The Road to Nowhere

Chapter Twenty: Stars

Romance( David + Grace )
in this chapter
Be warned Lol
Song for this chapter is
Yellow by Coldplay

We soon come to an open area near a cliff as the sun slowly sets. This is where we'll sleep for the night.

While everyone sets up camp, Henry patches up the cut on my head. It stings a little bit when he cleans it, but other than that it was fine. Henry puts a small bandage on it and says I'm all set.

"Thanks, Henry", I tell him. He gives me a nod and sets up his sleeping bag. Before I know it, the sun is just about gone. Most of the group sits by the fire, resting after a long day.
I see Anna sitting on the hood of a car by the cliff, so I go join her for a bit. Anna being an adult and all, she's starting to become a friend to me.

Anna rests her hands on the metallic surface of the car, while her shoes barely touch the ground. I walk over and sit next to her.
"Hey", I say to her, "You okay?"
She has this look of guilt across her face.

She shakes her head.

"You know, Anna", I start, "I'm sorry about all those things I said about you, after Jesse got shot. I had no right to judge or criticize you."

Anna looks over at me and says, "I killed my sister."

I stay silent and stare at her, but then I ask, "Was she a-"
"Walker?", Anna says, "Yeah."

"How'd it happen?", I ask.

Anna breathes deeply and says, "Remember how I said I was with a different group before you guys? Well, after a while they all died, so it was just me and my sister left. We holed up in an old train depot, and hoped to survive. She was younger than me, so I had to be the one to support us. One day, I went out by myself to look for supplies when she was sick. But when I got back..."

Anna trails off and starts to sob.
"Our barricade was breached...and after I killed all of the walkers inside, I found her. But...she wasn't exactly alive anymore, so...I had to put a knife through my sister's skull."

Anna wipes a few tears off her cheek.

I tell her, "I know what it's like to lose a sibling."
She looks at me and asks, "Your brother, right?"

I nod. Anna sniffs and says, "Well, you know what I think?"
I listen to what Anna has to say.

"Pain makes us who we are. It shapes us into the people we are now. That's why we always have to remember our loved ones. The pain their deaths brought us makes us who we are."

Matt then calls us over for dinner. It wasn't really dinner, it was just the last of our food. Thomas got a little more since he's a kid. Charlie didn't even touch his food. He lost two of his friends today so I can't blame him. As the sky becomes dark, the stars begin to come out.

Thomas is especially interested in them, and points at them in excitement.

As I walk back to the car near the cliff, I see Grace laying on the roof of the car, staring up at the starry night sky. I walk over and climb onto the roof of the car, and I lay down beside her. Her golden brown hair is behind her head.

She looks over at me and smiles. I smile back. "They're beautiful, aren't they?", Grace says, "The stars."
"Yeah", I tell her.
"David?"
"Yeah?"
"I've been thinking, do you ever dream of being in a beautiful, safe place?"
Grace turns her head and looks straight into my eyes, waiting for an answer.

"Sometimes", I tell her.
She looks back up at the sky, sighs and says, "I just want to be somewhere like that. Where we don't have to fight to survive anymore. Where we can just...live."

Together, Grace and I continue to stare at the summer night sky.

The stars are beautiful.

Just like Grace.

I slowly reach my hand for hers. Right when I'm about to, Grace grabs my hand, and holds it between us.

I turn my head to the left and I look into her glistening eyes, and she's smiling. Does she really feel the same way? Grace and I, her right hand holding my left hand, look at the stars some more before she sits up and says, "Oh! I almost forgot!"

She climbs down the car and runs off to get something from her backpack, then she runs back.

Once she's back on the car, she hides an object in her hand.
"What is is?", I ask her.
"Remember back in Woodford when I was up late working on something?"
"Yeah", I answer.

"Well", Grace says, "I was working on this."
Grace opens her hand and shows me a necklace with a silver object in the front: a hawk.

It looks just like the one I saw at Anthony's grave.

The hawk kind of looks like it's flying. It's beak is open as if it were screeching.
Grace says, "Happy birthday."

I look up from the necklace and stare at her. How did she remember? How did I not remember my own birthday? So what that makes me, 15 years old?

Grace says, "I stayed up late because I was trying to get all the dried mud out. After I found it I dropped it in a mud puddle."

"I love it", I tell her.

She smiles that beautiful smile of hers. Then she does something completely unexpected.

She kisses me.

On the lips.

It lasts a few seconds. Grace then removes her lips from mine and smiles once more. I smile back. I kissed a girl.

After a few more minutes, we slide down the car and head to our sleeping bags. While I'm trying to sleep, all I think about is Grace and her beautiful smile.

Omg I'm so corny

David's hawk necklace:
Hawk by mreNVy1220 on @DeviantArt
http://mrenvy1220.deviantart.com/art/Hawk-526086570