Wake the Dead

My dad was out to the bar and my sister went with my mom up to my uncle's for the weekend, I was home alone. I couldn't go up with them to my uncle's because I got promoted at the tattoo parlor I work at and had to work all weekend. I wasn't worried about being home alone with my dad because when he goes to the bar he normally doesn't come home until Monday, and it was Friday. What he does all weekend is one question I never want to know the answer to.

I had finally put some music that I illegally downloaded at Trey's house onto my piece of shit phone. I set it on the counter and played some music as I got out the ice cream that I bought earlier and some milk to make a milkshake with. Mint chocolate chip, my favorite. I sang along to the song as I put my ice cream and milk mixture into a weird contraption and blended it.

I put everything away, but grabbed some ice to put on the bruise on my eye, a spoon, and a beer, but before I could do anything I heard a knock on my door. I paused my music and walked over, curious to who it could be. The screen door was the only thing closed, so I was able to see who it was, Daryl Dixon.

It had been a little while since I last talked to him. I mean we had little nods or pointless conversations here and there, but it had been a while. When I walked up to open the door, I noticed a weird expression on his face, pain? fear?

"Daryl? Is everything okay?" I asked him as I opened the wimpy screen door.

"Uh- yeah, but uh, is ya family home?" He said not hesitating to ask.

"No, it's just me."

"Um-" He looked behind his shoulder. "Can I come in?" He had a little fear in his voice and rubbed the back of his neck.

I looked behind him, across the street and saw that his dad's car was in the driveway. "Yeah, sure." I said and stepped back letting him in, then closing the screen door and the main door behind him, sensing what was going on.

I looked out the little window at the top of the door and saw Daryl's dad standing with a shot gun in his hand on their porch, and he looked angry. I looked behind me at Daryl, who was biting his nail and looking at the ground, and I saw the the top of his arm was bleeding a lot. Shit.

"Follow me." I said as I led him into the kitchen. "Sit down, I'll be right back." I ran into the bathroom and got the medical kit from under the sink. I went back to Daryl, who was sitting at the counter, looking at his feet.

I set the medical kit on the counter and looked at his arm, he was wearing a sleeveless shirt so it was easy to inspect. It looked like it had been sliced, by a knife, or really any sharp object, but it was deep enough to need stitches.

"This bastard is gona need to be stitched up." Was all I said to Daryl as I cleaned it and then started to stitch it. He barely even winced at the pain. We sat in silence while I fixed his arm up, because I knew he didn't want to talk about it, and I already knew what happened, Daryl's dad happened. I knew what it was like.

It was hard to control my thoughts as I worked on Daryl's arm... his muscular arm.

I finally finished bandaging him up and put everything away. "Thanks." He mumbled when I got back from putting the kit away. "No problem, ya think your dad is gona leave anytime soon?"

"He'll probably end up goin to the bar." Daryl said looking down at his hands.

I hoped he would see my nod out of the corner of his eye as I walked across the counter and leaned on it, facing him. There was awkward silence for a while, until I remember I made a milkshake. "Do ya want a milkshake?" I asked him with a little bit too much excitement in my voice, even though I was really excited about my milkshake.

He looked up at me and smirked a little, "sure."

"Do ya like mint?" I asked him as I got the ice cream out of the freezer. He better like mint because its all I got.

"Ya." Was all he said to that, but at least it wasn't a no, that would have been very awkward.

I finished making his milkshake and grabbed some more ice cubes for my eyes when I put the ice cream away because my other ones melted. I handed him his milkshake and a spoon, "just a warning that I make a pretty damn good milkshake."

He snorted a laugh and then started to eat. I brought my milkshake over and sat it down, then went to wrap my ice up in a paper towel, so it wouldn't be so cold on my face.

"Whats ya bruise from?" Daryl asked me, not looking up from his milkshake.

"What's your cut from." I said as more of a statement then a question as I pointed to his arm i just stitched up. He just nodded, understanding that I was saying that my dad did it to me, too.

I grabbed Daryl a beer and slid it over to him as I got mine off the counter. I was still leaning on the counter, across from him as I poured some of my beer into my milkshake. Daryl raised his eye brows at me and I just laughed, "what? It's like two of my favorite things, in one. It's good."

He chuckled a little, but then took a drink of his beer, separately from his milkshake.

We ate/drank in peaceful silence until I heard another knock on the door. I looked up at Daryl who looked right back at me, probably thinking the same thing; what if it's his dad?

We quietly snuck up to the door and I peaked through the little window, only to see Merle. I sighed in relief and opened the door.

"Well hey there good lookin, is Darlina here?" Merle said with a smirk on his face, but I didn't believe he was happy right now. Daryl came and stood in the doorway lookin at Merle.

"Ah, there he is!" Merle said. "Do ya know I just walked in our house only to be greeted with a gun pointed at my head?"

"Ya..." Daryl started, but then trailed off.

Merle looked at him for a while, but then turned his gaze to me, "well are ya gona let me in or not darlin? Seein that this is our own little hide out now."

I sighed and the opened the screen door. Merle walked in and went straight into the kitchen, looking around. Daryl went and sat back down in the seat he was in, while I took our empty milkshake cups and threw them in the sink.

"Do ya got anything stronger than beer in this pretty lil' house of yours?" Merle asked, but I snorted, my house wasn't pretty.

"If you wana take some out of my dads well protected stash, then help ya self, but you can deal with him we he finds it missing." I said, hoping I would convince him not to take anything, because I would probably be the one getting blamed.

Merle sighed and sat down next to Daryl, "so what we gona do tonight while were hidin out, ladies?"