Sweet and Salty ~ Carl Grimes

Mean - 005

It'd been a couple hours since Brooks' fight with Christopher. Nobody spoke to her. People looked to her with judgement in their eyes. To them, Christopher was the preppy, perfect white boy and Brooks was the violent, black girl raised in the wrong way. To them, she was already ruined. Little did they know that they were the ones ruining her by not helping her.

Brooks was sitting alone, sharpening a stick with her dad's pocket knife when someone walked over and sat next to her. She knew it wasn't Merle, he'd fallen asleep after a long afternoon of drinking. She looked up and saw Cam who offered her a kind smile. She rolled her eyes and looked back down to the stick. She was already on edge, worried that her father and everyone else should've been back hours ago.

"Hey, there." Cam smiled at her.

"Shouldn't you be avoidin' me like everyone else?" She asked, eyeing his metal arm. She couldn't help it, she thought it was cool, and she was curious.

He sighed, sitting on the ground instead of the log. "Probably. But, I don't think you wanted to hit that boy."

Brooks looked to him. "Hell you talkin' about, mister?"

"I saw you. You ain't mean, but your family is. You want your family to like you, right? So, you do what you have to so that they like you." Cam responded.

Brooks scoffed. "You some kinda shrink?"

"Child psychologist." 

"Oh, great. Cause what I need right now is some yahoo tellin' me why I got issues." Brooks shook her head, laughing in judgement. "Don't act like you care anyways. You didn't help me last night, neither. Not that I expected anybody too, but if you cared you would've at least tried."

"Brooks, I was in my tent last night. I was sick. I didn't hear anything, I wasn't aware of anything. Glenn only told me this morning. He feels horrible." Cam admitted, this just caused Brooks to scoff and shake her head. Cam licked his lips, nodding a little. "You're angry?"

"Of course I'm fuckin' angry!" Brooks raised her voice. "Everyone is treatin' me like I'm the bad guy, he went to throw the first punch. Ain't my fault that he damn missed. He's the one who had to be pulled off me, he's the one who was dragged away kickin' and screamin'. Yet, I'm the villain."

Cam nodded, picking up something in her tone. Like she knew more than what she was saying. "Why do you think that is, kiddo?"

She shook her head, sighing heavily. "Look at me, then look at him. He may be tall, and strong, and I'm little with glasses... But, I'll always be the villain."

"Do you think they're angry because you're black? Do you think it's racism?"

Brooks sighed. "I don't know. Maybe. Probably. All I know, is that if that fight went the other way? And I was the one dragged away kickin' and screamin'? That copper would've pulled a gun instead. I've seen the videos, I've heard the stories. I know how shit worked. Hell, I watched my own father be apart of the problem."

Cam nodded. "World has always been a messed up place, Brooks. That's why good people, people like you and me? We gotta stay good, bring a little lightness to it all. Otherwise, we'll be dragged down with it. And, I'd hate to see a sweet soul like you turn salty."

"It's too late for that."

Cam clicked his tongue. "I don't think so, kiddo. You're still young, still got time to turn it around."

Brooks laughed a little. "Not with my father around."

As if on cue, a loud and blaring engine sound started echoing around the hills. "What's that?" Cam asked.