Witchcraft | A Daryl Dixon Love Story

Sweet Child of Mine

"Hey Kenzie, wanna play bumper cars with me?" Carl was nearly yelling from excitement as he ran up to the table I sat at, watching him as he ran throughout the Chuck E Cheese playing as many games as he could. We'd all had a rough day, but Carl seemed to be the worst off. His dad did get shot after all and Lori wouldn't even let him into the hospital room. I get why; it had to be a bloody mess in there, but the kid was worried sick. I was just glad I could help him forget about that for an hour or two.

"Only if you wanna get recked," I teased him, standing up and meeting him half way, "Here, put all your tickets in here so you don't lose them when I wipe the track with you," I gave him a wink as I held out my backpack.

"You're gonna eat those words faster than I ate that pizza," Carl sneered up at me playfully as he dumped his remaining coins and tickets into my backpack to cash in for a prize later, "Now c'mon! Let's go!" He was practically dragging me by the hand at this point.

"Man, I'm gonna have to teach you how to trash talk too, huh?" I laughed, walking faster to keep up with him as he ran to the bumper car arena. He gave the attendant some coins so we could each drive a kart and made his way towards the track. "Alright man, place your bet while you can," I smiled over at him, getting into one of the karts, "What do you want if you win?"

Carl thought hard for a moment before a smirk landed on his face, "If I win, I get ice cream! And I don't have to go to bed until midnight!"

"What about if I win?" I asked playfully, laughing at his enthusiasm.

"If you win... I'll do your laundry this week!" He announced, "But I still get ice cream!"

I shook my head, smiling over at him before the race began, "Hard to say no to that."

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"Kenzie... Kenzie... KENZIE," Daryl's loud voice shook me out of my thoughts. I had been sitting on the steps of the RV thinking about all the fun times I had with Carl recently, just hoping he was okay. I couldn't believe my sweet little nephew had been shot.

"Damn dude, you don't have to yell, I'm right here," I said quietly, rubbing my eyes into focus. Daryl just raised a brow at me before shaking his head.

"You ready to talk now?" He asked, somehow sounding sincere and annoyed at the same time, "Tell me what all that was 'bout with Lori n' that girl back there? Didn't think ye'd be so quick to let yer sister off with some girl in the middle of a forest," he thought aloud, now sounding concerned.

"I tutored Maggie last semester back at university," I said, standing up so he wouldn't have to look down at me when I spoke, "I was taking graduate classes to get my masters degree at the same university she was studying at; I decided to pick up a tutoring position for some extra money, and she's the one I was assigned to," I finished, looking up at him.

Daryl nodded his head, probably a tad embarrassed about his reaction now that he took the time to listen to me, "So you know 'er pretty well then, right," he asked, looking back to me as I nodded.

"We actually hit it off pretty well after her tutoring sessions ended. We started hanging out at her farm; we'd talk and hang out together, I'd help her little sister tend to the horses, and her dad even taught me some useful skills from the medical field," I smiled, thinking back to the times I'd spent with the Greene family during my graduate studies, "I've never been good at making friends, but she was one of the people I just connected with," I drifted off as I looked back towards the forest, then focused back on Daryl, "Kinda like you."