were still eating breakfast and as Hayden had hers she watched Madison approach Carl in cautious amusement.
"Hey." The girl tried sitting practically in Carl's lap. "Wanna get outta here?"
"No." Carl tried to shove her off but Madison merely wrapped her arms around his neck. Carl resisted a shiver as her warm breath pressed against his lips again.
"C'mon Carl, you've gotta let it out sometime. How about now?"
"N-no." Carl was trying not to give in with all he had, his gaze meeting Hayden's for only a moment. He wasn't sure but he had thought that maybe, just maybe, before the whole sociopath thing that he might love her. Even though he was pissed he couldn't do that to her, to her or the memory of her. He just wanted everything to be okay again. He felt horrible for not understanding like Jimmy had, horrible for yelling at her and bringing him up. Hayden didn't deserve him, she deserved Jimmy who had understood. He hadn't gotten pissed at her for not telling, he had probably not even cared. Carl didn't know why it bothered him so much but it just did.
"C'mon Carl, you know you want to."
"No I don't." This was more confident and came out louder.
"Carl." She whined, playing with the collar of his shirt as if she thought it would change his mind. "You know you want to." She glanced down quickly and Carl turned bright red.
"No I don't." He said forcefully, shoving her off so hard she crashed to the floor. For a moment the only sound was Hayden's loud laughter ringing beautifully through the room before Madison burst into loud sobs. This only increased Hayden's laughter and at this point it was coming out in hysterical little fits. Then everyone was giving Carl glares and running to help Madison.
When Madison was getting up, she stumbled and Hayden slipped right out of her chair as big tears of happiness rolled down her face. Madison's little cronies ran up to Carl and began to punch him. At this Hayden got up and latched onto a baseball bat.
"Hey asshole." Just as Matt turned to face her, Hayden swung the bat, connecting it with the back of his knees. He fell to the ground with a loud scream and Noah punched Hayden in the face. Blood poured out of her newly broken nose and she put a hand up to her nose and when she pulled it away she stared at the red substance covering the top of her fingers. The blood was hypnotic and she stared at it before tightening her grip on the bat. She swung again with a crazed look in her eyes, blood now covering the top of her shirt and soaking it.
Noah went down and she whacked him again on the ribs. He curled into the fetal position, shrieking in pain. "HAYDEN!" Rick grabbed her, forcing her to drop the bat onto the ground. She shrieked and struggled but he held tight as Karen ran to her son and everyone stared at Hayden in fear. "Glenn, open an empty cell."
He raced off to do so and it was silent except for the small yells from Hayden. "Let. Me. Go!"
When Glenn returned Rick pulled Hayden into a cell and locked it leaving her in it like a caged animal. "LET ME OUT!"
"So its unanimous? We have to get rid of her now." Rick seemed disappointed almost as if he had wanted his idea to fail. Carl had been locked in his own cell for attacking his father when he proposed they send the girl away, and Herschel looked heart broken. But for the good of the group it had to be done. Hayden would leave to cool off and get it together for at least a month. It seemed cruel, but so was what she had put the entire group through. Hayden was a dog that had been backed into a corner, dangerous and the best they could do was let her go. She was wild and not meant for civilization.
She had packed her few things when they let her into her cell and was waiting to be shoved out into the world.
A/N I didn't mean for it to go this way, how is it? I don't know how I feel about it but I think it was necessary. Let me know!
