The evening had arrived faster than Elide could even realise. Sighing, she stood in front of her mirror and looked at herself in the reflection. It was not as if she had made herself extra pretty, but she had showered and was now wearing clean clothes. After all, she could not have gone with her blood-stained top.
She was now wearing a black shirt and normal jeans. She left her hair down and looked at the white bandages around her hands with her eyebrows drawn together. Pete, Jessie's husband, was the doctor here and had carefully bandaged her hands, saying that Elide should just take it easy on her hands and wrap bandages around them until they were fully healed.

Finally, Elide decided that she was ready and went downstairs where Carol was already standing in a fresh blue blouse, just wrapping foil around freshly baked pastries. At least that was Elide's guess, since she hadn't gotten a good look at the food underneath.

"Are you ready?" Carol asked, smiling at Elide. The girl looked down at herself and threw her arms in the air. "I think so. Where is everyone?"

Carol shrugged her shoulders. "I wish I knew. As far as I know Rick is still dressing Judith, but where Carl is I don't know," Carol replied.

"I'll go check on him," Elide muttered and ran back upstairs to look for Carl's room. It wasn't as if she was very worried about him now, but she just wanted to make sure everything was all right.

She guessed that his room was the last one in the corridor, so she knocked timidly on that door and put her left ear to it, trying to make out any sounds. But when she couldn't hear any movement in the room, she pushed down the handle and stepped into the almost dark room. At first she saw no one and was about to go out again, confused, when she turned and saw Carl sitting on the bed. He had his back turned to her and was looking at the hat on his lap.

Elide closed the door behind her and walked around the bed, then gently settled down beside Carl. He paid her no attention.

"Is everything all right?"

It remained silent and Elide didn't feel Carl was going to change anything in the next few minutes.

"Carol's waiting for us," she began cautiously, trying to make out any emotion in his face, but he remained stubborn.
"Okay...I understand. Maybe it's just getting to be too much for you, huh? I felt the same way," she sighed and dropped her hands in her lap before turning her head to Carl. "But then Glenn reminded me that we don't have to go through all this alone. You've been with this group longer, with some even from the beginning," she laughed enviously and now turned her whole body to face him, even trying to look a little into Carl's face as she leaned down to him. Sure enough, his bright blue eyes twitched to her, suddenly looking at her with complete hope.

Elide's heart pounded faster and faster against her chest. "What I'm saying, Carl, is that you're never alone and if something's bothering you or you just don't feel like doing anything, I want you to know that I'm here for you." She paused and took a deep breath as she leaned back in.
"Even though we might not really get along."

Elide stood up. "I wish someone had given me that offer back then," she breathed softly and was just starting to leave when Carl stood up jerkily and grabbed her hand to pull her to him. He put his arms around her thin body and hugged her tightly.
Both the teenagers' hearts were beating madly and Elide could no more form a clear thought just like Carl.

Hesitantly, Elide returned the embrace and noticed Carl relax as he also awkwardly broke away. They were still standing close to each other, but Elide remained silent and waited for Carl to speak first.

He still hesitated. Elide could practically see his inner conflict.

"You're right," he breathed nodding and looking through the window into the dark night. "I like this place, but everything I've ever had in my life has been snatched right back from me and it's getting to me."

Elide's heart broke at the sight of him. She knew exactly what he was talking about.

"You're scared," she stated. Carl cringed his  face; he hated the word 'scared'. It made him look weak and Carl wasn't that at all.

"I'm not scared-," he hissed in attack, but Elide interrupted him. "Yes you are, but that's okay and do you know why?" she asked him not really wanting an answer. "Because I'm scared too, Carl. I'm fucking scared that one of you is going to die, that this place isn't going to work, and I'm scared that I'm going to end up all alone again. I don't think I can do this again," she admitted in a lowered voice.

"You're not alone," Carl protested.

"I'm not now, no. But I was for a long time."

Carl knew, of course, that he wasn't the only one who'd had a hard time, but it was too early to lay all the cards on the table. The two of them were friends, but they weren't ready to reveal who they really were. Not yet. And they both knew that.

Carl bowed his head briefly and closed his eyes to collect himself.

Elide took advantage of this opportunity and grabbed the hat on the bed that Carl had simply left there earlier. She looked at it briefly before reaching out her arms and gently setting the hat down on Carl's head.

Surprised by the gesture, he lifted his head and couldn't for the life of him keep the bemused smile from creeping onto his lips.

"We're friends, right?" Elide asked hesitantly.

Carl nodded barely noticeably as his blue eyes sparkled. "Yes, we are."

"Then promise me that from now on we'll always speak openly and come to each other when we're not feeling well," she requested gently, holding out her hand.
Carl stared at Elide's hand and then at her. "I promise," he breathed back and placed his hand in hers. It felt to the two teens as if they had been holding hands for an eternity. His warm hand in her cold one. His icy blue eyes met her dull blue ones.

"I promise you, El, that you will never be alone."

Elide smiled sadly as Carl called her by her nickname too. "Don't make promises you can't keep, Carl."

"I won't."

"Okay."

"Okay."

They both still held her hand tightly and had no intention of letting go of it.