Shoes discarded some place she quickly forgot, sprawled across a circle of grass that the sunlight managed to penetrate through the dense trees, Daphne was bored. The repetitive, piercing scream of Dandy's gun had begun to harden her of hearing, and she rolled onto her stomach. Resting her face in her palms, she pleaded with him. To woo Dandy away from doing something he enjoyed took extreme practice and experience.
"Dandy", she sung, he already knew what was coming before the words left her mouth.
"Wait", he ordered, "just a while longer".
Frustrated, clammy and tired, she located her shoes and pulled them on, waiting. She always waited for him, whatever he was doing. There was no Dandy without Daphne, and there was no Daphne without Dandy. Although having no apparent benefit to each other's lives, things were just better when they were together.
Finally he departed from him activity, and he was quick to guilt trip Daphne back to him humble abode.
"Mother will be delighted to see you, she feared you had abandoned us", he smiled charmingly, the only way he knew to express his delight.
"Abandon you?", she gasped in mockery, unbeknownst to Dandy, however, as his narrow mind didn't allow him to read social ques.
"Who would pay for my food?", she mumbled, pretending to be interested in things outside the window.
He groaned alloud, now being brought back from his frenzy of short appreciation for his companion.
"You always ruin it!", he almost screamed, but Daphne simply turned up the radio.
"My darling", she sang obnoxiously over the cries of Dandy to Dean Martin, "if I hurt you I'm sorry, forgive me and please say you are mine".
She leaned over and stroked his hair, resting her head on his shoulder. He knew she was just poking fun at him, and he shrugged her off. Although being the biggest advocate for personal space, she sure as hell invaded his.
"Hello Daphne! It is my greatest pleasure having you stay for dinner", Gloria grinned grandly from her seat at the head of the table, whilst Daphne and Dandy sat across from each other.
"As it is mine being here", she raised her glass of wine humorously, which only caused Dandy to roll his eyes and kick her harshly under the table.
"You have been far more annoying than usual today, my rash will return if you continue", he whined and sipped from his glass bottle.
Gloria simply observed the two, as she often did over the years. It was a strangle dynamic, undoubtedly, but her son had never made such an open friend. Daphne did not become scared of his outbursts, but only humoured herself with them.
On Dandy's twelfth birthday, he wished that God would take away Daphnes right to speak.
With a full belly and a light head, Daphne slouched further into her chair and yawned. Politely leaving her conversation with Gloria, in which she again urged her to quick the Freak Show and join her in her life of luxury, hurried off to find Dandy.
"Oh Dandy-Doo", she sung tipsy, resting her sun-worn body on the door frame.
"Don't call me that", he snapped without turning to meet her, the lights of the drawing room dim.
"Can you take me home? I'm really tired and Jimmy will worry if I don't return soon".
At the mention of the wretched boys name, he pinched at the skin between his temples.
"I wish you would not speak of him so much, it's as if he's all you think about".
Confused as to his new observation, which was quite frankly not true, she became defensive.
"I do not talk of him all the time!", over the years she has adapted to Dandy's upper-class mannerism of speaking, "and what's it to you if I do? All you talk about is being an equestrian and you don't hear me bitchin'?".
This escalated into a heated argument, going beyond their usual octave of bickering. Blow after blow, the pair paced in circles only to return to scream in the faces of each other- too much 'Dandy exposure', Daphne called it. Gloria and Dora had gathered silently at the door, anxious to see what would come from this, although Dora was simply excited to see an altercation.
"You're such a prissy Dandy, honestly, look at yourself!", she was beyond frustrated and the locks of hair she tugged from her scalp were to show for it.
"I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!", he bellowed, tears streaming down his flushed cheeks, "I never want to see you ever again in my whole entire life! I should never of befriended someone who amounts to the shit on the bottom of my shoe, you loathsome freak!".
Breath hitched in the back of her throat, she stepped backwards away from the man. The look of betrayal on her face, and the glossiness of her eye betrayed her usual care-free persona. Dandy knew what he had done before he did it, but he didn't get the glorifying feeling of power he had expected at saying the only thing he knew would hurt his only friend. She pondered at what to say, but rendered it useless as the boy in front of her became only a fragment of what he once meant to her.
Dandy's face dropped progressively as an unfamiliar pit made his stomach feel void of the banquet of food he had demolished previously. Hasting to leave the room, Dora, Gloria and Dandy all stood in a frozen silence as a muffled sob could be scarcely heard from down the hall.
"Well done Dandy, you just done lost the only person that actually liked you in this world", Dora humoured but didn't leave her stance.
For once, Dandy Mott was speechless. Not for long however, as an almighty BANG could be heard from outside. All rushing to the nearest window, a mix of reactions could be read from the sight below them. The girl, seemingly in an unstoppable fury, kicked furiously at the side of Dandy's car. Dora let out a humoured laugh and Gloria was stricken at the sight of such a small girl being able to emit such force, denting the metal.
The pit in his stomach disappeared at this, and he quickly returned to him usual glare.
"Stupid cow".
