Red River Blue
Chapter 8
**Big thanks to anyone that took the time to leave a review. This chapter is a little short and mostly filler, but I had to cut it off from the next one or it would have been too long and had a weird flow. On the plus side I have the next one ready to go for tomorrow. **
"I was born at night, but it wasn't last night," River informed the man standing in front of her. Harley was over by the car, looking like she was going on this run with out without her mother's approval. River shifted her weight looking from Rick to Daryl and then back to her daughter. She knew the girl could handle herself, but it was still a hard feeling. Letting Harley out of her sight to go on a run with people she barely knew. It felt wrong.
"There's four o'you going," River said, "if Harley is one a them, then whatever guns y'all bring back we want twenty five percent, no matter if we stay here or not." Daryl was next to her, bobbing his head at Rick. River threw him a dirty look. She could do her own negotiations, she didn't need his help.
Rick thought her offer over. He was hard pressed to give up guns he had not even retrieved yet. But he also wanted to make this woman happy, so she would stay. And if she stayed, then it's not like he was really giving up any of the guns anyway. He was planning to arm everyone including River and her girls, that's why he was going for the guns in the first place. Rick nodded his head and stuck out his hand to the woman.
"Deal," he said. She repeated the word and pumped his hand up and down a few times. Then she headed over to the car to have a quiet word with her daughter. Mostly warning her to stay alert and be careful. They hugged each other tight and then River returned to her laundry. Daryl opened and shut the gate for the group that was leaving before he followed after her.
"You still thinkin' bout leavin'?," he asked. "Rick's goin' to talk ta him," Daryl told her, "Wait until after that to decide what you wanna do." By him River assumed he meant the leader of the other group they were having trouble with.
Daryl's words came out sounding more like a question, so River nodded her head. If Rick and this man were meeting up, maybe there was a chance this could be resolved peacefully. She couldn't leave today even if she wanted to. Not with how scared Wren was. The girl was convinced the walkers would be able to smell her. River had not even been able to talk her into coming out of the building. Which was really too bad because despite the impending doom of the end of the world, it was actually a beautiful day outside.
She had to clean up Wren's things, so River decided she might as well wash out the rest of their dirty clothes and blankets since she had somewhere to hang them all up to dry for once. Carol offered to help her and River was more than happy to not only have an extra pair of hands, but also for the other woman's company. It felt good to have someone besides one of her teenage daughters to talk to for a change. They had been alone so long, she thought she would be nervous and afraid of these new people, but instead she found herself craving the company.
Daryl leaned against the wall close by, smoking. The clothes River had on were feeling pretty ripe, so she had already gone into the earlier camper and changed. The only clean outfit she had left was her bakery uniform. Short demin cutoffs and a pink tank top with the bakery logo on the front. Not the most practical ensemble for fighting dead cannibals. River had simply shrugged and pulled them on, then headed back out to toss her dirty things in the wash bucket.
"Thanks a fuckin' ton River," Daryl announced from his leaning spot, like he had just finally noticed what she was wearing, "now I want a cupcake." Carol snickered. She had never heard Daryl talk so much. He had probably said more in the last twenty four hours than he had said in the last six months combined. And Carol would never have pegged him as someone that had a sweet tooth. River noticed Carol's curious glance, so she leaned closer, pulling at her tank top where it was stretched funny over her breasts so the other woman could read the logo.
"I used to run a bakery," River explained. She figured it wasn't the most impressive pre-apocolypse job. Now she was wishing she had gone to school to be a nurse or a electrician. Learned something more useful than how to make frosting light and fluffy. But baking always made her happier than anything else except for her girls.
"What's with the sexy lady?," Carol asked. The front of the tank top said BabyCakes. Next to the words there was a silhouette of a woman's body, like the kind that truckers put on the flaps behind their tires. River chewed at her bottom lip an her eyes flicked towards Daryl. He gave her a slight dip of his head. She knew what that meant. Carol was cool, it was alright to tell her the truth. And River knew people would find out eventually anyway. They always did. It might be better to just get things out in the open now.
"Uh," she stammered a little, searching for the right words, "While I was in culinary school and saving up for my bakery... I did a different sort of work." River watched Carol's face to see what her reaction was going to be. The woman just looked confused. So River explained a little further. "The sort of work you do without much clothes on."
"Oh," Carol said. She felt a little scandalized. And maybe slightly shocked. And then she realized how silly it was to feel shocked about someone taking off their clothes for money in a world where people were now willing to kill each other for a snickers bar. "You were a stripper?," she asked.
"Technically I was a go-go dancer," River said with a laugh now that she could see Carol wasn't going to judge her. She still wore skimpy outfits but at least she kept them on while she was dancing.
"She was in a music video," Daryl announced. How proud he sounded when he announced that made both women crack up laughing. Like River was the president of the free world. The coolest person he knew.
"I was an extra and you couldn't even see me in the video unless you paused the tape and squinted your eyes just right," she said between giggles. That job had paid well though, that was for damn sure. She paid a whole years tuition for Harley's preschool with the money she made from doing that video. That had been after the first time she and Merle got divorced.
Holding her shirt out again, River explained the logo. When she quit dancing, she offered jobs at her bakery to several of the girls she danced with. Since it wasn't any big secret that the bakery was being manned by a pack of former adult entertainers, they just decided to have some fun and run with it. It had worked like a charm too. That place had been packed everyday for lunch, and tons of local businesses would order in because they knew the girls would come to drop their food off in short shorts and skimpy tank tops. Sort of like Hooters, but with frosted cookies instead of chicken wings.
Carol laughed at River's story, and they went back to scrubbing at the laundry. Flicking a little water at Daryl from time to time and teasing him that he needed a bath worse than the blankets. Carol thought about her own situation with Ed. The main reason she had never left him was simple. She had no job. No money. And nothing that she would be able to do for a job to make enough money to support her and Sophia. They would have had to go back to that shelter. And that place was even worse than living with Ed.
"If I had the looks for it," Carol said, "I would have done what you did." River stopped what she was doing and looked at the other woman, wondering if she was being sincere. Sometimes people just said that to be polite. Then they called her a whore behind her back. She could tell from the look on Carol's face that she meant what she said.
"You have the tits for it," River informed her. Carol turned a little pink in the cheeks at that remark. She knew she didn't have anything any man would pay to see.
"No I don't," she insisted. Her hair had started going grey when she was twenty five. People used to think she was Sophia's grandmother instead of her mother. And even though she hated to admit it, all the horrible things Ed used to say to her were still stuck in her mind. She had a fat ass. Saggy titties. An ugly old face and chicken legs.
"Yes you do," River insisted. She lowered her voice a little, then said, "Daryl thinks so, I saw him scoping them out when you were bending over the laundry bucket."
"I'm standing right here," Daryl announced, "I can fuckin' hear you River." River's quiet voice was about as low-pitched as Merle's quiet voice. At that both women started up laughing and cackling at him until Daryl finally waved his middle finger at them and trudged back inside the prison. He had not been scoping on anything. Carol's titties just happened to appear where he was already looking. Wasn't his fault. What was he supposed to do? Look away? Besides the only other thing to look at out here was River's ass in her little cutoff shorts, and he was actively trying to avoid looking there. It felt dirty, like looking at his own sister's ass. Just because he snuck a peek, didn't mean he liked Carol like that.