Sorry about this...
Chapter Text"Sometimes there are false positives, guess we dodged a bullet," Gina said to him the day she got her period. It was a relief in so many ways, now they could catch their breath and go back to being high school kids.
"Makes me want to never have sex again, no offense."
"None taken, I get it."
He lit the cigarette and sat down next to her, "That's a relief," He squeezed her thigh, "We are way too young for this."
"I would have kept it." She said, "It would have been part of you and me."
"Don't say that Gina, please," He turned to her and met her eyes, "You need to go away from this shit town, you need to go to college, I need to go to college."
"I'm not leaving you..."
"Yes, you are!" He answered, "We can't do this, we can't keep worrying, we have to break up if we can't keep our hands off of each other…"
Gina turned to him but he was already standing up and leaving the house.
"What are you talking about?" She called after him, but he didn't stop. It was over? Just like that?
She chased him out the door in the rain, running past him. The wind was whipping around them and it was about to rain, Daryl let out a growl and chased after her. It might lightning and he was afraid she'd get hurt, he still loved her, but he knew they couldn't be together.
Gina could get a scholarship, a full ride, she had to go to college. He had just told her it was over, he was done, they had to be done.
She knew there was something wrong, he was three hours early for their movie date, then he told her it was over. He turned to leave and she followed him out the door, pushed him out of the way on the stairs and took off.
In Daryl's mind a clean break so she can concentrate on school was his thought process.
It was what was best for both of them even if she didn't see it. Now he was running after her down the street. This was going horribly wrong, very fast.
"Go home Daryl, I'm not your problem anymore."
She yelled looking back at him then continued to run. He caught up to her and grabbed her around the waist trying to stop her. Gina turned around in his arms and started hitting his chest.
"Get off me you sonofabitch!" She yelled with all the venom she could muster. "Let go of me!"
She pushed away from him, pushing him back with her hands on his chest. Daryl tried to hold her but she caught him off guard.
"Go home, Daryl!" She screamed.
He stood there watching her as the thunder rolled up in the sky. It was going to rain any minute. She started to walk back up towards him, but Gina wasn't done yet, he knew.
"You fucking coward." She yelled waving her arms around.
He looked at her and let her scream, Daryl would take it, every bit of her anger, he hurt her he knew. But she would get over it, they both would because he was hurting too.
He felt like he had just purposefully reached into his own chest and ripped out his own heart.
"We could have worked it out." She yelled walking past him. "Fuck you, Daryl, fuck you for not having any faith in us."
He had to let her yell, make her think he didn't care. This was what was best for her.
Finally, she walked back to her house, leaving him standing there as it started to rain. Daryl stared up at her house for a few minutes and then walked to his truck. It was over and it was no relief.
/
It was surreal having lunch without her, they had been eating lunch together half the year now, but it was over. Daryl stopped coming to lunch at all, and she missed seeing him, but he was set on avoiding her at all costs.
"You are a dumb fuck," Merle said as they sat outside smoking at school, "All you got to do is take extra precautions."
"I can't fuck up her future, it's better this way,"
"You are a damn fool, go ahead and be miserable then," Merle answered, then turned as he saw Gina coming into the vocational school garage, "Yup, gotta go," Merle said as Daryl turned and saw her there. They hadn't seen each other except from a distance for two weeks. Merle got the fuck out of there fast.
/
Daryl wanted her out of there, he couldn't stand the way she was looking at him. Her eyes burned into him and they hadn't even made eye contact yet. It all felt wrong somehow to him that it was like this now. They had been something special and now this was what it was reduced to.
Gina was right, all the things they had talked about, and she knew and saw through him. She always could, and he knew she would call him out on his bullshit every time. Because she was the one.
She was the one.
But he couldn't allow himself to go there. His mind was made up, and this was how it had to be.
He scooted out from under the car went right around to the other side, got in and sat down to start the car. Revving the engine more than he needed to. Maybe she would get the hint.
She didn't, she just stood up and followed him to the other side of the car.
"You don't understand." He reached into his shirt pocket and took out his cigarettes, and lit one. "It's not just..."
"Then help me to understand." She said watching him put his zippo back in his pocket after he lit his cigarette, automatically he offered it to her and she took a drag. They had so many plans how did they end up here, like this?
"I don't have to explain myself to you anymore," He said roughly. "You come here acting like I owe you an explanation, I don't."
"You know that's always been your problem, you're so stubborn did you ever think for once you didn't have all the answers?"
She turned and leaned back on the car he had been working on, crossing her arms.
"My problem? "He said. "I'm not the one who came down here all halfcocked like a dumbass."
"You never asked me what I wanted, you never gave me a choice." She said. "You just left me."
He backed up and leaned against the car opposite the one she was leaning on because he didn't want to be close to her. He never knew what was going to happen if he was too close to her. There was a time not too long ago that if they were in close proximity he had to be touching her, he could never keep his hands off of her. She was like a drug and he needed that fix, all the time. He needed to stay on this side of the garage.
He raised his voice. "It never would have worked, I did us both a favor."
"Yeah, because you know it all, don't you." She raised her voice right back. "You broke my heart and you didn't even care like it meant nothing."
Now he knew what to do, Gina had just revealed to him her Achilles heel. He knew what her weakness was and he would use it to get her to leave because that the way it had to be. He would say everything that he didn't believe. He did care, he always did and always would. But he didn't have a choice now.
"That's because it didn't mean anything." He roared. "It was just kids' stuff, it didn't matter."
That was the same thing he told her three weeks ago after the pregnancy scare. She was furious, as furious as she was then. If she was a violent woman she would have smacked him.
"It meant something to me, you meant something to me." Gina stepped closer, raising her voice slightly. She screwed up her courage and looked right into his eyes, as she got closer, then her voice was soft and she wasn't yelling. She stared at him, he wanted to look away but he couldn't. She was too close.
Daryl backed up from her and refused to meet her eyes.
"It mattered." She whispered, "Someday you'll be sorry, I won't come back to you, and you'll be sorry you let me go."
Then Dary looked at her, his eyes were soft, and not for the first time since she got there.
He was already sorry.
Gina walked out because she knew it too. He wouldn't change his mind.
Notes: Thank you for reading. Please let me know what you think.