Beth was digging through her makeup drawer. She hardly ever wore makeup, but that Randall kid had left a mark and she needed to cover it up. Otis might come over after her shift at the diner ended. She didn't want him raising any questions. She was embarrassed enough that the Dixon brother's had witnessed it.
The upside that the only witnesses were the Dixon brother's was that gossip about the incident would not be spread around town. She already deals with the town gossip about her father's condition she didn't want any directed towards her.
It was hard enough keeping the information from getting back to her siblings. She ran frequent interference with them. She knew they had an idea about their mother and father's conditions but they didn't know the true extent.
Beth had to stifle the shout of victory when she found the concealer. She wasn't even sure if she had any concealer. Applying the concealer was a little uncomfortable, but overall she couldn't even tell the mark was there.
She smoothed out the wrinkles of her pale blue uniform. The weather forecaster this morning had mentioned last night's rain storm had been temporary. That was good news. Her father and his truck were MIA this morning. She was sure it was parked in front one of his haunts.
She just didn't have the time to track him down. She had several miles to walk if she wanted to make it to her shift on time. She stuffed her wallet and Daryl's vest and some books into a tote bag.
The trek to the diner wasn't so bad. Though, Beth wanted to groan when she realized her usual morning customers were in.
Some of them were sweet and mild mannered and then there was Shane Walsh and Gorman Wells. They were the local deputies who let the power of the position inflate their oversized egos.
Shane was an asshole that she could deal with. He was just arrogant and condescending. Nothing that she couldn't handle. Gorman Wells was sleazy and made unwanted advances. Usually T-Dog could dissuade him, but it looked like Ed Peletier was manning the kitchen this morning.
Beth could only groan. Ed was the worst especially after Carol had filed for divorce. The universe seemed to be against her this morning.
She was just going to have to suck it up. She needed the money to pay her bills. She took a deep breath and straightened her apron. She forced a smile on her face before she went over to take their orders.
Shane sneered out his order when he realized Amy Harris would not be his waitress this morning. Gorman looked thoroughly disappointed as well but still made a pass.
Beth bit her cheek to fight back a rude remark. She just awkwardly giggled and walked away before giving Ed the ticket to the order. Ed was short with her but that was to be expected. He was short with everyone.
She did her best to drone out some of the more snide comments from her customers. She found if she responded her tips would suffer. Other customers tended to take pity on her as well when she didn't respond and tipped better too.
Beth was proud of herself when she looked up at the clock and realized her shift was halfway over. She had made decent money in tips as well. Rick Grimes had come in with Lori as Gorman and Shane exited. They had left a larger tip than usual. It was nice. All the extra money earned was appreciated. Lori had even talked to Beth about music lessons for Carl.
Beth was counting up her tips when the doorbell chimed indicating a new customer had walked in.
She looked up and was startled to see Daryl. The day had been completely hectic and she had forgotten she told him to swing by. She watched as he got seated in a booth in her section.
"Hey, can I get you anything?" Beth gave Daryl a small smile as she smoothed her apron and brushed back some stray hairs.
"Coffee would be alright" Daryl asked in a gruff tone.
Beth nodded her head and headed back to the kitchen. She saw her bag and noticed the vest. She grabbed that and poured a cup of coffee for Daryl.
"Here is your coffee and your vest" Beth tried to casually hand both over to Daryl.
She could feel the prying eyes of some of the diner's patrons. She wanted to do nothing more than shrink in on herself. She wasn't a fan of the attention.
"Thanks, and about that loan consider it paid off" Daryl told her.
Beth bit her lip. The offer was incredibly kind, but she was sure they had loaned her father more money than what was necessary.
"I've got some money saved up. I can pay for it" Beth didn't want charity and she didn't want the loan to be held over her father's head.
She knew he wouldn't remember the loan and she couldn't have that.
"Don't need a kid paying their daddy's debt" Daryl told her.
Beth knew it was wrong to lie, but in this situation she figured one little lie wouldn't be such a bad thing. It couldn't be worse than when she lied to her siblings about everything going on.
"I ain't a kid and it's my daddy's money" Beth tried to look him in the eyes but ended up looking at her hands.
"Well, it don't matter either way consider the debt dead okay?" Daryl growled out.
Beth nodded her head. The door chimed again and Beth saw Amy Harris scramble in. She was always running late to her shifts. Which was never a problem for Beth because that was just a few more minutes that she could be paid for.
Beth watched as Amy rushed to the back to clock in. That was her cue to get ready to go home.
"Hey, Greene. I put your bike on the bike rack too." Daryl told her before pulling out his wallet and dropping a twenty on the table and then leaving.
Beth had to keep her eyes from getting too big. The cup of coffee was only two dollars and some change. That meant he left an almost eighteen dollar tip. He had just told her what she assumed was a large debt was dead and not owed anymore and then gave such a large tip.
Beth could almost weep at the strange kindness Daryl Dixon had bestowed on her. She couldn't fathom why there was such mean spirited gossip about the gruff man. Sure, he wasn't conventional but each of their encounters he had been nothing less than respectable and kind.
It had been almost two weeks since Daryl had visited her at the diner. She had seen him in passing, but never long enough to strike up a conversation.
She had used the money she had planned on paying off the Dixon brother's with to pay the nursing home in advance and the rest she had put into savings.
She was exhausted. She had worked a double today at the diner and had worked a double yesterday as well. She couldn't wait to get home and take a relaxing bath and then tuck herself in. She had an early morning vising her mother the next day.
Her muscles screamed in protest as she pulled her bike out. Beth had to swallow a curse when she realized the rear tire of the bike was flat. She had a spare tire at the house. She huffed all she wanted to do was be home already.
It was only three or four miles from her home. She estimated it would be an hour to an hour and half before she got home. Thank goodness the sun had set and made the trek home much cooler.
Beth had pushed her bike almost a mile out when heard some whistling and cat calling. She straightened her shoulders but continued on forward.
She felt a hand grab her shoulder and yank her back. She recognized one of the men as the man from the Dixon's apartment.
"There you are bitch. You fucking owe me" He spat out.
Beth felt fearful of what he meant. She couldn't think as Randall slammed his fist into her face and knocked her to the ground.
"Damn Randall you hit that bitch hard" Randall's friend almost cheered.
"Hell yeah, this is the bitch that got us owing the Dixon's so much money Kyle" Randall spat.
Beth didn't know how she caused them to owe the Dixon's money but the crow bar in Kyle's hand had her in fear. A foot slammed into her ribs and Beth whimpered in pain.
Randall pulled her up by her hair as Kyle swung the crow bar into Beth's bike. He repeated slamming the crowbar into the bike. Beth wasn't sure how long it had taken but her bikes frame was now bent beyond repair.
Beth could feel the bruise growing on her face when Randall slammed his fist again into her face. She felt her lip split open. On the ground again both guys continued to kick her back and sides.
Beth tried to block out many of the hits. She wasn't sure what happened next, but both men saw something that must have freaked them out because they turned and ran.
Beth listened for a minute before struggling to get to her feet and grabbing her damaged bike. She walked stiffly and winced. She was so sore now and she could only imagine the pain she would be in tomorrow.
It had taken another hour before she made it home. She had deposited the bike in the barn. Her dad was passed out on the recliner when she got home. She went upstairs and drew a bath and just sobbed at what had happened.
Beth put a dress and a cardigan on. She had called her mother earlier and told her that the diner had called her in for an emergency shift and that she would do her best to visit next week. That wasn't the truth, but she couldn't bear for her mother to see the bruises.
Her father had already begun drinking on the back porch. Beth shook her head. As much as she didn't want to go out with her bruises she needed to get groceries for the house. She grabbed the list she had written out the other day and grabbed the keys to her father's truck.
She was thankful he had chosen to drink at the house so she could even take the truck. If he had gone out she would have had to make multiple trips or call Otis. She didn't want Otis to see her injuries either. She couldn't handle the questioning and she was sure he would push her to press charges.
Ultimately, Beth didn't want the police involved. The rumor circuit in this town was crazy enough and a police report would be blown out of proportion.
She drove down the streets and thought of all the different scenarios the community would come up with. She shook her head for such a small community stories always managed to get twisted and tangled. She hated it, but she was also thankful for it. The tendency for stories to get blown out of proportion is how she had managed to sell different stories to her siblings.
Beth parked the truck and grabbed a shopping cart. She had filled the cart with almost everything on the list. She realized maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to invest in some more makeup to cover the bruising at work and if she were to visit her mother.
She started debating between classic ivory and porcelain. She didn't really know the difference between the two shades. She wished she had watched and listened to Maggie as she talked makeup. She was much more of an expert on the subject.
She finally settled on classic ivory. She figured it couldn't be too far off from her actual complexion. She ventured further down the aisle where the toothpaste and deodorants were kept. She wasn't paying too much attention and ended up bumping her cart into another cart.
"Oh I'm so sorry" Beth looked up and was startled to see Daryl Dixon. It wasn't that the sight of him was unwelcome, but he was on the short list of people she absolutely did not want to run into with all the bruising and cuts.
"What the fuck happened to you Greene?" Daryl stepped closer to her encroaching her personal space.
Beth instinctively covered her face, but Daryl grabbed her wrist to get a closer look at the bruising.
"I ain't asking again. What the hell happened?" Daryl grabbed her chin and examined her face more closely.
"That guy from your apartment and a friend of his stopped me on my way home. Something about me making them owe you and your brother money. I'm okay really" Beth didn't want anyone to worry about her.
"Fuck" Daryl swore under his breath.
Beth pulled away. "It looks worse than it really is."
"Don't you have some sort of transportation home girl?" Daryl still looked angry. He looked down for a second to send out an angry text to whom Beth wasn't sure.
"I had a bike that I was using" Beth mumbled.
She was still saddened by the loss of the bike. She wasn't able to say she had dependable transportation. She assumed from now on she would be walking to work mostly.
"Had. Did those shit heads do anything to your bike? Tell me?" Daryl growled out.
She figured if she were anyone else his tone would have incited fear, but she trusted him. He didn't scare her. Oddly, his tone comforted her.
"They bent the frame, but it's really alright" Beth wanted him to accept she was okay.
"Why didn't you call the cops?" He asked looking pissed with the new information.
"I didn't need to involve them. It's okay. I'll heal up and walking to work will be good exercise" Beth explained.
"You fucking plan on walking to work after this?" He looked shocked at what she was saying.
"I don't have any other way to get to work" Beth was embarrassed.
Daryl grabbed a nearby envelope from the stack of greeting cards randomly shoved at the end of the aisle.
"You got a pen?" Daryl asked.
Beth dug out a pen from her purse and handed it over to Daryl.
He scrawled out something on the envelope.
"That's my number. Text me when you are working and I'll make sure you make it there alright. And I'll take care of those assholes" Daryl told her.
"You don't have to…." Beth was cut off by the dark look in Daryl's eye.
"I don't do nothing I don't wanna do. Text me your work schedule or I'll call the diner up myself" Daryl told her.
Beth smiled at him. "I'll be sure to send you my schedule when I get home."
"You in a rush to get home Greene?" Daryl asked,
"Nope, none of this needs to be refrigerated" Beth gestured to the groceries she had."Why don't we grab a bite to eat and you tell me why I always find you at the tail end of trouble?" He gave her a small upturn of her lips.
"I'd like that. Except if to clear my name from these assumptions" Beth giggled.
For the first time in forever Beth was excited to do something. Even as simple as grab a bite to eat with an almost stranger.
A/N: Thanks for all the sweet words for the first chapter. Thanks to Akiraflame (Ashley) for listening me whine and work out what exactly I wanted with this chapter.
Let me know what you all think and thanks for being the best readers!