Remember Me (Daryl Dixon)

Chapter Fourteen: Told You So

The next day, we buried Dale. We buried him next to everyone else. Everyone else that we had loved so dearly.
It was my request that he was buried with the family. Maggie suggested burning him, but we bury our own.
Rick came up with that. I was happy that I remembered it when it came time to lay him to rest.

The funeral was sad but short. The only people to speak were Rick and myself. Everybody else was too shocked and upset to speak. I don't understand why they were so upset now. They were the ones putting him down yesterday. I was the only one to stand by his side, and I wasn't about to let them forget that. I spoke before Rick, keeping it brief. We all placed a rock on his grave. The only sound from the others were whimpers and sniffling. Except Daryl. Daryl didn't make a sound or even show any emotion.

Then again, that's what he was best at. I hadn't spoken to him since our little talk. I planned to keep it that way. I still wasn't over everyone conspiring against Dale and myself. I ignored everyone, including Maggie and dad. I didn't ignore Beth. She was too scared to speak and I understood that. With all of the meds in her system, she wasn't all there. I couldn't blame her for not speaking up. Plus, I kind of needed her. I also needed to keep an eye on her.

When I placed the rock on Dale's grave, I looked over at the others. They were all looking at me with guilty faces. They should feel guilty. They should feel like shit. "I don't wanna say I told you so, but..."

That was all I said. It got a reaction out of Andrea, causing her to sob even harder. I was still fucking pissed. I could've said something even worse, but I decided against it. Rick gave his speech and then it was over. Just like that, it was all over. Dale was now just a memory, but I would always remember him. Or so I thought I would,
When we all arrived at the farm, I immediately ran into the kitchen to grab some coffee.

I hadn't slept at all. Beth stayed in my room with me and we just talked the entire night. Not about what happened, but about the good old days. The days before the apocalypse was even around. The days when we didn't have to worry about risking our lives by stepping outside. Those were the days I wanted to go back to. Little did I know, they would eventually be all I knew. But that's beside the point. When I was finished getting my coffee, I heard someone else enter the kitchen. Everybody was inside, but only one person came in there with me. The one person that I did not want to see at that moment. Daryl.

When I spun around and saw him, I frowned. I wanna say he frowned as well, but Daryl was always frowning.
That was just his face. When I saw him, I didn't know what to say. I wanted to be rude, but I just couldn't.
"Coffee?" I asked, turning back around to the counter. I didn't want to look at him. Looking at him just made me upset.
Looking at anyone in general made me rather upset. "Sure," he replied, sitting at the table.

Oh, just make yourself at home. It's not like I came in here to be alone or anything like that. Without a word, I poured him a cup and began heading for the door. Of course his voice stopped me.

"You okay?" he asked, messing with the cup in front of him. Was I okay? What kind of question was that?
I was the first person to see Dale out in that field. The image still haunted me, of course I wasn't okay.
"Sure. Are you okay?" I asked, taking a sip from the steaming cup in my hand. It burned me a little, but I tried not to flinch. Flinching would've been pretty embarrassing.

"Why wouldn't I be?"
Just the fact that he had no reason to be upset pissed me off. Oh, I forgot. You don't give a shit about anyone or anything. I scoffed at him and faked a smile. "Oh, right. I forgot that you don't feel anything."

Before he could utter another word, I walked out of the room and out of the house. I didn't want to speak to him. I didn't want to speak to anybody. Maggie knew something was wrong when I stormed out of the house, but she didn't come after me. When she saw Daryl coming after me, she understood. This was between me and him. It wasn't between anybody else. Although I still don't understand why he came after me. I guess he just couldn't take a hint to save his life.

I sat my coffee on the porch and began storming towards the road. When I heard the door burst open and then slam, I groaned loudly. Why couldn't he just leave me alone? We both made it pretty clear that we wanted to avoid each other. Daryl felt nothing at all. He apparently had no feelings and I didn't want a part of that.

"Stop!" Daryl yelled, following me down the driveway. I ignored him and kept going. If he thought he had the power to tell me what to do, he was sadly mistaken. Nobody told me what to do.

I knew that he was approaching me and I frowned. "Elizabeth, stop," he shouted as he grabbed my arm and spun me around. Once again, I groaned loudly and spun around to face him. I made sure to break his contact away from my arm first.
"What do you want from me?" I screamed, backing away from him. "Tell me, what do you want?"

I knew that the others in the house could hear us. Dad would get suspicious after this little episode. He would surely figure out that there was more to me and Daryl. "I want you to stop actin' like a brat. Stop acting like you ain't got any sense."
I almost laughed at his words. Me? A brat? Okay, I was kind of acting like a brat. But he was acting like a dick.

"Me? You want to talk about me?" I demanded, scoffing at his words.
"Yeah, I wanna talk about you," he replied with his cocky tone. Ah, yes. Daryl would always be the one guy that could get under my skin. He could piss me off with just a few words, but I probably wasn't the only one.

"How about you? Huh? What the fuck is wrong with you?" I demanded, getting closer to him now. "Do you feel anything?"
When he didn't reply, I kept going. I could tell that I was getting under that rough skin of his. "No, of course you don't. You're Daryl Dixon. I know your priorities. You only worry about you," I took in a breath before continuing. "And you know, maybe that isn't a bad thing. But you can't even see when somebody cares about you."

Daryl shook his head and scoffed, "Nuh-uh. Don't start this, this ain't about that. This is all about me not backing you up with Dale."

"No, it's not. I don't understand you. You've avoided me for days. You haven't looked at me, you haven't talked to me. I'm sorry I kissed you, okay? I'm sorry I touched you," I shouted at him. "What do you want me to say?"
"I don't want you to say nothing," Daryl replied, staring into my face. "Because you ain't wrong."
Wait, what? Did Daryl Dixon just admit that I was right and he was wrong? I must've been dreaming. There's no way he would admit that sober.

"Wait, I'm right?" I asked with surprise in my voice. He nodded his head and spoke again after a moment, "If it'll shut you up, yeah."

Never mind. He was still being an asshole. I shouldn't have even believed what he said. Or maybe he did believe I was right but didn't want to admit it. That would make sense.

"You're such an asshole. Just leave me alone," I replied before turning to walk away. "Hey, we ain't finished!" He shouted as he grabbed my arm again. How were we not finished? I didn't want to speak to him. He couldn't be nice for even a second. He couldn't even show emotion for even a second.

"No, just let me go!" I shouted, getting away from him again.
"Hey! What's going on out there?" I heard Maggie's voice echo from the porch. I could see that dad was with her, so I decided not to hit Daryl. Dad was totally onto us now.

"Nothing!" I shouted to her before looking back at Daryl. "Nothing at all," I said so only we could hear it.
With that, I brushed past him and headed towards the house. I made sure to noticeably bump into his shoulder.
I wanted him to know how much I loathed him at that moment.