CHAPTER TWELVE
[ pre season six, episode ten ]

3 weeks after ..

"We should head back now," Abi whispered, having noticed the sound of walkers. The Spiderman comic in her hand dropping to her knees, slightly falling from the position she was sat in.

She had grown the ability to hear the walkers from far away, the young blonde became more and more hypersensitive as the trio's outings became regular. Both Carl and Abi would say they were going to hang out at Lottie's, Lottie saying she was heading to their's, they had to hope none of the adults would catch onto them.

"Can't we stay for a bit longer? Dad's gonna want to do a check up for today." Carl complained, referring to his eye. The small pieces of hair in front of his face had began overshadowing it, whenever he would place on his hat the white bandage was almost invisible. Abi knew he desperately needed a haircut, she also knew he would blank out refuse, as he had multiple times.

"Well, that's good, because finishing that," Lottie gestured to the familiar comic the boy held, having read it before,"Is the saddest thing that's ever happened to me."

Carl gave her an incredulous look, Lottie shrugging it off as the boy grumpily dropped the comic to the ground.

"Let's go, before Rick gets all detective-y about where we've been." Abi rushed the two, hands clapping together as both teenagers took a while to stand, gathering everything they could.

Small bits of dirt carried along Lottie's arm, from the log she had been resting on as she stood. Wiping most of it off, she put her Black Widow comic in the bag they had all brought. It also included fruit snacks, extra comics and some spare bullets—on the very rare occasion they needed them.

However, only Lottie and Carl ever brought guns, Abi refused to carry them. All it made her think about was that night. She didn't even have her knife anymore, just a machete Rosita had given her.

The walk back was always the worst. Most of the time it was silent, nobody wanting to alert the people of Alexandria, nor the walkers. The teenagers cringed every time their foot landed on an extra crunchy leaf, trying to keep quiet as to not be heard by anyone.

Abi hated silence, dreaded it. No noise left her alone with her thoughts, from her ever long annoying nonsense.

Fortunately—though unfortunate—the snap of a stick was heard in the distance, echoing through the teenagers' ears as the trio grabbed their weapons. "Was it a walker?" Lottie questioned, turning to the 15 & 14 year old in hopes of them knowing.

It didn't sound as if there were anymore footsteps, the walker idea being cancelled. Adults rarely left Alexandria know and it was even less likely for them to go alone. So who the heck was this?

"We need to go," Carl stated, holding his gun in front of his eye, "Now."

✵~✵

ONCE ARRIVING BACK in Alexandria, Carl went home so his dad could check on him, Lottie doing to do some gardening with Eric. Abi had nothing to do, babysitting Judith was her main priority, she had never been to school and Rick never allowed her on a run. She hated it. Abigail Greene hated being bored so much, she felt the need to do something stupid. So unbelievably stupid.

Her heart thumped loudly in her ears, feet moving slowly as her breath quickened. The poor girl's brain felt too big for her head, Abi's legs felt like jelly.

Then there she stood, her house. The house that homed a nice middle-aged lady, in charge of the food intake at Alexandria, as well as the guns. Olivia was always welcoming to Abi, she thought the girl was ever so polite—though, her thoughts towards Lottie were very different.For many different reasons.

But it wasn't just Olivia who lived there.

Before Abi could even make her way to the front steps of the house, a young brunette was already making their way out.

Her heart rate physically sped up, but in Abi's head it stopped as all her movements came to an end. Enid walked cluelessly, shutting the door as she shouted a quick goodbye to Olivia, unaware of the frozen girl a few steps behind her. Usual boots placed messily on her feet, red flannel with a striped shirt underneath—she wore tight jeans that clung to her legs in the wintery weather.

"Hi!" Abi's voice was louder than it was supposed to be, her arms perking slightly as she let her right hand wave to the girl in front of her. She internally cursed herself, throwing her arm down and pursing her lips together as she deeply regretted ever coming towards her house. The girl saw Enid bite her bottom lip in confusion.

"Hey?" Enid looked at her, looking puzzled on why she was there—also rather startled by the sudden noise.

Why was she there?

Abi's instincts had told her to walk towards the house, definitely not her brain. Now she was stuck on deciding what to say as Enid stood on the top of the stairs, gazing curiously at the girl.

"Where are you going?" Abi questioned the other girl, her voice quiet, suggesting she wasn't even aware that she was talking. Enid looked at the bag in her hand before looking back to the girl.

"Oh, Olivia wanted me to give this to Aaron. She's taking a break from protecting the food so she couldn't do it. You can.. help me, if you want?" The brunette seemed unsure of herself, having walked down the steps to stand in front of Abi mid sentence.

It had only been three weeks since Enid returned and Abi already seemed taller. Well, last time Abi really checked her height was over a month ago, when they found themselves hiding from walkers. Though they were closer that time, Abi still felt her breath catching in her throat as Enid stood in front of her, finally making eye contact with the girl after weeks.

Abi took notice of the bags under her eyes, she assumed her's looked the same. Sleeping hadn't been easy for a while, not since the nightmares of the barn had invaded Abi's mind. She assumed the same was for Enid, whatever happened to her family, and what happened to Ron.

Enid's green eyes seemed lighter than they were last time Abi had seen her, something happened to bring a sense of relaxation, though Abi would never know.

The brunette's nose was still perfectly sharp, adding to the eyes that made Abi's stomach tingle anytime she got the small chance to glance at them. Recently washed her thrown into a neat side parting as the brown strands ran down Enid's shoulders, similar length to Abi's. Enid's eyes staring into Abi's hazel ones, both unaware of what raced through the other's head.

"Sure."

✵~✵

"ENID, can you help me with something?" Olivia's voice called, Enid rolling in her bed, having finally landed comfortably on her right side before the woman's voice interrupted her nap. She groaned loudly, sitting up as she lazily put her hair in place.

"One second!" The girl shouted back, looking over at the shirt that laid on the ground, messily on the pile of clean clothes she had scattered round her room. Being back was supposed to be good, she had helped Glenn get back to his wife—Maggie—the couple thanking her as Enid wandered around the newly dead walker-filled Alexandria. Fortunately, she had found a living Mikey, he had been hiding in one of the still intact houses with his father.

The two walked to the infirmary, assuming that's where most people would've ended up. Rosita Espinosa had brought her away for a few minutes, telling Mikey to go find other people as she explained what had happened the night before.

Ever since then, Enid hadn't talked to many people. She didn't want to talk to anybody. Her mind was racing with so many things at once she felt as if another conversation was to be brought up she'd explode. This had led to most of the past few weeks being spent in her room, leaving the giant mess on the floor.

Reaching forward, the girl quickly grabbed the red flannel before throwing it over her shoulders, heading downstairs to see what Olivia needed.

Olivia was happy to hear the footsteps that met the stairs, turning around with a paper bag in her hand as she waited for Enid to meet her at the bottom. There was a large smile printed onto the older woman's face as she motioned the bag towards Enid.

"Would you mind giving these to Aaron, I'm on a small break right now and wouldn't mind some peace and quiet," Enid hesitated staring at the brown bag in front of her. She had been to Aaron and Eric's a few times, both before and after the herd in Alexandria to ask for stuff or hand them things but with recent events, it had gotten more awkward.

'Recent events' meaning Charlotte Frawley.

Enid didn't have anything major against the sixteen year old, she had only talked to her once and seen her around the town a few times. She had only recently started to be seen with Abi and Carl more, all three teenagers slowly becoming more comfortable with being outside again.

The bandage on Carl's eye sometimes made Enid's stomach churn whenever she caught sight of him, knowing it was the doing of her boyfriend. Well, kind of ex boyfriend. Rosita hadn't gone into full detail, the woman not having been there at the time, but she had explained how Ron had gone to shoot at Rick before something stopped him, causing the gun to point towards Carl's eye.

Quickly realising how long she had hesitated, Enid zoned back into the situation, picking up her shoulders as she gently grabbed the back. "Sure," she responded, walking towards the door as she kneeled to put her boots on.

"Thank you, Enid." Olivia spoke as she walked up the stairs, Enid standing up after lazily placing the black shoes on her feet.

"See you later!" She called whilst opening the door, stepping out into the breezy weather, spinning to shut the door. Her body tensed a bit as she felt eyes on her, turning around in hopes of finding nobody.

It was certainly not nobody.

Enid felt her eyes go wide as she stared at none other than Abi Greene, the girl she had hoped not to see for a while. The main reason for all her guilt, in ways she did not know why.

The blonde stood awkwardly, obviously having stopped in her tracks when Enid opened the door. Abi wore a green shirt, a little oversized as it hid where her flared jeans stopped, all covered with a black hoodie, clearly from a while ago as it was a tight fit on her arms.

"Hi!" Enid almost felt the need to laugh at the volume of Abi's greeting, biting her lip as she knew how awkward it would be if she did.

"Hey," she responded, a hint of curiosity to her tone as she prepared herself to walk down the stairs, paper bag still in her left hand, almost as if she were going to use it as a weapon if she didn't recognise the person at the bottom of the stairs.

"Where are you going?" Abi asked, the slightest smile on her face as her eyes traced the bag in Enid's hand, making the older girl almost insecure of how she was holding it so close to her thigh.

"Oh," Enid blanked for a moment, completely forgetting every word in the dictionary she could say. Abi was supposed to be the awkward one, she reminded herself, pull it together.

Enid started to walk down the stairs, bothered by the large height difference from where she stood. "Olivia wanted me to give this to Aaron. She's taking a break from protecting the food so she couldn't do it. You can help." The girl was prepared to finish her sentence, but then realised she didn't want to pressure Abi into saying yes. "If you want."

Their close proximity almost brought a blush to Enid's face, cursing herself for having walked so close to the other girl. She tried her best to keep her call, Abi was just some random girl that had shown up with her family one day, she wasn't special.

"Sure," Abi responded, lips parted as she too recognised the small space between them. Enid nodded arduously, gesturing for the two to begin walking.

"Um," Abi began, "I was wondering... I don't know, if you maybe wanted to come outside the walls again? It's totally okay if not, I probably shouldn't have asked. We haven't talked in a while and I'm asking such a big questioned-"

She is definitely still the awkward one, Enid thought with an amused smile planted on her face.

"Yeah, that'd be nice. I've been cooped up in my room for a while. I'll drop whatever this is off," Enid gestured to the bag she held, which felt like it might have been a snack or something, maybe even a gift for the two men. "And then we can go."

"Cool, we've changed it up a bit, by the way. So, you know, it's not a shock when you see everything." We? "Carl was weirdly okay with going outside the walls, even after lecturing me about it. And Lottie seemed excited to be in the woods again."

Oh. We.

✵~✵

author notes —

(11th April, 2024)
I made sure to fix the timeline again—some of my writing was also messed up.

sorry this took so long, i've been really busy lately and haven't had much time to finish the chapter

we got a bit of an enid POV this chapter which wasn't planned like at all i just thought it'd be cute and interesting to show what ran through Enid's mind instead of Abi's.

for the next chapter, should i show them outisde the walls or just skip a little ahead like i was planning too? idrk because i feel like it would give us some more abi + enid time, but also i have such a cool plot line coming up involving new oc's.

honestly feel like they need a ship name but because both of their names are so short we'd have to use abigail or something, any ideas ???

Like always, sorry for any spelling or grammar mistakes, I always give up on rereading half way through.

Anyways,
Byee </3