Daryl

With his English books clutched under his arm, Daryl made way towards the assigned classroom, forcing himself to forget everything that happened in the past few days. Lily may have acted nicely, though Daryl would never forget everything that happened between the two of them. No, it was way too simple, to just cover up the past with a layer of friendly exchanged words. Everything was now going back to normal—atleast, that's what he told himself. The emotional shield around him was already beginning to show off cracks, caused by his concern regarding the girl. The girl that happened to be Lilianne fucking Jones.

Once he reached the classroom, he picked a seat in the very back of the room, wanting to avoid any human contact. It wasn't as if he had any friends in the first place. Well, except for his older brother (as far as they were considered friends) and his friends, but he didn't like them. Sure, he hung out with them, but they were all simple-minded pieces of shit.

His thoughts were abrupty cut off when the chair next to him was shoved backwards. Daryl looked up, seeing noone other than Lily Jones herself sitting down next to him. A few classmates turned around to look at them in confusion, suddenly aware of who were sitting next to eachother. He shot a glare in response to the others. "Goodmorning." chirped Lily happily, offering him a wellmeant smile. Daryl wanted to roll his eyes, though he couldn't ignore the pressing feeling in his chest, caused by a simple greeting of a friend.

A friend—?

You're fuckin' nuts.

"Well, look who's decided t' show up today, hmm?" he replied sarcastically. Lily's expression went from confusion to complete blank, to Daryl's satisfaction. The girl had no time to reply however, because the class was getting started. 50 minutes passed, filled with the boring teacher expaining Catcher in the Rye and it's 'symbolic' meaning for the hundredth time. Meanwhile, Daryl felt the angry and judgemental looks from Lily resting on him, and he struggled to keep it under control. As soon as the bell began to ring, Daryl got up from his seat and gathered his belongings. "What's your problem?" Lily snapped instantly out of the blue, cauzing Daryl to freeze in his steps. There was a feeling of guilt somewhere in his chest, which stated the obvious; his thick emotional shell was indeed starting to crumble. Goddamnit.

"Nothin'," he said quickly, reminding himself they both had to put up with eachothers shit for the sake of their educational career.

Instead, he quietly decided to play it cool. Even though he didn't like it, they had to quit the hassle between them. Just for now, he thought. Until she's goin' ta face facts and apologize for her piss poor behavior over the past few years. "Jus' forget it. How ya feelin'?"

The girl seemed confused for a moment. Raising an eyebrow, she looked as if she was about to comment on his unusual behavior, but instead she shook her head.

"Spectacular. What about you?"

"Fantastic."

The sarcasm was clearly dripping off their words. They looked at each other and then laughed. Lily's laugh was a pleasant sound to listen to. When Daryl acknowledged that fact to himself, he wanted to punch his own ass for liking it so much. He wasn't sure what was happening; and the fact that he was both annoyed and relieved about the fact that she returned to school.

"Listen, the deadline for this project thing is in like.. 3 weeks. I think we should uh, yeah, continue it?"

Daryl was swept back to reality at hearing her proposal. He simply nodded. That stupid fuckin' project. She was right, though: sooner or later they had to finish it. Lily looked at him, as if she was anticipating for him to say something. He nodded his head agreeingly. "Right, um.."

The idea of Lily meeting his Pop and Merle face to face made him winch. As if Lily took notice, she sighed quietly and shook her head, as if she was silently protesting with herself. "We um.. could do it at my place?" she offered. Daryl showed off a tiny grin as a silent agreement. He nodded, and Lily smiled as well.

They worked all afternoon in Lily's backyard. The girl had assured him that her parents were off working, and he was confused for a moment when her expression changed at the realization she called her fosterparents her actual 'parents'.

The sun was shining bright, and the two of them were sitting on the porch, both of them smoking a cigarette. They'd focused on eachother childhoods; Daryl had found out that Lily had moved 9 times. She'd lived in New York, and Daryl had asked her what that'd been like. 'Fucking disgusting,' she'd told him, pulling a sour face whilst talking. Lily had also lived in Los Angeles, but was transferred to another foster family because Lily swore too much. Apparently, those folks were quite religious. Daryl also found out that Lily aspired to be a politician, when she'd been younger. When he asked her what came between her and that specific childhood dream, she shrugged and replied with 'life.'

Daryl had been scared; being forced to open up like this was horrendous. A few times, he felt like standing up and walking away without saying anything, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. After all, even Lily had trusted her past into his own hands, and he realized he wasn't the only one with a fucked up childhood. There was still a voice in the back of his mind, who was wondering what the hell he was doing here with her. But, he managed to brush it off, for now.

"Lilianne?"

Daryl turned around and felt a lump in his throat. Even though the unfamiliar voice had come out of the blue, it could only mean one thing. Crap, her fucking parents. Lily mimicked his shocked expression. "Fuck." she whispered, quickly pushing her cigarette against the porch and throwing it away before her parents could possibly notice. Daryl blew out the last smoke and decided to do the same thing. "Euh.. Katheri- mom?" Lily replied carefully, quickly standing up and accidentally dropping her papers off the porch in the process. Daryl got up aswell and chuckled when he saw the interview papers lying in the grass, and Lily punched him on the shoulder. "Ow!" he said dramatically, rubbing the sore spot on his arm.

When finally her mother made appearance, Daryl frowned. Was this the woman Lily had made such hassle about? She looked harmless, no, nice even. Katherine smiled heartedly at Lily, and kept on smiling when her eyes fell on Daryl's form. "Hello dear.. And who is this gentleman?" she asked curiously, eyebrows raised slightly. Lily seemed to force out a smile and gestured at Daryl. "This is Daryl.. the um, the guy I told you about last week."

Guy I told you about?

An amused grin lingered around his lips and he looked at Lily, whose cheeks were slightly colored red, thanks to her own words. "Well in that case, it's very nice to meet you Daryl." bid Katherine, still with that smile on her lips. Daryl nodded and attempted to smile, although it looked rather acted-he was fully aware of that. It wasn't as if he walked around all day with a smile painted on his face. No, infact, never in his life had he smiled so much as now. Which was ridiculous, in his opinion.

"Would you like to stay for dinner?"

He could hear Lily gasp next to him; it was obvious that her mother's proposal made her nervous. For the sake of enjoying that victory, making her feel nervous and uncomfortable a little longer, he wanted to accept that offer. Or was it because he'd enjoyed today with Lily and didn't want it to end yet? Because he didn't want to go home and face reality; the reality of his life being based on the image of him being a piss poor joke? This family seemed to be everything he didn't have, or ever had before. Or ever will be, he added mockingly in thought.

Lily looked at her mother with a judgemental expression in her hazel eyes. Almost as if Lily was silently pleading her to take back her offer. And so, Daryl cleared his throat, before replying to Katherine. "Sure."

Automatically, Lily's glanced moved to Daryl. When she realized that he wasn't joking, the dramatic expression in her face softened a bit, though she was still perplexed by his somewhat lethal decision. "What?" he wondered stupidly (and on purpose), just to set her off. Lily sighed and shook her head. The girl closed her eyes and ran a hand through her long, wavy hair. "Nevermind. It's.. nothing." Lily scoffed. Daryl grinned.

When it was finally dinner time, Daryl felt more anxious as ever; he wished he hadn't accepted Katherine's offer. The silence that hung in the atmosphere was uncomfortable, to say the least. After a while, though, Lily's parents talked to eachother about the daily news. This gave Daryl an opportunity to look at Lily, who seemed ready to bury her head in the dish. When they made eyecontact however, they both bit their lower lip in silence to prevent them from bursting out into laughter.

"So.. been talkin' about me, huh?"

That referment was the sentence that seemed to break her. Lily muzzled her mouth with her left hand, as if she was afraid to spill another stupid line that'd suggest she was actually thinking about Daryl when he wasn't with her. Instead of answering his assumption, she sat down on the porch again. Daryl sat down next to her, as he continued to practically pierce his eyes through her skull. "I .. talked about the accident. What happened in the woods. I told them you kinda rescued me." Oh, right. He'd almost forgotten about that, and the little detail that it'd happened only a few days ago.

"Well, somebody had to."

What a great liar you are. You would do it again in a fuckin' heartbeat.