Nardo shoves a plate of food at me and I look up at him with my dead eyes. He lightly glares at the slightly purple bruise on my knuckles. He stays silent as I grumpily eat the food he provided me.
My dear Nardo, got what happens when you try to wake me up. He doesn't know this and I am certainly not telling him, but my reaction was based off of how I'd be woken up in the past.
My groggy half asleep brain didn't know that it was Nardo shaking me awake, so I thought it was someone else.
In my defence I bet my hand hurts more than his face.
Ever since our incident this morning, I've been upset and have covered it up with moodiness. I don't want him knowing why I had that reaction.
"I'm sorry Mags, I know better for next time." He says sitting across from me putting ice on his eye and handing me some for my knuckles.
"Yeah me too, sorry for punching you." I mumble eating my croissant.
"HEY BROTHER AND MY DEAREST NEICE!" Marco screams walking down the foyer. We both grumble and don't answer continuing our breakfast.
"Oh there you are! Geez what the hell happened to you Leo!" He shrieks as he sees the bruise under Nardos eye. Marco then looks over to me seeing my swollen knuckles. "Holy shit! You got rocked by little Maggie?!"
"M'not little." I roll my eyes finishing up my delicious breakfast.
"What are you doing here?" Nardo groans looking at the grinning Marco.
"Oh you know, I needed to see my niece again." I smile at that. Now I have three friends. Ray, Nardo, and Marco.
"Hi Marco." I greet him giving him a small hug. I rest my head on the cool counter and try my best to not feel guilty about Nardos face.
You should be.
I try not to listen to Tina. But it's hard since she kinda lives in my brain. I feel someone rubbing my back comfortingly making me sigh.
I didn't have a good sleep last night so I am exhausted. Every night for a good year now I have slept under the stars. I used them to help me sleep. The other night I fell asleep quickly because I had been up late at night watching 22 Jump Street with Nardo and Marco.
But last night I wasn't as tired as before so I stayed awake majority of the night. So not only was I tired but I was also on edge. That's why I punched Nardo.
It makes me want to cry knowing I hurt him.
Yes, I have gotten into a few fights, and yes I have hurt people before. But they all deserved it. Nardo was just trying to wake me from my sleep. He was doing it gently too. The past few days have been the best of my life and yet I still manage to fuck it all up.
"Maggie we will be right back." Nardo tells me as his hands leave my back. I hear their hushed talking in the next room but I can't make out what they are saying.
They come back a minute later. "Maggie I will see you later alright?" Marco says giving me a quick kiss on my head. I lift my head up and look at him with sad eyes.
"See you then." I smile a bit waving at him. Once he leaves I rest my head back on the counter sighing.
"Come on Maggie." Nardo says pulling me up a bit and leading me to the door. I throw my new slides on and follow him out of the penthouse.
I can't stop worrying. What if Nardo kicks me out? He's like my new best friend and if he leaves me I will be back on the streets.
"Stop worrying we are going for a car ride."
He's going to dump you into a river and you'll drown, the sea weed will strangle you.
I ignore Tina and continue to follow Nardo. A frown is etched on my face and it doesn't go unnoticed. He pulls me into his side and gives the top of my head a kiss before shoving me into the car.
I fiddle with my fingers looking down at my lap. He grabs my hands with his free hand and holds them.
The gesture is small but it makes me feel better. I slowly start to fiddle with his rings. He turns on the radio making my head shoot up in his direction. I thought he hated noise?
"Just today." He answers my silent question. I nod and continue playing with his rings anxiously.
He is still going to dump you in the ocean.
Shut up Tina!
He pulls up to what I have identified as a drive through. "What do you want?" He turns to me and I give him an are you stupid look.
"How am I supposed to know?"
"Right right." He then proceeds to order me a berry hibiscus drink. I don't know what it is but he said he refuses to get me caffeine. He also got me a cookie.
"This is so good, thanks Nardo." I thank him. Have people had this stuff their whole life?
"No problem." He smiles. I look out the window in content just enjoying the drink and cookie. The radio is softly playing and it makes me feel sleepy.
"Don't sleep kid, we need to get stuff for your room." I nod my head and peel my eyes open. "Mags can we talk?" He asks seeming nervous. Nardo being nervous makes me nervous.
"Yeah." I answer hesitantly.
"I just want to know a little more about your life before your mother died."
"What do you want to know?"
"What was she like?"
"She was a bitch. She never cared for me, I was a burden to her. She did her thing and I did my own."
"What about Roan?"
"He was her boyfriend, he was mean and loaded her up with drugs. He was always cold and distant."
He nods his head. "Why did you punch me this morning?"
"I didn't get enough sleep, I was on edge. I am sorry."
"Don't be." He excuses. He looks like he wants to ask more but refrains himself as we pull into the hardware store.
"You said your favourite colour is green right?" He asks once we reach the paints. I nod my head and he drags me to the green section.
I am keeping quiet because one, I am sure I will start crying and two, because I don't want him to be mad.
"Which one." He picks like seven out laying it infront of me. Looking at the greens I don't really like any until I look at the seventh. It's a sage green.
"This one." I point.
"Perfect, there isn't furniture here so we will go to the place down the street." He buys three cans of it before he takes my hand dragging us out of the store and to the car.
We load the paint in to the trunk of his car. I go to walk back to my seat but he turns me around putting his hands on my shoulders. "What's wrong Mags?" He asks me. He looks so worried and it makes me feel worse.
I don't want to cry though so I turn my head away from him trying to hold in the tears that are probably glossing my eyes.
"Maggie?" He turns my head back to face him. "You know that when you are sad you show it on your face? It's the same as when you were a baby. So I know something is wrong. You can tell me."
"I don't want to cry." I shakily tell him truthfully. He furrows his eyebrows.
"You can cry. I won't judge you."
"I'm sorry I punched you." I let my tears fall as I stare up at him.
"Don't be I all ready told you that."
"No. You don't get it."
"Then help me understand."
"I punched you. I hurt you. All you were doing was making sure I woke up on time. And then I hurt you and now you have a bruise. What happens if I hurt you again and you decide that I am not worth it and you leave me alone. You are my bestest friend I have ever had. I don't want you to hate me." I hiccup at the end and drop my head down. Tears are dripping down my face and even though I am sad, I still lick them because they taste salty.
I feel him crush his body against mine and wrap me in a hug. "What are you talking about? I'm not leaving you Maggie. I would never ever leave you. You're stuck with me alright?"
"But- but I punched you."
"You're my best friend too." He tells me completely ignoring what I previously said. I look up at him with happy eyes.
"Really?!" I jump up in down in his arms.
"Really." He confirms laughing. "Now let's go get you furniture."
-
We have all the furniture for my room now. Marco came back when we got home to help us set up. We are now painting the walls in my room. We've done the first coat so now we are on to our second.
Marco put on a throwback 2000s playlist to which the both of us are belting out the lyrics to. Nardo looks like he is going to have a heart attack which makes us even more hyped.
After our talk I felt a bit better but it took two more talks, one in the furniture store, and another on the car ride back home for Nardo to get it through my head that he isn't leaving me.
Or dumping me in the ocean. Suck on that Tina.
He didn't get mad any of the times I needed reassurance and I feel like that just made me feel so much better about the whole situation. Nardo is an understanding guy.
He also called me his bestie which just makes me feel like I could do cartwheels. That got me so hyped.
We only had to paint two walls seeing as the other two are floor to ceiling windows. "Okay let's wait for this to dry, it should take two or three hours, we can eat and then watch a movie."
"Where will I sleep tonight?"
"We will put the furniture together after the movie." I nod and follow them downstairs plopping myself on my stool.
"Maggie I need to talk to you." Nardo gets my attention. I look up at him with a smile. "You need to go to school."
That gets a groan out of me. "How about I just kill myself?" I answer sarcastically.
"Unfortunately it is non-negotiable, you will be joining grade ten, at a public high school." He totally ignores my suicidal comment.
Glad to know where his priorities are.
"Fine." As much as I don't want to go back I still get excited thinking about all the stupid shit I will do.
"If you get suspended, within reason I won't get too pissed, but so help me god you better not get expelled." In response I salute him and when he turns around I give him a nasty look.
"Brighten up Maggie! You can make friends and won't have to hang out with Leo all the time!"
"I like hanging out with Nardo." I defend him when I see him give Marco a hurt look.
"Thanks sweetheart." He smiles at me.
"Whatever."
-
I am so sorry for such a late chapter. My normal routine has been thrown off so now I am trying to get back into the swing of things.
This chapter is terrible and I am so sorry if it was boring. I have been so focused on finishing up Daisy that I haven't worked on this book much.
I do have a lot of ideas for this book but if you want to see something to happen in this one then just let me know!
Lots of love 💕