We're In This Together

Chapter 73 - A Break In The Woods

Clementine: How many walkers do you think James will help us get? Fifteen? A hundred? A thousand?

Y/N: Nah, combine them. Fifteen hundred thousand!

She giggles.

Clementine: That's not a number, dingus.

Y/N: Fine. Does 1.5 million suit your taste?

Clementine: It's better.

AJ: Hey guys? Maybe we--

He groans and clutches his stomach.

Y/N: Gunshot wound, eh?

AJ: It feels like someone pinched me on the inside.

Y/N: Yeah, that'll do it to ya. I've been shot too many times.

Clementine: You've only been shot two times.

Y/N: And that's two too many.

Clementine: Dork.

You stopped at a rock that was in the way.

Y/N: Here. We can rest here for a second.

Clementine helps AJ onto the rock.

AJ: Hey, guys? Whenever Willy says all that stuff about Tenn, I get so mad. He was being mean, and Tenn wasn't there to defend himself. I wanted to hurt him. I know that it's not right, but I just keep thinking about it. 

Clementine: It's normal to get mad at everyone. Nothing you can do to help that. But you can never act on those thoughts, okay? I want to hit Y/N, but I don't.

Y/N: You don't? You always hit me.

Clementine: Besides the point, it's good that you want to stand up to your friends. If anyone was disrespecting you or Y/N and you guys weren't there to defend yourself, I'd be mad at them, but it's not worth hurting them because words are just words.

You smiled at her and she smiles back.

AJ: Okay, yeah... I get it. I'm strong. I can control what I do, but not what I think.

Y/N: That's the spirit!

AJ: Like right now... I think I'm mad... at Tenn, too. He run out of cover at the school, and that was really stupid. But he doesn't know the things that we do. And Willy yelled at him instead of helping him... How come the other kids don't know the stuff we do?

Y/N: Well, they never seen what the real world was like. They didn't deal with the stuff we dealt with. They've been behind walls, while we had to fend for ourselves out on the road.

Clementine: But we can teach them. They're smart kids. Someone just has to show them what to do.

AJ: Yeah. I want to make sure Tenn knows how to be safe. We can show them the smart things we know. I think it's weird how different people are.

Y/N: Well, their school was a school for "troubled" youth.

AJ: Troubled means bad, right? So they did bad things? Why?

Clementine: Okay... let's see... sometimes whenever someone does a bad thing, it's because something bad happened to them.

Y/N: Back when you were a baby, we knew a doctor. Doctor Lingard. And he said it was trauma. You actually have some trauma, you know. The thing where people can't walk behind you.

AJ: I don't like my trauma. I want to get it off of me.

Y/N: Heh. I do, too. I don't think I can take anymore punches to that "area".

You looked up and see Clementine glaring at you.

Y/N: Nah, don't do that! If only you understood the pain I get whenever he does that.

She playfully rolls her eyes.

Clementine: I don't think that there's a way to get rid of trauma. It's too deep down inside of you. It's stuck there.

AJ: Really? That really sucks.

Y/N: But hey, you can resist it, just like anger.

AJ: I still like them.

He hops off the rock and you three continued walking. 

AJ: I like Tenn the most, I think. Even if he does do dumb things. I think I see him as my first real friend.

Clementine: Oh yeah? I thought me and Y/N were your first real friends?

AJ: You can't have two first real friends. And besides, you both old!

Clementine: Am not! Maybe Y/N is, but not me.

Y/N: I'm only one year older than you!

AJ: Okay fine, he's my *second* first real friend.

Y/N: You just said you can't have two first real friends.

Clementine: Can we please stop saying "first real friend"?

Y/N: You just said first real friend.

Clementine: I'm going to hit you.

Y/N: Alright, alright! Let's just find his camp, that sound good?

She giggles.

Clementine: Sounds good.

You three continued to walk along the trail, keeping an eye out for James' camp.