Never Have I Ever Fallen in Love

Chapter 12

"Y'know," a distant voice spoke softy in my ear "you still snore pretty loudly."

I slowly opened my eyes and let them focus on the man next to me.

"Screw you." I mumbled quietly, turning over so I was facing away from him.

He chuckled and nudged me slightly. "I'm kiddin', Scout."  

I didn't reply and instead started straight ahead at the pile of clothes that I noticed last night. I took a deep breath in and scrunched my nose up.

"Daryl...why the fuck does it smell like cannabis in here? Thought you gave up years ago?" I asked, covering my face with both of my arms as sun started shining through a little slit in the door.

"Merle neve' gave up. This was his tent. Couldn't stop him from smoking in it, could I?" he stared straight up at the ceiling and huffed slightly.

"I'm...I'm sorry I mentioned him yesterday...I didn't realize how much you...missed him..."

He turned him head to look at me as I rolled back onto my back and studied a small mud stain on the roof of the tent. "He was the only family I had left. And I could never properl' hate 'im. Even when he made meh..." he stopped abruptly and started biting on his thumb nail.

I decided not to quiz him further and sighed. I dared to look at him and he was still staring up at the mud stain.

"You got any smokes?" I asked him quietly. He stayed where he was for a second then slowly sat up and reached over me to grab his bag from the side of the bed. Because he was on the side of the bed nearest the wall and I was on the other side, he had to stretch right over and brush our chests and torsos together. This simple action made me blush a violent shade of red and he seemed to notice. He smirked as he found his pack of cigarettes and his lighter and stayed where he was for longer than necessary.

"What, you ain't embarrassed of' a lil' body rubbin', are ya?" he winked at me and I blushed more. I could feel the heat radiating off of my cheeks and I'm pretty sure he could to.

"Nah, I was just...ugh..." I stuttered and laughed. "Shut it, asshole." he took a smoke out of the battered pack and put it to his lips to light it.

"I've not said nothin'." he spoke through his cigarette and lit it. He inhaled deeply then passed it to me hesitantly. "...thought ya gave up smokes?" I shrugged taking a deep drag and exhaling slowly.

"Had to. Couldn't afford to keep buying them. Then Hershel wouldn't let me even mention the word cigarette near his daughters. Couldn't make a run into town to pick some up if he wouldn't let me smoke them, could I?" I rolled my eyes and watched at Daryl lit his own smoke up.

We layed in a comfortable silence for a while until Daryl cleared his throat and threw the butt of his smoke to the ground. "Was you 'k las' nigh'? I heard ya mumbling 'bout...'bout Tristen...and I..." I pursed my lips and refused to look at Daryl. I shrugged, took the final drag of my smoke then threw that to the ground. I sat up, ignoring the searing pain in my stomach and stretched.

"Tristen who?" I mumbled and swung my legs over the side of the cot. "I dunno anyone called Tristen..."

"Scout..."

I stood up and slowly started walking towards my combats, noticing my shirt on the floor. On the front of it was a huge muddy foot print. He was talking a bit of sense when he said he had stood on it...

'"Scout, yer can't jus' forge' about yer brotha." I shrugged.

"Jaxon? Kellin? Luca? You saw them last...how are my delightful brothers?" I chuckled and looked towards Daryl.

He was looking at me concerned and he sat up.

"Yer can't blame 'im fer leavin'...Merle did tha same..."

I smiled and shook my head. "I really dunno what you're talking about, Daryl." I sat back down on the cot to tie my laces up. When I had finished, I layed back down next to Daryl and sighed.

"Stomach hurts like hell." I sighed and lightly folded my arms on top of my wound. Daryl grunted and looked down at the nearly empty pack of smokes in his hands.

"Got 4 smokes left...ya wanna do a run later? I know that a bullet wound won't stop you from gettin' yer hands on a king size pack..."

"Yeah. At noon?" He grunted in response and pulled out another cigarette and went through the same routine as before. He handed it to me and I nodded once, got up form the cot once more and made my way towards the tent door.

"Scout...yer still wearin' ma shirt..." I chose to ignore him and carried on walking out of the tent, fighting away the tears that had made their way to my eyes when Daryl had mentioned Tristen.

A memory of that son of a bitch ain't gonna ruin my day...