Life I Left Behind (A Daryl Dixon Story)

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Daryl

Twelve Years Old

I counted the days in my head. It had been almost twenty-one days since the fire. Twenty-one days since I heard the sirens wailing in front of my house. Twenty-one days since momma died. I wondered when it was going to get easier. It was still weird to come home from school only to remember she wouldn't be there, standing in front of the kitchen sink scrubbing the dishes, her straw colored hair twisted up into a messy knot on top of her head. I felt an ache radiating out from somewhere deep inside me when I thought about her. I didn't matter anymore how much she and my daddy had argued, how much she had gotten on me for gettin' into too much trouble. The point was she would never ever scold me again for getting my good shoes dirty in the creek. She would never sneak into my room late at night, cigarette in hand, and press her lips to the top of my head while she thought I was asleep. The ache grew.

"You okay, Daryl?" Charlie asked quietly. I had almost forgotten she was there as I glanced across the lunch table at her. The peanut butter and jelly she had pulled from her bag was still sitting in the plastic baggie, untouched. She pushed it towards me. "You should eat somethin'. Have my sandwich."

I shook my head. "I ain't hungry."

She didn't look convinced, but left the sandwich sitting in front of me as she bit into an apple slice. I could tell by the way she looked at me that she felt sad about what had happened. But she was the only person who wasn't walking on eggshells around me. She still teased me, still gave me a hard time and acted like everything was gonna be okay. Even after all those horrible things I said to her the day of the fire. She still wanted to be my friend. I wondered if she knew how important that was.

I reached for the sandwich and took a big bite into it, which caused Charlie to beam. "It's grape jelly. I keep tellin' my momma I hate grape jelly, but she forgets. So better you eat it than waste it." She said with a shrug. "Wanna catch some frogs after school today?"

I nodded. "Yeah, Merle found his old net in the garage and said I could have it. It'll make catchin' 'em a lot easier."

Charlie had opened her mouth the answer, but froze, her eyes zeroed in on something behind me. Her expression quickly turned to one of raw anger, though. "Go away, Tucker. We don't want you here."

I turned around in my seat to see Tucker Wilson and two of his friends standing behind me. I wasn't in the mood to deal with them today. For whatever reason, Tucker had singled me out as his biggest rival at school and was always trying to get a rise out of me so he could knock me around. Normally, Charlie and I just ignored him. Today I felt different, though.

"I don't have to listen to you. You're just a stupid, little girl." He sneered.

"Don't talk to her like that." I shot back at him, my eyes narrowing into a hard glare.

"Why? You gonna make me stop?" Tucker challenged, crossing his skinny chicken arms over his chest. "By the way, how's your dead momma?"

I felt white hot rage suddenly surging through my body, swelling and burning in my veins. I was out of my chair in less than a second, hurtling myself at the other boy. I caught him off guard and barreled him to the ground. I slammed my fist into the side of his face, enjoying the thud of my knuckles against his cheek. I could hear Charlie yelling something in the background, but I didn't stop to listen. I just keep throwing punch after punch. Tucker struggled underneath me and finally managed to throw me off. He rolled over and grabbed the front of my shirt, landing one hit squarely in the center of my face. I felt something crack and the pain that followed was fierce. I could taste the bitter iron flavor of my blood running down my face and over my lips. When I looked up to see why Tucker had stopped, I grinned a huge grin. Charlie had him by the hair and he was howling in pain.

I suddenly felt myself being lifted underneath my armpits by one of the teachers. She pulled me to my feet before prying Charlie off of Tucker and leading us both out of the lunch room. As I looked over my shoulder, I could see red smears of blood all over his face, as well as something else…tears.

"You made him cry, Charlie!" I said, looking at her with wide eyes.

She smiled at me, looking smug. "He said something 'bout your momma. And he hurt you." She sounded proud.

"Quiet! You two are both in serious trouble here. Do you have an idea what you did back there?" The teacher, who I now recognized as the gym teacher, Mrs. Barkly, said. "I'm going to have to call both your homes to start! Then there's probably at least a month's worth of detentions! To say I am disappointed in you both is an understatement!"

"But Tucker started it!" Charlie protested. I nodded in agreement, wiping the blood of my face with my sleeve. "He said somethin' real mean to Daryl."

"I don't doubt it, that's why he's in serious trouble as well!"

Charlie looked relieved to hear this as Mrs. Barkly continued to scold us. My nose was burning with excruciating pain and I was dreading the phone call to my daddy, but that didn't stop me and Charlie from exchanging grins every couple of minutes. We were led to a row of chairs just outside the principal's office and told to sit and not a move an inch. Charlie sat, swinging her legs back and forth. Her feet still didn't touch the floor.

"Do you think my nose is broke?" I asked her.

"Lemme see." She said. I turned my face towards her and she looked closely at my nose, squinting her eyes a little. After a few minutes, she sat back. "No, I don't think so. It's not crooked or anything. Just bleedin' a lot."

"That's good. Would've been kinda cool to have a broken nose though."

"Yeah, then you could walk around for the rest of your life tellin' people you broke it wrestling a grizzly bear or somethin'." Charlie grinned. "

"Or that I broke it in a bungee jumping accident!" I added.

"That would be a good one, too!" She said, nodding in agreement. "Man, my momma and daddy are gonna be so mad."

I shrugged. "Oh well, just tell 'em he was pickin' on you. Anyways, I'm the one who's gonna be in real trouble. I punched him in the face."

"He deserved it. What a jerk."

I smiled a little. There was the sound of approaching footsteps as the nurse suddenly appeared around the corner. She took one look at my face and led me into her office to clean off the blood and patch me up as best she could. Charlie asked if she could watch and trailed into the room after us. Nurse Becky confirmed, much to our dismay, that my nose wasn't broken at all. Just a big gash right between my eyes and a regular, ole nose bleed. She did say, though, that I'd probably be a little black and blue. Charlie commented that I could tell people I got into a sky diving accident for at least a day or two. We exchanged grins. Despite the fact that I knew we were both in some serious trouble, and Charlie would most likely be grounded until she was thirty, I was glad she was sitting there next to me. I knew, without a doubt, that I'd remember forever how she made Tucker Wilson cry that day.