I remember when I was younger, things weren't always great. When things got bad, I would run to my treehouse at night… My daddy got real mean at times and my mama would always yell for me to hide or run away… I didn't much understand it all when I was six years old, but it all started to become more clear when I came to be about twelve. "Kate, pack your things baby girl. Were going to be moving to Georgia so your daddy can get better." That's what ma told me… Said they had the best Drs. for his condition there in Atlanta. Unfortunately, we could hardly afford the move … Ended up in some run down trailer park twenty minutes out of the city. I was afraid of the people living there but for my mother's sake and for my father's well being, I was determined to make the best of it. All that really mattered at that time was that they would e able to fi my daddy. I mostly put on my smile for my ma.
My mother was always telling me that I should be careful, "People tend to get real captivated by them pretty eyes of yours Katherine. Plus, you are pretty well endowed for your age, and you are such a beautiful young lady and look much more grown up than you are." She never failed to remind me of it everyday. I didn't take her too seriously at first. That's just innocense i suppose. She told me not to go out at night on my own either. Says men are tricky and might wanna hurt a pretty little thing like me. I didn't understand why but I did what she said cause she knew better than me and she never steered me wrong.
Daddy had made a friend a few trailers down. His name was Will Dixon. A real bad man… He had two boys who I knew he was real mean to. Merle was too much like his daddy and was much older than his yoounger brother. Didn't like him much... Daryl however, was only three years older than me. He was really shy and sort of flinchy at times I guess. The way he looked at me the day that I met him was so different than any way anybody has ever looked at me before. He looked at me like he's never seen a girl before. It was kinda cute in a way and my momma always did say try to make nice with everyone, so I figured I'd try and be friends with him.
I walked over to him with a skip in my step and he looked at first like he was going to run away from me which kind of just peeked my interest some more. I stopped in front of him and let my red dress settle around my leggings, "Hi, I'm Katherine Liota. My friends and family call me Kate!" He didn't say anything for a few moments as he just sort of looked me over, "Why are ya eyes different colors?" I was a little taken back by his question at first, but smiled at him with a light blush dusting my cheeks, "I was born with this thing called heterochromia. It makes your eyes two different colors. So my left eye is silver/blue and my right eye is emerald green."
He blushed as if he might have been embarrassed for asking, "Sorry, I'm not real smart. About a lot of things." I felt so awful that he had it set in his mind that I automatically thought him dumb. Not a whole lot of people even knew what heterochromia was, "That ain't true. I'm sure ya can be real smart in lots of ways that I'm not." I sat down next to him and tucked a piece of my long bleach blonde hair behind my right ear. He tensed a bit at first and adverted his gaze down at the ground, "Like ya eyes. They're real pretty."
I blushed a deep red and giggled a bit. He seemed to be so blunt about everything. Almost like he had never spoken to a girl before. "I like you Daryl. You're funny." I leaned my head gently on his left shoulder and as much as he initially tensed to my touch, he came to be seemingly relaxed and he surprisingly enough let me hold his hand after a bit as well. My momma told me these sorts of things were no big deal and special at the same time and I wanted to make a big impression on him. It was in thaat day that we met, that we became inseparable…
Over the next few weeks we built ourselves a big treehouse out in the middle of the forest and that's where we would go to hang out or to hide away from our dads… We spent the next four years getting to really know each other and helping each other improve on things the other wanted to do. He taught me how to hunt, track, and skin animals so I would know how to take care of myself if I ever got stuck in the wilderness for any reason. In return I would secretly tutor him so his dad wouldn't find out that he was trying to be something. His father didn't want him to be smart, but he was. I supposed it was so he culd keep on taking advantage of him. Daryl was a lot smarter than he gave himself credit. He just needed to put himself into it.
We would fall asleep most nights wrapped in each other's arms for warmth up in that tree house. Those Georgia nights could get real cold at times. I just wanted to be near him though. I felt safe with him. It was nice while it lasted. I had always hoped that he would want more, but he was so closed up, even around me, that it seemed impossible to ever have more than this friendship with him. We at least had that, so I decided that I could be happy with him in that way... I vowed to myself back then to wait as long as it took for him to open up more and deciding to want something more in his life. I was in love with Daryl Dixon and I couldn't ever deny it...