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Deanna loved to throw parties. Every time the community was due celebration, no matter how small the occasion was, she would host everyone at her place the same night.
Generally, these gatherings served as a break, a time which no one had to worry about surviving. You'd all dress up in your best clothes, do your hair all pretty, and maybe even put on a bit of make-up.
There were always drinks, but you only sometimes drank. After a certain incident a few years back at the CDC, you loosely vowed to never drink again, you wanted to avoid the embarrassment of another hangover for the rest of your life.
You had drunk since, but never overdone it.
~
Deanna was hosting another gathering tonight, and it was going to be a big one.
Recently Alexandria had gained a handful of new faces, none of which you had come to know personally. The most you knew about these arrivals was that they'd lost one of their group recently, days before Rick had brought them in.
There hadn't been new people in the community for a long time, hence why tonight would be a special celebration. There would be extra cake, wine, and music. In itself that was more than enough reason to attend.
~
You always found it a bit awkward to attend these parties. You were only eighteen, and the age gap between you and your friends in a setting like that was more than noticeable. Although you fit in fine normally, you didn't exactly fit in with them at parties, and nowadays there weren't many kids your age to hang around with either.
You had Carl, but he wasn't one for parties and rarely attended. However, you wish he did, these gatherings would be a lot more enjoyable with someone like him involved.
You hadn't been the closest lately, but you'd take what you could get.
Tonight you wanted to have fun, and as long as you weren't timidly stood in the corner of Deanna's living room the whole night you could probably be successful in that goal.
~
You never really "dressed up" for anything. You had no aversion to it, but dressing up did feel a bit weird, and you have always been a bit more of a tomboy. Tonight however, you had found a dress you were actually looking forward to wearing.
The piece of fabric was wine red, with a low v-shaped neckline. It had slim straps and barely covered half-way to your knees. Wearing it you still felt odd. Your shoulder-length hair left your upper half feeling quite bare, to which you added the necklace you always wore; a simple black chain, bearing two gold rings attached, their origins significant to you.
For shoes you had borrowed a pair of basic black heels from Michonne, something simple was all you needed.
You gave yourself a one-over in the mirror, brushing a piece of hair behind your ears, and spraying yourself with a vanilla-scented perfume just one more time.
~
It was quiet to begin, the further down the sun set, the more people poured into the house. You found yourself engaging in small talk with some of your friends, asking Glenn how Maggie was doing at Hilltop with Hershel, catching up with Rosita and Eugene, overall having a good time.
Drinks were being passed around, and before you knew it Glenn had passed one into your hand. It would have been rude to decline, so you drank.
In truth you'd never been that opposed to it, you just knew you weren't the best drunk. Besides, even if you drank tonight, another opportunity wouldn't arise for months, it couldn't become a problem.
Your attention was fairly spread out until one family made their appearance. Him. Carl walked in sporting a brown suit, black tie with a white shirt, and converse. He looked handsome at his worst.
You were still sober enough in thought that when you caught yourself looking him up and down, you were able to stop immediately and scold yourself for it.
~
You and Carl were complicated. The two of you could be described as best friends, but that only being because there was no one else to befriend apart from each other.
Don't get it wrong, both of you had a lot of love for one another, and could rely on the counterpart in a life or death situation, and you were willingly friends despite the conditions.
However things sometimes seemed odd in a different sense.
You hadn't ignored the recent distance he'd taken from you, or the protectiveness he'd display toward you still. A few times you thought you'd seen him gazing at you from the corner of your eye, but he was probably just looking out for you.
The thought had crossed your mind on a few occasions, that maybe he acted this way because he felt something more for you. You put it down to you being stupid, wanting him to feel that way.
But you never really did, at least not as far as you would admit.
~
You concluded that Carl seemed happy enough to stick with his family for now, so you decided not to bother him. Maybe it was best if you too, gave him some distance, even if it were just for tonight.
You stuck with the group you had previously been with for another hour or so, continuing to drink and engage in light conversation.
Around this point, the day was fully sunken into a pitch-black night. It was at this time when the gathering turned into a party. Eugene had set up an iPod to play music through speakers, and the drunken adults would all let loose and begin having fun.
As the couples danced and everyone grew more than just slightly drunk, you decided it wasn't your scene.
You yourself had well surpassed tipsiness, and were finding the noise level to be overstimulating.
~
You began to make your way outside, slithering past all the people you had previously been mingling with.
You felt a cold breeze on your face and body as you stepped out the front door, instantly sending a shiver down your spine. Every minute that went by you felt yourself falling deeper into your drunken state.
For now you could still conduct yourself in such a manner that was almost acceptable, but it was a complete act. Realistically, inside your head you couldn't process the simplest of thoughts.
"Ah, Miss Y/L/N, you're looking fine tonight." You looked up from the ground almost stupidly to see the one and only Spencer Monroe.
He was a complete dick, but admittedly he was quite attractive.
"Spencer, the flattery's nice, but I'm not into you," you replied, knowing exactly what he was after tonight.
"Well I don't think it would hurt to pretend just for one night, don't you? You know how hard it is to pull the ladies around here." He certainly had a charm, but it was easy to see through, even in the state you were in.
You looked him up and down, noticing the black shirt he wore, which only half the buttons were done up on. His appearance was definitely alluring, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing to give in.
Throughout the exchange he had grown closer to you, and you could now even smell the cologne he had on, it smelt quite appealing.
"Well, I guess-" Your sentence was stopped short, by an abrupt voice.
"Come on Y/N, let's go home." You looked up to see the sheriff's son, whom you thought didn't want to be associated with you anymore, gesturing his hand out to you, words brief but not strict.
"She's staying here, she wants to come home with me," Spencer grew annoyed at the cockblock Carl was playing as.
After that you lost track of the words spewing out of both of their mouths. You knew they were arguing, and that it was loud, although not louder than the noise inside.
~
Next thing you knew, Carl had your hand and you were both walking in a direction away from Spencer. You glanced up from the ground to see the irritation on Carl's face, annoyance suited him.
A pang of guilt washed over you, as you realised you were the reason he'd gotten so worked up.
"You know I wasn't actually going to do anything, with him," you were self-aware enough to feel your words slurring.
"Even if you weren't. Do you even know what he would've done to you?" Carl's voice was shallow, filled with concern.
"It's just Spencer, we all know he's a dick." Your response barely related to the previous statement. By now you'd become a drunken mess.
~
As you continued walking, you suddenly became conscious of the fact that you were wearing heels, which caused you to trip over almost immediately.
At this point Carl still had a firm enough grip on your hand to catch you mid-fall.
You were only stuck in an awkward position for a second, before you were both stood back up, catching your breath.
You stared at the boy, he really cared for you, which in this exact moment you found bewildering and attractive.
"What?" He'd noticed your gaze planted upon him.
"You're just really attractive." The words slipped out easier than you'd like to admit.
Carl gave you a slightly disappointed smile before replying, "Tell me that again when you're sober."
Before you could reply, he spoke again. "Oh shit you must be freezing," you hadn't even noticed the shivering which was progressively getting worse, coursing through your body.
However a short second later, you found it hard to distinguish those shivers from the newly arrived butterflies running down your shoulders, on the spots he touched whilst sliding his brown suit jacket over you.
~
You were both quiet for the rest of the walk to Carl's house, your fingers didn't even briefly brisk across each other again, as if they forgot how tight they had been held as one before.
Carl wasn't silent out of anger or embarrassment, but confusion. You had unknowingly spoken a truth that you couldn't even admit to yourself in the most sober of moments.
He was terrified to open his mouth once more in case he said something that made you realise what you had said, or even worse that you didn't mean it.
But of course, you couldn't sense the change in mood.
~
Once Carl had successfully gotten you into the Grimes' house, safe from your own embarrassment and stupidity, he took you up to his room so you could sleep it all off.
You were already trying to climb into his bed once he realised that you were still in that stupid dress, the one which stopped him from talking to you all night, because he was scared of becoming flustered by how beautiful he thought you looked.
"How about you change into something else before going to sleep?" He thought it'd be for your best, even if you were too drunk to notice the uncomfortable fabric on your skin anyways.
Carl turned around to grab you some clothes of his to sleep in, just a pair of shorts and a singlet. After handing them to you, you immediately began to undress.
He was a bit too late to turn back around. He hadn't seen much, but it was enough to fluster him just like he'd been scared about. Luckily for him there was no way you would notice.
"Carl you know you don't have to be like that, I don't have cooties or anything." The chuckle you gave after that made the boy sigh.
"Just, get into bed, you need sleep." He also just needed time to think, but he wouldn't tell you that.
"Alright alright," you got into bed, laying down and making yourself comfortable.
Had of given it another 30 seconds, and you would have been asleep, but you weren't done accidentally causing havoc.
"Carl, I think that we would make a great couple. Like have you ever thought about it? Apart from the fact that you're Rick Grimes' son, every chick here wants to be with you. And then there's me, need I say anymore?"
Carl couldn't muster up any kind of response, he could deal with it at some other time
"We can talk about it in the morning, I think it's a good idea, plus I really like you." If not stopped, you probably would have kept going anyways.
"Goodnight Y/N." Carl walked out of the room, letting out another sigh, bigger than last time.
~
Of course, you woke up with zero recollection of the night before, and after waiting over a week for you to "talk about it in the morning," Carl had to convince himself what happened was real.
But you, you were just confused why he was looking at you funny.