A Soldier's Girl

Chapter 1:

Beth's View

Growing up was different. I had Maggie and Shawn as siblings, if that tells you anything. They were always making me the Guiana pig for their experiments, which weren't always terrible. But my childhood was better when I had my best friend in the world with me.

Daryl Dixon. He was here from the beginning. That blonde little boy who would rough house with me, is my best friend in the whole wide world. When I was born he was four years old. His family lived next door to me, but he never seemed to stay at his house. He was constantly over playing with me. Daddy never liked that we would wrestle in the yard or climb trees together. He never liked Daryl and I being close at hand and out of sight, especially when we got older. But I remember standing in front of the house at age seven and him at eleven and Mama takin our picture. He looked so nice in his football uniform, Daddy taught him how to play on account his Daddy was never around.

That seemed to be the way him and Daddy got along-football. Daddy would take Daryl out early in the morning and have him practice his punts and throws. Made Daryl run laps around the whole property, but he didn't do it alone. I ran with him, and on occasion Maggie, Shawn, and maybe his brother Merle.

Daryl always had a knack for coming over. If I wasn't the excuse, then it was farm work or learning a new recipe with Mama. Yes. Daryl loved to cook. When he was twelve, I'd sit and sew buttons on dresses while he and Mama made pies, cookies, bread and other thangs. He always let me lick the spatula or get the first taste to something. Mama used to call us peas in a pod, Daryl and I.

On late Saturday Nights, Daryl and I would run out to the edge of my property and lay in the field, waiting for shooting stars to shoot by. When we found one, we'd make a wish and then lay there, just trying to count as many stars as we could. We never got me more than 100 altogether, but we knew we'd never get 'em all.

Middle school was interesting for us. Others would tease us, saying we were married. They'd sing that stupid 'First comes love' song, til he threatened to beat them up. He had girls flock to him, saying they liked him, and I just sat and hoped for a boy to come tell me that. None ever did.

In High school, Daryl was a senior and I was a freshman, but we still hung out. It seemed we had mostly every class together. In fact I was the only girl in shop class, which you could imagine lead to some troubling moments through out the year. Mainly when boys either picked on me or overly flirted- Daryl made it a point to scare the shit out of them.

He got held back a year, on account he didn't pass his SAT Test and failed English class. This gave us one more year together. At the time, he was dating Carol Peletier, a college student, who already had a two year old named Sophia. I never thought much of this relationship. I was happy for Daryl, elated he had found someone he cared about, but that also meant he was losing me. But I had a boyfriend or two, while Daryl had Carol.

Jimmy was my first real boyfriend. He'd come over and watch t.v, we'd kiss, but I never went further than that. Mostly, cause when Daryl heard Jimmy was over, he'd make an excuse to be there too. He was always protective like that, more than Shawn most of the time. Jimmy never lasted long though, we dated twice throughout high school, but he always said we broke up because he couldn't compete with Daryl. I don't know what he meant by that.

Zach was my next and last boyfriend ever. He was nice at first, really sweet and sensitive, but then I met the real him. He was rude, irresponsible, and a pure asshole to everyone, including me. He'd talk down to me about his family, mine, Daryl, and everyone. He tried to push me into having sex with him, but once again, Daryl took care of him for me, when he found out.

In my junior year of high school, Daryl and Carol broke up. I never asked why, but I knew it had something to do with me, because for almost two weeks straight, he refused to come over or even say hi. Normally when he broke up with a girl, he'd be right back on my porch telling me about it. We'd laugh and smite the ex girlfriend, and everything went back to normal, but that break up with Carol, that changed him for a while.