You had woken up stiff and tired, having spent the night staying up far too late, playing some stupid card game with Louis and Brody. You came to regret it all too quickly the second you started walking, stretching your stiff limbs as you made your way outside to see everyone huddled together. The snow had melted, but frost still lingered in the shadows of the cobble-fenced school. The clouds of chilled breaths were visible to the eye. Making you groan as you went and sat down beside Violet. Just like her, You had always been quiet; people tended to forget that you were there. But you didn't mind at all. You had long brown hair that Brody made you tie up in a braid or bun, milky skin that burnt in the sun and you had honestly forgotten the colour of your eyes, though You suspected they were a deep brown.
You took pride in being sneaky, being a little weird when it came to talking. It had always been that way. You were sent to Ericson's Boarding School for Troubled Youth only because your silence always came with a price to pay. Whether it be stealing from everyone you knew or managing to sneak around your own house and get into things you weren't supposed to, you had always managed to get away. You were just the only possibility of those things going missing, like 500$ off of your father's debit card.
You listened as Marlon started calling out the assigned jobs for the day. He was the leader of the group, kept the place organized and kept people from fighting each other. Ever since losing Violet's girlfriend Minnie the year before, he had been far more strict about safety protocols. No matter how frightening he could be, there was never a time you had ever felt unsafe around him.
You were beginning to feel worried out of your mind when he didn't call you down for your usual job assignment. "Mitch and Y/n, you two can go hunting. Try to come back with something, we barely have any rabbit left for dinner." you felt sick to your stomach when he called your name, glancing over at Mitch who was glaring daggers into Marlon. "Seriously? With her?!" He growled, making you frown more than you already were. Marlon rolled his eyes, "what? You have a problem with her?" you hated that Marlon had to ask him that, since it was painfully obvious that Mitch would make it a clear yes.
Mitch only scowled at you, getting up from his spot at the table and leaving to go and grab one of the bows from the old P.E. shed. "God what is his problem?" Louis sighed dramatically, glancing over at you with a kind smile. "Brighten up Y/n, he's like that with everyone. Totally not a morning person." You nodded and quietly went towards the gate. It didn't matter to you if Mitch was a bit rude when it came to people; he had always been that way ever since you were younger. Just never really with you. Something changed when you all started turning 13 or so, and it was the end of the world to you. It had changed the way all of you interacted with each other, and had somehow irreversibly damaged the friendship you had with Mitch. He had dark brown-hair and beautiful green-eyes that turned bluish during the winter, though you wished you got to see them without him glaring at you. He had olive-skin, so when you were kids he'd always mock your sunburns and insisted that you needed to reapply more than you were. The sudden memory made you smile uncontrollably.
He marched over to you, opening the gate and storming through without even asking if you were ready to go. You had to roll your eyes at his dramatics. Following him begrudgingly, "Mitch." you called out with annoyance. It was when he didn't acknowledge you that you ran up beside him and gave him a look, scoffing. "You're an asshole. You know that?" you snapped, regretting your little outburst the second he stopped to glare at you. It was cold and distant; the kind of gaze he gave to people he disliked. "Want to tell me something I don't know?" He muttered angrily, trying to give you a fair warning, which you ignored. "You're an asshole!" you hissed again, "You obviously don't know it. Because you're always like this." Your hands clenched into fists, his eyes navigating your face before he clicked his tongue and turned away from you. "Whatever. We don't have time for this." With defeat you followed him, "Mitch. Just, slow down." You tried again. The way he ignored you made you want to strangle the daylight out of him. He must have known it hurt your feelings. You were never loud unless you were upset anyways, and you only ever seemed to be loud around him. "Just make this easier for both of us," he started coolly. "Be quiet, like you always are." You felt your lungs shrivel, you couldn't believe the nerve he had, but you also couldn't bring yourself to retaliate. The more noise you guys made would surely attract walkers, and that was the last thing you needed with a whole group of people to feed.
You gave him exactly what he didn't want; You went silent and bit your tongue, busying yourself by scanning through the forest, trying to see anything worth trying to shoot down. Mitch loved making bombs, out of plenty of things, including people. He loved making people snap, even if he wouldn't admit it himself. He walked through the bush ahead with disappointment, hiding it from the eyes of the forest, but not from yours. "Why do you hate me so much..." It was barely a whisper, so quiet you hoped he hadn't heard. But he did. He turned to look at you as if you were stupid, "are you serious?? fuck, can we just do this later? We need to hunt." You nodded in agreement, but your mouth opened too fast for you to stop the words from flying out, "you're just saying that, so you don't have to talk about it."
"Then deal with it." He cut you off, knowing you wouldn't get the last word in. You sighed, going back to paying attention to the clearings again.
