~Thank you ShadowSlayer2013 for your input :D and thank you to the others who have reviewed as well. I do not own the walking dead, just Archer and Daryl.~
Daryl POV
How was I going to do this? I have no problem telling people off but when it came to Archer…the girl can make me weak. I sat at home drinking a little to calm my nerves. Tonight I was going to show up and tell her the truth as to why I left whether I liked it or not.
It was probably 7 at night and I was sobering up but I sat on my bike as I drank a little more from a flask. I watched as she was cleaning up tables in the diner. I wonder how long she was doing that for? Working at a diner?
Four years ago she was doing part time at the car shop with her father and the other half doing volunteer work at a school to get practice for teaching. Soon enough she came out with no uniform on. She had on her skinny jeans, boots and a tank top under her leather jacket. She was walking in the opposite direction.
I took a deep breathe. "Archer!" I shouted. "Don't walk away from me girl!"
She turned and looked at me but she just kept a straight face as she came to me. "What do you want Dixon?"
"A guy can't come over and talk to a friend?"
"Oh we're still friends? Couldn't tell if that was still a thing from the four years of silence."
"Don't have to be a bitch about it."
"Actually I can and this bitch is walking away." She turned and started to walk but I quickly jumped up and grabbed her arm roughly to make her face me.
"Don't walk away from me while I'm talking to you!"
"You aren't really saying anything."
"I'm trying to but you keep running your smart ass mouth." I was getting aggravated. Leave it to Archer to make things difficult.
"You know I have been working quite a long shift so excuse me if I want to go home."
"Excuse me if I want to explain myself."
"Fine." She shoved my arm away then crossed hers. "Tell me Daryl, why did you leave and then suddenly return?"
"You said I love you."
"I remember I did and you left. If that's why you left than that's a pathetic reason and I'll learn next time not to express my feelings." She laughed sarcastically.
"Fuck you Archer, if you can't accept me for who I am then go fuck yourself." I yelled. I can already tell I was wasn't thinking straight and I could feel myself falling into the drunken state.
"How does that make any sense? I told you I love you which means I accept you for who you are. The idiot redneck with a temper just like his god damn brother."
"Quite talking shit. You know why I left? I wanted to try to make a better life for myself so that if we become something you wouldn't be disappointed but I failed. So I ain't going to waste my time with someone who will probably leave me to find something better just like your whore of a mom."
I watched as her face raged and she slapped me across the face. Shit it stung. I glared at her and if she wasn't a woman I would have punched her.
"There is more shit coming out of your mouth than your ass Dixon. I can already tell that you're drunk and you aren't thinking straight but let me make one thing clear, I didn't leave, you did. I kept coming back to you, Merle, and my father in this hell hole of a town. If I did want the fucking good life and all that nonsense I would have stayed with my whore of a mother, my asshat of a step father, my snotty friends from private school, and my douche of a boyfriend but I didn't. Maybe you should think about that before you point fingers." She walked away from me but turned one last time when she was a few feet away. "Go in the god damn diner and sober your ass up before you drive." With that she was gone.
I scoffed but made my way into the diner. I sat in a booth and ordered a coffee as my head was pounding. I was pissed but I thought about what she said.
Daryl is 16 and Archer is 14.
It was around February and I had been noticing Archer has been distant lately. I didn't push it because I figured it was a girl problem so I didn't push. It wasn't like I could ask Merle about it, when he was about 21 he took off so that was about 2 years ago.
I was sitting on my porch cleaning my arrows when the girl finally made an appearance. She sat next to me and curled herself up so she was resting her chin on her knees. I studied her closely and saw that her eyes were puffy.
"You been crying?" I asked as I went back to my arrows.
"No…" She replied weakly.
I scoffed. "You can't lie to me."
"Fine…"
"What's eating at you?"
"I'm…I'm moving…"
I eyed her weirdly. "Moving where?"
"With my mom and her new boyfriend about an hour away from here."
"Wait what? Aren't your parents married?"
"My mom has been cheating for about two years. My parents are getting divorced, that's why I haven't been around lately."
"Do you want to leave?"
"No…but my mom got custody of me. I have to live with her but I can come visit my dad here on the weekends."
"That really sucks."
"Yeah no kidding."
"Have you met the guy?"
"Nope."
I couldn't think of anything else to say to her so I just stayed quiet. I heard her shift from her seat and could feel the warmness of her body against me. I flinched and looked to see her resting her head on my shoulder.
"Can you promise me something?" I asked him. I nodded. "Promise that you'll still be my friend when I'm gone."
"I guess I can do that." I replied.
I heard her mom calling her to come back home. She stood up and walked away sadly back home.
The following weekend she left with her mom in a moving truck. I kind of felt sad about it. I wasn't going to see my best friend anymore. I decided not to let it get to me. She was moving away and her dad would probably move away too and then I would never see her again, might as well get used to it.
It had been a month and I still haven't seen her. I would occasionally see her dad when he would come over and get drunk with my old man and rant about Lean." I stood around the corner just to ease drop.
"She's a cheating ass bitch." Jack slurred angrily.
"Isn't your girl supposed to come on weekends?" Will asked.
"Supposed to but she got put into this fancy private school and she said the work load has been keeping her. I think it's just the whore trying to keep my little girl away from me."
"Why don't you say something?"
"I've been trying but I can't afford a god damn lawyer."
"That bites man."
I sighed as I went back to my room. I couldn't hear anymore.
Another week went by and still no Archer. It was Friday and I didn't go to school. I just wasn't in the mood. I was in my room and just staring at the ceiling. I knew I fell asleep for a little bit but when I woke up and looked out the window I saw a car in front of Archer's house. I jumped out of my bed and quickly went to my window to get a better view. I cursed myself when I realized I was a little too eager and that wasn't good.
I saw a girl in a short skirt and a white button shirt with a tie and boots on. Who the hell was that? When I squinted and stared I realized that was Archer. My eyes went huge in shock. I have never seen her so…girly.
The car drove off and I saw Archer and Jack hug tightly. They walked together into the house. I waited a while before I left my own home to go see her. I walked up the steps and knocked on the door. Jack answered.
"Daryl." Jack greeted.
"Hi…umm…is she here?" I asked.
Jack smirked. "She's finally home. She's in her room." He stepped aside for me to walk in and I made my way toward her room. I leaned against her door frame while she had her back facing me. She was unpacking her bag and I couldn't help but glance down to her butt. I've never seen her in a skirt and damn she looked good. I pondered the vulgar things Merle would say if he saw her like this. He always thought he had a way with words.
I decided I needed to be known. I cleared my throat and watched as she turned to face me. She gasped and ran and tackled me in a hug. I stiffened do to the affection but I patted her back. "Hey Archer."
"Daryl! I missed you so much!"
"Didn't think you were going to come back."
"Of course I was going to come back. We need to go hunt or something!"
"I'm free now if you want. I do have to catch my dinner."
"Let me change."
I watched as she grabbed shorts and a black t-shirt and went to her bathroom. She came back 5 minutes later in her new clothes and her hair in a ponytail. She put on her combat boots and grabbed her bow and arrows.
We walked past her dad and waved good bye and headed through the fence in her back yard and through the forest. I watched as she got busy shooting at random targets.
"You look different." I pointed out.
"Stupid mom wanted me to get a makeover before I went to my new school." She groaned.
"Why?"
"I had to make a good impression. Don't know what kind of impression it would make seeing as my mother is a whore."
"Do you like it over there?" I asked as I shot a squirrel.
"No. It sucks." She answered as she aimed for a squirrel and missed. "Damn it!"
"You alright?"
She glared at me. "Does it look like I'm alright?"
"You don't have to yell at me!" I yelled.
She took a few deep breathes and sat on a rock. "I'm sorry." I didn't say anything I just kept looking for another thing to shoot. "I'm not ok. The whole month was torture. My mom changed a lot. She's trying so hard to look like an acceptable woman but she isn't. Her boyfriend is an asshole who buys her whatever she wants and he tries to bribe me for affection but it doesn't work. She's trying to change me and she put me in this school because she said it would look good for a college application. It's not me. I mean I would want to go to college but…I want to go as me."
"What are you going to do about it?"
"I don't know. All I know is I want to hunt and spend as much time I can with my dad before I go back. Who knows when I will be able to come back into town."
"Sounds good."
And that's what we did. We hunted for a few hours and then we went back home. Sunday she got picked up and didn't come back for two weeks. That's how it was until she turned 16. She would come back randomly and she would rant how awful it was living with her mother. When she was 16 she got her own car and drove herself down every weekend. She spent the time with her dad and I didn't see her as often. When I was 18 I left my good for nothing father and stayed with Merle at his place. I was constantly working so I didn't see Archer as often and that might have been the start of our friendship going downhill.
I sobered up enough to be able to drive my bike home. I let myself in and jumped on the couch. So she came home big whoop. She did that more for her dad than anything and she hated being with her mom. I was just her ranting buddy. Dumb bitch trying to get under my skin. I curled up on my side and fell asleep.
19 year old Daryl and 17 year old Archer
I decided to come visit her. It really had been awhile and I was in the mood to go hunt something. I knew she loved to hunt too so I would pay her a visit and invite her. I drove my truck over to her place and parked. I was confused by her sitting on the porch with her guest. I saw two girls and a guy with an arm around her shoulder. I was actually pissed by the action but I got out of the car anyway. There laughing and chattering stopped when I came up the steps. Archer smiled at me as she got up and hugged me but her guests gave me looks of disgust.
"Daryl what are you doing here?" She asked.
"I was gonna go hunt, wanted to know if you wanted to join." I replied as I glared at the guy.
"Does she look like she hunts?" the blonde bitch asked.
"I actually do Melissa." Archer told her.
"What?" Her friends asked in shock.
"I hunt and track. I've been doing it since I was 10."
"That's uncool babe." The guy scolded her. "It's bad enough that your after school activity is martial arts but now you hunt? Doesn't look good."
"Why? Because she's a girl? She's the toughest bitch I ever met compared to you pussies." I smirked as I told them that.
"Who the fuck are you white trash?"
He stood up acting all tough and I was about to hit him when Archer stood in between us. "Alright enough guys. We just got off on the wrong foot ok? Let's start over. Guys this is my best friend Daryl." She gestured towards me. "Daryl that's Melissa." She pointed to the blonde bitch. "that's Alissa." She pointed to the other blonde. "and this is my boyfriend Jeremy." She pointed to the douche bag.
"Whatever." I told her and started to walk back to my truck. She called my name but Ignored it until she ran over and grabbed my arm. I looked down at her.
"Daryl talk to me." She pleaded.
"Who are these people? Since when do you have a boyfriend?" I asked.
"I just go to school with them. They came over because they want me to go to this party. Jeremy and I have only been going out a few weeks."
"You gonna go?" She shrugged. "Yes or no?"
"I rather go hunting with you."
"So tell them to fuck off."
"I can't just tell them that."
"For fuck's sake girl I'll do it for you." I walked over to them but she stopped me. "What?"
"Come with me!"
"What?!"
"Come with me to the party. There's a forest about 20 minutes away from it. We can go and have some fun, free beer and then we can camp out afterwards."
"I thought you didn't want to go."
"I want to go cuz I've never been to a party, I just don't feel safe going with them."
"But you feel safe with me?" I scoffed.
"I trust you. Shit I would trust Merle more than going with them alone."
"Fine."
She grinned. "Great. Go home. Change into something else and pack your camp gear and meet me here at 8."
"Whatever." I glared at her friends one last time before I got in my truck and left.
What was I getting myself into?
~Wow look at me with the long chapter. So this dream/flashback will continue next chapter. The next chapter will be a lot of flashback before he decides that he was wrong and tries to earn Archer's trust back. Please review what you think so far and anything you want to say