The night I opted to take a cab home by myself.

After going on stage, singing that song, and having Daryl's eyes on me until I took my newly acquired seat beside Tyreese, I was ready to go home. Honestly, I had nothing to do with the alcohol I'd drank that night, it was all about the company. I couldn't go two seconds without seeing Amy flipping her hair, or giving Daryl some kind of fake smile, or hearing her exaggerated laugh when he said things that weren't even remotely that funny. The more advances I saw her make, the redder my sights became. It got to the point where I was physically nauseous and it had no correlation to the whiskey that was burning through my veins. She really did remind me of Carly, the girl who Merle had brought home for Daryl when we were fighting. The more she touched him, the more he recoiled. The fact that he didn't seem to be enjoying her attention made a deep, dark part of me grin wildly like as if I'd already won.

Finishing off my last shot, I stood up from the table albeit a bit wobbly, but began to say my goodbyes. Daryl had taken that as his cue to leave as well but I quickly shot him a look and placed my hand out as if to stop him.

"No, please" I said, my voice dripping with drunken sarcasm. "Don't let me interrupt your fun." He definitely noticed my attitude, his bright blue eyes locking onto mine is his typical icy glare.

"Ya seriously think Imma let you go home by yerself like this?" Daryl questioned as he started shrugging on his jacket. I knew that Amy was making him uncomfortable, that he hated being fawned over like that, but at that moment I just needed to leave and preferably without any Dixons at my side.

"Yup" I replied, dropping money onto the table so the remaining group could pay for my part of the tab. And waving goodbye, I left them all behind me and I could feel Daryl's eyes burning into the back of my head. Regardless of the obvious, I just kept walking and eventually hailed a cab before anyone else joined me outside the bar.

Once I was home, I kicked off my boots not caring where then ended up and began to strip. I couldn't stop thinking about Amy's hands all over Daryl and it made me ill. Why hadn't he stopped her? He was obviously put off by her advancements. Was it really so hard to tell her to 'get the hell off'? I knew that my hard feelings were originating from jealousy, the fact that her hands got to grasp onto his strong arms, her hair brushed against his skin when mine no longer could. She was able to feel the heat radiating from his broken and healed again body with as close to him as she was and Amy had no problem making those facts painfully evident.

Every thought of the two of them made me crave him all the more. It was no surprise to me that I wasn't over Daryl. Ever since the breakfast after our fight and our conversation ending in the decision to be 'just friends', I hadn't been able to rid myself of my feelings for my rough-and-tumble neighbor. We saw each other almost everyday for Christ's sake. If we weren't at the bar, we were having dinner at my apartment. If we weren't having dinner, we were sitting around, watching movies on my couch while talking and drinking sweet tea. The only time we weren't really together was if we were working, if I was at school, or Daryl was off hunting. He even crashed on my couch a few nights a week, saying he preferred that to have to listen to Merle and his many "lady friends". I really didn't mind, except for the fact that I couldn't curl myself around him as I slept and he was only a few feet away.

Right as I was about to jump into the shower, I heard a knock, followed by my front door opening. I quickly grabbed my bathrobe and threw it over me, sprinting out into my living room to literally bump into Daryl, causing me to fall onto the floor. Luckily for me, my robe had stayed shut even as he pulled me off the ground and back onto my feet. Even once I was righted, he refused to release me. A couple of weeks prior, we'd swapped keys for many reasons. I gave him mine when I was going to visit my family for Thanksgiving so he could stay away from Merle and he'd given me his when the two brothers went on a camping trip and Daryl had wanted me to keep an eye on the place. I had ended up cleaning a bit, which made Daryl happier, but Merle had gotten upset when I moved his favorite mug that was shaped like "his favorite pair of jugs".

"Wanna tell me what that shit was all about?" Daryl growled, obviously referring to my not-so-subtle antics back at the bar. Looking up into his eyes I could tell that he was furious. I hadn't seen him this mad since I'd made the mistake of telling him that Jimmy had stopped by my house back home while I was visiting in order to 'make amends'. His nostrils were flaring, his breathing was ragged. It was almost like he'd run home from McGinty's instead of grabbing a cab home. I had just assumed that Amy would offer him a ride back.

"Not really..." I answered, trying to pull away from him. Sadly I was unable to. His years of gripping onto shreds of his life had apparently left him with hands strong enough to hold me in place. "Guess I just didn't want to keep you from enjoying yourself."

Daryl scoffed at me and finally released me as he ran his fingers through his shaggy midnight hair. "Yeah," he replied, throwing himself onto my sofa. "I was real into 'er. Glad yer so observant."

"Well she looked like she was having fun." I couldn't contain the snide remark as I leaned against the wall of the hallway that led to my bedroom.

"Jus' cause she was havin' fun, didn' mean I was."

I looked down at floor before sighing. Tightening the belt around my waist, I went and sat beside Daryl and dropped my head on the top of it. I couldn't tell him what was actually on my mind, it wasn't worth the hassle. He'd made it perfectly clear that he wanted to be friends, that he didn't want to rush things anymore. Regardless of whether or not I was fond of the decision I had to accept it and get over it. I hadn't had much of a choice. Turning so I could face him, I could feel my cheeks burning bright. "You're right" I replied honestly. "I shouldn't have done that to you."

Daryl was about to answer when my phone began to ring. Leaning over and looking at Daryl's watch, I saw it was a quarter to two in the morning. I thought the only reason someone could be calling me that late was for an emergency so I raced to the cordless phone on the wall and picked it up within three rings.

"Hello...?" I asked, my stomach in knots thinking the worst by default. I imagined my father in the hospital, my sister in jail, or my mother being rushed to the emergency room in an ambulance. What made the pain worse was the fact that no one was responding. I greeted the airwaves again only to be met by the same nothingness. After a third time, I hung the phone back on the cradle only for it to ring again when I'd sat down. Daryl got up that time and made his way to the phone, answering it in a more than gruff tone. A few seconds later, the line went dead.

If I had wanted Daryl gone before, maybe it was a better idea if he stayed after all.

Sorry if this seemed a tad short. The next chapter will be better, I promise. *coughDARYLCHAPTERcough*