Thanks for reading. Sorry for the delay. Holidays. This chapter is also rather long due to a lot of dialogue plus I wanted to reference the show to be accurate to the situations that have occurred already. It will be easier once I can write from my head. Keep reading and reviewing.

Chapter 4

Daria had been having a difficult week leading up to the day Tom would be leaving for the cove. She knew that it wasn't his choice to leave her for a week right after what they did. At least she hoped not. Sex was complicated. For her at least.

She was walking down the hall with Jane. As inappropriate as it might be she had to talk about her thoughts to someone. So she decided to talk to Jane.

"Did I tell you Tom's goi

ng away for a week?" Daria began.

Jane responded "To 'the cove'?"

"How'd you know?" Daria asked

"That's the only place his family ever goes. I think they're training a secret militia up there." Jane said.

Daria smirked "I wish. That's so much more exciting than them just being too damn cheap to go anywhere interesting."

Jane asked "Hey, how do you think old money gets old?" Daria remembered she needed to vent her feelings though.

"Thing is, I can't help feeling like he's trying to put some space between us now. Since you know." Daria said

"Ohh.. I see." Jane said "Was there anyway for him to get out of it?"

"It's for a family wedding so I doubt it" Daria responded

"Well then, probably just bad timing." Jane tried to reassure her. "I'd try to think too much about it"

Daria decided to change the subject. Jane hadn't been in her position before so she couldn't understand. "Anyway, more time for you and me to hang out."

"Haven't we had this conversation before? Only I said what you're saying and you said what I'm saying?" Jane asked.

...

Sometimes Daria had forgotten that Jane and Tom had dated first. Despite the fact Jane had gotten over it, there were still times when she seemed like she hadn't. Daria desperately wanted someone else to talk to about her feelings but she couldn't tell anyone.

She was heading to Tom's house now. Would he think she was being too needy if she asked him about how he was feeling? Probably. She had to just act normal. Like it hadn't changed anything.

At Tom's place he let her in and after a brief kiss he led her to the couch where he was watching Sick, Sad World.

The TV announced 'They gave her a good-bye party at 65... miles per second! Retirement by rocket, next on Sick, Sad World.'

Tom picked up the remote and turned off the TV. "So I asked my parents and it's cool with them if you want to come up for a couple of days." Tom said breaking their silence.

Daria had to stay cool. Would she like to go there? She didn't like weddings. Did he really want her to go or was he just being nice? "I can't stand to go to my family's weddings. What makes you think I could ever go to yours? She finally spoke.

"Come up after the wedding." Tom said.

"Oh, sure, so I can get there just as the marriage starts to disintegrate." Daria said. She really hated these things.

Tom sighed and Daria thought he might have really wanted her there. At least it wasn't something for her to worry about him running away from her. Plus she told Jane they could hang out now and she didn't want Jane to feel she was choosing Tom over her.

"Look, I appreciate the offer, but you know... too many people, not enough evacuation routes. I'll see you when you get back." She said.

Tom replied "I'm worried. I don't think you can really do without me for a week."

"No, you should worry that once I remember what it's like not to have you cramping my style, I'll want to make it permanent." Daria said with a smirk.

"Romantic." Tom said

"You know me" Daria responded moving in for a kiss.

...

Daria was home feeling a little better about the Tom situation. He had left already but they had spoken once on the phone already. However, there was something else bothering her. This large refrigerator box reminded Daria of a situation from her past and her mother wouldn't acknowledge it. Her father was 'away' on a last minute trip. She asked Quinn about it as well but her sister couldn't recall them having a box.

She was up in her room and needed to feel better. She decided to call Tom.

"Hello" Tom answered on the other end.

"So when are you coming home?" Daria cut right to the chase.

Tom said "Next week, like I said."

"Can you get back any sooner?" She asked. She really wanted to see him.

"I wish I could. Wait, are you kidding?" Tom replied sounding a little caught off guard.

Daria felt bad she couldn't even banter with him. "Do you have to make fun of me?"

"I'm not making fun of you. But what happened to 'I don't care if you're here or not'?" Tom said

Daria really wanted to get away to stop feeling so weird about the situation at home. "It's changed. Listen, do you still want me to come up there?"

"Well, you could, but it's even duller than I thought. I mean, it would be great for me if you came up, but I think you'd have a horrible time." Tom said

"So you lied to me, too." Daria couldn't believe he didn't want to see her.

"What are you talking about?" Tom asked.

Daria - You said you wanted me to come up. Now you say you don't.

Tom - That's not what I said at all! Come on up, I want you to, it'll be great.

Daria - No, thanks.

(Tom sighs)

Daria - Call me tomorrow, okay?

Tom - Daria, seriously, is something wrong?

Daria - Call me tomorrow, all right? Bye. (hangs up)

Daria couldn't believe it. The one person she thought would help didn't want her around either. Daria tried to call the one other person who would be willing to help her despite how crazy she felt.

...

A few hours later Daria stood in her backyard with Jane. They both stared down at the refrigerator box from earlier.

Jane spoke first. "Well, you spoke the truth. It's a box, all right."

"It's more than a box." Daria said.

"Um, from here it looks like exactly a box." Jane laughed.

Daria was frustrated. "I mean, that box is trying to tell me something." She said.

Jane listened for second. "If you say so. All I hear is the rustle of a gentle breeze wafting through cardboard. Quite soothing, really."

Daria listened too. "You're right, it is soothing."

Jane said. "I was just kidding."

Daria went down on her hands and knees. "No, there's something about it" she said as she began to crawl inside.

Jane stared at Daria astonished. "Um, Daria? What are you doing?"

Daria was sitting inside the box. "Yes. This is right."

And suddenly she remembered why a fridge box was so important to her. Her parents had gotten into a big fight one night and her dad had left.

Quinn ran up while Daria was still sitting in the box.

"Daria!" Quinn shouted. "I remembered! You were right! I remembered I was three or four and it was nighttime and I woke up because Mom and Dad were fighting, and then Dad was yelling and a door slammed and then I heard a car start up and he drove away."

Daria looked out of the box. "Thank you. I knew I wasn't imagining it. Do you remember what they were fighting about?"

"Um... yeah... they were fighting about you." Quinn relied.

Daria went back into the box and began thinking. She remembered the whole thing.

Her parents had fought about her. She had a meeting about how she was doing socially at school and that night she caused a fight between her parents and her dad left. She had this box to comfort her then and it was comforting her now.

...

Daria had been sitting in the box most of the afternoon and it was now the evening. She had thanked Jane for coming over and told her she just needed some time to think and that was what she had done. She had a lot to think about. Her whole life ever since she was a kid she avoided people. Even now, she had limited friends. She did have a boyfriend but she was always so confused and pressured about their relationship. What made it so hard?

And the worst part was she had no one to talk to about everything that was going on in her head. Her parents continued to lie to her about the fight in the first place. It was awkward talking to Jane about the fight because she didn't understand. It was more awkward talking to Jane about everything going on with Tom. Jane must still harbor resentment about them being together. Now they'd taken their relationship further than Jane had ever been. She didn't understand that either because she had never done it before.

Everything she was going through right now could have been easier if she had just been the child her parents wanted rather than the person she was. She had to change how she was. High school was over soon and she'll be meeting a ton of new people. She had to stop being so closed off.

"Come on, Daria. Come out of the box. We want to talk to you." Daria heard her mother say from outside the box interrupting her thoughts.

"Yeah, come on, kiddo. We'll all have a nice talk." Jake said.

It was her dad. He was back. Still, was she ready to talk to them? "No." Daria replied.

Helen spoke next. "Daria, you can't spend the rest of your life in there."

"I can once they put in my high-speed Internet connection." Daria responded.

"Daria... please come out?" Her father begged.

She felt bad for her father. He was always so caring towards her and here he was begging to speak to her. Step one of becoming more social I guess. But she needed to hear the truth from them.

"All right," she spoke, "but you have to promise to be completely honest with me."

"Um... uh... okay." Helen said

"Honest it is!" Jake added.

Daria crawled out and the three of them went inside and sat on the couches.

"When I was six years old, did you have a big fight about me?" Daria began the questioning.

"Yes." Helen said

"No" Jake said with Helen. "...yes" he added afterwards.

"I'd forgotten all about it. Quinn reminded us." Helen tried to convince Daria.

"Why were you fighting?" She asked.

Helen began to explain. "Daria, you have to understand. We kept getting calls from the school. You wouldn't talk to the other children. You wouldn't play with the other children. We knew how smart you were, talking to you was like talking to a miniature adult, but you wouldn't engage with the other kids.

"They didn't interest me." Daria said in defence.

"That's what you said." Jake said.

"Your father was in a job he hated, with a really sadistic boss." Helen continued.

Jake began to go to another place. "Lousy mini-Mussolini..." He muttered.

"Jake!" Helen shouted.

"Tense, Daria. I was very tense." Her father said coming back.

"I was trying to resume a full-time workload and still raise two young girls. We were all tense. Your problems at school were sort of the straw that broke the camel's back. We had an argument, your father stormed off, spent the night in a motel..." Helen said trying to comfort Daria.

"A crappy motel." Jake added.

"..and the next day, we made up and carried on." Daria's mother finished up.

"So I caused a big marital rift." Daria said not feeling comforted despite her parents best effort.

"Not a rift, Daria." Jake said.

"We had a fight one night. You happened to be the topic, not the cause." Helen added.

Daria thought for a moment. It was a little reassuring that her parents were making such an effort to make her feel better although she didn't. Her parents rarely fought in her recent memory. Her father definitely hadn't left to stay in a motel. There had to be more to it than they were saying and she was the reason. She had made their life so much more difficult at such a young age and she was still very much like that little girl.

She was also so angry with her parents for lying to her. Meanwhile she was lying to them about what happened between her and Tom recently. It wasn't like it was something to share with your parents but she couldn't help but feel a little bad after being so angry at them for lying. Her absent virginity plus the phone argument with Tom suddenly made her worry about that again.

Daria decided she needed to go. She needed some time to sort all the thoughts going through her head. She also had to apologize to Tom before she caused a rift in her relationship. She had to discuss her feelings with him and how much he really meant to her, even though she was always so reluctant to show it.

Without speaking again to her parents, Daria stood up, walked out of the house.

"Daria?" Helen said.