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When I woke the house was empty, and when I say empty. I mean everyone had plans already, either at the military base or for Jarod. Who had football practice or something in that regard, so I had the little bit of time to finally relax. 

To study for that damn history test coming up, and finish the homework that was demanding my attention. It's been how far into break? Five days? And I haven't done anything productive in the line of education, nor have I emailed my guidance counselor again for my demanding credits.

I'm getting screwed over, next year if I don't go to college. I'll have this boring schedule with a few classes, less than I already have now.

But just when I was getting to the next section, my phone began to ring. And for the first time, did I see Daryl's contact photo pop on screen. Unlike most of the other times where I just missed the call. "Hey!"
"...Rory? Actually near ya damn phone for once. Ya busy?" My first reaction was to shake my head, but then I realized he was on the phone and I spoke my answer out loud. However, the air conditioner in my room was louder than him yelling into my phone. So I walked on out of my room instead.

Was I already getting ready? Perhaps. "Alright, bring ya knife and a bathin' suit."
"You're crazy—" He claimed that I should trust him, so as I said my goodbyes. Did I hurry to get ready, he didn't really explain what we were doing, and in response to that was I in the complete battle of wearing shorts or the outfit I wore hunting.

A knife and a bathing suit.

Having my shirt all planned out, just a normal tank top was the easiest of it all. Especially when my bikini, I wish he told me what we were doing. But then again, I didn't tell him yesterday about the carnival. And neither one of us could have thought about my parents coming out saying hi.

With my pants on, and my combat boots tightened. Did I see the bunny sitting on my bed, one of which I never named yet. Grabbing the given few things and hiding them within my pockets of my being, did I already hear his damn truck on the given path. But this time coming much closer to the house.

Guess he could see there are no extra cars anywhere.

Opening the door did my smile form in the instant, having him come on in. And like his manners coming out of nowhere yesterday, did he wipe his feet before coming further in.
"What's the plan for today?" He chuckled in response but shrugged.
"Ya gonna see the equipment anyway, we're gonna go fishin'...If ya wanna bring some snacks for—" Grabbing his hand did I lead him further into the house, flipping the switch to the walk-in pantry did he just groan in the sight of it all.
"Feels like I'm goin' shoppin' again." 
He said, holding a bag of chips. While I took hold of a box of granola bars, she stocks this at least three times a week when she sees something missing or lacking. Nothing to really miss from this anyway, so in that idea. Did I go straight back upstairs to grab my backpack, filling it up with all the food we've picked out, along with the given water bottles.

Were we finally heading out back to his car.

"Hope I didn't cause too much trouble not stayin'."
"Michael's deployment was meant to last longer...Never thought he'd be back so early without a warning." My smile brightened, but I again apologized for the sudden spring of my parents.

I don't know who was more uncomfortable, myself or Daryl. "Nah, ya dad's cool. And ya ma's a sweetheart. Didn't think I was gonna get no hug." I too shared the agreement that my mom was over dramatic about the entire thing, just didn't know how to spring the entire 'she heard you say my nickname' shit to him just yet. So instead, did we travel to the lake. Surprisingly enough. 

"'member when we were screwin' round over there?" He spoke so calmly about the entire thing, and although we missed the entryway of where he blocked this car to not allow my bike to exit out of.

I need to start looking at the positives more.

"Yeah...That was a while ago, before new years." Shocking to see how much time flies, and to think we rendered ourselves to just hanging out on weekends and things of that sort. So when we removed ourselves from the truck to lug all the gear on out, did he start walking through ways towards a new section that I didn't intend to see.
"Think ya can make it?" He asked, placing down the poles and removing my shoes and socks to tie them by the laces and secure them by hanging it around my neck. Did I start my walk to the little island in the given middle of the lake. 

"Ya ever gone fishin' before?"
"All work and no play in Connecticut. Not really going to hear me doing anything like this." His chuckle rang free, but the splashing of his feet just going straight through. Not even considering to pull up his pants or anything made me laugh as well.

"Ya sure? Ya goin' and doin' that makes ya seem like ya done this 'fore." I shook my head, still managing through the rocks to get to the other side. And by the time I got there, Daryl had held down his hand to help me up. Don't know when he passed me, but I was too concerned to just fall flat out like that. 

As he took the poles out of my hands, making me follow to the other edge of the water did I see the actual set up here. A little fire pit, the logs placed around it. "You camp here too?"
"Eh, sometimes it gets late when ya least expect it." 
Shrugging did I swing my bag against the log, fixing my boots and socks as I sat on the log. And while he sorted through everything, waiting for me to get ready.
I standing beside him, bear-hugging him over the shoulders and around his neck. And his only response was to create this into a sort of piggyback ride as we trailed a ways back, off to another corner of the mini island. "First, we gotta find some worms...When it gets this warm, they gonna be just on top. But when it's cold they're down deeper." I nodded, beginning to dig with both hands. But the slimy little guy Daryl found one, waving it to me. Did I shiver in sight of it.

Just don't think about it. 

And just when I thought it was too much, he threw it into the bucket. Shaking my head in fear did I find a good couple, and throwing them in without any second thought.
"Didn't think ya'd be afraid of some worms Rory."
"Not a fan of spiders either." His chuckle sounded rustier than before, turning into a cough as he tried to cover it on up. 

Is he getting sick? 


Before long, we found the jackpot of them all. Just cruising around the one particular rock under the shade and away from the light. But with Daryl doing ghostly noises as he taunts me with it, did I shutter away. Laughing a warning before he stops, only to hang his head backwards and open his mouth to eat it. I grabbed his wrist before he could even think to further the action.

"You eat that fucking thing, and I'm not kissing you for a week." 
The pout from earlier in our vacation came back to bite me in the ass, but I shook my head. Even now as he just shrugged it off to do it again.
"Guess we gotta find somethin' else to do then..." Looking away as I try to find more of them, did he just laugh a storm as he threw it on in.
"Nah, was jokin'...Only eat 'em if ya that hungry."
"Don't think I'd eat them then either." 
He grumbled an agreement, but soon we were free to start the day off right. Returning to our poles, did he set mine up. Walking me through it step by step, casting the line out for me before returning my reel to my hands. 

We stationed the logs a bit closer to the water, both of us sitting side by side. But his bobber just a given few yards away from mine made it a challenge to see who would get it first. 

It was silent, for one I didn't know if we'd scare the finish by talking. But since nothing was biting, I felt Daryl's leg begin to bounce.
"Last night...When you said goodbye. My mom was listening."
"Well, it's a good thin' I didn't mention nothin' else...Ain't it." Rolling my eyes at his jumpy sudden mood, did I take into an account that this might turn out as badly as I would think. My mom approved of him yesterday, saying how he was a 'sweet boy'. But I knew, somewhere behind that kindness. Mom saw herself in my shoes.
"She heard you call me Rory."
"I heard her call ya Aurora, thought it was weird for a minute...She mad?" 
I shook my head in the instant, smiling up a storm as he too didn't get it.
"Not mad. Over the moon happy."
"Whys that?"
"When I started calling myself Blake, I think that really hit home for her...And now you're calling me—"
"By ya first name...I get it. Ya mom's sweet, wouldn't think for a second she did drugs or anythin'."

Again, this was the time I agreed with him. Especially since she's cleaned herself up so nicely, but that might be because the eye of Grandma Jaclyn was so close to our beings.
"Like I said...She changed so much."
"Is she all different?...I mean...I don't know what I mean." He trailed off the question, making me look down to the dirt below me. To be honest I don't think I had any exceptions to withhold from and to my mother.

She's just my mom. I remember her face, her voice as she sometimes calls me on the phone. But it's been difficult never the less. "She's still guilty. I don't think we'll ever get over that." This was getting far too emotional far too fast for my liking, so instead did I give myself the small action of shifting around. 
I felt uncomfortable, but the second he had me hold his pole. I was turned uncomfortable and confused. That is, until he brought over the red cooler.

"First rule of fishin' ya gotta have some beer." The given full minute was worth the wait, especially when he traded back his pole for an already open and cold beer.

And before I allowed him a sip, I got his attention. Making him halt in the given action.
"Ya keep bein' cute, it's gonna cost ya." He said, clinking out glass bottles together before taking a slug alongside mine. But my smile was only enhanced due to the alcohol now coursing through my veins.

Teasing my reel a little bit, all we were getting was little sunny fish. He still claimed it was still a meal, but I was still hoping for a bigger catch, yet it never came.

Three hours was his limit, and even then were we talking, drinking, smoking. And just having a good time in each others company. Until a new question came up into my mind.
"Why are you teaching me all this stuff?" I said, still testing the fish's ability to see the worm bouncing around on the hook. Daryl had gotten a large tug but lost it before it was even close to returning to us. 

"Told myself when I was younger, that'd I'd teach my wi—Girlfriend...Kinda runs in the family." I pretended not to hear, I really tried. But mid-sip of my drink caused me to cough all the bit more. And even then was it difficult not to choke. He meant to say wife.

He meant wife.

"You'd teach your kids?" He chuckled, doing the same action I was mimicking the entire time here. Yet he tugged back his entire pull to have it jolt through the water, at first I thought it was a catch, instead was it just him fooling around and thinking up how to respond.

I'd say that the beer got to me, but I don't think it really did. These were all questions I wanted to ask one time or another. "Don't think I'm gonna have kids..."
My eyebrows scrunched together, does he not like kids? Does he—
"...Got Merle hangin' over my head, ain't really father material. Ya know?" Not knowing how to respond, I didn't. Not a single ounce of movement, even my line that was tugging did I have a hard time reacting to it. "I think you'd be good at it..."
"Pff." Quickening my hands to the reel, trying to get the stupid thing to shore before it escapes. Was I left with a bigger sunny than before, christ almighty. 

"Why? Ya want kids?" Not liking this conversation, or where it is heading. Did I take another swing of my drink and shrug, honestly not knowing. "I'm 18 Dixon...Come back later with that question."
"Not now hun...Five years or somethin'?"

Rubbing my eyes, making sure this isn't a dream and this is really happening. Did I have to up the antsy and pitch myself on the wrist to secure my well being at what to say next.
"Maybe...I don't know. Yeah?"
"Ya got the patience to be a ma, think ya'd be good at it." I smiled at his ability to turn the entire thing around into a compliment, but I just reminded him I was forced with that trait in the home. 

"I want to work with Foster kids...don't need what happened to me happen to anyone else."
 
"And I thought ya just wanted to work on bikes the rest of ya life...Kiddin', kiddin'." My glare might have had him stutter his end reaction, but I truly hope that is the direction I go into in the workforce. But that was one conversation I didn't want to have with him, about working. He wasn't focusing on school and he certainly not planning to go to college, or passing high school.

I don't want to judge, but it is so thickly imprinted into my bones that this is the path I'm going to take. And it's screwing me over right now as I sit beside the man I love. This is what is going to end us, our ideals of how to continue on with life.


With the sun just drying off our soaked bodies when we took the relaxing dip into the lake, was it time to head on back. Quickly than before considering we didn't want to get caught walking in the dark, seeing how one of us is blind like a damn bat when it comes to looking in the dark.

So when I recognized the given road, I knew he was driving me home without a second thought. I tried, and truthfully. As he stated at the lake, tomorrow's party is worrying to the point of no return. 

Haven't really been to a paryt since I smoked—

"Did...Did I say somethin' wrong?" I turn to look at him from my resting window sort of pose, confused as all hell. Especially since he wasn't looking my way and paying too much attention to a clear blank road. "N-no you—"
"If it was us talkin' 'bout kids, I'm sorry Rory but I ain't..."

He started his sentence slow, slow enough to make it the entire duration up my driveway and to the barn before parking. And in that instant did I pin his waist down with mine as I sat on him, holding his cheeks together as I needed him to pay attention.

"I'm 18, you're 20. We are too young to even think about raising a kid. Okay? I'm not mad, not at all...Just taken back by it." God is this entire thing a turn-off, couples shouldn't have this conversation unless the girl's pregnant or they've been dating for a year. So in that did I falter my own words face plant down to his shoulders.
"Ain't good with 'what if's' are ya?"
"That ain't a 'what if' Dixon." Whenever my pronunciation is different his body just chuckles, especially now. But even with my drawn out attention, he's still buckling.

"...If we're still together...Would ya want a kid...?" That's when I froze, my mind was already wired on the thought of it that I just looked up to feel his head. "Maybe you should stay here, I don't want you driving home dr—"
"I ain't drunk hun, I'm serious...Would ya?"

The clenching of my heart was growing, I don't know the right answer to this. How do I even... "Five years from now?...Yeah maybe, I think you're looking further into the future than I am Dixon..." He was silent now that I called him out, but that didn't stop him from kissing my forehead. And in sight of him knowing my response, did I just look back up. "...Would you?" The question rolled off my tongue far to quickly, so much so that I didn't even have time to think it all the way through.

"Ya the mom? Yeah, hell yeah...Aight, maybe I'm a lil drunk. But that don't matter, Rory I love ya." Him admitting so was music to my ears, he'd definitely remember this. But not too much so that he'd suddenly be into having a life starting the second graduation rolls around the corner.

Was this something that he's wanted to talk about? Because this was the only thing that drew my attention, having him so pushy about this sort of thing. I promised myself to be a better mother than my own, and I feel like Daryl has the same attitude about that.

But a whole life with someone, being that committed? 
If Psychology or Sociology taught me anything, young couples always end in divorce. And the last thing my heart wants is to have Pookie and I on a path of war.

"Are you trying to get me to cry, but you're halfway there." Lowering my hold on him, does he make the effort to squeeze my body tighter than before. Rocking the smallest bit back and forth, along with kissing my forehead again.
"Don't mean to hun, just wanna know."

Nodding into his stomach does he let out another chuckle, but the way his stomach is breathing. It meant he was starting to cry as well. "How the hell ya make me feel like this Rory...Ain't used to all this..."

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Date Posted: 03-18-18 // Time: 9:53
Word-Count: 3193
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