Mercy|TWD¹

chapter twenty: Hey, Cowboy

Later in the day, Mercedes walked into Carl's bedroom to see the Grimes boy laying across his bed. "Hey, Cowboy." She jokingly said, sitting down at the end of the bed.

Carl smiled, sitting up. "Hey, Mercy." He said, gently smacking at her arm.

The Warren girl looked at him confused. "Mercy?" She asked, tilting her head.

Carl nodded. "Is it okay if I call you that?" He asked her.

She slowly nodded. "yeah... Totally." She smiled.

Something caused Carl to look at the window. "Look." He said, nodding at the window.

Mercedes looks over as Enid climbed over the wall. "Chloe said that Enid always goes over the wall. Ron and the others don't know though."

Carl hummed, looking away from the window. "So... Are you going to that thing at Deanna's?"

Mercedes shrugged, laying on her back. "Definitely. Carol's making me."

"Carol?" Carl laughed, moving to lay beside her.

"You haven't heard her whole “we gotta keep our appearances up and we gotta act like we blend in around here.” talk?" Mercedes huffed, rolling her eyes.

"I dunno... But she's acting weird, right?" Carl asked, putting his arm under his head.

Mercedes scoffed. "Yeah. She's nice... Like very nice. It's scary."

"Maybe she had an epiphany." Carl shrugged.

Mercedes was silent for a second and she narrowed her eyes. "That is the most--"

"Smartest thing you've ever heard? Yeah, I know." Carl interrupted her with a proud smile.

"Mmm... No." Mercedes shook her head. "I was gonna say stupidest thing I've ever heard."

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"Ugh." Mercedes whined looking at herself in the mirror. Carol brought her some dresses that she could try on so she had an outfit to wear to Deanna's. "Do I have to wear this?" She asked, looking towards the hallway where Carol stood with her hands on her hips.

Carol nodded. "You look nice." She said as she walked into the bedroom.

"It's itchy." Mercedes complained, crossing her arms.

"We have to keep our appearances up here, Cedes. It's only for a few hours, if you make it through I'll bake you some cookies." Carol bribed, crossing her arms.

Mercedes sighed, tilting her head down. "Fine." She mumbled.

"Mercedes! Come on!" Carl yelled from downstairs.

"I guess I'll see you there." Mercedes told the older woman before she took off downstairs.

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Mercedes carried Judith on her hip as she and the Grimes' and Michelle entered Deanna's house. "Welcome, it's good to see you!" Deanna greeted the four.

She looked at Mercedes and smiled. "Mercedes, good you're here. I need to speak with you when we both have free time. Does that sound okay?"

Mercedes nodded as she handed Judith to Rick. "Yeah, tomorrow maybe?" She asked.

"We'll see." Deanna told her before starting a conversation with Rick.

"Hey, look there's Chloe." Michelle said before grabbing Mercedes and Carl by the arms and pulling them both towards Chloe and the other teenagers.

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"Full house." Mikey said proudly as he threw down his cards.

Ron smirked before showing his cards. "Royal flush."

"Oh, bullshit!" Kane groaned, he then tossed his cards over his head. "Stupid fucking game."

"Language, dumbass." Chloe scolded as she hit her brother in the back of the head with a rolled up comic book.

"Merce?" Carl asked looking over at her.

Mercedes looked down at her cards and shook her head. "I don't even know what we're playing. But it's definitely not go fish."

The others laughed and she soon joined in on the laughing. After a few minutes the group of teens decided to just play go fish. Not only because it was the only card game Mercedes knew but it was also the only card game that Kane was actually good at.

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Later that night Mercedes walked into her house through the back door which led right into the kitchen. And it was just her luck to find Ross leaning on a counter drinking a beer. Clearly it wasn't his first one since there was an empty bottle beside him.

"You shouldn't be doing that." She softly said, dropping her bag down by the laundry room.

Ross scoffed, taking another drink from the bottle. "You ain't my boss." He muttered.

"I never said I was... I'm just worried about you, Ross. I care about you." Mercedes said as she walked a little closer.

"Stop pretending! Everyone that has ever cared about me is dead! Everyone I have ever cared about it dead! You don't care about me." The older boy yelled.

Mercedes finally had enough of Ross's attitude. She was tired of him feeling sorry for himself. "this is about Beth, isn't it?" She asked.

The boy's jaw clenched, hearing Beth's name. "Don't." He mumbles, glaring at the girl.

"No! I can't help that your girlfriend died. I'm sorry, I really am. But her dying doesn't give you the right to be a dick to everyone. We all loved Beth, we all miss her. She was Maggie's sister for crying out loud. We all lost her, not just you, Ross!"

Ross glared at the younger girl. "I don't want to ever see you again. Mercedes, I'm done. You're dead to me."

Mercedes glared back at him, with tears in her eyes. "Go to hell!" She yelled before running out of the kitchen nearly bumping into her dad who had heard all the yelling from his room and got up to see what was going on.

Jesse shook his head and walked on into the kitchen. "that was just wrong, kid." He said and Ross looked over at him.

The boy nodded. "Yeah." He mumbled. He dropped his beer bottle down on the counter before heading down the hall to his room. He mentally kicked himself for being such an ass. Everything inside him told him to go apologize, every single part of him. But of course that's not what he did.

7.9.23
1:34pm
980words
End of chapter

Don't worry all hope for Mercedes and Ross being like siblings again is not lost.