Daya's POV
"Friends?" Why would you write a spec script for a show that ended?" my new film friend Alyssa says. We just finished another day of the writing program and are sitting outside of the academy sharing a bag of kettle chips.
"Because I just wanted to," I argue. She laughs and I pull out my phone to see if my dad has sent me that, "I'm coming late," text which isn't needed because the hard concrete I'm sitting on tells me that. No, but a notification from settings saying my screen time has increased by 20%. This makes sense because I've been spending a good amount of time texting Ziyah since we, "slept," together.
"Oh my god, is that you? who drew that?" Alyssa says. Her eyes are focused on my screen time which is of course the portrait Ziyah drew for me.
A sudden wave of uncomfortableness come over me. "Yeah uhh my boyfriend drew it for me?" I say mostly to myself. Just that phrase makes me cringe as I think of how annoying I found girls who start all of their sentences off with 'my boyfriend'.
"That's cool," she says and I'm glad she leaves it that because Harper and now Navia have squeezed all of the Ziyah talk out of me. Although Ziyah amazes me everyday giving me so much to talk about. Somehow we ended up talking about boys though, but Alyssa's relationship with them.
"I just can't see myself in a relationship, you know being part of someone else's life like that, hooking up is just so much easier," she says and we both burst into laughter. Not that I would know about the fun in hooking up. I get up to throw the empty bag of kettle chips away, and when I walk the 4 feet back to Alyssa another girl is sitting beside her. She has her hair in a perfectly shaped bun with the cutest pink clips on the sides kind of reminding me of a bratz doll. As i sit by Alyssa I recognize her as Caylee who's also in the writing program.
"Hey Daya," she says as I sit back down. I give her a little wave and Alyssa begins filling her in on what we were talking about. "You know some guys really are dicks, and they are ruining it for the guys who are actually nice," Alyssa says.
"Do have a nice one Daya?" Caylee asks. Damn if only she knew how sweet Ziyah is.
"The nicest," I say and they make an "ooh," noise similar to Jada and Vicki. Alyssa and Caylee laugh at the smile painting on my face, and just as I think about telling them every detail about Ziyah and I my dad's car pulls up with his weird engine sound.
"Ooh he's cute," Alyssa says with her eyes on the car. For a second I'm a bit disgusted, but then I see Vince is sitting in the driver seat.
"That's my brother," I say with a slight laugh after we exchange numbers. I hop into the passenger seat and Vince flashes a smile at Alyssa and Caylee who I believe are waving to me.
"Who are they?" he asks.
"My friends," I say proud I can actually say that.
"Your friends are-"
"Not Vicki." I stop him and he kisses his teeth as he begins driving down the north hollywood streets.
"You're dropping me off at Harper's right?" I ask.
Vince's bright smile quickly drops. "No i'm dropping you off at mom's appointment and she's taking you to Harper," he clarifies.
"What appointment?" I ask. Taking me off guard Vince slams his hand on the horn and the break making me fly forward a little.
"Fuck, no left turn dumb ass," he yells at the red subaru in front of us. When the light turns green Vince's anger goes away, and he turns to me with a subtle look.
"You were saying," he says and I just shake my head not caring about my question. Fifteen minutes later we arrive in front of a red brick building where I notice my mom's car among all of the empty parking spaces. Across from the building is a skatepark and skate shop that doesn't look as depressing as the side I'm on. As I undo my seatbelt I notice Vince is just staring at me tapping his fingers on the steering wheel.
"You're not coming inside?" I ask.
"Nope, I gotta get to training," he says smiling.
"But I've never been here before."
"Well this is mom's therapy," Vince says sternly.
I've always knew my mom went to therapy, but I thought she stopped when Sawyer was born and she recovered after the divorce. She never talked about her appointments, and I never expected her to. Vince sees the change in my expression, and softens his. "So as much as I would love to be here for this moment of realization training is mandatory."
"Fine," I say.
"3rd floor room number 7 the waiting room has magazines," Vince shouts as I head towards the building. "Love you," he adds and slowly drives out of the parking lot. I get into the building that's quite bland with pictures of roses, happy people, and famous buildings. Vince was right there is magazines on the little stand between the chairs, but the latest one has a picture of Kim and Kanye getting married.
"Waiting for someone ms," the lady who sits behind the front desk asks.
"Yes," I say. I give her my mom's name, and she tells me she'll be out and coming through the door in the middle of the waiting room in 15 minutes.
I sit in one of the maroon chairs across from a lady in a chanel suit reading an old People magazine. She shoots me a viscous scold, and I open my phone to text Ziyah who tells me he's playing with Sofia. We go back and forth, and I tell him about Navia's party. and he tells me about Lucas's jesus loving mom which I didn't expect. After he tells me he wants to see again, I go into a bit of a daze until the waiting room door flies open and a girl with black hair and all black clothes walks out.
"I'm done," she whines and the woman in the chanel suit follows her out as they each scold the hell out of me. For a second I think it's going to be just me sitting in this bland waiting room, but the door flies open again, and due to my short attention span I turn at the sound. I almost let out a gasp as my eyes glue to the person who walked in.
In a wife beater and black adidas pants Chase walks in as he runs his hand through his curls.
"Chase good to see you! He will be out in 15 minutes," the same woman who helped me gushes. Chase gives her a nod, and turns around making me look at my feet hoping my mom will finish her session soon. It's so weird that I hope he doesn't notice me, because just last year I was doing the complete opposite.
"Daya?" he asks and I do the smallest wave. He plops down in the seat next to me, and I stare at my feet uncomfortably as if the rumor about him having Chlamydia was true. It turns out Jada got her names mixed up, because she got her information when she was high. Chase scrolls through his phone, and I out of awkwardness pick up one of the old People magazines. Chase's eyes jump from his phone to the magazine.
"Steve Harvey: How I changed my life," he reads off the cover of the magazine, and then raises one of his eyebrows.
"I wanna learn how he became the person he is today," I lie. Chase leans in a little more to look at the page I'm on.
"If you say so, but it looks like you're looking at a neutrogena ad," he says and the smirk I used to watch from afar comes across his face.
"Ok I'm just trying to pass the time," I admit and close the magazine.
"I feel that. Your mom's in here?" he asks like he already knows the answer..
My eyebrows automatically scrunches together. "How did you know?"
"Just a guess."
The door to the therapy hallway opens and my mom storms out behind some bald guy with a clipboard. I think she needs to go back in there because she wears a scold that isn't far from the expression she through me out with. It's way worse than the woman in the chanel suit's.
"Hi mom," I say and get out of my uncomfortable seat. She doesn't respond and goes to the front desk lady to dig in her purse to sign some papers.
"I'm tellin you doctor Lynn you make me feel good every session," an old man's voice yells. The hallway door opens and a man with a salt and pepper beard walks out with a big old smile on his face as a woman with porcelain skin and serious expression walks behind him. My mom's too busy signing papers to look up, but I turn my head just a little to see Chase raise from his seat.
"Did he do good today," Chase asks the serious lady. Before she can look down at her own notepad the man says, "Chase don't you be worrying about me boy worry about getting signed."
With that being said they both exit before my mom can ask. "Wait was that Chase?"
I get to Harper's and her and Navia are giggling on her bed hovered over notebooks, and bright post its. We're supposed to be planning Navia's seventeen birthday, but they get off topic about everything. "Oooh I can't wait until Frank Ocean's next project comes out!" Harper says.
"So where is the party going to be?" I ask. Since I got here I somehow assumed the position of getting them both on topic.
Navia stops looking at Harper and shoots daggers at me and Harper's comfy chair that I'm sitting in. "Here," she says sternly.
"Cool," I say.
"We've decided to just have some basic house party, and this is the best house to have it in," Harper says and gestures around her bedroom. Yay another basic house party.
"How many people are gonna come?" I ask. Parties aren't my scene, and I'm not exactly ready to see a bunch of people from school.
"The whole senior class and some juniors, but only the ones I like obviously," Navia clarifies. She jots something down on her notebook in her bright pink pen and turns to Harper who's only inches away from her. "Navia Lenin's 17th birthday first planning committee has ended," Navia announces. It literally just began.
I'm not surprised at all when their lips clash, and they begin making out like I'm not here. It's amazing how they don't even notice I'm sporting a pout, but I don't even know why I'm not beaming so I can't blame him. It's probably that bland therapist office that's got me all down, and the fact my mom didn't say one word to me on the car ride from the therapist's office to Harper's house.
Vince says this whole somber stage of hers will past soon, and I hope it will because my dad seems ready to pull me out of my mom's arms that aren't eve holding me tightly. I love him, I love my mom, I'm not trying to go back to 5 years ago when the divorce papers were filed.
Navia and Harper finally realize there's more to planning than just picking out snacks and we retreat to Harper's dinning room where I sit in between the two as kind of a barrier.
"Daya you're going to bring Ziyah right?" Navia says arching one of her red eyebrows. Her use of the word bringing makes it seem like Ziyah and I were married.
"Maybe I guess-"
Navia cuts me off. "Oh of course he is, Lucas is coming." With that being said Navia and Harper exchange a fit of giggles.
Feeling defensive of Ziyah or my boyfriend I raise my eyebrows. "What's so funny?"
Navia straightens up in the high white seat she's in. "Nothing It's just Lucas is such a slut he's literally been with like all of my friends," Navia laughs to herself some more. And this is funny because?
Navia continues to giggle and the sadness I once had turns into a light version of anger. Lucas is a slut but he's Ziyah's best friend, and therefore I feel some obligation to defend him.
"So?" I say with my eyebrows raised. God I need to work on my comebacks or conversation points if that was one.
"It's just funny how Lucas is so whatever he is, and Ziyah is so sweet and innocent it's a complete foil," Navia says and Harper nudges her from the other side of me.
"What I'm not saying anything bad? I'm just saying ..... Daya do you really think Ziyah is a virgin?" My eyes go wide and Navia and her red hair have finally pushed my buttons. I try to be nice to the girl because Harper sees her as some effulgent beauty, but the girl is such a budinsky. Her question isn't really a bad question as I've asked myself the same thing some time, but I don't think that's important now because we've just established our relationship. Still at the moment I'm just not in the mood due to my thoughts about my mom and the fact I've been the third wheel over the past hours and they haven't even asked why i'm silent.
"Navia can you do me a favor?" I ask. She nods, and I plaster a smile on my face.
"Don't talk about Ziyah anymore." Her mouth turns into the shape of an o and for the first time Harper nudges me, but I've accomplished my goal because Navia doesn't bother mentioning Ziyah again.