It's been two weeks since I patched up a very drunk Daryl, and I haven't seen him much since. I don't even know why I care? I haven't been at the house much because I've been trying to get some extra hours at work since I need the extra cash. I take any shift that becomes available. It's not like I'm trying to avoid him or anything.

My shift starts in twenty minutes so I head to the car. I place my bag on the passenger seat of the car as I slide into the driver's side. I slam my door and put the keys in the ignition. My car makes a weird noise then stops. C'mon car. I turn the key again and nothing. After trying a third and fourth time I give up and slam my hands on the steering wheel. Fuck! I can't afford repairs on this car right now. I may need to take up a second job in the near future, the more money I make the faster I can get out of here. I slam my hands again on the wheel cursing and swearing under my breath. When my arm gets tired I lay my head on the wheel and sigh. I could probably call Katelyn, although I think her shift already started. I can't call Ethan because he's at school.

I'm trying to take deep breaths to stop myself from crying, I'm frustrated because I need the money so I have to work, there's no way I can call out. I would walk but it would take me at least a half an hour to get there.

Someone knocks at my window and I gasp, looking up I see that it's only Daryl. He's standing there looking annoyed as usual. I push open the door nearly hitting him in the process. He steps back.

"What do you want?"

"Car trouble?" he questions.

"Clearly I'm having car trouble or I wouldn't be sitting here contemplating how I'm getting to work," I bark.

"I'll take you," he offers.

"What. No way! I have to pick Liam up after my shift, how would I do that on a motorcycle?" I question.

"Maybe it's an easy fix I'll take a look," he tells me.

"Oh so you're a mechanic now too?" I question.

I'm irritated and he's not helping. As much as I want to hop on that bike I'm really not in the mood to do it with him.

"I can fix certain things, just let me take you," he offers.

"Fine!"

"Should I change though? I'm wearing a skirt?" I ask.

"Hike it up," he grumbles and walks away.

When he turns round I make a face and mimic his movements.

"Saw that," he grunts.

I throw him the finger, but I get no response to that. The only reason I'm agreeing to this is because I need the money. I grab my bag and slam the car door, then throw my keys inside the bag. I walk over to Daryl who's already standing by his bike. He hands me the helmet and I give him a look.

"Wear it," he says.

"Whatever."

I take the helmet from him as his hand grazes mine. I hate that when he touches me my body does weird things. Right now my hearts racing a million miles a minute, and I can't seem to make it stop.

"First time right?" he asks breaking me from my thoughts.

I nod.

"Keep your feet here," he says pointing to a pedal sticking out. "Careful some areas may be hot so try not to burn yourself. Also lean with me when I turn," he says.

"Got it," I tell him.

"Are you sure?"

I nod, annoyed that he thinks I'm incompetent. I may have never ridden before, but I'm not stupid I get it. He gets on the bike and then waits for me. I stick the helmet on my head, then throw my leg over and to sit. I shift trying to find a comfortable position. When he turns around to talk to me I realize how close we are. There's not even an inch of space between us, and my legs are touching his side.

"Wrap your arms around me here," he says taking my arms and placing them around his waist.

His body goes still as I grip him tightly, and I swear he has to catch his breath for a second. I can feel my heart pounding in my chest as my body is forced to lean against his. His black t-shirt is lifted a little on the side and I can feel the warmth of his skin on part of my arm. I'm not quite sure what to do with my head so I lay it on his back against his leather vest.

"You trying to squeeze the life out of me? You can loosen up a bit," he laughs.

I release some pressure from his stomach and he takes a deep breath. I adjust my head and watch over his shoulder as he pulls out of the driveway and race towards the main roads. There's wind in my face and at first it's annoying and I can't catch my breath, but once we hit the highway I feel better. He revs the engine and picks up speed as we cruise down highway nine towards the restaurant. The further we go the more I'm enjoying this. It feels like freedom.

I love this time of year as the trees change colors, I can see them for miles as we race over a small hilly area. I close my eyes and rest my face against his back again. He takes a deep breath and I lift my head to check out where we are. There's still another five minutes before we get there, so I start looking around again. My hair whips in the wind covering my face at times, but I'm too nervous to let go to fix it.

A few minutes later he pulls into the restaurant and drives right up to the door. He cuts off the engine and starts to turn. Without realizing he sets his hand down on my bare leg, and when I look up at him I can feel a weird fire rushing through my body. He only has it there for a second before realizing and pulls away. He lets me use his body to steady myself as I climb off. I unstrap the helmet and hand it to him, he puts it on.

"What time you get off?" he asks.

"Two thirty, have to pick up Liam at three fifteen," I say.

"Okay, I'll see what I can do," he tells me.

"Keys?" he says holding out his hand.

I dig through my bag and jiggle the car keys off my keychain. I throw them over to him and he catches it with a grin on his face. He starts the engine back up and revs it. I put my hand on his shoulder to get his attention. He stops and the engine is now just a loud purr.

"Thank you," I tell him.

He does that grunting thing, which I can only assume right now means sure, whatever. He looks at me for a quick second before pulling out of the parking lot. For some strange reason I watch him leave.

I step into the restaurant and Katelyn is standing at the front podium. She looks at me with wide eyes. A costumer looks to get her attention, she mumbles something and then comes straight for me.

"Why do you look like you just went through a wind tunnel?" she asks.

"I had to catch a ride," I say.

"A ride with who?" she questions.

"Just a guy that's working for Travis," I tell her.

"Are you serious? You got a ride from a drug dealer? The fuck, you could have called me. Probably would have been the safer option," she says trying to keep her voice low.

"It's fine," I tell her.

"Really?"

I nod. She smiles and messes with my hair some more. I shove her playfully and head into the backroom. I put my stuff away and go check out my crazy hair-do. My honey blonde hair is all over the place. I really do look like I've stepped out of a wind tunnel. Katelyn comes waltzing into the bathroom brush in hand.

"Thought you might need this," she offers.

"Thanks," I say.

She nods and walks into one of the stalls. I start fixing my hair combing through the knots is slightly painful.

"So is he cute?" she asks.

"What? No fucking way," I shout.

I hear her flush the toilet, and seconds later she pushes through the door.

"Chloe..." she teases.

I smack her arm and laugh. She looks over at me and gasps. My eyes lock with hers and she shakes her head, a smile playing on her lips. I feel my cheeks burning and I know exactly why she's looking at me like that.

"Chloe's got a crush," she taunts.

"Shut up!" I say bumping into her with my hip.

I'm thankful when work is over because I'm exhausted, it's only the middle of the week and it's been a pretty hectic day. Katelyn is determined to see who Daryl is and I'm honestly nervous. If she realizes it's one of the guys from table number five she'll flip. It's almost time for him to come pick me up and I wonder how my car is doing.

Thankfully I find out that Katelyn is working a double today, so luckily I'm able to sneak out just as a small rush of customers come in. I head outside zipping up my black hoodie because it's getting a little chilly and don't feel like freezing during the bike ride. I push through the front doors and when I don't see Daryl I get annoyed. He probably forgot all about me and went to go do things for my stepfather. I step out into the parking lot and look around. I'm in shock when I see Daryl leaning up against my car smoking a cigarette. He better not have smoked that in my car. I march towards him and stop with my arms crossed at my chest.

"What?"

"You didn't smoke that in my car did you?" I ask.

He snickers and shakes his head.

"You serious?"

"Dead serious," I say.

"Well your welcome by the way, you owe me one-hundred-fifty dollars for a new battery."

He takes a puff of the cigarette and then throws it on the floor. I watch as his black boot flattens it. I shift my leg and sigh.

"Thank you," I say rolling my eyes. "You didn't answer my question though."

"You're impossible, you know that?" he asks.

"I've been told that," I shrug.

I hold out my hand waiting for my keys. He looks at me and without a word and gets into the driver's seat. I take a few strides forward and put my hands on the window.

"You coming?" he questions.

He doesn't even crack a smile, his face is serious. I roll my eyes for thousandth time and walk around the front of the car. He starts the engine and it purrs to life. Thank god. I put my bag on the floor and slide in. As I put the seatbelt on he starts moving.

"Where's the school?" he asks.

"School Street, two blocks from the house," I say.

We drive in silence for the first few minutes. I reach over and start to play with my radio. It's static at first until I hear the start to one of my favorites by Len. I start to sing along and stare out the window. Daryl doesn't say anything, but starts to drum his fingers on the wheel. I feel him looking over and it makes my stomach do stupid flips.

"You're not from around here," he says out of nowhere.

"Huh?" I ask.

"You're accent, you're not from Georgia are you?" he asks.

"You got all of that from my accent. Where do I sound like I'm from?" I ask.

"Up north somewhere," he guesses.

I nod and wait to see if he can guess my accent. He bits his lip and then looks over. Our eyes meet for a brief moment and then he stares back at the road.

"Say coffee," he says.

"Cawfee," I say.

"Say talk," he says.

"Tawwk," I respond.

"Soda or pop?" he asks.

"Soda."

I laugh and shake my head keeping my eyes on the passing cars next to us. He's quiet for a minute as I sing along to the next song on the radio waiting for him to guess.

"You're a New Yorker aren't you?" he questions.

"Long-guy-land actually," I joke trying to drag out my words.

He laughs.

"You ever been?" I ask.

He shakes his head.

"Then how do you know my accent so well?" I ask.

"I knew a guy," he tells me.

"Of course you did," I laugh.

"What's that supposed to mean?" his voice is on edge.

"Nothing," I say back. "Oh, turn right at the stop sign. It'll cut off three minutes at least," I tell him.

"You're not from around here either," I say.

"I'm from this state," he says.

"Figured that," I tell him.

"Where you from?" I ask.

"Around," he says shutting down.

I don't press him anymore because he doesn't seem to want to talk about where he's from. I let out a sigh and continue singing along to the radio. We pull up to the school just in time as the kids start rushing out. I head in alone while Daryl stays in the car. I walk into the hall, but I don't see Liam sitting in the chair. I wait for a few minutes to see if he comes and as the hallway clears he still hasn't shown up.

As I push through the main office door I hear him almost immediately. He's crying and upset. The lady at the front desk knows me and points in the direction of one of the offices in the back. I follow the sound of his voice, something I don't hear very often but would know it even in a crowded room. I knock on the door and when the teacher looks up she's got the phone in her hand. She waves me in and when I get in there the counselor is sitting next to him, while the nurse seems to be patching him up.

"We were trying to call you, no one is answering at home," the teacher says.

She puts the phone down and looks from Liam to me. I rush to his side and take his hand in mine. He's got tears streaming down his face and a scratch near his eye.

"What happened?" I ask her.

She nervously tucks her hair behind her ear before speaking.

"He was being pushed around during our free time this afternoon. The kids were picking on him all day. I had to call them out several times," she says.

"Same kids as usual?" I ask.

She nods. That puts a bitter taste in my mouth. I've pleaded with the school to remove the kids that do this from his class. They still have yet to do so, they don't take me seriously because I'm just the big sister. If I had custody things would be different. I can't do anything without money so I'm stuck. I fear my mom and stepdad will actually fight me on this, but I'm determined to make him mine.

"Didn't I ask to have them removed?" I say raising my voice slightly.

"Yes, but there's ..."

"No, there's nothing, remove those boys from that class! This is crazy. Why does my brother have to suffer? He loves school more than anything he's smart and wants to learn. Don't fuck with his education because you don't want to hurt their parent's feelings by telling them that their kids are jackasses."

My voice breaks as a knot forms in my throat. These parents need to take responsibility for the damn children. The last time I met with them they laughed in my face because they don't see me as an adult. They see me as a child and it pisses me off. I may be only twenty, but I'm probably a hell of a lot more mature than them. If they can't see that their kids are being assholes then they shouldn't be parents. If I ever have kids and they end up being assholes I'd want to fucking know.

"Miss Pierce we are trying," the counselor starts.

"Trying isn't good enough. There are like zero schools in this area for kids who are hard of hearing, how is this fair to him? He just wants to be here like everyone else. I want this fixed!" I yell.

I tug on Liam's arm and he stands next to me. I can hear him whimpering so I take him into my arms and give them all dirty looks.

"I'm serious, if this isn't fixed I'll go after those parents with everything I got. Bullying is unacceptable and I won't stand around and tolerate it. I was bullied for years and let me tell you it messes with a person. Do something about it or I swear..."

"Okay Mrs. Pierce," the counselor says in a calming voice.

I roll my eyes because I know they'll do shit. I put my arm around Liam and walk out of the office. The old lady behind the counter gives me a dirty look and I'd love to flip her off, but I don't. I head to the car where Daryl is once again leaning against it smoking. I open the back door on the driver's side and help Liam get into his booster seat. He's still short for his age, so I still have him in one. I slam the door and lean against it, running my hands over my forehead to try to calm myself. I tug at the ends of my hair and want to scream. I see Daryl throw the cigarette to the ground and smash it.

"Ready?" he asks.

I nod.

"Can you drive again?" I ask in a weak voice.

"Yeah," he says.

As I sit down in my seat I turn to Liam who's staring out the window in a daze, then lean against the half open window and stare out at the gray overcast sky. Clouds are starting to roll in, and I can feel a mid-October storm brewing. We stop at a red light and tears start falling from my eyes. I try to wipe them away before Daryl catches it, but in the corner of my eye I see him watching me.

When we get home I don't say a word, I walk around to get Liam out and Daryl hands me the keys. He doesn't say anything either, just walks towards his motorcycle to leave. I get Liam out and he asks me why Daryl was driving. I tell him about my car not working at Daryl fixing it just as he peels out of the driveway.