The shop was so warm that Beth could practically see the heat in the air and she was trying her hardest not to expire. When she first entered the shop she found a little blue bench by the door, where it was a little breezier, and took a seat there while she waited for the brothers to finish talking. They weren't particularly quiet people and even though they probably thought she was out of ear shot, their conversation was carrying. Beth knew they were talking about her.
She'd been absolutely furious with when she got there and had cursed more than she had in her entire life, but as soon as Merle introduced himself she shifted from angry to uncomfortable. His brother – Beth thought Merle called him Daryl – stepped in and tried to defuse the situation, but Merle was a loose cannon. He didn't really try holding back even after Daryl told him to leave her alone.
Beth knew she shouldn't be listening to the conversation, even though they weren't very quiet about it, her ears weren't supposed to be hearing anything. Plus, she wasn't too good at eavesdropping and not getting caught, so she decided to distract herself by looking around.
The shop was really one big rectangle. The first half was clear with just a register sitting on a little island and a poorly hung painting of a bear in a river on the right wall. The back half was separated into what where supposed to be different rooms, but really just looked like a poorly made maze with all dead ends and one long hallway.
On the left hand side wall there was a line of windows that showed the attached garage. Beth got up and peered into one of the windows. From what she could tell it was in pristine condition, with not a thing out of place and all of it well kept. Which didn't mirror the shop at all.
Everything in the place was old and it surprised Beth that nothing was being held together by duct tape. There was a dingy smell in the air and anything that was painted was peeling with a yellowish tinge to it. Beth crinkled her nose a bit when she walked over to the island with the cash register and saw the layer of dust covering it.
Suddenly there was the noise of someone clearing their throat behind her and Beth jumped. Holding her chest, she turned around to see Daryl standing with his arms cross a meter or so away from her. It was amazing how quiet he had moved to get to that position, she didn't even hear the door of the shop open.
"You still need that call?" Daryl asked in a harsher voice than before outside. Beth hoped it was his brother who had put him in a mood and not the fact that she was turning her nose up at his shop.
Beth guiltily bit the inside of her cheek then answered him, "Yeah. If that's okay with you."
Without another word Daryl walked passed her and she guessed she was supposed to follow. They headed down the dimmed hallway and the deeper into the shop the cooler it seemed to be, or maybe it was Daryl's attitude.
Beth couldn't see anything past Daryl's body a followed him blindly. As she followed she noticed part of a tattoo on his right shoulder. She couldn't tell exactly what it was in this light, but got more glimpses of it as he walked and his white beater shifted. From what she could tell it must have been part of a dragon maybe.
Beth really liked tattoos. She enjoyed asking people about them and hearing their stories behind them. They were something so personal and permanent. Beth had considered getting one herself at one point. But when Maggie came home with her small tattoo on her hip, their parents lost it and Beth put the idea into the back of her mind. Going against her parents wasn't in her nature.
Beth was so focused on Daryl's tattoo that when he came to a halt she ran straight into him. Her face got buried right into the shoulder she'd been studying to intently and she got a full whiff of the redneck.
As soon as she collided into him Beth's arms were up and she was pushing her hands against his back trying to make space between them, with an odd squeal in her voice as she did. She could hear a weird sort of, "Hey", come from Daryl.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention!" Beth could feel her face going red as Daryl turned around and looked at her. She'd made quite a spectacle of herself with her awkward spasm of pushing him away.
Daryl didn't say anything however and turned back around. His arm reached over to the left into one of the maze pieces and Beth watched him flick a switch on. A small office with a desk covered in papers was revealed and Daryl walked in.
He circled around the desk and shuffled the papers around, looking for the phone. Beth stood in the doorway and tried to ignore the fact that his scent was lingering in her nostrils and all she could smell was a mixture of sweat, earth and cigarettes. It wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. Not as bad as his brother's stench at least.
Daryl's eyes shot up from the desk when he finally found the land line and he jerked his chin to tell Beth to go over there. Beth crossed the room and sat down in the chair across from him. He sat down himself and pushed the chucky black cord phone — like one you might see in a teacher's room — toward her and reclined back in his chair.
Beth had expected him to leave after he led her to the office and give her some privacy. But that didn't seem to be the case. Beth stared at him as he picked at his nail beds and wondered if he was doing this on purpose, as a sort of payback for her judgment. "Uhm, do you think I could have the room?"
"What exactly do you know about vehicles? Or even what's wrong with your truck?" He didn't even bother looking up from his nails as he spoke. "Don't you think it's useful to have somebody that knows around?"
"You said you didn't know what was even wrong with it yet," Beth bit the inside of her cheek again and tried to keep herself from sounding like a typical teenager. With all the willpower she could muster Beth managed not to roll her eyes and picked up the phone to dial.
The line rang three or four times before anyone picked it up.
"Hello?" Maggie's voice filled Beth's ear.
"Hi Mags, is Mom there?" Beth entwined her fingers with the spiral cord of the phone nervously.
"Beth? Is that you, where are you calling from exactly? Are you lost?"
"So uh long story short – Daddy's truck broke down and I didn't know what to do, so I followed a sign off the highway onto a side road and now I'm in the middle of nowhere in an auto shop," Beth talked faster than she meant to and wondered if Maggie got it all.
There was a pause on the line and Beth thought the call dropped before Maggie spoke again. "Shit."
"Is Mom there?" Beth repeated herself and tried to ignore the feeling in her stomach Maggie's response gave her.
"No, she went into town with Shawn," Maggie paused again. "Beth, you can't tell her."
"Well, why not?" Beth hated how mysterious Maggie was being.
"Listen, as soon as she hung up the phone she had a friggin' melt down. She was talking 'bout how you weren't ready and she should have never let me and Shawn talk her into it."
Beth took a breath and tried to think things through. Annette had been so supportive and practically pushing the truck down the driveway herself. How did her attitude change so drastically?
"If you tell her she's gonna drive down there and come get you herself, Beth."
"What exactly am I supposed to do, Maggie?" Beth didn't even know how soon the truck could be fixed, or if it even could be.
"Pay for it yourself and get the hell to Florida."
That was a terrible plan. Beth had the small amount of money she'd been saving herself and the money her mom gave her; she didn't know how much that even was. Her not telling her mom would also involve lying and probably a lot of it. Beth had lied to her parents before but felt awful going about it and had a tendency of getting caught. But Beth sure as hell didn't want to be dragged home by mommy, she'd just started feeling free.
"Well, okay I can figure it out," Beth untangled her fingers from the cord, "I'm smart and capable."
"Yes you are... Mom's home. I'll tell her you're a few hours away from the border. Call again when you're settled a bit."
Maggie hung up the phone and left Beth alone in office with Daryl staring at her with questioning eyes.