𝖋𝖑𝖔𝖜𝖊𝖗 𝖕𝖔𝖜𝖊𝖗 ⋆ 𝕶𝖊𝖛𝖎𝖓 𝖉𝖆𝖞

𝖓𝖎𝖓𝖊𝖙𝖊𝖊𝖓

"You can wear some tights," Allison wagers. This is a girl who has never lost an argument, and Daisy Cohen will not be the first to defeat her in battle. "And bring a coat, but you have to take it off at the club..."

Daisy decides now is a good time to dissociate. Allison potters around, gathering accessories for her own costume and things the girls and Matt have requested, so Daisy removes her costume and sits on a bench staring at the floor until the blonde is ready for her.

It's not like she's had a really bad day in a while. The pit in her stomach seems to be quelled for now, and Daisy doesn't feel that pull to sink into it's depths nearly as often as she used to. She supposes that's a win. Betsy seems to think so too. But there's never really any particularly good days either. They're just... neutral. There's no real grief or sadness tugging at her heart, but there's also not much excitement, not much unbridled glee or childish mischief. And Daisy knows that healing is a journey, and she knows that it's going to be a long time before she's any semblance of normalcy. But she really, really wants it to hurry up, because seeing everyone around her feeling a full range of feelings is really making her limited emotional resources deplete quicker.

"Come on," Allison snaps from her side. "Have you-- oh, what's wrong?" Her tone changes in a millisecond, and she reaches out to wipe a wetness from Daisy's cheeks that the girl didn't even notice was there.

"I didn't even realise," says Daisy, to her own shock. "I-- I was just thinking."

"About what?"

She stands, Allison's arm tucked into the crook of her elbow as they make their way out of the store. "I don't know. I wasn't really thinking about anything."

"If you don't want to go this weekend, it's okay," Allison says gently. "I was only kidding when I said you had to go. Well. Half kidding."

But Daisy is nothing if not stubborn, and exists with a constant fear of missing out. So, in response to Allison's pity un-invite, she answers, "Your fashion sense sucks ass since your boyfriend died. I'll figure out my own costume; the drugs didn't make me forget how to look good."

═══°∴,*⋅✲══〖✰〗══✲⋅*,∴°═══

Ouch, Daisy thinks. And she really does mean it. Because a ball, pelted at full strength from Neil's racquet, just clocked her square in the chest and knocked the wind out of her. Now she's lying flat on the floor, groaning and wheezing as she tries desperately to suck air into the empty cavity within her. Fuck, she thinks.

Somebody offers her a hand up, and a few hard smacks on the back gets Daisy right as rain. There's a commotion from the middle of the court, where Neil's throw had originated, and she squints a little through the sweaty haze over her contact lenses to see Kevin shoving Neil violently.

"--ankle isn't healed properly and you're using her as target practise? Are you shitting me?" she hears him shouting. It's quite comical, really, with all six feet and three inches of Kevin spitting fire and flames towards five-foot-four Neil, who has a mildly bored expression.

"Oh, sorry," Neil scoffs. "Did you want me to not throw it to you while she was defending you? Next time, I'll play the entire game on my own. I mean, that's what wall rebounds are for, right?"

Daisy rolls her eyes so far back into her head that it hurts. This isn't the first time this week that they've had this argument, or some version of it between Kevin and another Fox. On Monday it was Aaron, who'd cracked Daisy's shoulder pad with his racquet while she was scrimmaging in offense. On Tuesday, Dan had turned her back for two seconds while spotting Daisy on the weight racks. Wednesday was a shouting match behind a closed office door between Kevin and Coach on the Cohen girl's behalf, and Thursday he'd apparently given Matt a stern talking to in the change rooms about letting Daisy pick up his slack on court when she's still not 100%.