Daya's POV
We just finished dinner which was the chicken and rice Ziyah helped with and now, Dani and my dad are talking about her phone habits and her brand new attitude in the kitchen while Ziyah helps me move all of my books from my room into the bookshelf that for some reason is going to be in Sawyer's nursery also known as the place for the one person who can't read. Overall the mood of the household is quite calm probably because Vince isn't here and hanging out with that player who is always there.
"Shit there is still more, how much do you read?" Ziyah asks as I come into the nursery with a pile of books in my hands.
"Too much," is the only answer I can come up with.
"I guess that explains why you're so fucking smart," Ziyah says. He takes the books from my hands and neatly lines them up in the bookcase.
Ziyah and I exchange a devious look and I don't know if he know this, but the way he's gazing at me is sexy as hell. I hope he can say the same thing about me, but I'm awkward when it comes to speaking with my eyes or general human communication.
I bring more books that I read in middle school back from my room and into the nursery and as I watch Ziyah put them in the case a question pops into my mind. "So I never really got to ask you,but what do you think of my dad?" I didn't really ask him last year when they met before we went to the park.
The question came to my mind when I got back from my walk with Sawyer and saw them laughing over something in the kitchen. It was a cool thing to see especially since my mom would probably frown so hard upon it. When the word dad leaves my lips I instantly feel the need to say sorry, but I remember Ziyah doesn't want me saying that shit so I try to let he feeling pass by.
Ziyah puts my Great Expectations novel down in the case and stares directly at me. "Your dad is cool, he's chill." I would never use those words to describe a man who has yelling sessions with the TV every Sunday, but the words don't phase me because I know these are some of Ziyah's go to words and they mean way more than their initial definitions. Also I guess my dad is pretty chill considering he lets his oldest daughter spend a good amount of time with her boyfriend.
I resist the urge to cross my arms because as I want to I know that it won't help the situation which isn't really a situation and instead me being mad at Ziysh's overused chill words. I love him, and I want to hear everything he has to say not limpid brief summaries. He's getting better though when we first started talking I was doing most of the talking which was not a lot to begin with.
"So you like him?" I ask adjusting some of the books.
Ziyah puts one of my passion twist behind my ear. "Shit I mean I'm not going to take him out to dinner, but I respect him." I guess that might be even better than liking him. Ziyah puts the old flimsy book he was about to set up with the rest of them down, and gets closer to me. Gosh I love when he gets closer to me. "You're dad is pretty fucking amazing, I mean how could I not feel some sort of way towards him, when he's one of the reasons I have you."
"Awe Zi."
"Don't awe I was just pulling that out of my brain," he says. There he goes playing with me again.
"Really," I say.
" Really," he repeats.
I just shake my head and Ziyah gives me three kisses which I want to last forever. "When are you going to wipe those damn glasses," he says when we stop kissing. He takes my glasses off of my face, and pulls what looks like the same black cloth he used last year out of the pockets of his pants. I find it funny he still carries that around considering he only wears reading glasses, and since it's summer they're on his dresser in a red leather glasses case.
Really I wipe my glasses every day, and since they're a thinner lens than the ones I had last year it's easier, but I guess I miss some spots. Maybe I do it subconsciously knowing I like the intimacy when Ziyah does it.
He's only a step away from me and as he wipes my lens he's so focused and I could stare at him for hours.
"Don't fuck it up," he says. He places the glasses on my face and I mouth a, "thank you." We go back to putting all of the bookcases and Ziyah makes me laugh as I give him synopsis of all the classic novels that are going on the shelves. When we finish and my dad checks in on us Ziyah and I go in my room to put the books that wouldn't fit on my dresser. As I put the books down I turn around to see Ziyah with his eyes on my air force ones. I already know what he's thinking as he looks at the shoes that are right outside my closet.
"Knock yourself out," I say and go into my closet. Still in his chill manner Ziyah picks up my white shoes that he's been continuously drawing a dandelion on every time he comes over. I go into my closet and grab my bucket of sharpies and hand them to Ziyah whose trying to hide his smile.
"Awe is someone excited," I mock as we head into the living room.
"Yea I get to add something to these boring ass shoes," he says. He continues drawing on the shoes and he playfully pushes my head away when I try to take a peak as we sit on the couch. My dad is now fully engrossed with his conversation with Dani, and she's sitting down at the dining table with a piece of paper in front of her and a scold on her face.
"You've watched a full season of that show, now write what happened," my dad says. I hear Dani let out one of her huffs, and I want to make dad lay off on her, but a little writing won't hurt the girl.
I lean in next to Ziyah some more and I catch a glimpse of dark pencil lining on the right side of my shoes. Ziyah lightly pushes my head to the side. "Nosey ass," he says and puts his pencil and red sharpie down. "You mind if I take these home and drop em off tomorrow."
I don't hesitate to nod and we head to the front door. "Are you good to go back home?" I know he's not on good terms with his mom and trying to hide it, and that hurts me, but it's obviously hurting him more he just won't admit it.
Ziyah shrugs a little and I can see the sadness creeping into his hazel eyes. "I don't know, I might just stay at Lucas's," he says softly.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" This has nothing to do with Lucas snapping pictures of me and everything to do with Ziyah's dad moving into Lucas's building.
"Nah, but I'm not trying to see my mom and I'll just hope I don't see him."
I move some dreads out of his face so I can see his whole sad expression. "Ok, text me when you get to his place."
"K." This time we don't give each other a goodbye kiss and my head falls into his chest as he wraps his arms around me. I move my head when I hear my dad's footsteps against the wooden floors, and turn around to see him approaching us with a smile. I don't think he sees my shoes in Ziyah's hand or he just ignores them as he looks at Ziyah and tells me with his eyes to go somewhere. I don't really, and just take a few steps back looking at Ziyah's eyes.
"Nice to see you man next time I got a bunch of stuff to do, you're first on my list," my dad says.
"Thank you sir have a good evening," Ziyah says. I try not to laugh at how formal he's being and he shoots me a look.
"You too man." I give Ziyah a little wave and the second he leaves my dad turns to me.
"I ain't gonna lie Daya he helped put most of that bookcase together," he says. I just shake my head and follow him into the dining room where Dani is sitting writing away and on the verge of breaking the tip of her number two pencil.
Vince comes back a little after Ziyah leaves and he doesn't even take his usual bathroom break before heading into the kitchen and microwaving the plate my dad made him. When it's done heating up he removes the paper towel from on top and grabs the seat at the head of the table to dig in. He's so focused on his fork being stabbed into his kitchen he doesn't see me looking up from my book and Dani looking up from her paper to look at him.
"Isn't it over seasoned?" Dani asks as Vince gets a piece of juicy chicken on his fork.
I quickly turn away from my book and look at her as she gazes at Vince. Dad's chicken was amazing in other words it tasted just like his chicken breast usually do, so Dani has no idea what she's talking about which is something I need to get used to.
Vince finishes chewing and doesn't go for another bit of his chicken. "Hmm, it is a tad over seasoned." Vince begins to look at the chicken breast like it's a rock and he's in chemistry class trying to fill the lab sheet out.
I bud in. "The chicken is perfectly fine," I argue.
Dani lets out a laugh. "You're only saying that because you'r e boyfriend helped make it," she snaps. Well that is true, but still she ate the chicken and didn't complain or say anything when my boyfriend was sitting at the same table as her.
Vince puts the chicken down and narrows his eyes at me. "Ziyah was over here?"
"Yup," I say.
Vince nods to himself for a bit. "Cool, but your boy might of over seasoned the chicken."
"He didn't," I say sternly. Excluding letting his friend take pictures of me, and kissing a girl when Vince threatened him Ziyah couldn't do anything wrong.
Vince splits a piece of his chicken into thirds and hands me a piece. "Try it."
Reluctantly I take the piece and begin eating it. An overwhelming amount of pepper, salt, and garlic salt hits my mouth and Vince catches my expression as I take a few moments to digest it.
"Hmm the complete opposite of Harper's mom's chicken right?"
I swallow the chicken and try not to let Vince see my defeat. "Right," I say sounding more like Vince. "But the rest weren't like that, dad probably did that one." The second the words come out of my mouth my dad comes out of his room and slowly closes the door indicating Sawyer's asleep.
"I heard that," he says and goes into the kitchen. Vince and Dani leave the table and go into their rooms while I lean against the doorway of the kitchen looking at my dad as he puts his teapot on the heated burner.
"Dad?" I say as my mind goes back to the conversation I had with Ziyah.
"Daughter," he says and drops some honey out of the bottle and into his mouth.
"What do you think of Ziyah? I mean I didn't really ask you last year because I was scared, and I'm still scared, but I just wanted to know." Not that it would change anything.
My dad takes his best dad ever mug out of the cabinet above the dishwasher and places it on the counter. "You want to know what I think?" He crosses his arms like I did when I was talking to Ziyah about the groping thing.
I nod vigorously and my dad looks up at the ceiling fan and then back at me. "I think he's a nice guy, quiet, but nice, and he's sure hiding something in that brain of his." Hmm not exactly what I expected. "Ooh ooh and he can draw on shoes that I paid for and not get me mad so that's a good thing." My dad reaches for the bottle of honey that's shaped like a bear, and lets some honey hits his tongue indicating this conversation is over.
I go into the living room and Dani looks up from the YouTube video on her phone. "You wanna know what I think about your boyfriend?" she asks in a sarcastic tone.
"Nope," I say and go into my room.
Nice, and has a lot going in his brain. I can work with that, but he's so much more.