Mushaboom • Daryl Dixon

15

Rachel

College Applications. Most of the seniors had sent a few out. Myself included. I sent some to the Uni in Athens(which was only 2 hours away) and a couple other state colleges. I also sent some to Louisiana, and North Carolina because why not.

Daryl of course didn't send any. His plan was to always just work in a garage, and hopefully own one someday. We've both talked about leaving town, any city would work for us. He wanted a shop, and I only needed a studio for my photography. We could go anywhere.

My dad was real supportive of Daryl wanting a trade kind of job. We all were, especially since he was pretty innovative naturally. He was a hard worker.

Through all the stresses of the application process, Daryl was there to keep me sane. He was the most supportive person I had in my life. He never had a doubt about me; sometimes I felt he thought too highly of me.. But we made it through the first semester of our final year.

Towards the end of November, Matthew was back to his normal self. Taunting Daryl on the daily. Matthew walked up to us and called Daryl my bitch.. Daryl swung away and planted a good one on his face until Matthew's buddy shoved Daryl down a couple steps. Both Daryl and I, and Matthew's crew split before we could get into any kind of trouble.

They kept at it a couple times before winter break. At one point I had to drag Daryl off of the same kid that shoved him. Daryl left with a swollen cheek.. The other kid- a swollen, bruised face. Luckily Matthew and his friend were both 18, and it happened off of school grounds so no one was officially busted.

Despite a rocky finish to the semester, we made it to Winter break; we were half way there to freedom from those assholes and the school in general. And we had a few fun things planned for ourselves over the break.

Tonight Daryl and I were gonna go to AJ's Diner, then planned to make s'mores back at home with Ricky and his friends. Ricky was the only one who knew about Daryl and I. I told him mostly everything, except for the sleepovers. Daryl was staying over almost every night. He'd never step over his own boundaries he set for himself, but he wouldn't hesitate to keep me close me at night. I never bothered to ask him what his boundaries were, or try taking things further with him. I figured it would all come up in his own time. You couldn't push things onto Daryl, especially intimacy.

I drove over to his house around 5:30 to pick him up. Will left with the guys for a hunting trip so Daryl had the house to himself for the weekend. He still planned on staying over tonight though. He usually would just walk home early in the morning, which bothered me for a while, but he continued to insist that he didn't mind at all. When I got there he was sitting on his porch, cleaning his crossbow. He had been glued to that thing ever since he brought it home. He promised to teach me how to use it during our camp out later this week.

"Hey hawkeye" I teased as I walked up to him.

He snorted, "It's a crossbow. It's different.. Anyway that guys' a pansy." I laughed as a smirk found its way onto his face. Still, he kept his focus on the bow.

"Nah, still Hawkeye.. And he isn't a pansy. How was work?" He shrugged as I sat next to him. He eyes tore away from his crossbow to meet my eyes. After a beat he scrunched his nose, and his eyes were warm as a small smile crept onto his face.

His head fell back onto his bow for a moment before he abruptly stood up. "Alright, imma wash up so we can get goin'." I nodded and followed him inside.
He roughly wiped his hands on the rag and threw it at the garage door before speaking up. "How's your day been?"