My Secrets In The Apocalypse

Chapter 12

By the time Riley made it back inside all she could think about was what Glenn had said. She knew she had feelings for Daryl, that much she couldn't deny. She wasn't so naive that she couldn't recognize when she liked someone, but it was just a little crush. She had already decided that she would put those feelings away because nothing could ever happen. She didn't want to let anyone that close to her. But Glenn's words just kept bouncing around her head. He had really made it sound like Daryl was the one who liked her, and she knew that couldn't be true. He barely even knew her. There's no way Daryl could have feelings for her, he was just being nice to her after everything that's happened. Glenn had to be misreading the situation, that's all.

Satisfied with her conclusion that Glenn was just confusing Daryl's kindness for something else, she decided to get back to work on desert. She looked through the kitchen to see what ingredients she could use to bake with. There was the basic stuff like flour, salt, and sugar, but there was no chocolate or fruit, nothing like that. She checked the fridge and there were eggs, and some home made butter. She decided she was going to have to do something different than the typical desert and went looking through the fresh vegetables that had been collected from the garden. She poked through them for a minute before finding two zucchinis.
"Perfect!" she said smiling to herself.
"What's perfect?" Carol's voice came from behind her.
"These." Sheheld up the two zucchinis for Carol to see.
"What are those supposed to be for?" Carol asked.
"Zucchini Cake!" Riley smiled. "There's no chocolate or anything so this is the next best thing." She moved over to the counter and began grabbing her ingredients and set the oven to preheat.
"Zucchini Cake?" Lori chimed in from the other side of the kitchen.
"Yep! It sounds weird but it's really good I promise," Riley said getting to work on peeling and shredding the zucchini.
"If you say so," Lori said skeptically.

Riley finished with the zucchini and began mixing her ingredients. She poured the batter into a pan and put it in the oven to bake, moving on to making the frosting. She decided a simple powdered sugar frosting would do just fine and got to making it. When the frosting was finished she set it aside for when the cake was done.

Dinner was ready and everyone was sitting down to eat and Riley decided to join them until the cake was ready. She sat down with her plate of food and looked around the dining room, no one was talking or even making eye contact. Carol quietly came in and sat down at the table after bringing a plate of food to Daryl. Riley ate her food quietly, sending a silent thanks to the cake timer when it went off. She hurried out of the dining room and away from the painfully awkward atmosphere.
Riley carefully pulled the cake out of the oven and put it in the fridge to cool. Deciding against rejoining the horribly awkward dinner, she decided to busy herself with washing a few dishes until the cake was cooled. After the dishes were done she pulled the cake out of the fridge and frosted it.
"Is the cake finished?" Lori asked from the doorway.
"Yep, just finished it," Riley said pulling out a knife. She cut some slices and put them on plates for whoever might want some. "Wanna be my official taste tester?" she asked handing Lori a slice of cake.
"I guess so." She took a small bite. "Wow that's good," she laughed.
"I told you," Riley said leaning against the counter to eat her own slice of cake.
"You should bring one to Daryl," Lori said with a mischievous grin. Riley almost choked on her cake at the look on Lori's face.
"What?" Riley asked in shock.
"I'm sure he'd love a slice of cake," she said innocently.
"You've been talking to Glenn haven't you?" Riley huffed.
"No, but now I'm interested to know what Glenn has to say," Lori said intrigued.
"Its nothing," Riley said dismissively grabbing a piece of cake for Daryl and leaving the kitchen before Lori started getting crazy ideas like Glenn. She made her way down the hallway to the room Daryl was in, the same room she stayed in last night. She knocked on the door and waited a minute before entering.

"What," he said rudely before turning to look at her.
"Well hi to you too," Riley said sarcastically moving around the bed to sit in the chair.
"What do you want?" he asked grumpily.
She was a little confused by his bad attitude but she thought it might have just been because he was in pain. She set the cake on the table for him.
"I made a cake. Thought you might want some," she said.
"Is that all?" he said quickly.
"Well, yea but-"
"Then why're you still here?" he cut her off.
"What's your problem?" she asked angrily. Pain could only be used as an excuse for so long.
"Your my problem!" he said angrily. "Why are you even still here? Just go!"
Riley's jaw dropped. She got up angrily and stormed out of the room slamming the door behind her. She didn't know what the hell his problem was but she wasn't going to stick around and let him talk to her like that. She stormed out of the house angrily and made her way to her tent. She plopped down on her sleeping bag and sighed angrily. She knew something like this would happen sooner or later, this is exactly why she wasn't letting him get too close. She wasn't going to open herself up to someone just to let them go and stomp on her feelings.