"That's it." He grunted as he pushed himself from the couch he'd just been comfortably perched in. His voice was low and even but Beth knew him enough to know the tone; it's the same one he uses when she starts to be a brat in the bedroom in attempt to bring out his more dominant side. It was his serious tone. "I'm fucking sick of you bitchin' about literally everything! Why are you even mad, girl? Do YOU even know?!" The previously low voice got more aggressive as he continued speaking until he ended up borderline yelling, hands flailing as he got more and more annoyed.
To be honest Beth was surprised it took him so long to get aggressive considering the fact that she'd been blatantly screaming in his face two minutes earlier. Furrowing her brows as the rage started to build up all over again at his question, "OF COURSE I KNOW WHY! You would too if you EVER FUCKING LISTENED TO ME!" Beth paused as she realized she was stomping her feet in a super childish manner as she screamed. She was also cognizant of how inaccurate the words she just spoke were; the reason she fell in love with Daryl was his attention to details. He truly listened to her and picked up on her body language, went out of his way to ask about how she was. The man was one of the most attentive partners she's ever been with. Well… after she broke through that tough exterior at least.
Daryl had the audacity to start laughing in response- it was a mean, sarcastic laugh. It was one she'd only seen a few times after getting into arguments while intoxicated, it was a laugh that somehow had the ability of making her feel tiny. She hated that fucking laugh, her face getting red as she processed his response. "If I ever listened to you…" he repeated the words back to her as if he was processing them himself, "Beth- sorry to be an asshole here but I wish I could STOP listening to you! You're obviously fucking miserable! Marching around all day like you could set the fucking world on fire or stab me with the nearest fucking knife, Jesus Christ!" Before she could chastise him for saying the Lord's name in vain (a habit from childhood that she was having the toughest time dropping) - he spoke again: "I know. My bad."
As she was distracted by internally swooning at the tone of voice he was trying to use (the man was obviously attempting to have no attitude despite how pissed off he was) - Daryl started storming towards their bedroom. It was her natural instinct to follow behind him but now her thoughts were taking a drastic turn: did the man finally hit his limit? Was he going into their room so he could pack a bag, did this one fight about the carpet somehow convince him that she wasn't worth the trouble? Beth hadn't ever had abandonment issues before but the thoughts rushed into her head so quickly that she almost became dizzy.
In fact, she did become dizzy. Pausing in the hallway to balance herself on the plain white wall, she placed her hands over both temples as she leaned her back against the wall. Her eyes were closed but when they opened again, Daryl was right beside her with a bottle of water from the bedroom. When she met his eyes he offered it to her and quietly spoke, "Okay?"
"Mmm." She nodded as she sipped the room temperature water and steadied herself again. "It's SO weird." Beth mumbled as they both made their way back to the bedroom, silently wondering to herself why the dizzy spells keep hitting. They never last long but when they do they were super disorienting- almost blinding; Luckily it's never happened while she was driving but the thought was terrifying.
The dizzy spells started happening very randomly, sporadically for the last few months and both had been racking their brains in attempt to figure out why; well… Beth was attempting to rack her brain while Daryl attempted to get her to go to a doctor. She kept dismissively waving her hand at the thought, insisting that "It's not that serious!"
By the time she was paying attention to her surroundings again they were both seated on their bed, her clutching the water and him clutching…. Wait, what was that? "What're you holding?"
Daryl's eyebrows shot up as if he'd forgotten he was holding anything and followed her gaze after she asked the question. "Oh, erm.." He lifted his hand so she could properly see the little pack of tiny two toned pills. Her birth control pills, the ones she started about two months prior. "I was talkin' to Maggie about everything-"
"-what, really?" She cut him off- genuinely surprised to hear that he'd been gossiping behind her back. Maybe gossiping was the wrong word but still, the rage that constantly lived inside her twitched at the thought of her lover approaching her sister in need of advice. She wanted to be the kind of couple that could work through their issues together, not with third party speculators. They'd been fighting like wild lately and the thought of Maggie knowing makes her… embarrassed? She knew how silly that was but regardless the emotion was there.
Daryl was quiet for a good amount of time but Beth knew not to rush him; he was collecting his thoughts and attempting to think of how to communicate in a way that would be meaningful to her. That was something they'd been working on a lot lately and she knew first hand how difficult it could be. "I know you really want to be on the pill." They often spoke about having children but generally were on the same page about that day not being anytime soon. The two always wore protection so it was never an issue, anyways. When Beth brought up going on the pill the man knew all he could do was nod and tell her that he supports whatever decision she makes. He realized now that he should've gotten more involved in helping her make a decision, he wasn't sure either of them realized what it could do to her mood. "There are some advantages to you being on it, I guess..." He didn't sound convinced but his eyes twinkled because he knew how she felt about those advantages.
Before going on the pill Beth hadn't ever had sex without protection in her life. But like… she kind of wanted to try it? The thought hadn't seemed sexy until she met Daryl but now… yikes! She's been awakened with a new kink; the thought of him cumming inside her actually made her want to quiver in a way that she didn't quite understand.
"I'm not tryin' to complain or anything but do those advantages even matter if you don't have a sex drive?" Frowning to herself, Beth realized how little they've been fucking. Lately all they do is fight and it's rare that they even have make up sex. She hadn't realized the stark difference until he blatantly said it- they used to have sex almost everyday but now their average was once every week or two. After a few beats passed without her speaking up he decided to continue, "Maggie said that she had dizzy spells when she was on the pill." He decided to throw out there, "Also said she was pissed off all the damn time."
Beth almost audibly gasped when she remembered a particular holiday season a few years back. Maggie and Glenn became a bit notorious in their family when they first started dating for constantly fighting during the holidays- there was always some drama that had them reuniting with everyone while simultaneously being annoyed as hell with each other. For a long time her father was worried that they brought out the worst in each other for that reason, whenever they'd leave the farm he'd turn to his youngest daughter and shake his head as if he didn't understand the sentiment of staying with someone who made you so miserable. And then one year their whole dynamic changed. The whole family noticed a difference but it was Beth who asked her sister for the gossip. Her big sister had just shrugged, "I hadn't been off the pill since I started college. I stopped a few months ago and realized how miserable it made me."
Interrupting her thought process was the love of her life with a concerned look on his face, "I just.." he paused and then headed in another direction. "I've never known you to be so angry.. If it ain't the pill, maybe it's me... " When she didn't respond (she was literally just staring at him in awe of her luck, she's never loved someone like him before in her entire life) the man got nervous and continued talking, "But even if it is me you should consider quitting, did you know how bad it is for your body? I was googling it the other day and had I known I wouldn't have ever encouraged an idea like that…. It's really not good for you at a-"
Cutting him off with a quick, chaste kiss and a fond stroke of the cheek Beth wouldn't be able to wipe the huge grin on her face if she wanted. "It's not you, Daryl. I'm just…" Miserable. Cranky. Sad… not horny. "I'm just gonna go throw these out." She spoke with a smile as she took the packet from his hand and stood. "I love you."
Authors Note - This is in no way meant to be a bash on the pill- I just quit and realized how many side effects I had that just felt kinda normal to me since I was on it for a very long time. I thought the idea of Daryl having an intervention of sorts would be kinda cute!
If you're reading this because you have me on notifs, hello! I have not abandoned Maps- I've been working on a new chapter but it might be awhile before it's up because I feel very passionately about that story and I don't wanna FUCK IT UP (and accidentally make myself hate the whole damn story in the process.)
If you like my writing and wanna see me produce more Bethyl please leave kind words and/or constructive reviews! They both mean so much to me tbh. Sorry for the grammatical errors and typos that are surely scattered throughout this whole damn thing.