Reggie Greene and Daryl Dixon met in a club a couple of months before the apocalypse started. For Daryl, being around Reggie was complicated. He grew up around all different kinds of hatred, homophobia being one of the largest ones. With his family...
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TW: sexual assault. it doesn't go into great detail, just implied at the very end of the flashback.
The monday morning that daryl woke up for the first day of school, it was raining pretty heavily. daryl wasn't happy about it, because he had to walk the twelve blocks to school. his dad was on the floor in the living room, passed out drunk, and even if he wasn't, he wouldn't waste the fuel on 'something as stupid as that damn school.' merle had gone off to a party, and he hadn't came home, which meant he also couldn't take daryl. so, that was it. his first day of sixth grade, and he would be attending in soggy clothes and tired legs. it wasn't the best situation, and it wasn't like anyone would care if he just bunked off, but he didn't want to.
not to mention that he'd been saving up all summer for a backpack he saw in a store window. it was a black backpack, and it had a wolf on the back with flames around it. it cost forty dollars total, and when you were a child living in a house that had no income, an alcoholic father and a menace brother, forty dollars was hard to get. he'd done everything he could to get it. he'd sold three rabbits that he'd hunted for mr.sikolatt down the road, and he paid him ten dollars for that. he stole a five out of his father's pocket when he was drunk, but spent three of that on something small for dinner, so only saved the two. he pickpocketed a ten from a rich woman outside the bar, and made the rest mowing lawns. he hoped with the new backpack he had, that he'd actually make some friends that year. nobody ever wanted to be friends with him.
daryl grinned to himself, putting the backpack on his back and pulling up the hood of his coat, before he began to walk the blocks to school. it would've been way easier if he had a bike, but he didn't. bikes were way too hard to save up for. if he saved up for a bike over the summer, he wouldn't have been able to eat, and if his dad found out that he'd bought a bike, he'd only sell it. his father never let him have anything nice. hell, the night before, daryl found a can of root beer in the fridge whilst his father was 'asleep' and tried to be quiet enough to grab it. turns out, his father wasn't asleep at all, and gave him a beat down for stealing. daryl was going into sixth grade with a large bruise on his face, along with a bust lip. it was a bad beat down, that one, because merle wasn't there to help him. but hey, at least he had his cool new back pack.
"mr dixon, late on your first day, just as i expected." daryl's teacher, mrs daniel said, the second he walked through the door. the rest of the kids in the class started giggling at daryl's state. wet from head to toe, bruised face, and a hole in his not so new shirt.
"ain't my fault! dad was sleepin' and couldn't give me a ride, and i don't got a bi—"
mrs daniel's cut him off. "i don't care, dixon. go sit down, you're dripping all over my carpet."
daryl looked up, seeing where he could sit. everyone was already sat with someone, whispering to each other about daryl. he had expected it, that's what they always did. he let his eyes scan the room, until he finally found a spare seat next to someone he had never seen before. a boy, he had blonde hair and brown eyes. he didn't shuffle away like the rest of the kids did when daryl went next to them, he just gave him a warm, welcoming smile as daryl sat down. daryl didn't return the smile, he just folded his arms and looked to the front of the class, ignoring how the girl in front of him moved her seat more forward so he couldn't touch her. not like he wanted to, but girls his age avoided daryl like he had the plague. he didn't know why, it was just the way it'd always been.
