Bleeding Love | Daryl Dixon

Chapter Three.

Age 12:

"Dad stop!" I cried out as he hit me once again. My dad's hand collided with my cheek for the fifth time tonight. I cant even remember why he got so mad at me in the first place, I think it had something to do with me tracking mud into the kitchen from outside. I don't even know why he cared about that, it's not like he cared about having a clean house to begin with. Most of the time if I wanted to the house to be clean i did that myself, heck I would do anything to keep my dad from getting angry with me....I have way too many scars as it is. 

"You worthless girl, you do nothing but mess things up" My dad said slurring his words as he was of course drunk like always. He yanked up his beer bottle from the kitchen counter and took a long swig before throwing it at the wall behind my head, I winced as it crashed loudly against the wall behind my head. My dad walked past me and right before he passes he shoved me backwards into the mess, and i could feel my back getting cut by the broken shards of glass. "Clean it up you little bitch" he growled before falling down into his recliner in the other room. 

Tears came when i tried to sit up and the glass only cut into my hands. I quickly cleaned up my dad's mess, as not to make him angry for it sitting there....I cried silently the whole time, not only from my physical pain, but the emotional scars of the hateful words of my father. I peeked around the wall separating the kitchen and living room and was glad when I saw my dad snoring in front of a re-run of all my children.

I went to the bathroom and locked the door behind me. I tore off my blue t-shirt and tossed it into the clothes basket leaving me only in my white training bra. When I hit puberty last year I caught my father staring at my body a little too intently then I would like. My back was bleeding heavily and had several green shards of broken beer bottle still embedded there...unfortunately for me I couldn't reach them. I sighed knowing what I needed to do, I grabbed some peroxide and some bandages before shutting the light off and heading to my room.

I locked my bedroom door, and slid a chair under the door knob like I did every night. My father's wandering glances had turned a little suspicious and I didn't want him wandering into my bedroom in the middle of the night for one of his "needs". I opened my bedroom window and saw that Daryl's light wasn't on but his window was cracked just like mine was. We left them cracked so the other could crawl through if our houses got too rough. 

Our windows were so close I didn't even need to get to the ground to get to his house, I just stepped one foot over and crawled in through his room. Daryl wasn't in his room, and I sighed tossing my bookbag of stuff on his bed and climbing in, wrapping his black blanket around my body up to my chest. I was still only in my white training bra seeing as my back was still bleeding, and i rolled onto my stomach as not to get blood on Daryl's bed. Daryl wouldn't care, he had seen me in my bra a few times, but I know as we were getting older he would eventually want to know what was underneath. But for now Daryl was just Daryl and this wasn't a big deal.

I clutched Daryl's pillow to my chest and silently cried as my back started to hurt more and more by the second, but Daryl was the only person who could make the pain go away right now. I heard his bedroom door open and the light flick on, and I hid my head under the covers in fear it wasn't Daryl, but his father. "I know your in here Vannah" I heard Daryl's southern voice call out. I peeked my blonde head over the covers and saw Daryl standing there with a sandwich in his hand, a small smile on his lips. 

"How did you know?" I asked softly, crawling out from his bed, my back facing the wall. Daryl shrugged and bit into his sandwich before walking over to me. " Saw your window was open from the kitchen" he told me as he sat beside me on his bed. He pulled out a second sandwich and handed it to me...turkey and mayo, my favorite. "thanks" I said softly and grabbed the sandwich from him, wincing in the process. Daryl stopped eating and set his sandwich on the table beside his bed before looking me over. "What is it this time?" He asked softly looking at the bruises on my face. 

I just pointed to my back and twiddled with the crust of my sandwich, suddenly not hungry. Daryl peeked around to my back and his eyes went wide. He reached out and just barely brushed his fingertips on my back when I moaned in pain. "Can you get the glass out?" I asked through clenched teeth. "I got you, just lay down" he told me, and I obliged by laying down on my stomach and clutching Daryl's pillow once more. I heard Daryl unzipping my bag to get the peroxide and bandages out, he knew that was the only time I brought a bag was if I had a wound that needed tending to.....

"Sorry" Daryl mumbled as he pulled out the final piece of glass that was on my lower back. I felt something cold on my back, and i knew it had to have been the peroxide, followed by something soft as he wrapped my lower back up in the ace bandage i had brought. "All done" He said and i rolled over onto my side before sitting up. "What would i do without you Dare" I said quietly with tears welling in my eyes. Before Daryl came along I had nothing and nobody... no one to comfort me when I got scared or was hurting, no one to make me laugh...I had absolutely nothing, and Im so grateful he moved in next door.

Daryl didn't say anything and just wrapped an arm around my shoulders, he wasn't good with words. "Ill always be there to patch up your battle scars" Daryl said with a chuckle, that's what he always called them "Battle Scars" our war wounds from our home life. I would try and make a joke about them, say he was strong and could handle them but I knew better and could see in his eyes how much he was hurting. 

I grabbed my sandwich I had set down and started to munch on it while Daryl started searching through his drawers. "Here" He said and tossed me something white, it was one of his shirts. I smiled and slipped it over my head. It was long on me since Daryl was quite a bit taller, but it smelled like Daryl and  I smiled when I got a whiff. 

Daryl had crawled over me and laid down on the other side of the bed. Daryl's twin bed was against his wall and it faced the window that lead to my own. "Go to sleep Vannah" Daryl mumbled when his head hit the pillow. I shook my head and sunk down into his bed, my head facing his back. This wasn't a big deal to us, we shared our beds often, Daryl climbed through my window as much as I climbed through his. We were young, we didn't think anything was bad and we never did anything but sleep...I couldn't lie, the best nights I slept where the nights I slept with Daryl...