𝖋𝖑𝖔𝖜𝖊𝖗 𝖕𝖔𝖜𝖊𝖗 ⋆ 𝕶𝖊𝖛𝖎𝖓 𝖉𝖆𝖞

𝖋𝖎𝖋𝖙𝖊𝖊𝖓

He analyses her. "What do you talk about with sweet Bee, anyway? Do you tell her more than you tell us? Do you explain why you wake up screaming your brother's name, or why you hate your name so much?"

 
"Fuck you," she hisses, reaching out to shove him. He must have been expecting it because, in an instant, she's shoved back against a wall with a small, shiny knife held to the vein at the side of her throat. He's tiny but mighty, and his strength holds her against the side of the hallway. "What do you want from me?"

"Tell me a secret," he says. "Just any tiny little secret. Just to keep me going. Just so I know you're not lying to us all and stringing poor Kevin along, just to get his heart broken when he finds out that Margaret Cohen is nothing but a lie on legs."

 
Daisy takes a deep breath, as far as she can with the knife pressed against her skin. She looks down at him. "I had my first kiss on my thirteenth birthday, after an old man with a lot of money took me out somewhere fancy in the city. He held my hand all the way through dinner, in our little private booth, and then he kissed me goodnight before paying my brother in cash."

 
Andrew's grip on her slackens just enough for her to shove him away and skitter away from his arms reach. He studies her, the eternal smile wiped clean off of his lips.

 
"Interesting," he says.

"Don't tell anybody."

"As if they would care," he retorts, before disappearing into his dormitory room. She finally chokes out the breath she's been holding in, pressing the heels of her hands deep into her eye sockets. Daisy will not cry. Not right now, not before a game.

Somebody is already in the shower when she steps into her room, and Renee is in the kitchen making a cup of tea. She pours a second mug of hot water when Daisy arrives, dripping rainwater onto the carpet as she trudges over.

"How did it go?" Renee asks her. Daisy accepts the mug of chamomile tea and holds it tight between her hands, inhaling the scent before even thinking about taking a sip.

 
"Shitty," Daisy says, and Renee knows not to ask anymore. "Kevin said he was dropping a game he taped by, did he--?"

"It's on your bed," answers Renee. "Copies of the Ravens games this season."

"Cool," Daisy echoes, then goes back to letting her tea steam her tired face. She's sort of glad the game is a few hours away, it'll give her time to rest before they get there. Sleep hasn't been coming easily lately, and when it does, she wakes up feeling worse than before she went down.

"You two have been getting closer recently," Renee says. "That's good. You both seem happier together."

Daisy scowls. "Don't make it weird. We just get each other, you know? Exy is everything to me, and he gets it."

"I just think it's sweet," Renee says. The shower cuts off in the other room, and she hops down from her perch on the counter. "I'm jumping in. Dan's washing in Matt's room, so you can hop in after me."

 

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There's a gun to her head. She can't really see it, because the world around her is dark, but she can feel the cool, hollow circle of metal pressed into the soft skin of her temple. The presence beside her, the energy that this man holds within him, is darker than anything she's felt before. It's oppressive; her entire soul feels like it's being dragged down to the depths just by being near him.