"Can you tell me the story again?"
Daryl closed his eyes briefly letting out a sigh before looking back at the girl, "Its the same ya heard thousand times already."
But the little girl just smiled, "I know, just tell it again please." she turned looking at the man expectly as they both sat on the steps of the porch. Daryl looked to her and couldn't help but give, she had always had the power to make him soft without even trying.
"It was before all of this," Daryl said gesturig to the community around him, "I was younger too, working one of my jobs."
Daryl hustled around the counter at the diner, pen in his front chest pocket awaiting the order he'd taken, he wasn't supposed to be dealing with customers but fucking Liam called out sick at the last minute. The dinner was Daryl's part-time job, he usually helped take in the shipments of food, or fixed things around the place, bused down tables, it wasn't official just money under the table that helped him get by.
An older guy named Dan owned the place, but he was the cook, so that left Daryl in charge of customers, but Daryl wasn't much of a people person.
The diner was slammed, he was about ready to tell Dan to fuck off and that he was done when the older man told him hed pay him 5 more bucks an hour, he was desperate for the help and Daryl wasn't dumb enough to turn more money down, so he kept his mouth shut.
Why the diner was so busy? Daryl had no clue, it was a Saturday morning and they were located in the middle of Georgia, the place was small and old, it was nothing special.
The hanging bell chimed at the front giving a heads up that another customer had walked in. Daryl, was sure he looked like an idiot, scrambling back and forth between, tables, orders, and people.
He turned around just in time to come face to face with a girl, at the time Daryl was 19 , the girl who faced him looked around the same age, if not a little younger 18 or 17 at youngest.
"I need coffee." The girl said.
Daryl scoffed continuing to shuffle around grabbing plates,"Kinda busy here, got a line of customers, go wait." he grunted. Dan said he'd have to deal with customers, never said he'd have to be polite.
The girl let out a chuckle that held little to no amusement, "Here's the thing diner man, I see the customers, but I got about 5 minutes before my parents come in here and drag me out for taking too long." She told. Daryl ignored her and moved on his way to table 7 with there breakfast order, but that didn't stop her from following. He could barley contain his eyeroll. "Look, please, my parents are forcing me on a 3 day trip of college tours, this is day one and if I have to go through it without a caffeine buzz I will most likely kill my self before we get to our first stop. You wouldn't want my death on your conscience for not giving me coffee would you?"
Poor thing, having parents forcing her to look into an education. Dary thought sarcastically, he turned to her with narrowed eyes, "Look girl I don't give a shit, wait or get out." He'd rather the latter, she was starting to annoy him with the way she rambled on.
His sharper tone didn't seem to have effect on the girl as she huffed. "When's your birthday?" she asked continuing to follow him around.
What the hell was wrong with this girl?
"I ain't telling you my damn birthday," he growled, "And stop following me around." But the girl didn't stop, infact she did the opposite. She talked, and bothered, and followed and annoyed doing everything y hated till he snapped. "January 17th now will ya shut the hell up."
The girl shot him a victorious grin, before walking away. Daryl almost felt happy but the feeling quickly faded when she returned. Oh dear lord.
She had a news paper in her hand and walked back up to him, snatching the pen from his front breast pocket, "What the hell?" Daryl said angrily.
However she just ignored him, he stopped for a moment letting his curiosity take over as he watched her. She flipped through the paper before using the pen to scribble something and then ripping out the section of the page she had scribbled on. She folded it in half and handed it to the man, slipping the pen back in his pocket.
Daryl opened the folded paper with narrowed eyes. It was the daily horiscope... well a piece of it at least, the Capricorn section. But where the neatly printed horiscope was written her writing was sratched on top of it in black ink. She had written over it.
'You will meet an annoying girl, give her coffee and she'll go away.'
He looked up at her and growled, "Fine." she smiled again, why the hell did she smile so much? So he did, he gave her a cup of coffee which she thanked him for and then told her how much it'd be. $2.50, she handed him a 20. She tapped the small piece of paper with his horiscope that he had set down on the counter, "You should keep it in your wallet, might bring you luck one day."
Then she turned to leave, "Yer change lady." Daryl called.
"Consider it compensation for talking your ears off." she told him before walking out the door. Daryl glanced at the piece of paper on the counter, he grabbed it quickly shoving it into his back pocket before getting back to work.
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It had been a week since the girl came into the diner, and Daryl found himself not being able to get her out of his head. He still had that tiny piece of news paper now tucked into his wallet. He was working a late shift at the diner, Liam was back and Dan was cooking in the kitchen. Things had finally calmed down and Daryl was back to the old stuff, no more dealing with customers.
He didn't look up right away as the bell rang, in the middle of wiping down a table. "I need coffee." he heard that famier voice say. The one he hadn't been able to get out of his mind for days. Liam moved around the counter getting the girl her drink, "Ill take a piece of pie too." she told him.
"You want a table?"
Her eyes flicked over to Daryl for a brief second, "Yeah I'm staying"
"Sit anywhere you'd like then."
At liams words she walked over to one of the seats near the windows, giving Daryl enough time to actually take a good look at her. He knew she was pretty before but now that he actually had time to take her in she was a total knockout. She had lone brown hair that fell in waves down her back, and her eyes were a dark shade of brown that glimmered when the light hit her just right. She had long legs and a nice figure, she was damn near perfect.
The table she chose to sit at gave him an excuse to speak, "That one ain't clean." he informed her as if it wasn't obvious.
"I know," she said, "Thats why I chose it," she continued as Daryl walked over and she smiled, "Otherwise what reason would you have to come over here."
Daryl just scoffed at her words, if he didn't know any better he'd say she was flirting, but girls like that didn't flirt with guys like him. Liam came over with her pie and coffee and set it on the table for her, she thanked him and then the two were alone again.
"How long you been working here?" She asked.
"Bout four months." he answered getting a nod, "Bout you? Ya live round here, work?" Daryl was suddenly possessed with the need to talk to her, usually he didn't like talking to anyone.
"I live around here, yes, working, no." she sighed, "My parents claim I'm too young to work, I should be focused on my studies." she continued with a scoff, "It's a bunch of bullshit."
"You family caring bout you and school bullshit?" Daryl asked in disbelief, at least her parents gave a shit. His parents sure as hell didn't, he'd left home right after he turned 18 and father didn't even blink.
She let out a bitter chuckle, "Oh my parents don't care they're just worried that maybe their precious daughter would get a job, a job she liked and a job that possibly paid well and gave opportunity and they know me enough to know if that happened I would have thrown my college catolouges in the garbage a long time ago. And god forbid I don't go to school, it'd simply be too embarrassing for them." She shook her head mockingly, "Thats would just be disappointing," she said condescendingly, "They would rather I go to school, get a degree and settle for a mediocre job and a be married to a husband who fit there standards even if I didn't like him, even if I was unhappy as long as I don't be a disgrace to the family name." She looked up at Daryl who had been watching her intently suddley feeling embarrassment wash over her, clearing her throat awkwardly and shifting her gaze, "Sorry, over share."
"Don't worry bout it" Daryl said waving it off "Family's are shit anyway."
The two spent the rest of the night talking as very few people came in and out of the dinner, little did they know that night changed everything.
The oddly pair soon became fast friends.
After years of knowing each other and secretly harboring feelings the two were a couple, never did Daryl think on the day she walked in annoying as ever that he would like her, be with her.
And even years later the two remained together, even through the trouble with her parents and many a fights, they somehow always found their way back to each other.
After many years of friendship and 4 years years of being together the two had a good life. They lived together in a small apartment with each other and that was all they needed.
One night the couple laid in bed. Kennedy was curled into Daryls side, Daryl was half way to sleep when he heard her speak.
"Do you remember when we met?" She asked with a small smile on her lips as she thought back to the memory.
Daryl opened his eyes and looked at her and snorted, "Yeah, a real pain, 'give her coffee and she'll go away' my ass." He said huffing in fake disappointment.
"But she never went away."
"Nah. She told me to keep it," he said reaching for his wallet which sat on the night stand, "Said it might bring me luck." He opened his wallet and pulled out a small pierce of paper handing it to the girl beside him.
'You will meet an annoying girl, give her coffee and she'll go away.'
The paper read, in Kennedy's chicken scratch, hurried hand writing. "You kept it?" The woman questioned in nothing but a whisper completely consumed in shock. It had been over a decade since then.
"Ya told me to, for a while I forgot it was there, then ya walked back into the diner, we talked, figured I should keep it longer so I did." Kennedy didn't relize their were tears falling from her eyes till the man was wiping them away, "What's wrong?" He asked unsure why she was crying.
"I just, I can't believe you-" she stuttered not knowing how to find the right words. She composed herself before she spoke."Well, I guess it did bring luck considering..." she said pausing, the man looked at her with furrowed eyebrows and confusion. She looked up meeting his impossibly blue eyes as she said,
"I'm pregnant."
"So I'm lucky?" The little girl asked looking up at him.
Daryl looked over to the girl, his little girl. She was all her mother, in every way accept her eyes that matched his perfectly.
"Yeah ya are sweetheart." Daryl answered his daughter. The little girl stood up from her seat on the step and walked to sit on her father's lap, leaning on him.
Daryl cradled his little girl in his arms, she had the power to make heart swell and ache all at once.
Kennedy had died a year after the world ended. Daryl was heart broken the only thing that kept him going was the fact that his daughter needed him. He'd be damned if he lost her too.
"Do ya miss her?" The girl asked with a hint of her Southern accent peaking through.
"I miss your mama everyday." He replied.
"Me too." The girl said before sighing, "I'm starting to forget her voice." Daryl could see the tears weld up in the corner of her crystal blue eyes, "That's why I like the stories, they help me remember her better I guess."
Daryl had to keep from shedding tears of his own. He'd known Kennedy for years, decades even. They had spent ever spare moment together, he didn't think he could ever forget anything about her. But his daughter, his daughter had lost her mother when she was 6, she was so young. Only bound to forget more as time went on. He wished he could fix it but there wasn't anything he could do and he hated that.
"Can you tell me another story?" The girl asked.
Daryl kissed her temple brushing a pierce of hair away from her face.
"I'll tell ya as many as ya want."
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VOTE AND COMMENT PLEASE
I swear I do these things just to make myself cry, I really like this one. But I cannot take credit for that whole diner zodiac story thing that is from Gilmore girls if you have not seen it I recommend it 100% but yeah, really cute story so I used it.
Hope you enjoyed!
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