The Walking Dead

Chapter 5

Diamond followed behind Ellis slowly, creeped out by Fred. What normal person watches young girls while they sleep? But Ellis wanted to trust the guy, so of course she wasn't going to disagree. "Its just up here," Fred said. They approached a house with a large shed. "You can sit on the porch for now, while I go get the key to the shed." She joined Ellis on the steps, while Dalton and Sloane sat in the grass and Henry played with Willie Mae.

"What's up with them?" Ellis asked, nodding toward Sloane and Dalton, who appeared to be bickering yet again.

Diamond grimaced. "They're always fighting."

"I don't get that," Ellis said. "Being with someone who doesn't make you happy."

Diamond shrugged. "They got together at a party. They'd always hated each other before, I'm not sure what changed. Disgustingly enough, I think it was hate s --" she broke off with a blush. She didn't want to say something like that in front of him. "Anyways, she was dating this loser. He was a real prick, and he'd just cheated on her. Maybe that set it off. Have any loser ex girlfriends?"

He shook his head, and she sighed. "All of my exes are assholes. All just at me for my money or the fact that I'm a model."

"I can see the model thing," he said casually, making her blush. "But what, were you rich or something?"

She looked down at her clothes and the diamond pendant clasped at her throat. "You can't tell?"

He shrugged. "I don't really notice clothes and material things like that. Not my thing."

"Right. Well, yeah I am -- or maybe was. My dad's a senator and my mom's a jewelry designer. My room was the size of a small house."

"That must've been nice."

She looked down at her hands, suddenly finding her paint-chipped nails very interesting. "Not really. Just very empty." She cleared her throat, not good with serious talk. "But yeah, my exes are dicks. Got any loser ex girlfriends?"

"Nope."

"Any exes at all?"

His blue eyes tightened. "One. Mabel."

Diamond tried to hide her annoyance. "Nice name. What happened?"

"Nothing really," he admitted. "I just moved."

"What?"

"Ed, Mae and I had to move down here. So we split."

"Did you break up?" She tried not to sound too curious -- though she wasn't sure she was succeeding.

"Not... officially."

Diamond clenched her jaw. So what? Was he still in love with this Mabel bitch? She took a deep breath, calming herself. She tried to change the subject. "So where did you live before?"

"Well, the first place I lived was New York." Diamond was shocked. "I lived in the City with my parents until I was five. That was when they were murdered."

"I'm so sorry..."

He waved it off. "After that, I moved in with Uncle Ed and Willie Mae in Tennessee." That explained the accent. "But about a year ago, Ed was having some trouble. So he bought some land and we moved here."

"That's a lot of moving."

"Only when you talk 'bout it like that. I lived in Tennessee for a good eleven years of my life. That's my real home."

Diamond smiled, but before she could say anything, her brother's obnoxious voice rang out. "Where are Sloane and Henry?!"

She got up with a sigh. "Calm down right now -- I can hear the jealousy in your voice."