𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐄//𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐋 𝐆𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒¹

.𝟎𝟐𝟐; 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐇 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑.

.022; THE NORTH STAR.
↯

"You can't ignore me forever, Rowen." The girl stared at the road in front of them, she would have rather walked to Richmond instead of sitting in the car with this woman for hours. The group left the hospital three hours ago, Rick said the drive was about eight. "What I did was wrong, I get that, but I'm still your mother, I deserve your respect."

You lost my respect the day you left. The sentence flashed through Rowen's mind, she wanted to say it, but she told herself she would never speak to her mother again, so she stayed silent. Glenn's voice rang through the walkie-talkie on the dashboard, "We're almost outta gas back here, there's a gas station about two miles North, everybody stop there."

When Devin pulled the white car into the small gas station, the sign sitting above the door that was once probably a bright shade of blue was now dull and falling apart, George's gas n' go. As Glenn, Daryl, and Tyresse began to siphon gas from the pumps, Rick announced that they would stay for the night, and leave as soon as the sun rose.

Rowen headed towards the small building, some of the others grabbing their stuff to haul inside. Rowen didn't care about the belongings in the small blue backpack that sat on the floorboards of the old car. She practically ran to the dark interior of the convenience store, while members of the group moved around the few isles, picking up cans of food, drinks, and candy.

Rowen followed suit, grabbing a can of SpaghettiOs, and the two remaining bottles of red Gatorade. The girl saw Carl enter, she watched as he scanned the isles, grabbing a few things on his way through; but instead of taking purchase next to Rick and Judith as she expected, he found her, sitting next the the girl silently.

He carved out the top of a Chef Boyardee can with his knife, grabbing a plastic spoon off of the floor next to him before eating the contents of the can. Rowen stared at her hands for a beat, picking at the skin around her nails, nobody in the small store was speaking, it was weird for the normally talkative group of people. Everyone seemed to be exhausted, sitting next to loved ones while silently eating.

Devin was inside now, Rowen saw the woman enter minutes ago, searching the isles before hiding away behind the checkout counter. Rowen stood, she made her way outside, opening the car door and grabbing her bag. As she made her way back to the building she didn't miss the way Daryl's eyes followed her, or the way that once she entered said building, nearly everyone's eyes were on her.

She liked going unnoticed, but it seemed that every time she started to blend in, every time she began to escape the magnifying glass that loomed over her, something pushed it on top of her once again; turning her right back into a spectacle for people to gawk at.

At the prison she finally fell into a routine, she left for farm duty every morning and her dad left for guard duty, and nobody questioned them. Then the entire community followed the sound of shouts and pleading right to her cell, and watched as her father beat her senseless. The prison fell and she escaped, only to end up at Terminus and be knocked out multiple times in just a few days causing everyone in a mile radius to handle the girl like she was made of glass.

And as if all of that wasn't enough now her mother, who she hadn't seen since her tenth birthday, is somehow alive, and everyone is looking at her again, watching, waiting. For what? Rowen didn't know, maybe for her to snap at the woman, or give in and act like she forgives her, or maybe finally break.

But what nobody in that gas station understands, is that Rowen had been gluing herself back together since she was old enough to breathe. Every little crack in her well-built facade was stitched back up just seconds after it happened.