Chapter 11- Nine Days

He hadn't seen her in nine days. After the Police came, after they arrested Daryl for beating the shit out of Roger Byrd, and after the authorities notified Carol's mother, Carol seemed to vanish. But even after they dropped the charges and let him go home, she didn't come to school. He would sit on his porch for hours at a time just hoping to see a glimpse of her. He didn't want to bother her, but after nine days, Daryl cracked.

"Carol," Daryl said to himself after he knocked lightly on her front door. He let his hair fall in front of his face as his eyes focused on feet that fiddled on top of the welcome door mat. He could feel anticipation building in his throat as he waited and no one answered. Again, he knocked, louder this time and he can feel anger making him clench in his fist as he hurriedly stomped down the front porch, embarrassed.

Daryl walked past his house, stuffing his fingers deep into shaggy light washed jeans, the edges ripped and torn. He eyed each crack in the sidewalk, his mind wandering as he walked to nowhere. He never thought it would have turned out like this. He had pictured it in his head, when he would bring Sophia home, when he would fix it all. Sophia would be home, and they could be a happy family again, and Daryl would be Carol's hero.

"God Dammit!" Daryl yelled out loud, finding himself exploding at he came to the edge of a street, quickly ramming his fists into the side brick wall of Buddy's Drug, the store he had spent years trying to get cigs and beer from with his brother. He explodes again, half in pain and half in anguish as he lets his head hang, his hands pushing against the dry, breaking wall. What was supposed to do now? He drops his hangs to his sides, fresh cuts on his knuckles as he tries to regain his composure. He shut his eyes, his trying to keep from crying.

"Daryl?"

He shot his head up, his eyes widening as he sees Carol standing in the middle of the sidewalk, a paper shopping bag hugged to her chest, her hair hanging dirty around her face, sweatpants hanging lose around her hips. She looks tired.

"Carol," Daryl stares at her for a minute, before he can feel his body force himself towards her, and he takes a few fast steps toward her, and grabs her by both arms, pushing her into Daryl, and he wraps his arms around her tight, burying his face into her shoulder and she stands there is shock, dropping her bag of groceries to the concrete. She stands still, her hands to her side and her dead glaze in front of her as Daryl holds her. "Where the fuck you been?"

Daryl lets go, looking at her straight in the eyes as she lets out her breath. She doesn't reply, instead crouches down to pick up her sodas and snacks. By the time she stands back up straight Daryl is still standing there, but he starts to avoid eye contact. A moment passes, and then Carol opens her mouth.

"Do you want to share these with me?"

They sit on the curb as the sun sets, eating Cheetos and watching as car drive past. The paper bags sits in between them, half-full on gummy worms and diet coke's.

"I'm sorry." Carol mumbles, her hands wrapped around a water bottle, resting her elbows on her knees as she stars down at the pebbles on the street. "I tried to stay in my room, you know? Just try to forget about it." She drops her head then, shutting her eyes and Daryl can see water running down her face and she takes a few deep breaths before continuing. "But I couldn't take being there anymore. Last night, I…I just left." Carol wipes her eyes with her sweater sleeve and she can feel Daryl's eyes on her. "I don't really know what to do now."

Daryl nods subtly, licking the orange Cheetos off his fingers as he licks about what to say. "You missed a test." He mutters, almost trying to smile when she looks at him. "I flunked that shit, hard as fuck. You probably would have passed it though."

Carol purses her lips, taking a drink out of her water before speaking. "All you need to do is study. I bet you could have done a good job."

"Or I could have cheated off you." He gently presses his shoulder against hers and she looks at him with sincere eyes. "So, what are going do after this?"

"I don't want to go home." She wipes the tears away from her eyes again, blankly staring as her hands finger the ridges of her plastic bottle, tears silently falling off her face. "I can't. I failed my family."

The first thing that Daryl thinks of is that she didn't fail, he did. But instead he throws his chip bag into the street before standing up. "Let's get out of here."

Carol couldn't stop crying. She sat on Daryl's back porch pressing her pale hands into her face and she can feel her body shake. "Why did this have to happen? I would do anything to fix it." She said out loud, barely understandable through sobs. The flickering back porch light kept a halo of light around the porch, the backyard black to her. "My sister is gone."

She tried her hardest to compose herself when she could hear the back door creek open. She looked up at Daryl and he knew she was crying but he didn't say anything. He held a pile of blankets in his arms and when he walked past her into the backyard Carol quickly followed after him. She watched as Daryl laid out two of the blankets next to each other over dying fall grass, and slid off his muddy boots before he dropped on top of one of them. Carol hesitantly sat down next to him, letting a shaky breath escape as tried to get comfortable. Daryl handed her another blanket, and it was a warm blanket that made her feel comfy even if she was outside, in the middle of the night. When she laid all of the way on the ground, she was inches away from Daryl's body, who stared intently at the stars. She looked at him for a moment, and moved her eyes up to the dark sky as well. She rested her hands behind her head and she could feel her tired eyes scanning the stars she had always loved, and she felt even better having Daryl next to her. She has missed him. Carol had already shut her eyes when Daryl said her name. She didn't reply, but Daryl continued anyway.

"I'm sorry I failed you."