Season 9:

I Have a Friend

I look to Luke as we ride through the forest, following Yumiko's arrows. "Can I ask you something?"

"What's up?" Luke questions.

"I… I need some advice."

"About what?"

"Well, I have this friend."

"Ah, your friend," Luke says, and I'm hoping he doesn't see right through me. "And what's the problem?"

"He has this girlfriend, you see."

"Is this a 'Jessie's Girl' situation?" I shake my head. "Interesting. Continue."

"And his girlfriend, she's so sweet. She's been through a lot, too. They both have, they're good for each other, and she deserves to be happy."

"I'm sensing a but."

"But he's in love with another girl."

"The classic love triangle, I see. So are these two girls mortal enemies?"

"The opposite," I answer. "They're really good friends. What the girlfriend went through, the other one went through it, too. They bonded because of it."

Luke sucks in a breath. "Oh, this might be harder than I thought. Alright, so what's so special about this other girl?"

"He's been in love with her for as long as he's known her. And they've known each other for nine years."

Luke raises an eyebrow. "And he still hasn't made a move?"

"He doesn't know if she feels the same way. She confided in him about the last person she lost, so he doesn't know if she'd let herself love another. He cares about both of the girls. He doesn't want to hurt either of them. He doesn't know what to do."

"Well, I would tell your friend to ask himself… if he stays with the girl he's with now, will his love for the other diminish?"

"But that's what I don't know!" I exclaim, Luke highlighting the struggle I've been going through since Enid and I got together. Then, I realize I slipped up. "Er, he doesn't know."

"Let me ask you this, Alden," Luke says. "Why do you love the other girl and not Enid?"

"It's not that I don't love Enid. I care about her."

"But not like you care about the other one, right?"

I sigh. "It's just… she gave me the chance no one else did. She put her trust in me when we didn't even know each other. She gave me a knife—her knife—when I couldn't even walk around Hilltop without my hands tied and a gun pointed at me. I did some bad things in the past, but she believed I changed."

"Did you?"

"Of course. She never asked me once about the wrong I did. She had done bad things, too, and we were trying to move past them together. We were each other's redemption, but she had no choice but to go back to who she was trying to avoid being to save my life. She saved me from certain death."

"That's a pretty big thing to save you from, Alden. It shows that she cares about you in some way, and cares a lot. Am I allowed to ask what happened?"

"There was a larger group that I had tried to stop from marching on our camp, and their leader beat me, took my gun. Four of 'em stayed behind with me, tied me up, put me on my knees. They would've killed me. Then she came riding into that clearing on that damn horse of hers. She killed two, and then Wyatt pulled a gun on me. I'd seen fear in her eyes, but I never saw it like that. I tried to warn her that there was another one still, one that she hadn't seen. Wyatt hit me with his gun, and from there on out, it's spotty, but I still remember what happened."

Luke's invested in the story now, giving me his full attention. "What happened?"

"Kober grabbed her. I thought it was the end of us, and then…" I sigh, unsure if I should be telling him what she did. "She tore his throat out with her teeth, killed him. Then she killed Wyatt, too. I don't remember how we got to Alexandria, but she got us there. She was so scared for me, for my safety. She refused to leave my side until I woke up, and when I did, she kissed me. That was when I realized I was in love with her, that day we lost Rick and she saved me from the Saviors."

"So who's the girl?"

"Clary."

Luke chuckles. "I should've seen that one coming."

"Are you going to give me advice or not?" I ask.

"I don't really know any of you, but… love like that doesn't come around very often. I don't know you, but I can tell how much Clary means to you and how much you love her. Pull Clary aside, just the two of you, and tell her what she means to you. Ask her if she feels the same way. If she does, then you tell Enid, because you owe her that. And then go after Clary because I don't think you'll find another one like her."