"One other." Aaron said as he sat before us waiting for something, Rick to punch him again, Michonne to tell Rick that this was our only option, Judith to cry, but the look on his face when it was me that reacted said it all, "Is the one other [Y/N]?"
"Daryl." Rick hissed but I just looked at him, I gave him the look of let me do this but I think it translated to back the fuck off.
"So she was right." Aaron answered
"So she is out there right now by herself." I growled, "you really think she can handle them by herself?" I was yelling and close enough so that the others were starting to block him, scared that I might send a fist or arrow flying.
"She has changed, since mother banned her from seeing you all though years ago. She is much happier without you, she made more respectable friends, as mother put it. When she saw you earlier in the week though something inside of her changed, I told her I would go, and that she was tore port back to the community, she drives the car out though everyday in case you all decided to come, so that there's more room for y'all."
As much as I was annoyed by the rich population, Aaron was always an ok guy in my eyes, even when we were teens he would do stuff like this for his sister. I could see the truth in his eyes, but I wasn't sure if she was dead, and he was just spinning an old tale as truth.
"Daryl do you know him?" Rick asked in a growl, our eyes met and his face softened a bit, did I have the look of pain on my face, because I felt like my heart was breaking as she slipped back into my head.
"So for the group project I have assigned you all partners, Alice you will be working with Russ, Fred you will be working with Alex, Hillary you will be working with William, Daryl you will be working with [Y/N], Devon you will..." The voice of Mrs. Rogers slowly faded out though as I realized who my partner was, stuck up miss [Y/N] Marquand, whose brother was the gayest boy in school and mother was as stuck up as her. The family went to church every Sunday, ate at the five star restaurants and had a very luxurious house.
"Mr. Dixon." The Mrs. Rogers shouted as I snapped back to reality, "I said please go sit with Miss Marquand."
"Yes ma'am I muttered as I walked over three desks and found myself sitting next to [Y/N], the smell of strawberries hitting my nose as soon as I sat down.
"Hi." She said with a warm smile, I just lifted an eyebrow and stared at her as her smile fell, "so I was think we would maybe due the project on the story of..."
"Do whatever you like."
"Well Daryl this is your..."
"Listen I already know you don't wanna work with me, so just do whatever you like."
"Now no one said that, and how do you know I don't want to work with you?"
"Because unlike all your friends I'm not a spoiled brat."
"For your information Mr. Dixon, the people I associate with her at school are not my friends, they are the people that just think if they hang around me, they will seem rich. Outside of My brother I have no real friends, so now that that is out of the way, what book do you think we should do for this project." I took one look at her and saw the tears threaten to fall, maybe her confession was true, I just looked into her eyes and muttered, "I don't read, especially not chick books."
"Well Mr. Dixon, I'll tell ya what, I'll lend you my copy of this and I want you to check in with me on Monday, tell me how far you got."
"I told you I'm not reading some chick books." When I looked down however her hand was sliding a book on my desk, when she removed her hand though I came face to face with the book, "Hunting's Best Short Stories."
"I was hoping you would have heard of the book, so I was going to say let do this."
"You hunt?" I looked at her, trying to envision a rich girl with a gun, gutting a deer.
"No, however I would like to." She looked at me, with kindness in her eyes. Maybe she wasn't as stuck up as I thought.
"Aaron, how do I know she is really alive? How can you..."
"In the photos, the last one in the stack she wrote a message on the back for you, she said if you saw it you would know.
"Rick where are the pictures?" I demanded as I stepped forward to take the stack from him. I flipped theouthe stack and on the last picture I saw her face, smiling at the lens as her eyes gleamed like they used to. I remembered the gleam, from every time I saw them as we grew up. Her face always wore that smile too, even when we....
I flipped it over and saw something on the back of it, her fancy neat handwriting scribbled across the back.
"Ok now you bring it eye level, look through the scope, locate the thing you wanna shoot and then breathe, and count to three. And when you reach three pull the trigger."
"Daryl?" Rick asked
"We gotta go."
"Daryl we don't even know."
"Read the back of this." I handed over the picture and watched as Rick flipped to the back and read, "And when you reach three pull the trigger, maple tree, 145 yards away, deep center."
"What does that mean?" Carl asked, as he bounced Judith in his arms.
"First time I took [y/N] huntin, I told her that right before she shot the rifle I brought with us, that's what she shot with her first shot, she never told a soul, knew if she did she get a shit storm."
"Well you can argue that we got that anyway." Aaron muttered.
"What happened to her?" Carl asked
"Where have you been all week, I shot like eight coons the other day and ya missed it." Senior year of high school, I was set to be the first Dixion to graduate, and it was only the beginning of the fun, which would also be ending very soon.
"That's why I'm calling Daryl, see Ma and Pops, well they didn't like me hanging round ya, so they pack my stuff up and moved us all to DC. I'm just callin to say goodbye and don't call because they don't even know I'm callin ya."
"But your my best friend, they can't just take ya like that!"
"Daryl..."
"No don't Daryl me! I thought you were never gonna leave, and just like that you are gone."
I hung the phone up, she didn't get to just leave me like that, I dropped out the very next day, she was my only from in that hellhole and always kept me motivated to try my hardest, without her there was no point.
Before I could even think of an answer Aaron answered, "you must understand that Mr. Dixion and I, we come from different lifestyles and my parent, God bless their souls, didn't sit well with the fact that their daughter had befriended what they called, trailer trash."
"Rick we gotta go, at least let's go see the cars."
"Fine Daryl but if she ain't there we are going to keep going."
"I hear ya loud and clear boss." I said as I grabbed my crossbow, and looked at Aaron, "lead the way."
