DAISY
"Are you breathing? Did you die? Should I get you a water along the way?" I panicked.
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"So, you like. . . are alive?"
"Yes, girl. But if you keep talking, I might just die." He gritted out.
"My name's Daisy." I mentioned. In the darkness of the night, it wasn't that hard to get back to campus without any attention, after taking an exit of the park where my friends wouldnt see me. Instead of wondering who the hell did this to him, how I was going to get back to campus before he dies and who he even was, I kept wondering why I didn't know Jason was his brother. Of course, I wouldn't know that. That explained how Alexis knew him.
"Ace." He forced out.
"What happened to you?" I struggled to say, his weight leaning on me making it hard to talk, let alone walk.
"Some guys." Came his curt answer. I decided not to question him further even though I was very curious, because talking seemed to physically hurt him right now. I said nothing afterwards, feeling bad for him. Whoever did this can go straight to hell.
We entered the grounds of our residence after a few minutes. I picked up my pace and tried my best to act as the most efficient support structure, but I swear my body only consisted of organs, blood and no muscles whatsoever, even though my biology teacher of high school would beg to differ. I had my arm around his waist and his around my shoulder while he limped against my body. By now, my cream top had a few blood stains on it, I made a mental note to throw it out.
"By the way I deserve a better explanation." I stated when we walked inside. When we walked past the receptionist desk and first floor most of the dorm room doors where opened. Some music was blasting from the rooms and people were having uncivilized and loud conversations with their neighbours. I thought people did something more constructive and school-wise at this hour, but it seemed far from it.
"We can't go through there. People would ask questions." Ace said thoughtfully.
'So, make something up. You got beaten by some random muggers on the street?" I suggested lamely.
"I wish," he muttered. "Let's just say, in this crazy people town, 'curiosity killed the cat' is well known."
"Care to elaborate?"
"Once you get me to Jason and I'm not dead, sure. Now listen up, down that narrow hallway there's an emergency exit up that stairs. That shall lead you to any root and floor, without bumping into anything crazy with a pulse." It was weird how he knew all this but was new to the residence just like me. Hell, I could barely find my room a week ago on the first day I got here. I didn't question him further though.
One hundred and forty-seven steps later, we finally made it to my room. I let out a deep breath of air, officially exhausted.
"I owe you for this. No one would've helped me."
I nodded stiffly. It's not that I didn't care - I cared too much actually - but having to drag him all way from the park was an extreme effort for me. I retrieved my key quickly. I had to remember that apparently Jason was the only one who could have helped him. Although I doubt, he had a medical kit, given the fact that Ace was bleeding. Luckily the stab wound wasn't deep, because as crazy as the inevitable situation seemed that would have made things worst.
"Come on. Your brother slash apparent doctor awaits."
"Thanks again."
When I pushed open the door, the first thing I spotted was Jason's back facing towards us- clearly considering his built form. I would have expected him to be playing Xbox, messing around with girls or not here at all, but the most surprising thing I've ever faced in the past year, was Jason reading a book. I was so shocked, I almost let go of Ace. If he hadn't kept onto me tighter, he would've probably toppled over considering his state. Jason shut his book the moment he heard the doors open. He scrambled around to face us and stuffed it under his pillow.
"Daisy," He began but stopped abruptly when he saw us completely.
"Ace? What the fuck did you do to her?" Jason asked in shock. Me?
"Hello to you to brother. I never quite expected this greeting from you after being away for four years, I'm quite flattered. And if you haven't noticed, I'm the one that got stabbed." Ace's reply went from sarcastic to a hiss of pain. He gritted his teeth and pressed his hand tightly to the wound. I panicked and quickly helped him limp all the way to the bed.
"Shit, Ace. What the fuck happened?" Jason asked. He rushed over to our side to analyse the wound. I sighed in relief. Not only did my poor shoulder survive, but I made it to campus without letting Ace die too. I felt accomplished.
"I don't know. They came at me like fucking Rottweiler's. I was able to fight some off but there were probably eight of them."
I frowned in anger.
Jason sighed and placed his hands on the wound. He pushed - what looked to be extremely hard - on the cut. The blood dried up already a bit, but I was sure that by now, Ace felt weak. He gritted his teeth, his expression morphed into pain. I knew he was suppressing a sound that would make him look weak; that was just natural guy ego. I couldn't look at this, so I stood up, ignoring my throbbing shoulder, and tried to make myself useful.
"Do you need help?" I asked warily.
"Yeah, there's a first aid kit in the furthest top shelf in the bathroom. Get that." Jason ordered.
I frowned when he didnt throw in a please but didnt think any longer on it. He obviously just loved to order people around, and the only reason I complied was because of the situation with Ace. My feet travelled all the way to the bathroom. I stood on my tippy toes and reached for the kit. Even though I wasn't able to reach it, I was lucky that there was a set of small stairs that consists of three steps.
"Here." I said, handing it to him when I got back.
"Thanks." He muttered.
"So, . . . Ace, I think you owe us a very reasonable explanation as to why I found you in the shadows with a knife that was still very much in you, and why I had to hurt my own shoulder," I pointed out. "For someone I don't even know."
"Chill, please. If you haven't observed, Daisy, he is still very much incapable of doing anything right now. Especially explaining something to you that I'm not allowing him to do in the first place." Jason said, dryly.
"What are you? His mother? I asked incredulously. I mean, my shoulder had dislocated-"
"I know what youre thinking, Daisy," Ace suddenly said. "Youre thinking about your 'dislocated shoulder'. Which in my opinion, you should be proud of. Not many shoulders saved people. Oh wait, funny thing, when I was little, I thought that 'shoulders' and 'soldiers' are the same because they rhymed-" Mid-sentence, Ace suddenly collapsed backwards onto the bed, completely out cold. I gasped in panic and rushed over to him but was suddenly stopped by Jason.
"Don't bother. I injected him with a sleeping drug, a pain killing drug, and an anti-infective one. He'll probably be out for the next 7 to 15 hours." He stated nonchalantly. That was three drugs. Could the human body handle three drugs at the same time without being infected? I haven't prioritized biology so spare me if I didn't know.
"Are you sure you are going about this the right way?"
"I'm no doctor, but don't underestimate the amount of times I have saved some asshole 'friend' of mine's life. Besides, I got this advanced medical kit. Just a few needles and syringes, a plaster here and there, and boom. The fucktard has managed to be unfucked even though he was originally fucked up." He explained. I nodded slowly, trying to interpret what he meant by 'unfuck' and so forth. If I was going to associate with Jason, I would have to learn his speaking style instead of objecting every time he said something.
"Good. Your small brain understands." He ruffled my hair, but I shoved his hand away and ignored the statement.
"Can I see the kit?"
"Help yourself out. Maybe you can become a doctor and operate on my dick when I need the clearance that it's big enough." His blank, nonchalant expression slowly transformed into a slight smirk. He looked so boyish, childish and handsome at the moment, I couldn't even bring myself to scold him at his unwanted words.
"Yes Jason, I'm just an operation away!" I said in fake merry while walking over to his bed where Ace lied on. I smiled at his dead-like form. Even though I had only met him like a half an hour ago, I needed some confirmation that he was okay. Also, the possible satisfaction that I was the one who saved him.
"He'll just need some stitches. The wound wasn't deep at all. It seemed like the asshole who stabbed him have done a half job. Unprofessional." Jason mumbled.
"You should still report it though."
I finally laid eyes on the kit. Instead of being the signature colour of red- that symbolized medical, it was a strong and deep, shiny silver. The contents of the equipment and medical essentials weren't the usual. The syringes with the needles were transparent and a purple, blueish liquid was resting inside the cylinders that weren't used yet. All sorts of scanners, tweezers, knives and clip-blades were packed as a set. Many different sizes of the tools too. It was more advanced than the usual kit. My only conclusion was that; if Jason or his friends needed it in case someone was minorly hurt and they didn't want to visit hospitals, they could just stick a few needles here and there, and viola, you have a fixed person once again- or unfucked up person like Jason called it.
I collapsed onto my bed exhaustedly afterwards. "Are you sure he is going to be okay?" I asked.
"Besides the fact that I'm Jason and I'm always right," he grinned. My eyes popped at how cute he looked. "Yeah he is going to be fine. He's quite the fighter and that drug I gave him, works miracles."
I nodded, slowly letting it sink in. "Can I ask you a question?" I asked, glancing at him. He was proceeding to stitch up Ace's wound, which I would gladly not be a part of.
"Yeah." He replied simply. "But if it involves the book that you saw me shove under my pillow, I'm not answering. . . In case you do though, I was just reading it to prevent me from getting into trouble with my professors. I have had enough trouble to last a life time." He rambled.
Figures.
"Don't worry. Everyone has a secret hobby or activity, and you shouldn't be ashamed of the fact that you enjoy reading. In fact, you should feel exactly the opposite of ashamed. Did you know that reading increases your linguistic intelligence?" I smiled, offering my advice.
"Fuck that," he scoffed. "I do not enjoy reading. I was studying."
I waved him off, unbelievingly. Why ever people thought that reading automatically turned you into a nerd was beyond me. "So, can I ask you that question?"
"Yes, Daisy, yes. Are you always this annoying and persistent?"
"Me, annoying? Never. What I wanted to ask was how many siblings you have in this school?"
"Just Ace. And that is none of your information anyway." He replied curtly.
"Well, seeing as I'm your roommate, I think I deserve to know about the guy that I'll be stuck with for the next few months." I said irritably. I was very curious about him, intrigued even, and it was annoying how I couldn't read him the slightest bit. He put nothing about himself on display, besides the obvious. If my new friends hadn't told me before, I would have known nothing.
"It's called being nosy. Now get some rest, it's already past nine. Don't you have classes or something?"
"Don't you?" I retaliated.
"Whatever. You need rest."
"Why do you care?" Here comes my curiosity again.
"Because, you are irritating me."
"Whatever." I sighed deeply.
I pulled my bloody blouse off and discarded it near my bedside. I kicked my shoes off and neatly placed it besides my bed before throwing my bed covers open and turning off my lamp. I rested deeply under the covers and sighed.
"Just so you know, I lost your leather jacket on the way here." I said after a moment of silence.
"Excuse me? I give you my shit and you lose it? Are you crazy? That shit was fucking expensive. You owe me some deep damn money, Daisy."
I chose to ignore him and yawned. I felt bad for losing it, and the bigger part of me wanted to pull of my limited savings to replace it. But he was a jerk, so he could go ahead and buy a new one himself.
"Are you even listening? God, I'm going to kill you." He growled angrily.
I smiled and blocked him out, not even wanting to feel fearful in that moment. After that, I let the events of today slowly drift away before I fell into a deep sleep, forgetting to text my friends my whereabouts in the process.
I awoke the next morning by my blaring alarm and released a deep yawn as I slapped my hand over the dismiss button. My eyes shut closed and opened the whole time. I was feeling especially tired this morning. I blinked and my vision cleared, only to be met with the sight of Mavis pacing around in my room. I sat up straight immediately and crossed my arms over my chest.
"Mavis? Hey." I said, last night's events suddenly coming back to me. I glanced at Jason's bed to see it an unmade mess, with no signs of him or Ace. I remembered the fact that my friends were supposed to give me a tour and realised how I completely ditched them without telling them where I was. Oh shoot. I slapped a hand over my forehead.
"I know that I have only met you like yesterday, but I've immediately grown really fond of you, Daisy. Especially since Penny has been telling us all positive things about you and asked us approval if you could join our group or not. We all agreed because you seemed really nice. And then you disappear out of nowhere halfway through our 'get to know each other' thingy. Do you know I worried we were? I almost slapped Jaxon and blamed him that he scared you away. And now here you are; perfectly freaking fine well the rest of the world worries." Mavis breathed in deeply after her rant. I felt guilt instantly, I had caused them worry even though they had befriended me so warmly. I shouldn't have left with Ace. But the thing was, I was helping him. He could have possibly died without the drug Jason had given him. Or if he hadn't stitched him up. Even though the guilt was consuming, I knew that what I did what was the right thing to do.
"Mavis, I am so sorry." I apologized quickly and rushed out of bed towards her.
"You don't have to be. I have no right to be mad, none of us do." She said, avoiding eye contact with me. I felt tingles in my stomach, warmth spread over me at the thought of meaning something to somebody. Penny, Mavis and the rest managed to make me feel that way in a mere day.
"I'm your friend now. You have every right to be mad at me," I smiled slightly. "Now I want you to scold me."
Her lips slowly tilted upwards until she was grinning. "Gladly. . . Ahem, She coughed quickly. Where on earth were you last night, young lady?" She mock glared and pointed an accusing finger at me.
"Uh. . ." I chuckled nervously knowing that I was going to have to lie. I was sure Jason nor Ace would like the idea of me talking about them to other people.
"You see, I had just gotten my periods last night, and while you and Jaxon were arguing I felt like I would intrude if I told you guys. Besides, how uncomfortable would it be to talk about it in front of two guys that you just met." I lied straight through my teeth. Well, partially, I did have my monthly gift, but I had it like two days ago already.
"One guy. You mean one guy." She said seriously. I smiled remembering Jaxon and her relationship. It was odd, but cute.
"Yes, Mavis. One guy."
She nodded satisfied and stared hard into space. "So, you hadn't left because Jaxon or I scared you away?"
"Of course not." I said loudly with a chuckle.
"Good."
"Good then."
"I'll meet you guys at Sweet Kisses. And please tell the rest- especially Penny, that Im sorry that I caused them worry." I said.
"Of course."
"Who let you in anyway?" I wondered.
"Uh. . . Jason was just leaving when I came. He scares the bejeezuz out of me." She said dramatically, placing a hand over her heart.
We shared a look, before bursting into laughter.
"Me too!" I agreed, smiling. "But to be really honest, he is not that bad."
"Somehow I find that hard to believe." She said.
When Mavis left, I sat thinking about how I lied to her. I lied to her and it was only the beginning of our friendship. I just hoped that god forgave me, and that she would never have to find out. Lies were at the lowest level of shallowness, and I didn't want to be shallow. Not when this new life was my fresh start.