The Story Behind The Pictures

{5}

He looked at me not surprised at all. I started crying, my first starting of a  relationship was already going to crash. He took my hands. " Daryl I knew" he said smiling. I looked up surprised. "What?" I asked. Drawing back into shutting down mode where I felt at peace. He smiled. " I don't care about parts, I mean I'm gay of course but your still male. So you are male to me" I snapped out of the numbness and anxiety quickly took place.  He was rather close. His hands still holding mine , which were clammy. He looked at me waiting for a response. I sat there for a moment. " can we snuggle..." I asked he nodded. And we went to my small bedroom. My bed took up a third of the room. Being a good sized bed, I guess I'd rather have a bed room more the a huge floored room. It had a lot of my art I had done during the year, and  grey simple bedding. Except for the sheet which was Pokemon...
"sure going to get laid with those" Riley laughed. My whole face turned Crimson. " no way am I sleeping with you!" I screeched. He smiled goofy-like.
I laid down and he laid  down next to me. For a while we just laid a short distance away, still awkward with the rush of whatever was going on with us. Then he scooted closer wrapping his arms around me. "Can I spend the night?" He asked like it was completely normal. I looked at him. Smiled and said sure.
                               ~
Completely forgetting I had to take off my binder to sleep. I nervously laid next to Riley, my boyfriend? Was he even that? We were close Tumblr friends and photography friends, and shared a few moments together that were heavenly to me. But I still felt like this was all sudden, with what happened a few hours ago. I groggily got out of Riley's grasp, padded out to the lowly lit wooden hallway and made it to the bathroom, tossing my binder in the laundry basket and sliding on a pajama shirt. And then heading back to the room , ' this is going to be as awkward as I feel it will be' I thought. I opened the door to see Riley reading my art journal I shared with Veronica , " hey" I said. He looked up at me. Seeing as I had taken off my binder. He smiled, patted a spot next to him. "You into drawing also?" He said surprised. "Not much anymore" I said. "These are hilarious though, you have to publish these!" I blushed by his compliment. " I did those when I was in grade school with my friend-"I said. He looked at me, encouraging a back story "-they're about our harassment during school, and embarrassing moments. We drew different comics showing us defeating our problems in wacky ways" he smiled. "That's amazing" he put the journal on my nightstand "Let's go to bed, my miniature Daryl Dixon."

                               ~
The next morning a loud crash and bang entered the apartment, both
me and Riley surprised by the sound jumped out of bed. Immediately I grabbed the bat under my bed. He raised a suspicious glance at me, I shrugged. "Played baseball in high school" I stated " also burglars are kinda threatening." We opened the door, walked into the living room to see a rather enthusiastic Cici. Of course also Riley was not in a shirt. I shuddered. As C, went up to him with zillions of questions rather than answering me on why the hell she was here in the first place.
"I'm Riley, Daryl's boyfriend, no we didn't sleep with each other that way, 25, and no I do not own any pets" he answered.

"Okay ...now that we got that out of the way can you tell me why your here at nine in the freaking morning" I asked as we sat in the living room. I made us all drinks as we sat there. I introduced C to Riley, and we waited quietly for C's response. "...Dads back in town"
I looked at her. My eyes big and wide. When I was little my mom had two kids, me and C, with a man who stayed only for a week. It broke my mothers heart. She didn't get married to my real dad till they were in the late thirties. " Why the hell would he be in town" I said growing angry. Riley put his hand on my knee although he knew nothing of what was going on. She sighed clueless. "He said something about making things right." She stated. "Wait you still kept his number?" I said my voice level growing louder and more shaky. " Daryl, he's our dad... I have told you before. We need to give him a chance!" She said calmly yet enraged at the same time.When me and C were little we had clue dad would leave us that soon. And mom Had been recently divorced to our current dad. But I'm glad he's back to stay. But our birth father was a rage monster to say the least, always arguing. Then one day he just left. No signal no note, no nothing. " How can you sound like he's done nothing to us? Haven't we already given him a chance? No chances?" I felt tears hit my mesh shorts. " I know this is hard Daryl, it is for me too ... But he wants to see you." I looked at C surprised. Why? Why was I so special now. " give me time to think about this and process it. " I said flatly. " you can have some food, I'll be in my room" I told them. Slapping my bare feet against the shiny dark wooden floor, dad didn't want me. He wanted money. Like all the times he came around. 'Probably for drugs or alcohol like most times' I thought to myself. I sat on my bed. Wrapped myself in a blanket burrito and fell asleep.

~
When I woke up, it was time to head to school. I went to UNT in Denton. Which was a good solid hour away. I changed into a tighter binder and fresh clothes, got my school stuff, stuffed it into my Inuyasha side strap bag and grabbed my laptop from the living room which was vacant. But a note sat on the coffee table.
'Hey, I figured I'd give you some space for a while. I'm always a text or phone call away if you need me. Also C says she loves you and that she's sorry for upsetting you
-R'
I sighed slipped the note in my bag and went to my bug, I called him Herby, from the Lindsey Lohan version I had seen when I was a kid. I put my stuff in the passenger side and got into my seat. "Time for hell" I said.

School was packed with many different characters, some bland that faded into the background scenery, and some who shined like celebrities. And some who came in pj's updating Tumblr on funny things they saw. Personally I liked those people. I made my way to the art room, where I had a lecture. But as I made my way there I was stopped by a tall guy , he seemed familiar.... "Hey! Your Daryl!" He said excited. He pulled out his iPhone and pulled up my blog. I blushed. "Oh hey! Yeah that's me!" I smiled... This popularity thing was growing on me whether I liked it or not.