➳ Emily and Daryl ➳

Lunch

I didn't want to say it out loud, but I hoped someone would maybe switch seats with me.

Slowly and cautiously, I take a bite of my spaghetti, and when I look up, I meet Daryl's blue eyes.

He's holding a whole other bottle of wine, and is taking swigs out of it repeatedly.

Then, I look back down, but catch a glimpse of Shane looking at me.

I send him a worried look, and he luckily caught on to it.

He shrugs his shoulder to ask 'why', and I point at Adam with my eyes.

"Where's the bathroom?" I force myself to ask Adam, and he points down the hall.

I send Shane a look that says, 'follow me' and I hope he didn't think of it in a dirty way.

As I stand up and head to the bathroom and shut the door, audible footsteps were clear.

I let out a breath of relief as I open the door. "Sha-" A hand covers my mouth and shoves me back into the bathroom.

I hear the door close, and the lights turn on.

Standing in front of me is Adam with a smirk on his face.

"Leave me alone!" I scream, in hope that someone would hear me.

As I try to scream again, Adam pins me against the wall and forcefully kisses my neck, then my lips.

He starts to straddle around with the waistband on my leggings, and starts to pull them down, but I stop him by pushing him off.

"Stop it!" I scream. "Who's gonna protect you?" He whispers in my ear.

"I can protect myself and the people that I care about!" I yell.

He laughs. "Yeah, where's Chloe?" He nibbles on the top of my ear as he still holds me back against the wall.

Finally, after what seems like forever, Shane busts open the door and grabs Adam by the shoulders and yanks him off of me.

I run out the room and stand outside the door, watching the scene.

Shane shoves Adam against the wall and says, "You lay a hand on her again, I'll kill you."

Even though Shane didn't know how I knew Adam, he didn't bother asking or plundering into my past.

As Shane, Adam, and I return to the room full of laughs and talking, we sit back down, but Adam stands beside the microwave.

I take a sip of wine, and finish eating my spaghetti as everyone around me talks.

Shane pours himself a fourth cup of wine, and offers me some, but I quickly refuse.

He shrugs it off and drinks, while I fiddle around in my book bag.

"Someone's ready to get a room." I hear a voice call out. I glance at Rick and he smiles.

"I think we all are; we've had a rough day and I think everyone's exhausted." Lori pitches in.

"I can take y'all to your rooms, if you'd like?" Adam asks.

Rick nods his head, and Adam leads us down another hallway.

"There's a room down the hall that has books, and games, if you get bored. If you shower, go easy on the hot water." Adam says.

Everyone glances at each other with smiles, including me this time.

Without thinking twice, we race into a bedroom and, luckily, no one came in after me.

I had a room all to myself.

The room I was in had two beds, yellow walls with simple pictures, and red carpet.

I sling my book bag off my shoulder and walk into the bathroom and turn the warm water on.

As I wait for it to warm up, I strip off my clothes and shoes, and brush my teeth until my gums were sore.

Finally, I step into the warm, luxurious shower that everyone has been dying to have.

I shave so I feel more cleaner, put shampoo and conditioner in my hair, then rub off the dirt with soap.

As I step out the shower and turn it off, I wrap the towel around my body and exit the bathroom.

I notice a bag on the other bed, along with a crossbow.

I look around, and Daryl is standing in the corner with his legs folded.

"I didn't know someone was in here." I laugh. "I thought I was gonna get this room to myself."

Daryl nods, and awkwardly looks away from me.

"Oh, right, you can take a shower if you want to. It feels grea-" I realize that I only had a white towel wrapped around my body, and I was standing in front of Daryl, basically naked.

I step aside, and let Daryl pass into the bathroom.

Slapping myself on the face softly, I laugh it off and place my book bag on my bed.

With clothes pushed to the side, I realize that I only had leggings and shirts for the summer and winter.

Awkwardly, I knock on the door to the bathroom, and I hear Daryl make an 'mph' sound.

"C-can I borrow one of your shirts?" I ask awkwardly. "Just to sleep in."

After a minute, Daryl says, "Yeah, go ahead." I smile and grab an oversized button down shirt.

I button the shirt and slip on my underwear, and head out to the room with the books.

Obviously, it was empty, due to everyone taking showers and enjoying the wonderful soft beds.

I make my way over to the books and pull out 'The Shy Girl' and read the description on the back.

I jump when I hear the doors slam and I quickly place the book back.

A sigh of relief escapes my lips and I notice that it was only a shirtless Shane with another wine bottle.

"Thanks for earlier." I nod, and he smiles and starts to laugh. "How much have you had to drink?"

He sets the wine bottle on a coffee table and walks over to me and grabs my hand, and without warning, kisses my lips.

"Shane stop!" I push him backwards and head for the door, but he beats me there and shuts it.

I lean agains a pool table as Shane walks closer to me, to where our hips are touching.

"You remember earlier, in the bathroom, how I protected you? That's all I wanna do is protect you." He whispers as he kisses my ear.

"Shane stop! Please!" I beg. He pulls back, but only to start unbuttoning my shirt.

I slap his hand away, only to scratch him with my nails from his mid-arm down to his hand.

He steps away and opens the door, kicking the wall as he exits.