Future Ghosts • TWD

29. Repeat Offender.

"Rosie," Carl said, jogging to catch up to the girl. Her eyebrows were furrowed, clearly still frustrated about the whole Randall situation. "Rosie, wait."

"What?" Rosie said, stopping and turning to look at him.

"You met Randall?" Carl asked, stopping next to her.

"Yeah."

"Was he nice?"

Rosie thought about it for a moment, looking down at her shoes. "Yeah, but your dad said it was just a trick," she said, shrugging a little.

"It is a trick. My dad's right," Carl said, raising his eyebrows. Rosie just stared at him, feeling annoyed. She really thought Randall wanted to be her friend. Why did they find that so unbelievable? "I'm going to see him. You wanna come?"

"What? You're gonna get in trouble," Rosie said quickly, shaking her head with wide eyes.

"You did it," Carl said, shrugging.

"Yeah and Daryl... well, he hates me now. You shouldn't," Rosie said, frowning to herself.

"I'm not gonna say anything. I'm just gonna see him," Carl said. He walked past Rosie and started heading towards the shed. Rosie was hot on his tail.

"Carl, you're gonna get in trouble," she said again.

"Just come with me. We won't get in trouble if we don't get caught," Carl insisted, grabbing onto Rosie's wrist and pulling her along with him.

Rosie sighed, feeling conflicted. She wanted to see Randall again, but she didn't want to get in trouble. Daryl had scared her before and she didn't want to find out what would happen if she got caught doing the same thing again. But Carl was right, they wouldn't get in trouble if they didn't get caught, so she gave in and followed Carl to the shed.

"How'd you get in last time?" Carl whispered, crouching down next to the shed with Rosie. Rosie pointed up at the window. "Ok. I'll go first."

Both kids took their turns climbing up through the window and they crouched down on the loft. Carl scooted himself forward a bit and dangled his legs off the side of the loft, making the wood creak. Rosie stood up behind him, looking down at Randall. His face was very bloody and bruised compared to the last time she saw him.

Did Daryl do that?

Randall looked up at the two, having heard them up above, and he smiled widely at them. Rosie found herself smiling back and waved a little at him. "Hey, Rosie," Randall whispered, "who's that?"

"That's-" Rosie began, but Carl quickly hushed her. Rosie looked down at her shoes, feeling frustrated. She just wished that she knew whether or not Randall actually wanted to be her friend. She never really had any friends in school. The only friends she could think of were Coach Smith and Fraser, but one was her baseball coach and the other was her brother, so did that really count?

"That's a sweet hat," Randall whispered, smiling at Carl. Carl narrowed his eyes at him, not letting his guard down. "I'm Randall. What's your name?" Carl still didn't say anything. "The sheriff guy- that your dad? I like him. Yeah, he's a good guy. I can tell. Your mom out here too? You're- you're lucky you still got your family. I lost mine."

"Me too," Rosie mumbled, frowning. Carl jerked his arm back and hit her on the leg, shushing her again.

"I-I don't know what people been saying about me, but I didn't do nothin'. I swear," Randall insisted, directing his words at Carl. Carl got up and started climbing down the ladder, and Rosie followed after him. "Your dad was gonna let me go till his friend started fightin' with him. It got pretty bad. I- I was kinda worried."