Mushaboom • Daryl Dixon

29

Daryl

We were a couple minutes away from her house when Rachel finally spoke to me. She was quiet, and her voice was soft. She didn't sound confident, like she always did. "I was thinking maybe we could stop at the store? To get food and film.."

I nodded, "Sure." All I wanted was to make her happy.. I felt horrible for the whole situation I put us in. I turned the car around and headed towards the store. When we got there, she began to open the door but hesitated. I frowned at her, "What's wrong?" She looked to me and pressed her lips together, "I forgot about my eye.." she looked into the side view mirror and sighed, "It looks bad Dare.. I don't want to go in."

I nodded and felt guilt wash over again. "Don't worry about it, I'll get everything. Whatcha want for food?"

"Im really feeling chocolate covered pretzels and grapes right now, and you get something for yourself too."

I started biting on my thumb, "Kay, and it's that Portra film right?"

She smiled as if remembering a memory, "Yeah."

"Alright, be back in a bit." I began to climb out of the truck. "Oh, Daryl? Get some cover up?" She knew I'd know what to get, I had to cover up plenty of bruises myself. I nodded, "Got it."

I ended up grabbing grapes, strawberries, Rachel's pretzels, some seeds, a pack of YooHoos and a shit ton of candy, along with her film, cover up, and a pack of smokes.

When I got back to the truck with all the junk food, Rachel's eyes lit up and she grinned at me. There's my girl.

"Your place?" I asked as I started up the truck. Rachel started organizing the snacks, "Yup."

When we got to her house, we both got down and walked to the kitchen. Ricky came walking out of his room and spoke loudly so we could hear him coming from the hall, "Hey, we gotta pick up Marco at 12! Where'd you guys g-"

Ricky came to a stop when we walked into the kitchen and made eye contact with Rachel. His lips parted to speak but he seemed stunted; that's when I remembered. Shit. She forgot to put on the makeup.

"Rachel.." Ricky's eyes widened at the sight of her eye, "What the hell! What happened?!" Ricky walked up to his sister and placed his hands on both sides of her face, checking the bruising.

"Ricky, its fine, was just an accident."

Ricky shook his head; he looked pissed and worried. I kept quiet and shifted my feet, not knowing what to say or if I should say anything.

"No Rache, this doesn't just happen! Wha-" Ricky's eyes darted to me and his stance turned hostile. He looked to Rachel a split second then back to me, "Did he do this?!" Rachel shook her head, her shoulders tensed and she became defensive, "What?! No! It wasn't like that Ricky, he- it wasn't like that."

Ricky's breathing picked up and before I could even get my arms up, he shoved me into the wall, his hands gripped onto my shirt. Ricky wasn't the biggest, he was pretty short and skinny, but the 15 year old had a death grip on me. "You put your fucking hands on my sister?! I already felt like shit about that had happened but seeing Ricky looking up at me the way he did crushed me. I let him yell. I deserved it.