(Clementine's Pov)
I look down to Violet as she slept and I looked to the bruising on the side of her head. I sighed a bit as I get up and Ruby comes in. I tell her that Violet had fallen asleep and she said she would watch her. I nod and then head out the room and I go and grabbed my gun. I made sure no one followed me as I walk out the doors and into the snow. I head out the gate and looked at where there were footprints. I follow them as they go deep in the woods and then they stopped by the river. I look around the area and even go on the other side of the river but the tracks were gone.
I sigh a bit and looked to the fishing shack and decided to go in to rest for a bit. once inside I make sure to barricade the door and I go take a seat on the bed and then take my prosthetic off and rubbed my stump a bit. It was a little irritated due to the amount of walking in cold weather I was doing, but I had to make sure Amos and the girl were gone. If they were close by then the whole group might be, or they might have been alone.
I sit here for a good few minutes and then decide to head back to the school so I put my leg back on and then go to the door. I removed the barricade and then head outside in the cold and I shake my head a bit at this. As I walked, I saw some boot prints and saw they were headed in the other direction. Did they split off? Or was there a third person with them? There were two separate tracks heading to the river. I rubbed my head a bit and the wind started to pick up so I head to the school. I'll inform them that there could be a third person around the area.
As I reached the school I noticed the tracks had veered off to the woods as well and as badly as I wanted to follow the tracks I did have to check in on Violet. As I get in through the gates, I made sure it was locked up pretty good before I head inside. I see Ruby running to Violets room so I hurry and follow her. As I come to the door, I see Violet as she was trying to stand up but she would sit back down and hold her head a bit.
"Hey it's ok." Ruby whispers and I look to the two before I go over to them and Violet looked to me but waved me off.
"Go away." She mutters and I look to Ruby who looked to me.
"Hey Clem just wants to help." Ruby says.
"I feel… sick." Violet mutters and I see Ruby grab a bucket and Violet held it in her arms as she placed her head in it just a bit.
"Do you just feel like vomiting?" I asked and Violet just nods and I gently place my hand to her back and rubbed it. she moves her head out the bucket a bit and then whispers.
"Loud noises suck."
"I know, do you think you can lay back in the bed?" I asked.
"No… just… feel like vomiting." She says and I nod and kept rubbing her back.
"Did you eat the stew?" I asked and she nods.
"It was good… just… got a really fucked headache." She says quietly and I nod and look to Ruby.
"Ok well Clem and I are just going to step out real quick and talk so we don't hurt your head more, is that ok?" Ruby asked and Violet nods. I get up and follow Ruby out the room.
"She might have a concussion the good thing is she can just rest and she'll be ok, but if things get worse." She says and I look to the door.
"We just need to keep an eye on her, I do have some pain medicine it might work it might not but she just needs to relax." She tells me and I nod as she heads off to get the pain medication and I go in the room just in time for Violet to hurl into the bucket. I frown a bit. I wasn't mad at her, it wasn't like she did this to herself. I was mad that she has to deal with this. I go over to her and rubbed her back gently and she quickly looked up and to the wall but then put her head back near the bucket.
When Ruby had come back Violet had thrown up again and I just kept rubbing her back and Ruby looked to us and then held out some water and medicine to Violet, who was being a bit of a brat and not taking it. She just kept shoving the medicine away and I think a bit and hold my hands out and Ruby hands me the medicine and then water. She says she will be back with extra pillows and blankets and I nod as she leaves the room and I try to get Violet to take the medicine.
"If you take this, you'll feel a lot better." I tell her quietly. She moved her head away as I try to give it to her and I frown a bit. It was one thing for me to refuse medicine but she really needed this. Head injuries were no joke but she wasn't taking it.
"If you take this, I'll give you a kiss… after you was your mouth out too." I tell her and she looked to the side a bit as she looked to me. She then holds her hand out a bit and I smile as I hand her the medicine and she sits up a bit and pops the pills in her mouth. She then takes the water and downs it and she places her head back to the bucket. I rub her back a little more before Ruby comes in.
Violet holds out the glass to Ruby who takes it and then sets the extra pillow at the end of the bed and I thank her. She nods as she tells me that I can keep an eye on her and if something happened, I need to come get her. I do tell her about the extra boot prints I saw and she said she would tell the others when she had the time. She still had to help take care of Mitch and Willy who were still sick but from what she said they were doing a little better. When she leaves I help Violet lay down as I take the bucket and place it on the side. Violet turned to face the wall and she curls up a bit so I place the blanket on her so she can stay warm.
I kept my hand on her back and she just tried to relax as best as she could. It was a while before she finally was able to fall asleep and I kept rubbing her back. I hear the door open just a bit and Violet shifts a little in her sleep and I look to the door. AJ was there and I put my finger to my lips and I slowly get up and walk over to him. I close the door so we didn't bother Violet and I look to him.
"Ruby said you saw extra boot prints?" He whispers until we get to the end of the hall and I nod.
"Yeah, they might have been followed, don't know who was following them but I know Amos and… that girls boot prints ended by the river, these ones looked like they went into the other direction of the woods." I tell him and he nods.
"Marlon and I were going to head out and see if we could find them, Aasim will be here and Ruby." He says and I look down the hall as I see Marlon come up to us.
"Is Violet ok?" He asked and I nod a bit.
"She's a little nauseous from the hit and has a major headache but she's sleeping right now, she threw up a bit too." I tell him and he nods.
"Look I think it would be best if you came with us, but if you need to keep an eye on Violet that's fine." He says and I think a bit.
"Is Aasim busy?" I asked.
"He's not, need me to get him?" AJ asked and I nod and he goes to find Aasim and I look to Marlon.
"If Aasim can watch her for me I can come with you guys, I don't think they crossed the river but I know they weren't in the fishing shack." I tell Marlon.
"Think they could have been hiding in the Water buildings?" Marlon asked.
"Yeah, I just forgot where they were placed, sorry." I tell him and he shakes his head.
"It's fine, we have them covered up in moss and such so people think they're abandoned." He says and I nod.
"Smart."
"Yeah, it was Violet and Mitch's idea, to be fair they had a lot of fun making it look old as shit." He laughed and I shake my head a bit but I smile.
"Look is it ok if AJ and I stay a little longer? At least until Violet feels better?" I asked.
"I don't know why you have to ask; this is still your home stay as long as you need… and if Louis becomes a bother tell one of us at least." He says.
"Honestly he hasn't said a single word to me." I say as we see Aasim come with AJ.
"Ruby told me about the boot prints and AJ said you needed me for something?" He asked as he finally reached us.
"Yeah, could you keep an eye on Violet till we get back, I know it's a lot since Mitch and Willy aren't well." I asked him.
"Sure, I can keep an eye on her, I still have to help Ruby but not with a lot." He says and I nod a bit.
"Thanks, we should be back in a few hours." Marlon says to him and Aasim nods at this.
"Anytime, alright I have to go help Ruby real quick then I'll come to Violets room." He says and I nod. AJ, Marlon and I then grabbed some gear and our guns along with our knives just in case. We then went out the school and headed out the gate. The best thing about the snow stopping was that the footprints were still there for us to track. We hurried and went to the direction of the river and we get to the point where they stopped.
Marlon and I were able to get to the other side as AJ looked around for any other ways they could have gone and I notice some faint prints in the ground and nodded. They must have covered their tracks and I wave over to AJ as he looked to us from across the river. We helped him get over to this side and Marlon sees where the tracks were headed. Though I was a little disappointed that I didn't see them earlier but they were very faint prints, no one could see them across the river.
We kept walking making sure to keep track of the faint prints until they got deeper and deeper, they must have stopped trying to hide them at this point because they looked to be rushed as if they were running. I look around but saw no other tracks or even Walker tracks and I look to Marlon.
"Must have known you were following them." He says and I shake my head.
"I didn't go after them till Violet got up and that took hours." I say and think a bit. We kept following the tracks and reached the end of the tracks which was in town. There were many buildings they could be anywhere and at this point we had to get inside to take a break and at least get a little warmed up. Once inside a building we blocked off the door and I looked around the building a bit as did Marlon and AJ.
"So, we know that they came in here, at this point they must be long gone." Marlon says and I nod.
"Though knowing them they could have stayed in town." I say and I look to the old maps they had. This was one of those travel stops; they had lots of maps of the state and even the city itself and I looked to the maps a bit.
"We should check out the old public school here, it's pretty big and has plenty of areas to hide so we got to keep a look out." Marlon suggests and I nod.
"Seems like a good place to start, we can head out in a few minutes." I tell him and he nods. Once we were done resting, we head in the direction of the school and we try to get in but the front doors were locked up. We looked around and find that the entrance to the gym was cracked open so we go through the door and I look around a bit and we had our guns ready just in case anything got out of hand. We searched and searched but saw nothing.
Now by this point I was getting a little agitated and Marlon says we should head on back. If they were here, they had left a while ago and they might be further off then what we expected. Sadly, I had to agree and said we should see where the third set of tracks went at least. Marlon agreed and we head back to the school. It would be hours before we had to give up since they had also hidden their tracks at this point and we just go back to the school. Maron then went and grabbed an old chain and made sure to put it through the gate doors to lock them in place.
I go over to help him and we made sure it was secure enough and I look to the top of the gate a bit and then to Marlon. He grabbed a lock and put it in place and I looked a bit out the gates to see if there was any movement but there was nothing. As Marlon went into the school I would look around to see if there were any weak points and see if I could find any footprints that were closer to the walls. There were none but to be honest because of the snow fall the tracks were covered.
I rubbed the back of my neck and shake my head when I find no points that anyone else went through to get in and I head back into the school. Once inside I head to Violets room just to see Aasim leaving and he nods to me and comes over to me.
"She's doing fine, she said her headache was a little better but Ruby says she should still get some rest." He says and I nod and thank him. I explained to him what was going on and he suggested that we do a walk around the school until we know that they are really gone. I agree and said that we can do it at night that was when people would more likely come back if they wanted too. He nods at this and I go into the room as Violet was getting up and holding her head a bit. I go over to her and place my hand on her back and she looked to me a bit and she smiled a bit.
She didn't do much but stay seated on her bed as she rubbed the side of her head but she flinched a bit and I grab her hand gently and looked to her bruise and she looked to me a bit. She then looked to the ground but I stopped her and placed a gently touch to the bruise and she flinched a bit so I stopped. She looks at me a bit and I moved my hand away and she shut her eyes a bit and I thought she was going to throw up again so I grabbed the bucket but she waved it off.
I watched her as she takes a breath and she told me she was ok, that she just needed to get up for a bit. this was an off and on thing for a while but it was about a day later that Violet felt better. Ruby and I still kept an eye on her and Violet would say she was fine but we told her that head injuries still need to be kept an eye on. She again said that everything is fine and that she just wanted to do something other than sit in her room so we made an agreement, Her and I were in the greenhouse right now making sure it was warm enough for the plants and we were able to get some Artichokes, carrots, cucumbers, and some herbs for Omar.
I was watching her as she would put her hand to her head and I go over to her and she waved me off. At this point I was getting a little upset at her since she wasn't telling me if something was wrong. I stopped her as she was about to head out and she looked to me a bit and I checked the side of her head a bit. The bruising was still nasty looking and she didn't look me in the eye. Again this made me a little upset but I wasn't angry at her, no I couldn't be angry at her.
"How's your head?" I asked.
"Good, not dizzy and stuff." She mutters and I look at her as she still didn't look at me.
"Can you look at me?" I asked her and she sighed and looks to me.
"Are you sure you're ok?" I asked her and she doesn't say anything but nods.
"Vi." I say and she looked to me.
"Yeah… yeah, I'm fine just… a little out of it… not in a bad way just… I'm fine." She says and I keep looking at her. She placed her hands on my waist and I look to her a bit and she lays the good side of her head on my shoulder. I rubbed her back a bit and she relaxed a bit. Her shoulders weren't stiff anymore and she just relaxed a bit to the point I thought she might have passed out. But she held me a little tighter and muttered something.
"What was that?" I asked.
"I said… You're so sweet." She mutters quietly and I giggle just a little.
"Sweet?" I asked and she nods.
"Yeah… I love that about you." She says quietly and I roll my eye. I know I wasn't a sweet person but I'm glad she can see that in me. We stayed like this for a bit and she kisses my neck gently. I feel her move her hands so they were on my sides and I moved my head a bit to look at her. She looked to me a bit and I smile and she moves her head back and kissed my neck again.
"Hmmm, you should move in with me." She says quietly.
"In your room?" I asked.
"No, I want to go to the cabin… so nice there." She mutters.
"I told you-."
"I want to stay in a nice place… With you… so nice." She says and I feel her move her hands up my shirt a bit.
"What about the others?" I asked. Why was she acting like this?
"Hmm, just you… just us." She mutters and I move my hands to grab her arms and she kissed my neck again. I moved a bit from her so I could look at her and I move my hands to cup her face. I made sure my hand didn't irritate her bruising and she looked to me.
"Hey, you sure you're ok?" I asked and she nods a bit.
"Yeah… I'm fine." I hear her and she moved her head back to my neck and she kissed my neck again. I move a bit and she lays her forehead on my shoulder and she moved her hands away from under my shirt.
"I think you still need some rest." I tell her.
"No, I'm fine I swear I just… I just want to tell you how I feel." She mutters.
"Well… what uh… would we do?" I asked and she explained how she could work on the cabin to make it nice, how we could till some of the land and make a makeshift greenhouse, she explained all the things we could do and to be honest it did sound nice but, what if things just didn't work out?
"Sorry." She says and I look to her a bit.
"Why are you sorry?" I asked.
"I know you don't want to… it's just a nice thought though… just a nice thought." She mutters and I nod a bit.
"But I know you don't like staying somewhere long… sorry." She says and I moved and kissed her on the cheek.
"Nothing wrong with having thoughts like that… it does sound nice, seems like you have a lot planned out." I tell her and she frowns a bit and I look to her.
"I just… it's weird, it's weird just… forget I said anything." She says and then she leaves the greenhouse and I was a little confused. One moment she was being sappy next she's being distant. I grabbed some of the food and head in the school and give it to Omar and I go and head to Violet's room where she was as she sat at the desk. I closed the door and locked it then went over to her and she just kept looking at her desk and I see the drawings.
It was just of what they were going to do with the burnt area of the school. she grabbed a pencil and worked on it more and I lean down a bit and I look to her a bit. She looked to the side then back to her drawings and then she looked to me.
"Sorry uh… I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable I just… I don't know why I even said all that, I just… I don't know." She says and I look to her.
"Hey I told you it was fine-."
"But you said 'What if things didn't work out'… I… I sometimes forget that you." She stopped and I realized I had spoken that part out loud without knowing.
"Vi-."
"I'm… I'm sorry, I'm sorry I just… can we forget that?" She asked and I look at her.
"I think we should talk-."
"No… no, just forget I said anything." She says and looks back to her.
"Hey, look I'm sorry-."
"You don't have to be sorry, you… I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable I just…" She stopped and takes a breath and she shakes her head a bit.
"I didn't mean to say those things out loud, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, I didn't mean to… I don't know why I just had that thought in my head and I just wanted to say it not think it." She says and I look to her a bit. she was gripping the pencil a bit and then she stopped and set it down gently as she took a breath.
"I'm sorry… I'm… I'm a little tired." She says and I nod a bit. She stayed at the desk and I slowly get up and place my hand on her shoulder. She kept looking to her desk and then she gets up and heads to her bed. I tell her I would be back and she nods a bit and I head out the room. I head to the music room where I see Omar and I also see Ruby and I go up to her.
"Hey how you doing Clem?" Ruby asked.
"Doing fine, just thinking a lot." I say and she nods.
"How's Violet?" She asked.
"Uh… emotional I suppose is the right words… if you want you can talk to her but I'm just giving her some space." I tell her and she nods.
"Uh, you mind telling me what she said?" She asked and I shake my head. It was what she told me in private, something she thought she should have kept in her head, so I had no right to tell Ruby.
"She's just a little out of it, it's best if you talk to her about it not me." I tell her and she nods a bit.
"She sleeping?" Ruby asked.
"Maybe, I didn't leave her room that long ago." I tell her and she nods.
"I'll let her get some rest, how was the bruise on her head?" She asked.
"A little discolored but that's like any other bruise." I tell her and she nods at this. I talk to them for a bit and then I see Louis as he came in and I look to him a bit and then went out the room. I hear him follow me and I stopped and looked to him.
"Look I just-."
"Unless the next words out of your mouth are, 'I'm sorry' I don't want to hear it Louis." I tell him.
"But I'm not sorry… I spoke about how I felt and you-."
"Louis I don't-."
"Listen to me." He says and I look to him and kept my mouth shut. I wave my hand telling him to continue and he looked to me.
"I'm not sorry, for what I said, not at all because you know I'm right." He says.
"You think you're right to blame us for Tenn's death just because you're mad at the fact that I want nothing to do with you in a romantic sense?" I asked him and he kept silent.
"You think you were right to blame a six year old for not shooting his gun off in a heard of Walkers?" I asked him again he was silent and I crossed my arms.
"Well?" I asked and he looked to me a bit.
"He should have shot-."
"And get not only himself but me and Violet killed?" I asked him and he looked to me.
"You're mad because I don't have feelings for you then go ahead and be pissed off at me, but do not get mad at Violet, it wasn't her fault, I chose to be with her, I chose to try and be in a relationship with her, me, and yet you just want to tear her down to the point she actually blamed herself for all that's happened." I tell him.
"She-."
"Is broken… yeah I fucked up, I'm a hypocrite, but so are you, you're pissed off at her and for what? Because of what I chose to do?" I asked him.
"You know I honestly thought you were a good guy, hell you were funny, you made a simple game fun with cards in your own way, but that's not what I like, she is… get over it." I tell him and he looked to me.
"You know I was right though, she had a girlfriend-."
"Key word is HAD Louis… Minerva was to far gone, for fuck sake she hunted us down would she have done that four years ago?" I asked him.
"No Bu-."
"There is no buts in this Louis, you just said that she wouldn't have done that four years ago… she wasn't the same, she was manipulative." I tell him.
"And Violet isn't? think about it." He says.
"Do you even know what you are saying Louis?" I asked.
"She's just tricking you into being with her, have you not actually thought about it?" He asked.
"She is not, don't you fucking listen to yourself?" I tell him.
"What has she done-."
"EVERYTHING!" I yelled at him.
"She has done everything, and right now I have to go check up on her, so stop this shit right now." I tell him and I start walking to Violets room but Louis grabbed me and I quickly turn around and punch him in the face. He dropped to the ground and I look down to him as he held his nose and I know it was bleeding at this point.
"Fucking hell Clem." He groaned and I look to him.
"Don't fucking touch me." I tell him and then head to Violet's room. I go in and see Violet in her bed as she was laying down. She wasn't sleeping but she did move a bit to look at me and I look back to her.
"You good there?" She asked and I nod and go over to her. She looked to me a bit confused and I take a seat on the bed by her feet and she moved so she was sitting up and I look to her.
"Hey, are you sure you're ok?" She asked and I nod a bit.
"Yeah I'm fine." I tell her and I look at her just as she looked to me.
"You're lying." She tells me and I shake my head a bit.
"I'm fine, I'm just a little tired." I tell her.
"…It was Lous wasn't it?" She asked and I shake my head and I watch her as she get's up but I stopped her and she looked to me.
"Alright… he just said some thing but don't worry I decked him right in the nose." I tell her and she nods a bit and sits back down. I look to her bruise a bit and she looked to me.
"Still an ugly bruise, but hey least it's just a bruise." She says.
"Could have been worse… we followed the tracks a bit." I tell her and she nods.
"Didn't find them hu?" She asked and I nod.
"Yeah, didn't find them… there was a third set but didn't find anything, we're going to keep watch though, see if any of them come back this way." I tell her and she nods.
"I doubt they would come back, I mean if they were scared enough to leave." She says and I nod at this. I take a breath and look to the window a bit.
"I think the cabin idea you have is a good one." I tell her and she looks at me.
"Oh uh… well I could fix it up a bit, make it more home like… would till up some of the land, make a makeshift garden you know… probably make those old wooden fences too around the land, get lots of space… seems like a good idea but uh… it's always too good to be true." She tells me and I shake my head.
"Sounds like it would be a nice place." I tell her and she nods.
"It's just a thought… I'm just thinking to much about this." I hear her say and I place my hand on her back.
"Well, if you do decide to head out there, I'll be sure to come help you." I tell her.
"Really?" She asked and I nod.
"What if you're gone though?" She asked.
"That is true… well I stop at the cabin first then." I tell her and she nods.
"I'll be sure to decorate it with skulls just for you." She says and I laughed a little at this. We stayed in silence for a bit and I look to the ground.
"Ok, something is on your mind, come on you know you can tell me." She says and I think.
"It's just those third tracks I came across, making me think who it was." I tell her.
"Ah right, those… you sure those just weren't them scouting around the school?" She asked and I shake my head.
"No, they went up to the school then to the woods, no circling around." I tell her and she looked to be thinking.
"Now don't go thinking too hard." I joke and she laughed at this.
"Well, I'm feeling a lot better now, maybe we can head out tomorrow see what we can find." She suggests.
"Hmm, if the snow doesn't cover up the tracks… haven't been in a snow storm like these in years." I tell her.
"Yeah, these aren't normal, but hey, we've been through worse storms, once a tornado came through." She says and I listen to her as she explained what happened.
"So, we all hurried to the music room, the wind was picking up so much that we thought it would take the roof off, and if it did what were we going to do? I mean we couldn't leave this place was the best option we had… well the storm had settled a bit but the wind was still harsh." She tells me and I think.
"We thought we were in the eye of the storm, and then BAM wind is going super crazy again." She tells me.
"Why didn't you guys' head to the basement?" I asked.
"It just came out of nowhere, plus we had smaller kids with us at the time, we just couldn't think to head to the basement, best option at the time was the music room… no one got hurt that day which was great, funny thing is, we walk out and there is a Walker on the roof of the building." She tells me and I giggle a bit.
"What did you guys fling rocks at it?" I asked and she stayed quiet and I quickly look to her.
"You did not fling rocks at it." I asked and she nods.
"We did, we made it a game see who could hit the Walker and make it fall… I'll have you know I'm the best at knocking Walkers off the roof." She says and I look to her a bit.
"…Ok it was actually Willy and Tenn, but I helped." She says and I laughed.
"Well, if a Walker get's stuck on your roof, you know you can help Willy take it down." I say.
"Well, I mean I could do it easily, the cabin isn't that big." She mutters and I smile and kissed her cheek.
"Your head… you sure you're feeling better?" I asked and she nods.
"Yeah, I feel fine." She tells me and I nod.
"Well, if you start to feel a little sick or anything just take a break and I can get Ruby." I tell her and she nods at this.
"Got it, just lay on the ground and play dead." She says and I shove her.
"Don't do that." I tell her and she laughed and so did I.
"Got you to laugh." She says and I nod.
"Yeah, that you did." I then lay my head on her shoulder. I close my eye and relaxed a bit. it would be about another month before We could really do anything, the snow melted just a bit for us and it was a good day today. I see Violet with her overalls on as she was helping Marlon and Aasim painting and AJ was helping as well. I look to him as he wrote a swear with the pain and he was showing Violet who laughed. I clear my throat a bit and they look to me quickly and Violet quickly grabbed the paint and painted over the swear. I smirk as I crossed my arms and she gives me a sheepish smile.
I then grabbed the paintbrush on the side and wrote the word 'Fuck' and Violet gasps and I look to her and she smiled at me. AJ laughed and then he painted over the word and I laugh as well. We get about half the room done before Marlon and the others catch on to what we were doing and they also joined in. We just wrote some swears here and there but we didn't paint over them and then we hear someone clear their throat and we look to see Ruby as she looked to us with crossed arms and a raised brow. We quickly scurried and painted over the swears while saying sorry.
She started to laugh at this. She then tells us that Omar was finished with lunch. It was a great lunch and we had plenty of deer meat since Violet and Marlon caught the buck a few days back. We were eating some of the stew and chatting away and when we finished, we went back to painting. When we finished, I pat AJ on his back and he looked to me and smiled.
"Hey AJ wanna put your name on the wall when it dries?" Mitch asked and he looked to me and I nod and he looked to Mitch and he nods.
"I can?" He asked and Mitch nods.
"Yeah, just some fun for us." He says and AJ looked excited. I go over to Violet and see the paint on her face and I shake my head a bit as she looked to me.
"What? Got something on my face?" She asked.
"Just some paint." I tell her.
"Well good thing we can boil some water." She says and I nod. Ruby comes by with some wet washcloths for everyone and they clean their faces and I clean mine as well. When finished Violet taps my shoulder and I turn to look at her. She smiles at me and smile back. She then tells me that she is going to change out of the overalls and I nod as she heads out the room. By the time the paint dried AJ was putting his name on the wall as did the others and Violet hands me a paintbrush and I roll my eye and go and sign my name.
"You got nice handwriting." Violet tells me quietly and I look to her.
"Oh? Looks like an eight year old wrote this." I joke and she laughed at this. We all decided that we have done enough today and so everyone was just taking a break. Violet had her guitar as she was teaching AJ more notes and anything about the guitar. He was having fun and I take a seat next to Violet just as she handed the guitar to him so he could practice.
We were talking about what they were going to do next and how AJ and I should keep safe when we leave tomorrow. We then hear something and it sounded like a snap and we look to AJ as he stared at the guitar and I noticed two of the strings had finally broke. AJ looked to Violet a little guilty and I look to her as she smiled and took the guitar and then to the strings.
"Well they were old, you didn't do anything bad AJ." She tells him.
"But-."
"These things can break, but lucky for us I have spare strings… now had you broken the frame… I don't have the tools to fix that good enough." She tells him and he looked to her and then to the ground.
"Sorry." He says to her.
"For what?" She asked.
"I broke the strings." He says and she sighed. I know she just told him it was ok and that she had spare string, but he was still upset that he broke something Violet likes.
"Well, this will just be another lesson on how to replace the strings." She says as she set the guitar to the side.
"I'll be right back." She tells him as she walked past him and went to the dorms. I look to AJ as he looked to the guitar and then to the ground. I smile at him a bit and go sit next to him and he looked to me. I pat his back gently telling him Violet wasn't mad at him. He still looked a little down and I look to see Violet come back and she shows AJ the strings. He grabbed the package as she handed it to him and she takes a seat next to AJ as she placed the guitar case to the side.
"So, we can't really keep all the old strings on, but we could use them for something else, so we're going to take all the string off." She tells him and he nods as she watches her. When she got all the strings off, he then handed her the package as she was explaining how the strings went on.
"Now there are going to be some excess strings so we use this." She tells him as she pulled out what looked like pliers.
"Pliers?" He asked her.
"Sorta, they're guitar string cutters, works great with the thicker strings." She tells him and he nods. She gets to work and it takes some time but I watch Violet as she takes care of everything. She would explain to AJ that strings will break if they are to tight when not tuned properly or to tight, she seemed relaxed as she fixed up the guitar and then handed it to AJ. He tried to refuse at first but Violet told him it was ok.
"But what if I break it again?" He asked.
"You won't trust me, after playing with that thing for years I'm surprised they didn't break earlier." She tells him. He looked to the guitar and then gently takes it and Violet smiled as she explained how to tune the strings. As he did so he made sure to be extra careful with the knobs at the top. When done Violet comes and take a seat next to me and AJ continued with his lesson. The night came faster than I would have liked but it same and AJ and I would be leaving tomorrow.
AJ asked if he could borrow Violet's guitar so he could practice more and she nods as she grabbed her guitar case and handed it to him. She tells him to place it back in there when he was done. He agreed and then went to go set the guitar in his room and we all went to get some dinner. Omar was glad he had more to work with, with all those new spices from the caravan that passed by last week. We all were if we were going to be honest. He even said he would make some for us to take on the road and AJ and I thanked him. We all finished dinner and then headed to bed. Morning would come and I was getting my bag packed and I look to Violet as she came up to me and gave me a hug. I hugged her back and then we went to go get AJ.
He had given Violet her guitar case back and she nods to him and he thanked her for letting him borrow it. She nods and we head out to the gate and said by to the others. As AJ and I walked out I notice someone behind us and I turn as we get part way to the woods and I see Violet. I raise a brow at her and she smiles a bit.
"What? I said I wanted to go to the cabin." She says and I shake my head and laughed a bit.
"You're going to live in the cabin?" AJ asked and Violet nods.
"Don't worry I told the others already… well except Louis but I think he wont notice I'm gone." She says as we kept walking.
"And they're ok with this?" I asked and she nods.
"Yeah, but they said if I wanted to come back I could… I even told them they could come and stay if they want or feel like it, just want a place of my own you know." She tells us.
"Can we stay there for the day than?" AJ asked as he looked to me then to Violet and I look to her.
"I don't see why not, can help clean the place up a bit." I joke and she laughed as we kept walking. When we get to the cabin we went and put our bags to the side and got to work on the inside of the cabin and Violet started up a fire so we could stay warm. As we were cleaning it up Violet was taking all the old photos down and setting them in a box. I find it a little sweet that she was being careful of someone else's stuff even though by now they had to be either dead or a Walker.
When I asked her, she said that she would like for people to still be respectful of her things when she was gone. I smile a bit and help her as we pack up any of the stuff that wasn't going to be needed for her while she was here. AJ was dusting around a bit and I was helping Violet move some of the stuff up to the attic. When we get up there, we saw that there was a lot of space. We set the boxes to the far side of the attic and I look out the window a bit to see some snow falling.
"Good thing you two decided to come help." She says and I nod.
"Yeah…" I sighed and she moves over to me and I look at her as she looked to me.
"So, I know there's two rooms… Think I could make an extension?" She asked and I look back to the window as I watch the snow falling.
"I would suggest you have someone help but knowing you, you would try on your own." I say and then look to her as she nods.
"Fair enough, I think this place was built for hunting or maybe for a small get away." She says and I nod.
"Well for one person seems like a great place to be on their own." I tell her and she gets up and we head back to the living room. AJ had found some old camera and Violet takes a look at it then places it on the bookshelf.
"Nice decoration." She says and I nod. We keep working for hours and hours and by the time we were finished it was lunch time. We ae some of the food Omar packed and Violet said if we would wait a few days, she can get some food for us. AJ looked to me a bit excited and I nod and he shouts happy that we would be staying a little longer. Violet then went out to check out the smaller cabin to the side and I follow her as I tell AJ to stay inside the cabin and keep watch on the fireplace. I walk out and hear some shuffling as I enter the smaller cabin and see that there were plenty of tools and such and Violet had some rope.
"Can set up some traps while I'm at it." She says and she looked to me and I smile a bit at her. I helped her grab some more rope and we set some traps far off into the woods and as we finished that up, we would head back into the main cabin. We just sat in the living room and relaxed for a while and Violet had found some good books and even a chapter book AJ might like. He was by the fire reading it as Violet was also reading a book as she sat in the recliner. I was reading a book as well but it wasn't as interesting as I thought it would be. I set the book to the side and then look to see Violet's guitar case and then I look to her. She was still reading until she lifts her head up and looked to me.
I motioned to her guitar and then she pointed to herself asking if I wanted her to play. I shake my head and point to myself and she smiled as she got up and grabbed the guitar. I look to see AJ as he looked to us and Violet came and took a seat next to me and he sits up a bit as well. Violet asked if I needed a reminder and I nod a bit as she was telling me what I needed to know.
AJ would also help me and try to give me tips on how to play. When they were done talking, I would practice a bit and I would mess up a few times but Violet moved my hands to the right placement on the neck and tell me not to apply pressure with my full finger. Which I am going to be honest I forgot a few times but Violet was patient with me and helped me with my finger placement. I would try again and I think I got it down.
"There you go." She says and placed her hands on her lap as she leaned back a bit on the couch and I smiled. I then practice some more and AJ asked if he could play on it more, to which Violet said of course and I hand the guitar to him. He would play and I was glad he got a new hobby, though with being on the road he wouldn't be able to do this. I had no guitar for him and I frown a bit. I feel a hand on my shoulder and looked to Violet as she smiled at me.
"AJ, if you want, we can go into town tomorrow and find you a guitar… we haven't had the chance to do that yet." She tells him and he looked to him.
"Really?" He asked and she nods.
"Yep… we've been busy... and that way when you visit you don't need to ask to borrow mine and just grab yours." She says and he nods quickly.
"That sounds great." He says and I nod. AJ then handed the guitar to her and Violet would play for the both of us. Though night came fast and AJ had gone to bed Violet and I sat in the living room and she was playing her guitar and I was next to her watching her as she played. I keep watching her and she would look to me from time to time and would give me a smile and I would return it with my own smile. I then lean over and give her a kiss and she stopped playing. When we pulled apart she looked to me, smile, then go back to playing.
She looked happy. She seemed happy. I suppose this was a good thing for her. She kept playing and I stopped her and she looked to me and I kissed her again. She kisses me back and set her guitar to the side which I'm going to be honest as a little difficult. I mean she was trying to focus on the kiss more than where she was to place her guitar. I pull back and she finally set it to the side properly and then pulled me to her as she kissed me. I kissed her back and then moved so she was laying on the couch and and I was on top of her and she laughed a little. I pull back and looked to her as she covered her mouth and then pointed to the stairs and I place my hand to my face.
Though granted I did forget that this place wasn't as big as the school but I don't think it's wise for us to do that when AJ could definitely hear us. I look to her as she settled down with her laughing and she looked to me then placed her hands on my sides and I look to her.
"No kissing stuff remember." She whispers and I had to cover my mouth a bit as I giggled at this.
"D-Don't want AJ to be a big brother just yet." She jokes and I lay my head on her shoulder as I laugh a little more.
"Shut… Shut your mouth you goof." I tell her as she laughed.
"What? It's true though." She says and I lightly hit her shoulder.
"Ok, ok I get it." I mutter and she holds me to her as we calm down. We hear the wood crackeling a bit and I look to the flames a bit. I feel Violet put her face near my neck and I turn to look at her as she looked to me.
"Hey, no child making." I tell her and she busts out laughing and then covers her mouth quickly and I laughed as well.
"W-well shit… I thought you'd want to have my kid." She joked and I hit her shoulder and she laughed.
"Ow, damn you sure can hit hard." She says and placed her hand on her shoulder. I look to her then I move her hand and kissed her shoulder gently.
"Yeah, well says the idiot telling me I want her kids." I mutter. She chuckled at this and I lay on top of her.
"Hey I just think it's funny AJ thinks we can have kids." She says and I groan.
"I don't want to give him that talk." I mutter.
"Can't be that bad." She tells me and I look at her.
"Well since apparently you're a dad, you can tell him." I say and she looked to me in shock.
"Oh no, not my job Mama Clem." She says and I roll my eye.
"Not so easy, is it?" I asked.
"Hey I had the talk when I was his age." She says.
"And you think I did too?" I asked.
"Well, how old were you?" She asked.
"Thirteen, well I mean I was told my uh… damn now I know how Javier felt." I mutter.
"Oooh I get it, you got advice from a dude." She says.
"Well, no… not entirely… I mean he told me to ask Kate and I did but it was awkward as hell." I tell her.
"Well, what did they say?" She asked.
"I am not telling you; it was embarrassing at thirteen as it is now." I tell her.
"To be fair I was just told to watch porn." She says and I look at her with utter shock on my face and she shrugged.
"Yep, dad didn't know what to tell me so he told me to just watch porn, looked fake as fuck." She says and I hold back my laughter.
"Are you telling me, you got sex advice… from porn?" I asked.
"Yep, but to be fair I didn't follow that advice fully, the shit I saw would blow your mind… I mean what kind of idiot has their nails done and-." I covered her mouth and she looked to me.
"Nope, none of that, I do not need to hear any of that, what if AJ walked in right now?" I asked. She moves my hands from her mouth and looked to me.
"Oh, I think he'd be asking why you're on top of me, not on what we're talking about." She says and I roll my eye and then look to her.
"Hey better than actually catching people in the act, one older kid told us he saw his parents in bed naked and they said they were wrestling… I swear to God I heard someone asking who was winning." She tells me.
"…I kinda want to know what the response to that was." I mutter.
"I think the boy said both of them won." She laughed and I shake my head.
"Well, I mean he probably was right… unless she was faking it." She says the gasps and looks at me and I looked to her confused.
"Clem have you faked your org-." I cover her mouth before she could finish it and I felt my face heat up at this. She looked to me but didn't move my hands but I moved them away and she looked to me more as I look to her.
"No." I say quietly and she smirks.
"Oh?" She asked.
"Hmm, none of it was fake… it felt good." I tell her honestly and she nods a bit.
"I'm glad… now off that topic, you feeling tired?" She asked and I nod a little so she moves to sit up and grabbed the blanket we had set on the back of the couch. She covers us up and placed her hand on my back and one arm under her head. I lay my head back on to her chest as I listen to her breath. I've gotten so use to doing this that when I couldn't be near her while we slept, I wouldn't sleep. I felt this way when I left with AJ for two whole years. I slowly close my eye as I finally fall asleep.