"Knock, knock." Lucas rapped his knuckles on the door to Riley's cell, who looked up at him the second his voice hit her eardrums. She sat propped up against the pillows on her bed, three small stacks of comic books next to her categorized, one being 'already read, but I'd read it again', the second labeled 'already read, it was alright', and the third, 'haven't read yet, but it's coming up next'. A new comic, fresh from pile three, sat open in her hands. Michonne had brought it back for her that day, and she was already about two pages away from the finish.

"Who's there?" Riley grinned, hiding her smile with the pieces of the paper in her hands. She swung her legs off the side of her bed, bookmarking her page and setting the comic aside. Her eyes fell to the miniature clock that rested peacefully on her desk as she checked the time.

Six-thirty on the dot.

Lucas smiled back casually as he stepped into her cell. "Just the kid you invited over to your cell to listen to music from the age of the milkmen."

Riley snorted her laugh back. "I think the last time milkmen existed was in the '60's."

"Isn't that where the music you like comes from?" The boy asked with a wrinkle of his nose, leaning against the wall. He watched as Riley walked over to a little corner in her cell, approaching a box that was stacked onto another of its kind. She opened it, her eyes running around every item in it as if she were examining a little ecosystem in a state of everlasting awe.

"Close," Riley flashed him a quick supportive smile. "But the '70's and up are where it's at."

"Ah." Lucas hummed. He took it upon himself to look around her cell, or, room. Either one worked fine, he guessed, being that the prison was the closest they would get to a home, therefore the cells the closest thing to a room. Near his eye level, a board was hung on the wall, a diorama of printed pictures with a sheen glistening as a cherry on top covering the whole surface. There were so many that corners of one every here and there would overlap another next to it, some hanging off the side of the board to make room for others. Lucas stepped closer to it, admiring the moment caught on film in each little photo. There was pictures of sunsets, of her family and her friends, others of little animals or plants she'd seen on the road. He saw one of Rick and Glenn, both posing back to back with finger guns molding their hands and Beth laughing in the background. There was another, of Riley herself, holding a leaf out to a squirrel who examined her from a few feet away- the girl had to be younger in it, at least by a few years, he could tell by the plumpness in her cheeks and the negative height on her body. There were so many others, one even with her, Carl, and Maggie, where both kids slept in the older woman's arms as she laid dozing off in the back of a car seat.

He adored each and every one.

"I like your life." Lucas breathed, arms crossed as his eyes hopped and clung to each picture.

"Well, it's mine and you can't have it." Riley teased as she pulled out a few records out of the box, a specific one in her hand. She slipped it out of its sleeve carefully, beginning to place it down on the plater so the spindle went skillfully and delicately through the hole of the record. Her fingers went to work as she began to correct positions and adjust different little things Lucas had no idea were even adjustable.

The boy laughed, peering at a picture of a frog in the palm of someone's hand, but he didn't know quite who. "Did you take all of these yourself?"

Riley nodded as she stood up, the intro music to Solsbury Hill by Peter Gabriel beginning to echo around the small confinement of the cell. "Yup- no judging. Most of those are from back when I thought I was a photographer."

"They're great."

"No, they're not." Riley laughed as Lucas pulled off a photo of an overly dramatic sunset, reaching for it only for him to pull it out of her reach as he squinted at it. "I kind of stopped when I realized I was terrible at it. Now I only take them when I want to remember something."

"Like what? This amazing sunset with a hair in the lens?"

"It's not a hair." Riley corrected, finally snatching the photo and hiding it behind her back. "It's the end of a wheat plant, and no. I would not like to remember that, but thank you for reminding me to throw it out."

"Nah, I think I'll keep it." Lucas said with an affirmative nod.

Riley scoffed with a grin plastered onto her face. "I think not. You came here to listen to music, not remind me of how terrible my photography phase was."

"I'm a multitasker." Lucas shrugged, sitting down on Riley's bed. "It's kind of a talent."

Riley hummed as she sat down next to him, her bed dipping slightly from both of their weight. The girl made careful to put a good few inches between them when she seated herself next to him, Billy's words of listening to music will never just end in listening to music making a forefront appearance in her mind.

"So, this was the one I heard you singing?" Lucas asked, hinting at the song that was dancing around their ears in that current moment.

Riley nodded, the lyrics of the musical writing serenading her eager mind. Each word sent an electric shock through her body, the tune in the background sweet enough to melt her subconscious to an endless stage of peace. That's just what music did for her, and a little tiny piece of her, in the farthest corner of her pinky finger hoped that was what it did for Lucas, and he actually enjoyed it the same way she did.

Riley turned to face the boy next to her, the words to the song building the moment up like a scene in a puppet show.

He was something to observe.

He was, Riley agreed. She watched the way Lucas looked back at her, his eyes traveling her face, soaking up every feature and freckle imprinted on her skin. The warm flesh of his fingers hesitantly crept closer to hers, their appendages coming into tentative contact.

Came in close, I heard a voice.

A pair of footsteps pattered on the floors of the long corridor in which all the cells in Block C were located, the sound growing louder as the person grew closer. As soon as Riley realized they were going to pass her own living space, she ripped her hand away from Lucas's, twisting with her other as she shoved them in her lap, pressing her lips together with an embarrassed flush on her face.

"Riley?" A voice that presumably belonged to the person walking towards the girl's cell called out. Their figure came into view not even a moment later, Riley's stepmother, Meg, appearing in the doorway. She looked taken aback to see a boy sitting on her bed, but regained her composure faster than the snap of a finger. "Hello, Lucas."

"Hi, Ms. Endicott." Lucas greeted, fixing his posture along with a slight wave of his fingers.

"What are you two up to?" Meg asked, her question more directed towards Riley, eyebrows arching downwards in a suspicious manner.

"Lucas wanted to hear some of the music I had from the farm, so I told him to come over." Riley said casually, hoping the absence of nerves in her voice would play the situation off easily.

"I see." Meg nodded slowly as Lucas nodded awkwardly. She brushed it off carelessly after a moment's hesitation, switching conversation topic. "Have you seen Patrick around in the last hour or so?"

"No, why?" Riley asked, standing up to shut the music off mid-song.

To keep in silence I resigned,

My friends would think I was a nut-

With a click, all of the noise cut to quiet, the only thing being heard was small chatter from the level below.

"Oh, no reason. I just bumped into Billy a few minutes ago, he said Patrick left storytime in a hurry, he was sick or so I remember. He also said he wanted to speak to you." The girl's step mother explained, bringing her ring finger up to scratch at the tip of her nose gently.

"Wait, you mean Billy wanted to?" Riley asked, eyes falling to Lucas who still sat uncomfortably on her bed, perched at the very edge as he watched the interaction between her and Meg.

"Yes, he could probably wait, though. It didn't seem too urgent. Just go find him when you guys are done here." Meg said, beginning to depart from Riley's cell before she paused. "And if you don't mind, please keep this door open."

"Yeah, sure." Riley nodded, watching her step mother's frame disappear from her line of sight.

"Sick, huh?" Lucas asked, leaning back with a little more ease once the woman had left. "How much do you wanna bet one of the little kids coughed on him?"

Riley chuckled shortly. "I wouldn't put it past them."

She reached for a pile of different discs, handing them to Lucas with a cautious warning to be very careful with them. "Choose one."

"Hmm." The boy gently placed each down on the bed in the exact order he'd wanted to play them in. "First up, let's do Uncle John's Band by the Grateful Dead- or Sugaree, maybe Tennessee Jed?"

"Slow your roll, Tiger." Riley said with a laugh, walking over to examine the songs he'd chosen. "Let's start... with Sugaree. It was my dad's favorite."

"Good choice." Lucas said softly, watching as she picked it up and set it on her desk so it'd be easy to reach for once they were ready to play it. He was slightly disconcerted with the fact she'd so openly spoke about the deceased family member, but maybe even a little happy she'd been comfortable enough to share it with him.

Riley's fingers drifted back to the record player, fixing it back up to pick up the song where it had left off. Patient seconds ticked off into the abyss before the strums of musical instruments and sounds of dexterous vocal cords enunciating rhymes began to fill their ears up again.

Turning water into wine,

Open doors would soon be shut.

The sun was radiating a boundless measure of blinding rays, each hitting a selective part of the prison and warming it in the space of the early morning. Riley's sneakers crunched along the gravel beneath her feet, each time her shoe was placed down a mimic of the same sound repeated over and over again like a video on repeat. To her right, Michonne led her horse down the same pathway, on the road to venturing outside of the fences again, regardless of the fact she'd just gotten there the day before- but no amounts of pestering and begging could change her mind. To Riley's left, Carl and Rick walked with them, their indistinguishable brown hair gleaming in the light of the dazzling sun.

"Be careful out there," Rick said to Michonne as they all came into close range with the gates. 

"Always am." The woman replied assuringly. She turned to the two younger associates in their little group. "Any requests? Books, comics, some stale M&M's?"

"You're the one that likes stale M&M's." Carl laughed.

"Then I'll definitely be looking for some. I'll look for some stuff you guys like too." Michonne grinned, parting slightly from her company to walk closer to the exit.

"Thanks Michonne." Riley said, pulling a hair tie from her wrist to twist the messy array of strands into a ponytail. 

"Anytime." The older woman smiled with a quick pinch to Riley's cheek. She looked over at Carl, who stuck closer to his father. "Why don't you wear your hat anymore?"

"It's not a farming hat." The boy shrugged, turning around and beginning to march backwards as he conversed with Michonne. "See you soon?"

"Pretty soon." Michonne confirmed.

As she took her horse out by the gate and prepared to leave, Riley walked with Carl and Rick over to the farming area, deciding to get back into her little agriculture groove. She held a metal bucket in her lap as she seated herself on the ground, throwing a handful of weeds and worms into the pail.

"They only took out one cluster yesterday." Carl spoke up after a few minutes, moving towards the topic of 'fence duty'. He was standing next to Rick, who was perched on the ground next to Riley, the two of them performing the same job as the girl with them. "Probably gonna need more people today. Maybe we could help."

Riley glanced behind her, noticing how a large group of walkers were piling up at a certain section of the fence, snarling as they stuck their arms through the holes in attempt to cross over and into the boundaries of the prison.

"I got other plans involving dirt and cucumbers, keeping people fed." Rick replied without even taking a second to glance up at his son.

"Well, if you don't want to, maybe I could?" Carl said, his voice a little hesitant as he tested the waters carefully.

"I'd help too, looks like they're all kind of stuck around one place over there." Riley offered, to which Carl's gaze snapped down to her immediately. After the stunt he'd pulled the previous night, involving him bringing her back the pink faced fruit from the run he'd attended, they hadn't spoken until now- and it wasn't even a direct conversation. His face drew a little tighter, and Riley pretended not to notice the way he swallowed uncomfortably. He didn't say anything more, instead keeping quiet until his father spoke up.

"We have other plans." Rick said gruffly, standing up as he eyed the both of them. "That's what I should've said."

Brushing past Carl, he stalked away from them, carrying the bucket in one hand, his other hanging loosely by his side. As an immediate response to his departure, the air took on a stuffy feeling even though they were outside. Neither Carl or Riley said anything, both of them stuck in an awkward silence, the only sound recognizable being the growls of the walkers and the sounds of their own hearts beating faster.

"I never thanked you." Riley said, trying to hammer away at the uneasiness around them. Her words caused Carl to shift his gaze over to her, although his expression now read slight confusion compared to utter annoyance. "For the peach, I mean."

"Oh, yeah." Carl nodded his head, looking downwards again, leaving them sitting in that same discomfort once again.

"So, how much do I owe you?" The girl spoke up again, now hauling her bucket into her arms as she stood up. Her eyes were squinted to shield the hazel coloring in her irises and block out the blinding light as she stared at Carl, who just shrugged mindlessly.

"Nothing. Don't worry about it." The boy replied, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Come on, you're already broke, let me pay you back- just this one time. I swear." Riley pushed, adding a playful grin towards the end of her sentence.

Carl only sighed with a roll of his eyes. As much as he'd wanted to tell the girl it was fine and he couldn't care less, he knew stubbornness was a firm trait Riley possessed, he'd learned it on more occasions than one.

"Fine. I forgot how much food even was, you tell me." He gave in, beginning to walk over to his dad by the pigpen.

Slightly shocked at how easily the boy let her in, Riley paused before following after him, shifting the bucket in her arms as she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

"Snacks were two quarters and meals were five." Riley cleared up for him, now falling in line so their steps remained in sync.

"That's stupid. Where we going to find meals out there?" Carl snorted, referring to their time on the road where they had come up with their little code of currency.

"I don't know, we were like twelve. Do you want to change it?" Riley said, looking over at him. When side by side, it was much easier to gather and compare their appearances- like for example, Riley was a few inches taller than Carl, despite the fact he was a couple months older than she was. But, Meg had told her that girls just mature faster than boys do- physically and mentally. Riley assumed that was why Carl was such an ass to her sometimes when she only tried to make peace with him.

"No." Carl stated simply.

"Okay, then." Riley nodded, satisfied. A little smile tugged at her lips as she reached for her back pocket, where she kept a few bits of her savings. She pulled out a few coins, ranging from pennies to dimes to quarters and beyond. While out on the road for those eight, long, treacherous months after the farm had been overrun and burned, Riley and Carl liked to pass time by collecting any money they found in coin form, creating a balance in which they traded for things. In the beginning, Riley was richer, but towards the second or third month, Carl passed her. It was only when they reached the prison and the young girl found a can of dimes and even a one dollar coin that she was placed in the lead.

"You giving me two or five?" Carl asked. He raised his eyebrow in a convincing manner, as if trying to sway her into a more bountiful decision. They never really got to specifying where certain objects fell into a certain price range until they got to the defined item, they just kept things kind of open. Fruits could fall into the cheaper category of snacks easily, although, out on the road where they had limited supplies, a peach could mean a lot more than it seemed to be.

"Usually, I'd say two, but- I'm feeling generous today." Riley said, picking apart five quarters and dropping them into the boy's open palm.

"Thanks." Carl said dryly, being cautious not to get too ahead of himself. "One dollar richer."

"And eight dollars behind." The girl pointed out. When his head turned to flash her a nasty look, Riley only shrugged, fighting a grin off of her face.

"Actually, it's only seven dollars and thirty-six cents. I found more on the run yesterday." Carl said as they approached the pigpen, where Rick had taken it upon himself to continue his work.

Riley was about to say, 'and you didn't say anything?', but she knew that he wouldn't. He didn't say anything to her really, anymore.

"Huh," She nodded, leaning against the wood of the enclosed area and letting her bucket fall to the ground. "Should've guessed you'd be catching up at some point."

Carl walked into the pen, kicking away at some dirt. "Wouldn't expect you to, I kind of forgot about it anyway. It was stupid. "

Riley's eyes fell to the floor, trying to hide the way his words felt like a knife to the stomach. She wasn't dumb, she knew Carl didn't like her and she didn't expect him to be over-the-top-happy when talking to her, she just wished he'd given her an explanation as to why they'd gone from being each other's best friend to her feeling like gum stuck on the bottom of his shoe. For a moment there, Riley could nearly feel Carl softening up a little and looking at her in the same light he had when they were little, but clearly she'd been mistaken, and he was just letting her know.

She scratched at some dirt that'd gotten stuck to her hand, insides feeling a little hollow at the way their little moment of actually getting along had vanquished so suddenly. She didn't say anything, instead pushing herself off of the fence and picking up her own pail by the handle and dropping it to the other side at Carl's feet.

"I'm gonna go check on Maggie." Riley said, her words futile and spoken as if they were only there to excuse her presence.

"Why?"

"I don't know, just to make sure she's okay." Riley said quickly, leaving the scene mid sentence.

"But we need you here to finish planting the tomatoes!" Carl called after her, but for once, she didn't say anything back. His previous sentence wasn't even that different from the usual treatment Riley had received from the boy as of recently, but the way her gut twisted sickeningly manipulated her mind to finally stop chasing him. Maybe it wasn't even what Carl said that made her give up, but the fact she'd allowed herself to think they were finally a step in the door to becoming friends again and have it all be shut down in less than a second that really cut the cord.

Foot only an inch away from crossing into the pathway leading to the watchtower, Riley's trek was cut short as a gunshot rang from inside the prison walls, a second following not even a moment after. She turned around faster than the speed of light, watching the way Carl and Rick reacted in exactly the same way she had. In an instant, she was running back to them, the older of the two catching sight of her and moving in her direction quickly with an outstretched hand.

"Stay close." Rick warned both of his kids as he began to move up the hill they'd previously came from.

"Cell block?" A new voice called out from up high. Riley turned and watched as Maggie appeared outside of the little area her and Glenn spent most nights in- the watchtower.

"I don't know!" Rick called back to her, a prominent strain in his voice as an alarming tone tugged at each word. "Both of you, get in the tower with Maggie- don't argue, go."

Obeying his orders, Riley and Carl made a run for the watchtower, the familiar rush of adrenaline   commanding their bodies like a puppeteer. A whistle to her left caused Riley's head to snap to the direction of the noise, where she watched as Michonne had turned around on her horse, heading back to the entrance of the prison.

"Carl!" Riley alerted the boy, who followed her line of vision to see the woman getting closer to them with every passing second.

Sprinting to the gates, Carl tugged on the thick material of the ropes, heaving as he rushed. Riley came up to his side, trying to assist the best she could as their window of time began to close rapidly. As the heavy doors finally slid open wide enough, Michonne came through successfully, her horse coming to a stop in front of the metal fences which halted her proceeding onto the prison grounds. 

Trailing behind her like rabid dogs going in for their next kill, walkers began to seep through the opening of the gates, each step bringing them closer to Michonne. Sensing the imminent danger behind her, the older woman jumped off of her horse, drawing her sword as she launched into action, defending herself desperately as more and more of the hungry creatures began to approach her.

"Carl, I think you need to get your gun." Riley said quietly, a feared look twisting along her face as she undertook the mission of trying to slide open the last obstacle that excluded Michonne from entering the prison.

"What?" The boy asked, knowing that his privileges with the certain weapon were strictly provoked by his father. In extremely dire situations, Riley hoped Rick would understand if the boy opposed his rules, and this was most definitely one of them.

"What are we supposed to do? Too many are coming, okay? We can't wait for Maggie to get down here, there's no time." Riley's hands worked furiously at the fence, and less than twenty feet in front of her Michonne was tasked with protecting both herself and her horse against multiple walkers. With less than a split second hesitation, Carl ran to open the double doors that incased a selection of the prison's weapons, taking a gun into his hands and rushing back to the scene.

Readying himself, Carl appeared back next to Riley, whose raw hands gave up with the fence as she watched Michonne tumble backwards and trip over a rope, falling to her back with two walkers on top of her.

"Hold on!" Maggie yelled from above, running back into the small compartment in the watchtower as she hurriedly made her descent.

Riley broke off from the fence, racing to the same doors Carl was just previously stationed at and making a beeline for her own weapon. A gunshot behind her signaled loud and clear, letting her know Carl had just- hopefully- put down one of Michonne's attackers. Darting back out, Riley drew an arrow from her quiver and nocked it quickly, drawing the string of her bow back to her chin and aligning the feathered reed with the eye of another oncoming walker. Releasing the string steadily, the girl watched as the arrow plunged through the soft and decayed skull of the deceased human, then pulled another out of her satchel at light speed as she ran closer to the scene. Behind her, Maggie sprinted from the tower and slid open the fence, running towards Michonne who'd flipped the walker attacking her over her own body, slicing her ankle open in the process. The Greene landed a deafeningly loud bullet to the walker's head before shoving her own gun back into her belt and pulling Michonne up with her.

Carl tucked his gun under his arm and ran out to lead the fussing horse into the safe zone, while Riley took out every advancing aggressor, creating as much of a clear pathway she could for the two women struggling to reach the fence line.

"Hurry!" The youngest girl called out to them, getting a grip on the cool metal of the fence to slide it back into place as soon as they were secure inside. She placed her bow gently down before pushing the stronghold, Carl running back to help her. 

With sweat creating a tacky feeling all along her skin, Riley's head tipped backwards as she inhaled a much needed breath of air, all accessible entryways to the prison now closed, and every walker stuck outside the perimeter. A groan a little farther away from the girl caused her to look over, where the vivid sight of Michonne leaning on Maggie for support caught her attention. Leaning her bow against the wall of the watchtower and dropping her arrows next to them, Riley ran up to the two, fighting the fatigue and exhaustion clawing at her lungs and muscles.

"Are you okay?" Riley asked Michonne, who nodded despite the injuries that were as clear as day on her body.

"Just a little cut, I'm alright." The woman breathed heavily, her brown skin gleaming with sweat in the sunlight.

"Are you sure? Your ankle-"

"Will be fine, I promise. Let's just get to the prison, see what happened." Michonne said with a solid nod of her head.

Carl ran back up to them, gun completely absent from sight. Riley stole a look at him, the way his hands were shaking like he'd just been doused in freezing cold water, the way his breathing was irregular and panicked, the way his eyes bore a deep look of unsettlement. His gaze flickered over to Riley, and once realizing she'd been watching him, pressed his lips together and swallowed, readjusting himself and beginning to walk up behind Maggie and Michonne. Following in suit, Riley glanced at the ground, wondering guiltily if her commission to Carl to pick up the gun without his father's permission had been a mistake.

"So, you're telling me he just got up and left? Just like that?" Riley interrogated Billy as they sat on the floor in her cell.

"Yup, raised his hand and told Carol he didn't feel good- like really didn't feel good. I just assumed he was gonna throw up and then go to bed. Turns out he just died in the showers." Her friend explained thoroughly to her.

"Oh my God." Riley murmured, shaking her head. "That's... I can't believe it happened like that. It's so strange."

"Yeah, he was a good kid, too. Sucks he had a shitty ending." Billy agreed with a solemn nod. "Oh, I ran into your mom- step mom, sorry- and I told her I was looking for you, did she say anything?"

Riley furrowed her eyebrows as she thought back to the previous night. "Yeah, she did. But I went to bed before I got the chance to go find you."

"Yeah, well, there was something else I wanted to tell you- not about Patrick. I snuck into storytime just to see what all the hype was about. Carol was in there, teaching the kids how to use weapons."

"What?" Riley asked, a shock of surprise causing her voice to raise slightly. "What does that mean?"

"Like, she had this whole thing of knives out, teaching 'em how to kill walkers and stuff, that was around when Patrick left, I thought he just didn't like the thought of killing them, but he dropped dead instead."

"Does anyone else know about this?" Riley further questioned, ignoring the boy's last sentence.

"I mean, I don't know. If you're talking people like Rick and Maggie and Hershel, I'm assuming no. But I could be wrong." Billy shrugged.

"I have to tell Rick." Riley said, beginning to stand up.

"Woah, like tell on Carol?" Billy asked nervously, standing up with her. "I don't know how that'd end up for you, she's a scary lady."

"Well, no, I just think he should know if something like that is going on." The girl explained as she pushed her cell door open. The sound of Beth singing Judith a lullaby began to fill her ears and drown out any other silence left in the open walls of the prison.

Billy sighed from behind her. "Listen, I don't have the same relationship you got with some of these people, so, do what you think is right. But don't mention my name, okay? If you get your ass beat for something, I'm not gettin' mine beat too."

Riley nodded, walking towards the stairs leading downstairs before coming into Beth's line of vision.

"Hey there, kiddo. Where you headed?" She asked the girl, bouncing Judith in her arms. The baby was chewing on her thumb, having calmed down from her previous cries from beforehand.

"Um, just around, I don't really know." Riley shook her head mindlessly, trying to coverup who she was really looking for and why, but breaking down the defensive lining once realizing Beth wouldn't really care enough to question her. "Actually, I was looking for Rick. Do you have any idea where he might be?"

"Uh," Beth looked around them, but beside Michonne grunting as she worked out in a separate cell and Billy who'd just left the cell block, it was empty. "No, maybe he's outside with Daryl. They're burying the people who died today."

"Oh." Riley nodded, eyes casting downwards at the mention of the incident taking place that morning.

"I can't believe it." Beth spoke up suddenly. "All those people dead, and it all happened so fast. I wish we could've stopped it before it happened."

"I know," Riley agreed, lips pressing together as a melancholic attitude began to present itself. "I feel terrible for all those people, it must've been terrifying."

Beth nodded, adjusting Judith on her hip, brushing a few of the baby's hairs back and caressing the skin of her face. Riley could tell what the blonde was thinking, the mothers of the children who were victims in the accident, the children that were victims in it. Riley didn't blame the girl one bit, even thinking of it made her stomach twist.

"Well, good luck." Beth said, drawing Riley's eyes to her own.

"Oh, thanks." The brunette smiled, walking past her and down the stairs to the lower floor. At the bottom, the air seemed cooler, fresher. Or, maybe it was just like that because the absence of other people in her presence took a weight off of her shoulders.

Riley rubbed her hands along her face, a few strands of stray hair getting stuck to her skin. She leaned against the table in the middle of the room, eyes drifting across the surface to see an array of wood pieces and a thing full of string on the counter. Eyes narrowing in confusion, Riley walked closer to the opposite end of the table, finding the culprit sitting on the floor, busy with the task of creating a little arts and crafts project.

"Carl?" Riley watched as the boy turned to look up at her, body tensing once he realized he was alone with her. "What are you doing?"

"Just making something for Patrick's grave." He replied gruffly, no sense of emotion anywhere in his voice. He returned back to his project, tying two pieces of wood together with a long piece of string.

"A cross?" Riley wondered aloud, to which the boy simply nodded. "You do know that Patrick was an atheist, right?"

Carl halted in his movements, looking down at his makeshift cross before sighing and sitting back on his heels. Riley bit her lip, fighting a smug grin off of her face. She walked over a few steps and sat down next to him, squinting her eyes to read a few words carved into the wood.

Rest In Piece Patrick.

Riley could barely make out the sentence written on the cross, Carl's handwriting being too sloppy and tarnished to read- not to mention the misspelling of 'peace', which she decided against making a comment on.

"I know, it's a little hard to make out." Carl said quietly, noticing the struggle Riley took on in trying to read his words. "I haven't been doing as good with my writing recently."

"Haven't been doing as well." Riley corrected softly, to which Carl just scoffed- but not before the girl caught the tiny smile on his face. 

"See what I mean?" The boy said, the weight of defeat dragging his shoulders down slightly.

Riley shook her head, a supportive smile on her face as she picked up the cross and examined it. "It was a nice thing of you to do, I'm sure he would've appreciated it anyway."

"Thanks." Carl nodded, watching as the girl set it back down again. A silence settled for a few seconds, but this one wasn't as uncomfortable as the one they'd encountered earlier that day.

"Um." Riley cleared her throat, debating on whether or not it'd be a good idea to say what she was about to, and coming to the conclusion it probably wasn't, but spoke up anyway. "Billy saw Carol teaching the kids how to use weapons in storytime yesterday."

Carl furrowed his eyebrows as he glanced at her. "Like, teaching them how to kill walkers?"

"I don't know if it was just walkers." Riley said, watching the way his face contorted into that of suspicion. "I'm only telling you because I want to ask if you think it'd be a good idea to tell your dad."

"Oh." Carl said, glancing down at the cross again. "I think we should."

Riley nodded. "I do too, but after today, I mean... I guess Carol kind of has a point. I just think your dad should know about it."

"Yeah, you're right." Carl sighed, picking up the cross and placing it on the table behind them. He stood up, and his arm came out slightly towards Riley instinctively to offer her his hand, but as quickly as he'd put it out he retracted it, playing it off as if he were tapping rhythmically to his leg.

Riley stood up on her own, oblivious to his previous actions and scratched at her neck unsurely. She looked at the cross on the ground, the chestnut color of the smoothened wood and the messy scribbles of writing scratched across it. A strange feeling flourished her nerves, one that reassured her of the fact Carl still had a softer side to him, a side that still allowed him to act like a friend to people, to prove his innocence. Riley felt a sickening hunch in her stomach when she found herself envying the fact Patrick won his way over to that side when she had failed to do so.

"I'll tell my dad." The blue eyed boy spoke up suddenly, drawing Riley's gaze to meet his own halfway. "So it doesn't seem like you were the one that's snitching."

Riley smiled, a grateful wave of relief overpowering her senses at his offer. "Thanks."

Carl nodded, his lips not even bothering to widen for a mere second. He sniffed and brought his hand up to his hair, brushing it out of his eyes a little bit.

Taking that as the boy's hint to end the short lived conversation, Riley cleared her throat slightly to gather his attention. "So, I'll see you later, then?"

Carl glanced up at her, examining the discomfort that stiffened her body and the fake smile that was plastered on her face as she awaited his reply, knowing very well she probably couldn't wait to leave his presence. He nodded, watching as the girl bit the inside of her cheek, eyes casting downwards as she turned and walked away, her image in his sight just a reflection of the past.

"Yeah."

a/n - i have absolutely no idea how a record player works so if i screwed some information up just ignore it please LMAO. also, this chapter was kind of just a filler for next one which will be out soon!! so just ignore how boring this one was i pinky promise next part will be better :) i cherish all of y'all's support sm, if u wanna u can feel free to vote and comment it's much appreciated <33