Chapter 9

Daryl woke up with a start and quickly sat up in bed. He was momentarily disoriented. The first thing he realized was that it was dark outside. He quickly checked his phone and saw it was after midnight. He had slept for over six hours. "Fuck!" he exclaimed. He should have set his alarm on his phone. He looked out his bedroom window and saw Emma's car, but everything was dark in her trailer. His bad luck was continuing.

He had nothing else to do, except go back to sleep. This time he set his alarm before lying back down still in his clothes from last night. He closed his eyes and was instantly asleep.

This time when he woke up, the room was bright with the morning sun. He stretched before getting out of bed and then headed for the shower, but not before checking out to see Emma's car was there. It was not. He figured if he showered fast, he would have time to go to the diner for breakfast and he could see her then.

He was in his pickup, pulling out of the trailer park within twenty minutes. On his drive over, he thought back to Friday night. It seemed so long ago since he saw her. When he kissed her, he surprised himself. He wanted to do it, he knew he was going to do it, but it still surprised him that he actually did do it.

Kissing was always means to an end for him. Kisses were sloppy and desperate and lead to him getting laid. They weren't soft and meaningful, like he shared with Emma. This was a whole new experience for him and it made him nervous. What if he wasn't good at this romantic shit? For once he actually cared about what happened.

Daryl saw the need in her eyes and knew that she had wanted him to kiss her. He had never met a girl like Emma. He was used to white trash and quickies and she was anything but. Emma was pretty, sweet and no one had ever made him feel like she did. The closer he got to the diner the more excited he was to see her again. Daryl had never felt like this before. He was scared, yet thrilled at the same time.

The parking lot was very crowded and he had a hard time finding a spot. He strutted in and Joe was at the register. "Good Morning Daryl," he said instantly recognizing him.

"Hey." Daryl looked around and saw that most of the booths and tables were taken. He looked at his watch then he remembered he didn't have one anymore, so he checked the clock on the wall. He really didn't have a lot of time and hadn't expected it to be this busy. "Busy today. Any chance for anything with Emma?"

"Not unless you want to wait a while. Only thing open is the counter right now," Joe told him.

"I'll take the counter." Damn, he really wanted to be in her section.

Joe told Daryl to help himself to any available seat at the counter. On his way over he kept an eye out for Emma, but didn't see her as he sat down. He had a cup of coffee poured before he even asked for it and the harried waitress asked what he wanted right away. He ordered the first thing that came to mind, which were pancakes.

As Daryl sipped his coffee, he kept looking around for Emma. She finally burst through the kitchen doors laden down with food. Daryl never took his eyes off of her. Even in that ugly pink uniform she looked beautiful to him.

Emma hadn't seen a breakfast rush this busy in weeks. She liked keeping busy as busy always translated into more tips. She also didn't have time to think about Daryl. He never made it back all weekend. Emma was afraid that something had happened to him, but when she saw his truck Monday night, she was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. She was tempted to knock on his door after working an extra shift at the diner that day, but Merle drove in and she immediately changed her mind.

After delivering food to a four top, she went through her section checking on tables to see if they needed anything. The whole time she had a feeling that someone was watching her. Emma finally turned around and saw him looking at her from a stool at the counter. Daryl was back! She flashed him a smile, but then realized that she had food up. It was another twenty minutes before she had a brief second to go over to talk to him.

"You're back!" she said with a smile. "Sorry, we are crazy today. I doubt I can talk."

"That's okay. I just had to stop by…and see you," Daryl said. His heart was beating fast. "Can we get together later?"

"Sure. Damn I gotta go I have food up," she apologized. "I'm sorry."

"Don't worry. I'll stop by after work, okay?"

"Great! See ya then," Emma said rushing off to the kitchen. It was about an hour later when she was replaying their conversation in her head did she realize that she wasn't going to be home tonight. She worked at the bar on Tuesday nights. "Damn it," she thought. "Now I can't see Daryl and I forgot to tell him." She hoped to catch him before she left for her six o'clock shift.

Daryl flew through all of the jobs that Mack handed him that day. "You in a rush today, Daryl?" Mack asked as Daryl handed in the paperwork on yet another job completed faster than normal. He knew the quality of Daryl's work so that wasn't in question.

"Ahh…Got myself a date tonight," Daryl told him.

"Good for you son," Mack said. "I bet she's a pretty one."

"She sure as hell is."

Daryl and Mack both turned as they heard a car pull up out outside. It was four thirty and they didn't typically get much business this late in the day. They walked out to the open garage bay door and saw an expensive import that had water spewing out from underneath. Daryl's first thought was the water pump blew.

He let Mack talk to the guy, but hoped that he didn't want it done today. That was job was an easy two hour job if he didn't encounter any problems. "Not today, please not today," he prayed.

Mack finally walked over to him. "I know you got plans, but he will pay double to get it down now. Plus, he's willing to slip you an extra hundred."

Daryl knew he couldn't say no. He owed Mack for taking a chance on hiring him, plus he could also use that extra hundred. He'd do it. Daryl looked at the car again and realized the guy had plenty of money. He hadn't worked on a Porsche before, but a car was a car. "I'll do it," he told Mack. His boss told him he'd give him a hand and went out to tell the car owner.

The first thing Daryl was going to do when he saw Emma was get her phone number. He was frustrated by not being able to get in touch with her. Mack signaled him to come over and they pushed the car inside and began the process of changing out the water pump.

It was almost six and Emma had to leave for the bar. Daryl still hadn't come home yet and she wanted to tell him that she was working that night. She penned a quick note and decided to tape it to his door. She pulled out and headed off towards the bar and never saw the gust of wind that ripped the note off the door and it fluttered away.

Daryl got home a hundred bucks richer and flew into his parking spot. Merle was home, but Emma wasn't. "Where the hell was she?" he wondered. He figured he'd use some of the money he earned today and take her out somewhere, like on a real date. His first.

Merle was watching the TV and drinking a beer. Daryl wondered where the hell the beer came from, since it wasn't there yesterday. He also wondered where Merle was getting his money from, since he didn't have a job that paid that he knew of. Daryl ignored his brother and headed to his room. He stripped off his dirty clothes from work and took a shower. He hated that his nails looked so dirty from the car grease and no matter how hard he tried they were not coming clean.

He dressed in clean jeans and a button-down shirt without sleeves, before looking out the window again for Emma. She still wasn't home. She knew he was coming over tonight, so he wondered where she was. He wasn't going to hide out in his room, so he headed to the kitchen and opened the fridge. It was completely empty.

"You still got your panties in a bunch, little brother?" Merle didn't have any idea what had crawled up Daryl's ass. So he had to go and pick him up, what was the big fuckin' deal? He was the one that spent three nights in jail, not Daryl.

Daryl took a deep breath. He didn't want to be angry when he met up with Emma. "Man, you have no idea how bad you fucked up my weekend and it cost me all the cash I had, plus my damn watch. When are you gonna pay me back?"

Merle ignored the question. "I spent three nights in jail, bro not you."

"Because you're an idiot that's why you went to jail. At least you had a bed and meals, I had the truck to sleep in and no food, because I needed every penny to pay your fuckin' fine. When am I getting it back?" he asked again gritting his teeth.

"Speaking of money, I need your share of the rent for next week."

"Last time I gave you my share of the rent you spent it. No fuckin' way. I'll pay my two hundred directly," Daryl told him. Merle wasn't going to steal his rent money again. He liked living here.

"It's four hundred bro," Merle said taking a swig of beer.

"No. I owe half of the rent and rent is four hundred so I owe two." Daryl did not have a good feeling about this.

Merle sat up and turned to Daryl . "Rent is Eight hundred, my job brings it down to four hundred and that's my half. You owe the other four hundred."

Daryl was shocked. "Are you fucking kidding me? Your job? You want credit for all the repair work I do for you? No man, No fuckin' way! Two hundred is what I pay and that's it." Daryl started to pace the room, his anger was boiling over. His brother was cheating him, after all he had done for him this weekend, and he had the nerve to try cheat him.

He walked over to the couch where Merle was still reclining. Even his posture pissed Daryl off. "How the fuck did I end up with a brother like you? All my life I've picked up after your screw ups, listened to you put me down every chance you got and spend my money like it was yours. When was the last time you got a real job? I don t even want to know where you get the money you spend on booze and shit, I know it ain't legal, but you need to fuckin' grow up man."

Merle did not like what Daryl was saying to him. How dare this punk ass kid tell him to grow up? Hadn't he been taking care of his brother his entire life? Merle stood up his face red with fury, his hands clenched into tight fists. "Listen to me little brother, don't you ever fuckin' talk to me that way unless you want your ass beat down good. I've let you follow me like a fuckin' puppy your whole worthless life. You owe me goddamn it!"

Merle took a step towards Daryl, but Daryl didn't back down. Daryl felt like he was sucker punched. His eyes were dark and angry, when he stared into Merle's blood shot ones. "You're no better than our old man," he told his brother, his tone hard and cold.

Daryl grabbed his keys of the counter and walked out of the trailer. If he stayed, they would come to blows and he just couldn't deal with that now. He had to get away from Merle, before they said or did something that there was no turning back from.

Emma's car was still gone and that pissed him off even more. They had made plans and she stood him up. "Fuck her," he thought. "Fuck everyone!" He drove out of the park and headed to town. He didn't have a destination in mind, he just knew he had to get away from his brother for a while.

Everything he saw passed by him in a blur, until one sign caught his eye, The Devil's Brew. Now was the perfect time to get drunk. He pulled into their parking lot and headed for the door as fast as he could. A couple shots and a lot of beer would make forget how everyone in his life always disappointed him. Why should today be any different? He planned on the alcohol helping him forget how much he hated his life.


A/N - I hope all the new readers are enjoying GONE. Thank you for all of the reviews and comments.