kai parker • villains of circumstance ✔️

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

Kai must've noticed her uncomfort, as he gently grabbed her hand from under the table. Her shoulders fell at his touch, a reminder of his safety.

"Your hands are cold." Kai whispered as Mr. Groff continued the lesson.

She nodded. If her peers didn't know what she had done, the universe definitely did, punishing her with a blistering cold as she rode her bike to school this morning. Her teeth still chattered. "Don't have a ride to school anymore." She whispered back, with a hint of humor in her voice.

"Why didn't you ask me?" He asked.

She shrugged a bit. "Wouldn't it look... suspicious?"

Kai glanced at her and she turned to meet his gaze. His eyebrows were raised in an almost stern manner and Daisy blushed. "You give everyone a little too much credit." He begins, turning back to face the front of the classroom. "No one here is smart enough to even begin to piece things together."

He was right. It's been almost two months since he killed Jenna, and the police had found nothing regarding leads. She wondered whether or not that was because they were idiots, or if Kai's family had covered it up completely.

"Well— what about Josette?" Daisy asks. "You take her to school and I don't think she'd like it if we were together."

"She doesn't have to know." Kai says. "Just tell her since you and Tommy broke up, you have to ride your bike to school in the freezing cold every morning. She'll feel bad and make me take you to school with us." He shrugs.

"Okay, thanks." She spoke quietly. She opened her mouth to speak again, but stopped when she felt gazes of everyone else in the classroom turn to her. Kai slowly took his hand off hers as Daisy looked up at Mr. Groff, who had been staring at her for who knows how long.

"Do you have something to add, Miss. Hendrix?" Mr. Groff asked, raising his eyebrows sternly.

Daisy clenched her jaw, eyeing everyone who find it necessary to stare at her. She questioned whether or not she should snark a response back at him, but she wasn't in the mood for another detention. She shook her head and Mr. Groff continued his lesson.

—

"I hate the cold." Daisy whines, as she eyes the outdoor sitting area from inside the cafeteria. She grabs a fry from her tray and lazily tosses it in her mouth.

"But cold means Thanksgiving is soon." Josette adds happily.

"I hate Thanksgiving too." Daisy scoffs.

Josette looks at Jen with a shocked expression, and Jen just shrugged it off. "You hate everything." Jen says.

Daisy pointed at her friend. "Very true." She responded in a sarcastic tone.

"I love Thanksgiving." Josette says. "Every year we have our entire—" Josette stops herself and thinks for a second before talking again. "Family over. And they're all really good at cooking so that makes it a little bit more enjoyable."

Daisy smiled faintly as she glanced past Josette's shoulder to see Kai peacefully leaned up against a wall a few tables over, reading a book with his headphones on.