Better Days

Chapter 274

Author's Note: Thank you for all the new people who are finding this story and thank you for all of those who have stuck around! I plan to keep going with the show. So LONG story! Let's go see what's bugging Lexi shall we? It always annoyed me that Carl just says 'yeah let's play video games.' UM you just spent two years playing video games, live ones! Please review.

Lexi and Carl's POV:

Jessie opened the door to her house, letting Lexi and Carl go in. "Ron, come down here. Carl and Lexi are here. I'll be in the kitchen if you two need anything. I'm glad you're both here," she said as she went into the kitchen.

Lexi looked at Carl. "You know we're not going to fit in right? Coming over to a 'friends' house is not a normal every day activity in the world we're living in," she whispered.

Carl squeezed her hand. "Hey, we're in this together. We've had each others backs for ages, that's not going to stop now, just because we're here."

Lexi didn't have a chance to answer as Ron came in. "Hi, I'm Ron. Carl and Lexi right?"

"Yeah," Carl answered.

"Come on, I'll introduce you to everyone. We're missing a couple of the girls, Chloe and Bri. Chloe just lost her brother a few weeks ago, so she's not been hanging around," Ron said.

"I know the feeling," Lexi said causing Ron to look at her.

"We lost a few people in the past month, including Lexi's older brother Ty. I guess you could say I lost an uncle, Merle right before that, and Bob," Carl said as he squeezed Lexi's hand.

"I'm sorry, but you're all here now," Ron told them. "We're almost always here after school, so you can come by any time."

"You go to school?" Carl asked as he looked at Lexi.

"It's in a garage. Little kids go in the morning and then it's us in the afternoon. Probably you, too, right?" Ron asked.

"Probably," Carl answered as Lexi kept quiet.

"Guys, this is Carl and Lexi. Carl, Lexi, this is Mikey and Enid," Ron introduced them.

"Hey," Mikey answered as he stood up.

Enid looked up at both of them before she went back to her comic book. "Hi."

Ron stepped over and put his hand on Enid's shoulder. "Enid's from outside, too. She just came eight months ago."

Carl took a comic book out of his pocket. "Oh um….is this yours?"

"Sorry. We didn't know you guys got that house," Ron said.

"We mostly just hang out there and listen to music. That's Enid's," Mikey told them.

Enid sat up and snatched the book from his hand and then looked at Lexi, who hadn't made it fully inside the room. "You gonna come in or you just gonna hold up the door?"

"We're not going to bite," Ron told her.

Lexi looked at him then Carl. "Seriously? Of all the words you could use, that's the one you go with? Bite?"

"Hey, Lex, it's alright, come on," Carl told her. "It's alright."

"Sorry, about the use of the word bite, I don't think before I speak at times," Ron said.

"Obviously," Lexi said under her breath.

"Want to play some video games? Or Mikey's house has a pool table, but his dad's kind of strict about it," Ron told them.

"It's okay. He's at work," Mikey answered.

Lexi took a breath as Carl got quiet. "Um…" he answered.

"Sorry, I guess we come on kind of strong. We can just hang out," Ron told them.

"You don't even have to talk if you don't wanna," Mikey told them. "I'll even let Lexi sit on my bean bag chair, and these two can tell you, I'm quite picky on who sits on my bean bag chair."

Lexi looked at him like he grew another head.

"Yeah, took Enid three weeks to say something," Ron said.

Enid looked up. "Pull it together sport," she told Carl. She looked at Lexi. "You can come sit over here if you want."

Lexi shook her head. "Carl, I'm going back to the house."

"Lex, it's alright, let's just give it a try alright?" Carl asked.

"You can stay here, but I'm going back to the house. I can't do this, I can't pretend everything we've been through the past two years, it doesn't matter. Everyone we lost, people I lost before you met me, people you lost before I met you, the ones we've lost since we've met, I can't forget that. I don't need to battle monsters on some video game with fake weapons. We've done it for two years, in real life," Lexi yelled at him. "I'm…I'm sorry," she said as she ran down the stairs, leaving Carl behind.

Lexi and Jewel's POV:

Jewel looked up the stairs that Lexi just ran up and took a breath as Mar walked into the house. "Can you watch these two? Teen age girl meltdown going on."

"Summer or Lexi?" Mar asked taking Hope. "Who was that I saw leaving the house?"

"Lexi. That was Quinn, Deanna's daughter," Jewel said as she walked up the stairs and knocked on the door of the room her and Mika would be sharing. "Lexi, it's Jewel, let me in. You know I can pick locks, pre end of the world skill," she told her as she heard the door unlock and open as Lexi flopped back on the bed. "So, I take it the little get together didn't go to well?"

Lexi looked at her then back at the wall.

"I'll take that as a yes. Carl wanted to stay?" Jewel asked.

"He didn't follow me," Lexi answered.

"So are you mad because that he didn't follow you or are you mad because you didn't give it a chance?" Jewel asked.

Lexi looked at her. "I'm not mad," she told her.

"No, not at all. You just came through the door and locked yourself in a room because you had to much fun," Jewel teased as she put an arm around her. "Congratulations, you are a normal teenage girl in a very un normal world."

Lexi sighed. "They just….it was like the world didn't stop in there. They were playing video games….video games. Seriously? I don't need to play video games, I lived it for two years. The bloodiest, goriest, deadliest video game you could imagine, and we lived it. The only person who seemed to slightly get it was the girl who had been 'on the outside' as Ron called it," she said.

Jewel tried not to smile. "We've all lived through hell and we survived. Being here, it's a shock to our system, to our minds. You know how much ice I've sucked on in the day we've been here? At least five glasses worth full. I'm going to enjoy the small things as long as we're here. We're all dealing it with our own way, and it's not right or wrong. You had to leave because you can't pretend to be a normal teenage girl right now," Jewel told her.

"Why did Carl stay?" Lexi asked.

Jewel sighed. "I don't know Lexi. Maybe he wanted to feel things out, try to forget what life is like out there. Maybe this is his way of doing it. But don't be mad at him for staying. What we've all been through together, that is nothing that nobody can understand. That bonds us all in a way nothing is ever going to break that. Alright?"

Lexi nodded. "I wish Sasha was here," she said.

Jewel hugged her. "I know kiddo. I wish I could tell you that she'll come around, but losing Bob and Ty…..it hurt her. More then we can understand. I know you miss Ty as much as she does. Once again, that's where this whole weird family we've made comes in. Mika, Mitch, Daryl and I all know what it's like to lose an older sibling, we're here," she told her as a knock came on the door.

"It's me, can I come in or is this a girl only thing?" Rick asked.

Jewel looked at Lexi to get permission. "Come in Rick," Lexi told him.

"Hey, Mar mentioned something was going on, everything OK? Did something happen at Ron's house Lexi? Where's Carl?" Rick asked as he came in.

"Lexi just got a bit overwhelmed at the normalcy of it all. She came back here, we were just talking about how we all handle these things differently," Jewel told him. "Carl will be back soon."

"You sure you're OK? I can go get Carl," Rick told her.

"No, I'm alright, seriously. He'll be home after he finishes playing video games," Lexi insisted as she gave Jewel a pleading look.

"We'll be downstairs if you need us," Jewel told her as she motioned Rick out.

"There's something more going on then her getting overwhelmed, isn't there?" Rick asked.

Jewel gave a small smile. "We got so used to thinking of them as adults, that we forgot that they are teenagers who haven't figured out this whole teenage thing. Let's just say you going over to get Carl is the LAST thing Lexi wants right now," she told him as she kissed him.

Sasha and Jes POV:

Sasha came up the guard tower as Jes arched an eyebrow. "What are you doing here?" Jes asked.

"Taking over, you haven't slept today. You don't have to be the only one protecting our people," Sasha said.

Jes nodded. "I appreciate that, but you have a sister that needs you, more than ever."

"Lexi's fine," Sasha responded.

Jes snorted. "Are you fine Sasha? Are any of us fine? She lost her brother just like you did. The only difference is, she suddenly doesn't have you to help her. It's like you died that day too."

"Maybe I did," Sasha spat at her.

Jes reached over and pinched her hard. "You're still here. You may not want to be, but you are. You're still breathing, you're still living."

"What the hell was that for?" Sasha asked.

"Proving a point," Jes said as she smirked. "You are an adult, Sasha. You can do the whole self loathing thing, but you have a teenage sister that needs you. She needs you to be there, listen to her, talk with her. Ty counted on you to take care of her when he wasn't there, he isn't here now. All of us are here for all of them, but it's not the same as having her big sister."

"I can't be the person I was," Sasha said.

"Neither can I. I personally don't want to go back to a selfish loner who cared about no one. But you the know difference in us and Lexi, Carl, Mitch, Mika, and Summer?" Jes asked. She didn't give her a chance to answer. "We're adults, we had a chance to get through our teenage years as normally as we could. They didn't, they were threw into this world. And now, as messed up as we think this place is, can you imagine what it's doing to them? I'm asking you for Hershel who thought family was everything, for Ty who would have died for you, for Bob who would affectionately call Lexi 'kid sister," for Merle who didn't figure out what it meant to protect family until the end of the world. I'm asking you to go talk with Lexi. For one day, for an hour, let her tell you all her problems. Did you even know that she has the biggest crush on Carl?" Jes asked.

"What? No, they are just friends. Plus she's to young to have a crush on anyone," Sasha told her.

"She's fifteen or close to it? I know what I was doing at fifteen and I can tell you it was more then just googley eyeing a boy," Jes informed her.

Sasha sighed. "All the time they were hanging out, I never even considered it. I never talked to her about it, never thought about it. Fine, I'll relieve you later," Sasha told her as she climbed down.

"No hurry, I'd rather keep this place guarded at night," Jes said with a smirk.