Daryl's POV
"Daryl!" I hear someone softly yell. I look up from the Cherokee rose to see Sophia standin' there givin' me a confused but concerned look.
"Are you okay?" She asked.
"Yeah...... I'm just.........thinkin'." I replied lookin' back down to the flower.
"Daryl? If I ask you something can you promise not to get mad?"
"Probably not. But go for it. I'll try to contain my inner monster." I said lookin' up at her with a little grin. She smiled in return and sat down next to me.
She sighed. "Daryl, did you lose someone?" I peeked up to look at her, my head still hangin' low. I sighed then nodded.
"Can.." She trailed off and looked at me sympathetically as if asking permission to explore my mind with questions. I nodded and she continued. "Can you tell me who?"
I looked at her for a while, thinkin' about what I should say. I look down at my hands and to the flower, that is soon goin' to fall apart along with my heart. I can feel her eyes burnin' into my head but I don't pay much attention to it. I just keep lookin' at the flower, thinkin' of Cloe, as an unfamiliar tuggin' at the back of my throat takes place. Soon she realizes that I don't want to talk about it and changes the subject.
"What's with the flower?"
I glance up at her and answer with a simple "It's important to me."
"How so?" She asks probably scared choosin' the right words to say because she knows I could blow up on her any second.
"Reminds me of someone."
"That person before."
"Yeah." I answer, my voice dry.
She doesn't reply but just looks down at her hands that are on her lap. As I sit, I notice that the RV is completely silent. I bet the others heard the whole conversation. Damn it!! I didn't want them to know!!
"You know, we all lost someone. I have. And you'll always feel sad about it. But.... I can help you.... I can help you with what your going through." I look up at her occasionally to see her already lookin' at me. "I know it makes you sad.... or mad.... or maybe even afraid."
I quickly cut her off. "I ain't afraid of nothin'" I snapped at her. Boy, was that a lie. Ever since me and Cloe were split up I've been afraid of what might happen to her. And knowin' that I can't do nothin' to help her, makes me feel even more afraid.
"Well, I was. Even if your not afraid, you obviously have a lot of other emotions inside you." She lets out a chuckle and I join her. She then continues, her voice gettin' serious. "I lost my father. At the start. Yeah maybe he wasn't perfect and he wasn't very good to my mom...." I knew what she meant by that. He abused her. "but he was family and I loved him. We loved him. Me and my mom. We did. He wasn't always like that. He changed. But nowadays it seems like everyone is changing." She states as she lets her head hang low. I know she's about to cry. I can see it. I wrap my arm around her shoulders and she looks up at me, her eyes glossed over.
"I'm sorry." I apologize.
She gives me a confused look and says. "About?"
"I'm sorry you lost 'em. And I sure as hell ain't makin' you feel any better. I'm really sorry. I was actin' stupid. I shouldn't of snapped at you like that. I was a dick." I'm cut off by Sophias mother, who's name I still don't know. Actually, I don't know any of there names except for Sophia.
"Language." She scolds.
"Sorry...." I trail off, silently askin' her for her name.
"Carol. My names Carol." She gives me a smile and I nod at her.
"Sorry Carol." I say and look at Sophia who is silently laughin' 'You got in trouble.'. I push her shoulder lightly and look back at everyone else. "So.. I never really learned your names?" I say.
"I'm Dale." The man with the weird hat says.
"Andrea." The blonde says right after.
"T-Dog but you can call me T." The dark skinned man says.
"I'm Glenn." The Chinaman says lastly.
I need to ask. It's botherin' me. "So Glenn, what are you? A Chinaman or somethin'." I smirk.
Everyone laughs but Glenn just groans and practically yells "I'm Korean!" Everyone laughs again.
I huff and say "Whatever.". I look over at Sophia to see her smilin' at me. "What kid?" I ask rufflin' her hair.
"Daryl...." She groans. I chuckle and stop. She fixes her hair and looks at me. "Thank you for that." She says sarcastically.
"No problem." I chuckle. I look into her eyes and see happiness. I'm glad I am able to make her happy. I love kids. You know, when they don't get on your nerves. But suddenly the happiness washes over and a look of fear and remembrance flashes in her big, brown eyes. She looks up ahead at the other adults.
"Is Carl okay?" She asks. Who's Carl? I look ahead too and see them passin' each other worried glances. Carol gets up and walks over to Sophia. She kneels down in front of her and takes her hand. Uh oh. This is gonna be a hell of a lot of bad news.
"Sophia. Sweety. Carl... He-he was shot." Sophia gasps and looks into her mothers tear glossed eyes.
"Is he okay? Is he going to be okay?" She asks all at once.
"Shane and the man that shot him, Otis, went to the high school to get supplies for his surgery. If they don't make it back in time, they're gonna have to do the operation without the supplies, which is really dangerous." Wait! Who the hell is Shane? Sophia starts to silently cry and she hugs my waist, my arm is still around her shoulder. I mouth to Carol 'Who's Carl?'. If I read her lips correctly she said 'Her best friend.'.
I hugged Sophia closer and whispered soothin' things (A/N thangs) in her ear.
"Don't worry, Darlin'. He's goin' to be okay." I assured her. She nodded her head and her face rubbed against my vest. She looked up at me and then at her mother who is thankin' me with her eyes. I nod.
"How?" Sophia manages to choke out between sobs.
"It was an accident. A hunting accident. Shane and Rick went to go look for you and told the rest of us to go back to the road. You know, just incase you came back. But.... Carl.... He practically begged his parents to go with them to look for you." I looked at Sophia to see her smilin' through the tears to her mom at the thought of her best friend tryin' so hard to find her. "Eventually Lori agreed and they went off. While we were walking back we heard a gunshot. Soon, a girl named Maggie, she's the daughter of the doctor, well actually vet, helping Carl, came out of the woods trotting on a horse and asked for Lori telling her that Carl was shot. Lori immediately got on the horse and Maggie told us the directions to get to the farm and then they left. Soon after we arrived at the highway, we made a sign for you and went to the farm. Rick had told us that Carl saw a deer and went closer to get a better look at it. But.... then a gunshot went out and he and the deer went down. He was shot through the deer which pretty much gave him a bigger chance of making it." Sophia was now silently sobbin' into my arm.
I looked at Carol and gave her a look that said "Poor kid.". She nodded.
"Do you think he'll be okay?" Sophia asked no one in particular.
"Well I think so. He's a strong kid, he'll pull through." Carol replied.
"Yeah he is." Dale agreed. "He'll make it. I know he will." He added. Sophia smiled at him.
"Thanks Dale. And thanks Daryl. I haven't known you long but you seem like a great friend." Sophia said to me. My heart melted at her words and I smiled.
"Same to you, kid."
~
Word Count
1437 Words
A/N Omg I actually kinda like this chapter. I love Daryl and Sophias talk. It was cute.
Q/O/T/D Do u guys like Daryl and Sophias relationship in the book?
Tbh I love it. I think that they're relationship is like father/daugher, brother/sister and best friends. I feel like it's a father/daughter relationship because I can see him being overprotective with her but don't wry if that happens she won't like replace Cloe or anything. I also feel like it's a brother/sister relationship because I can see him always teasing her and her always teasing him. And then of course the best friend part because just how they act with one another. Anyways......
Bye, see u in next chapter.
- Sarah