Javier watched Clementine leave, feeling dismayed. What was he supposed to do?
Make friends my ass.
Javier turned to the bar and saw the crazy girl from earlier watching him with a lazy look on her face. She almost looked as if she were drunk.
Javier swallowed and approached the bar, taking a seat between the girl and the woman.
"Oh, you're still here." The woman said lightly. "The name's Francine. This chump here's Conrad." She said, looking at Conrad with a smirk. Both Francine and Conrad looked to be African-American, with Conrad having a darker complexion than Francine. Conrad also appeared to be bald. He wore a tan shirt with a dark green vest over it, and he had gray stubble on his chin and jawline. Conrad's eyes were a bright icy blue.
Conrad looked at Javier, froening a bit. "Don't I know you from somewhere?"
Uh oh.
"Javier. Javier Garcia! Shit, man. For what it's worth, I think you got screwed over on the gambling thing."
Javier let out a quiet sigh of relief, relaxing.
"Oh, so you're a gambler?" Francine said, peering at her selection of cards. Conrad lifted his, frowning.
"I'll raise you."
"Should I call, or should I fold?" Francine asked with a devious smirk. Javier leaned over, looking at her hand, and frowned.
"Fold."
Francine nodded and did as Javier said. Conrad glanced at Francine's hand and cursed, folding his own hand.
"Ha!" Francine cheered victoriously.
"Yeah, I let you win," Conrad said playfully.
"I'll get you a drink since you helped me win," Francine said. "Put it on my tab."
Conrad scoffed and bent down, picking up a glass and a bottle of some sort. Conrad poured the contents of the bottle- which were clear- into the glass and slid it over to Javier. From beside him, the girl snorted as Javier brought the mysterious liquid up to his lips and took a swig. Almost immediately, the taste repulsed him.
"Ugh! The stuff tastes like turpentine!" Javier exclaimed, earning a laugh from Conrad and Francine.
"Hey." A voice behind Javier said. He looked over his shoulder and saw a capped man with an eyepatch walk in.
"Hey, Kenny." Conrad greeted.
"Sup." The girl beside Javier said.
"Clementine's talkin' to Eli," Conrad said, angling his head down. Conrad and Francine seemed to regard Kenny with a great reverence.
"Alright, thank you," Kenny said with a nod, going into Eli's lair.
"Woah, that's her 'old man' that Tripp was talking about? He's kinda scary." Javier commented.
"That's because he is." Francine said with a shrug. "Don't hold it against him, once Kenny warms up to you, he's a real sweetheart."
Javier rose an eyebrow at that and took another swig of his drink.
"Hannah, can I get you anything?" Conrad asked.
"You're letting a kid drink?" Javier asked in surprise.
"Naw, we have water and juice here, too. For the kids."
Javier hummed and nodded at that. The girl beside Javier looked over her shoulder at Conrad.
"Y'all still have apple juice?" She asked.
Her voice was strange- it had a slight southern twang to it, but at the same time, it sounded like the average American accent.
"Sure do," Conrad said. He bent down again amd brandished a rather large green juice box with a small apple printed on it. The girl- Hannah- grinned widely and took it.
"Thanks man," She said. She plucked the packaged straw off the box, stabbed it into its slot, and sipped on it happily.
"Your name's Hannah?" Javier asked.
"Mmhmm." Hannah replied. She pulled away from her juice box, looking at Javier. "And your name's Javier, yeah?"
Javier nodded in response. "Alright, Hannah, can you tell me why on Earth you screamed like a banshee out there?"
"To save you," Hannah replied with a grin. "Maybe you didn't notice, but ms. snappy over there had just about given up." Hannah said, nodding at Clementine. Javier turned, looking back at Clementine, and saw that Kenny was lecturing her while Eli had gone back to snoring in his chair. Clementine wouldn't look Kenny in the eye- she only stared at the ground furiously. Her amber eyes flickered up, meeting Javier's gaze, and she narrowed her eyes at him. Javier looked back at Hannah.
"How could you tell?" He asked. Hannah shrugged, looking straight ahead.
"I saw the way her shoulders slumped, the way she hid her face behind her cap, and the way she began to relax completely. You were busy fighting, like any normal person would." Hannah said. "I've seen people give up many times before- their body language is always the biggest indicator of that."
Javier frowned at that. "How can she give up? What is she, twelve?"
"I don't know, I've never met her before." Hannah asked with a shrug. Javier scoffed.
"What about you? How old are you?"
Hannah blinked, tapping her index finger on her juicebox, before answering.
"Fourteen."
"Huh. My nephew's fourteen." Javier replied. "My niece is ten, I think."
Hannah hummed in response to Javier.
"You got any family?" Javier asked. Hannah looked up, a blank look coming onto her face.
"I... Don't know." She said awkwardly. "I haven't seen them in ages."
Javier frowned. "Ages? How long is that?"
"I haven't seen them since all of this started." Hannah replied flatly. Javier frowned at that.
"Your family, where are they?" Hannah asked, looking up at Javier.
"They're trapped in a junkyard. As soon as the herd clears i'm going to get them."
"And who all is in your family?"
"My niece, nephew and sister-in-law." He replied.
"Ah, so you have a brother, eh?"
"I don't know where he is... We got separated when this all started." Javier said with a sigh.
"Are you the big brother or the little brother?"
Javier gave Hannah a questioning look, but answered. "I was the little brother."
Hannah seemed satisfied by that. "I had a big brother, too." Javier grinned.
"Kenny, come on-"
"No! You're staying and i'm going to fix this mess you made!" Kenny snapped. Javier and Hannah both perked up, looking up at Kenny and Clementine. Clementine was now bristling, a furious look on her face, while Kenny gave off the same energy.
Clementine huffed angrily and pushed past Kenny, running blindly out of the bar. Kenny watched her, and then relaxed, sighing in defeat.
"I'd give her some space if I were you," Conrad said. "From on parent to another."
"I know." Kenny grumbled. "I just... Can't get her to listen." He said. Kenny went over to the bar and took a seat beside Francine, sighing again.
Hannah shifted and looked up. "Maybe she'll listen to someone her own age?"
Kenny perked up, looking at Hannah with a curious look. "Aren't you the girl that rides around on a horse all the time?"
"Not always," Hannah replied with a smirk. Kenny stared at her for a moment and then sighed.
"Do what you want, just don't come cryin' to me when she claws your eyes out."
Hannah snickered at that and slid off the barstool. "I'd like to see her try... Wish me luck!" She said cheerfully, disappearing in the direction Clementine went.
"Poor girl doesn't know what she's gettin' herself into." Kenny said with a scoff. Kenny turned to Javier.
"I'm Kenny, and you're Javier, right? I'm so sorry about her behavior, things have been hard for her lately. 'S been hard for both of us." Kenny said with a sigh. Javier gave Kenny a sympathetic look.
"I'm sorry to hear that." Javier said softly.
"I'll go with you to that junkyard tomorrow. You keep your van... We don't need it, really. Tripp can take us there once the herd clears out."
Javier nodded. "Sounds like a plan."