Is There Somewhere? |Daryl Dixon

003| head in the clouds

"Okay." Sabrina said nodding. Reluctantly, Daryl handed her her backpack. Almost as if he was worried she'd crumble under the weight of it. She still might honestly.

 A couple months ago, Sabrina had confided into Daryl that her parents hardly ever went to the grocery store anymore. She'd been living off of bread and the various condiments that lingered in her fridge. Her strength wasn't all there, and on his hunting trips Daryl had been trying to catch something extra to give to her. That didn't always work out though. 

"Hey, I'll see you in a bit," Daryl said, taking in the frightened look on Sabrina's face once more. "Alright?" 

"Okay," Sabrina said again. Her fingers closed around the strap of her backpack and she turned away from him without a second glance.  

Daryl made sure she had taken a seat, observing as her red hair wove in and out of desks before finally deciding on one next to the window in the middle of the classroom. He smiled to himself, making sure she was still fine before heading to his own class. 

+

"I can't believe how close it is." Sabrina said as the pair walked back to Daryl's truck that afternoon. The bell had just rang, and the hallways were full of teens just trying to get home. 

The pair of them though, always looking for a reason to not be home were taking their sweet time. They stopped at Daryl's locker, a polaroid of the two of them stuck to the inside with a piece of putty he stole from Mr. Davis' room. Sabrina's eyes lingered on it for just a moment, she remembered that day clearly. It was the first time she and Daryl had gone to the lake alone. She was sitting on top of Daryl's shoulders, red hair cascading down her back like a waterfall. Some stranger had taken it, saying it was a picture perfect moment. Daryl shoved his textbooks inside, before handing Sabrina the jacket she got tired of carrying around during lunch. 

"How close what is?" He asked, slamming the locker door shut and spinning the lock a few times. With a blink, the picture was gone and Sabrina found herself staring at where it just was. 

"Freedom!" Sabrina said, nudging his side. The girl's head was always in the clouds. Maybe that's why Daryl had always stuck by her side even after all of these years. She gave him some sort of hope for a better future. 

With both of their shitty home lives, they didn't have much to look forward to. Daryl needed Sabrina's positive outlook and hope for life just like Sabrina needed Daryl to keep her grounded in reality.

"Alright lady liberty." Daryl said, holding the door open once more as they exited the school. Sabrina looked at her friend and scowled. The boy couldn't help but laugh as she pouted her lips and squinted those green eyes. "Calm down there." 

"I'm serious Dare." Sabrina said, crossing the parking lot. Daryl grabbed her backpack gently to keep her from walking out in front of a car. "In the next four years both you and I can leave, I can get a job next summer to start saving up. When I'm eighteen I can move out. You could too. Hell, we could even move out together! We could get one of those homes down at the trailer park. We can go anywhere we want. Hell, we don't even have to stay in Georgia if we don't want to." 

Daryl had never really thought about it like that. His entire life, he'd been floating around aimlessly. He didn't have a plan for the minute he turned eighteen, like Sabrina. He figured he'd just be following Merle around like he'd always done. But Merle had recently joined the military, and Daryl didn't know when his brother would be back. 

"I s'pose you're right." Daryl said, pulling a cigarette from his front pocket and mimicking his morning routine. Sabrina threw her bag into the bed of the truck, and hopped into the passenger seat. Her feet went up on the dash immediately, as if she owned the thing. 

Daryl supposed that the red head did. That passenger seat would always be reserved for her, no matter what. It was her rightful spot, always would be. Sabrina threw her arms up in the air dramatically and leaned backwards over the seat to put her weight onto him. The boy caught her easily, staring down at the girl. He turned his head to blow the smoke, so as to not get it in her face, then turned back to her. 

"We can do anything we want, nothin' is keepin' us tied here." Sabrina told him. Her voice didn't waver, instead it had that light airy tone that it had when her head was in the clouds. Daryl had grown to love that tone of voice, it was the one that always managed to give him hope. It was the tone of voice she used when she knew she'd get something, no matter what life threw her way. "In four years." 

"In four years." Daryl mimicked, and Sabrina quirked an eyebrow up. 

"So you're in?" She said, as if she couldn't believe that her best friend in the entire world wanted to go along with some half formed plan to leave and never come back. 

"Yeah, I s'pose so." Daryl said, turning over the engine to the truck. "Ain't got nothin' better to do than keep you grounded and humble."