CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
[31]
song: dark red by steve lacy
"YOU'RE GROUNDED." Susan says with a stern nod, and a surprising amount of anger.
"Mom, I'm not ten." Daisy responds, with an equal amount of annoyance.
"Skipping school?!" Susan narrows her eyebrows at her daughter. "Do you know how embarrassing it was to have to answer the phone at work and hear that my daughter skipped school?!"
"You're gonna tell me you didn't skip in high school?" Daisy rolls her eyes.
"You are failing school, Daisy. You promised me you'd do better." Susan rubs her temples.
"I'm sorry." Daisy shrugs, just trying to move the conversation along so she can go back upstairs to her bedroom.
Susan shakes her head. "No Kai. No Kai for two weeks."
"Two weeks?!" Daisy widens her eyes.
"Two weeks." Susan reassures.
Daisy groans, shaking her head at her mother, who looked like she hadn't slept in two weeks. "It was one day." Daisy whines.
"Wanna make it three weeks?!" Susan turns to her daughter with wide, angry eyes.
Daisy wipes her nose, an instinctive reaction to awkwardness. "No." She says quietly.
Susan scoffs. "Go upstairs." She shoos her daughter off.
Daisy lingers in the kitchen a little bit, as she watches her disappointed mother continue to pay the bills that came in the mail that morning. "How am I gonna get to school?" Daisy asks.
Susan huffs, then turns to her daughter. "You'll bike." She smiles.
"It's 40 degrees." Daisy retorts, with shock.
"Didn't stop you from roaming around the city today, did it?" Susan raises her eyebrows. "May I remind you that there is a murderer on the loose?"
Daisy runs her tongue against her bottom row of teeth, trying to shut herself up from keeping this conversation going any longer. She turns on her heel and stomps her way to her room.
Kai was already waiting by his window, opening it up when he saw Daisy walk into her room. She walks over to hers, opening it and leaning out the window with an unhappy expression.
"What'd she say?" Kai says.
"We can't see each other for two weeks." Daisy rolls her eyes.
"Two weeks?!" Kai widens his eyes.
"That's what I said." She took a deep breath, letting out a huff. "What about you?"
Kai shrugs. "They didn't say anything."
"The principal didn't call your parents?" Daisy questions.
"No, I'm sure he did, but they don't really care I guess." Kai responds.
"Lucky." Daisy scoffs.
Kai shrugs lightly, he waits a few seconds before speaking again. "I'm sorry." He says. "It's my fault."
"It's not your fault, it was my choice." Daisy shrugs.
Kai frowned, still feeling completely guilty. "I'll see you at school?" He says.
Daisy nods a bit. "Yeah." She responds, pulling out of the window and shutting it behind her, before wandering over to her bed and plopping down with a frustrated huff.
—
As the bell rang, the halls flooded with students rushing to find their friends before the ten minute passing period ended. Daisy glanced around at the heads, searching for Kai, who usually waited by the water fountain for her, but she quickly remembered he was doing some extra credit work for History class, and wouldn't be there today. Her eyes scrambled for a familiar face, and she saw Jen loading textbooks into her locker.
Daisy wandered over to her, leaning up against a neighboring locker, "Wanna see a movie tonight?" Daisy asks.
Jen looked up at Daisy, with a blank expression, forcing a faint smile, "Busy." She responds, before shutting her locker and walking off.
"Jen?" Daisy says, leaning off the locker and following after her. "Jen!" She repeats when Jen ignores her, she catches up and joins her by her side as she walks down the hall.
"I can't talk, have to get to class." Jen responds, not even turning to look at Daisy.
"The bell just rang." Daisy responds, with narrowed eyebrows. Jen doesn't say anything, just keeps walking. "Jen what's wrong?"
"Nothing." Jen responds.
Daisy stops, gently grabbing Jen's arm to stop her from walking further. "Something's obviously wrong." Daisy looks at her friend confusedly.
Jen takes a deep breath, hesitating before speaking. "Do you only want to hang out with me because you can't hang out with Kai?" Jen scoffs.
Daisy looked taken back. "What do you mean?" Daisy asked.
"What do you think I mean?" Jen shakes her head, shocked by Daisy's oblivion. "You didn't call once over winter break, we haven't hung out in months. You barely talk to me anymore." Jen shrugs.
Daisy's eyes grew concerned. "I'm just—"
"Too busy with your secret boyfriend you never told me about?" Jen interrupts, raising her eyebrows.
Daisy felt a knot grow in her throat, as guilt overcame her. "We didn't really tell anyone for a while." She said quietly.
"You could've told me." Jen nodded. Daisy watches as Jen's eyes began to water. "Daisy, I'm your best friend." She scoffs. "You're supposed to tell me these kinds of things." Jen shrugs.
Daisy shook her head. "You wouldn't understand—"
"Wouldn't understand?" Jen scoffed again. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
Daisy bit the inside of her cheek, thinking of her next response. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize." She responded.
"Yeah, I know." Jen nodded. She glanced around, swallowing. "I gotta get to class." She walked away, not letting Daisy get another word in before leaving her alone in the hallway.
—
Daisy sat her tray down at the lunch table with much more force than she intended, accidentally letting her frustration show as she sat down beside Kai in the corner of the cafeteria.
"You okay?" He asks, shutting his book and glancing at Daisy.
"No." Daisy huffs, watching as Josette and Jen ate their lunch on the opposite side of the cafeteria. "Jen hates me, and I hate Josette." She takes a quick breath. "Okay, I don't hate Josette. But she's definitely not my favorite person right now."
"Jen doesn't hate you." Kai says, stealing a fry of Daisy's tray and tossing it in his mouth. "You just aren't her favorite person right now." He shrugs, and Daisy turns to him with an annoyed expression, and he laughs. "Why don't you talk to her?" He says, after his laughter died down.
"I tried." Daisy crosses her arms, watching her friends converse without her. Her eyes trail over to one of the tables a few feet away from her, where Carol sat, eyeing Daisy and Kai suspiciously. Daisy turns to Kai, who was looking at Carol with the same confused expression as Daisy.
"Do you need something?" Kai says, unexpectedly loud. His booming voice made the cafeteria hush for a few seconds, looking around for whoever the voice came from, before everyone returned back to their food and continued talking. Daisy looks at Kai sternly before turning back to Carol.
Carol and her friends exchange scoffs and whispers. "When did you two become a thing?" She asks, in a tone of disgust.
"It's none of your business, Carol." Daisy responds coldly.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know it was such a pressing question." Carol says sarcastically. She focuses her gaze on Kai, trying to read him, before turning back to her friends.
"She's suspicious." Daisy mumbles to Kai.
"No, you're just unbelievably paranoid." Kai responds with a sigh, as he opens his book back up.
"Unbelievably paranoid?" Daisy whispers harshly, leaning closer to Kai, so her face was covered by his book so she no one could read her lips. "I haven't had a good nights sleep since that night because I keep remembering the feeling of slitting my ex boyfriend's throat." She whispers quietly.
"Don't tell me you're chickening out." Kai turns to Daisy with a bored, almost annoyed expression.
"What's there to chicken out on?!" Daisy widens her eyes. "It's done. We did what we did."
Kai sighs and turns back to his book. Daisy bit the inside of her cheek frustratedly before ripping the book from his hands. "This might not feel like a big deal to you, but it's really not an everyday hobby for me, you prick."
Kai looks at her with stern, almost angry eyes, as he grabbed his book back from her grips. "Well get used to it." He mumbles, as he reopens his book.
"Get used to it?" She widener he eyes again. "Kai what the fuck are you even saying at this point?" She rubs her temples frustratedly. She waits for a response, but when Kai doesn't say anything, she leans back in her seat with a huff, angrily taking a bite from her apple.
She catches glances of Josette and Jen, who were looking at her and whispering, until they realized Daisy caught them, and then quickly turned away like nothing happened.
"Ugh." Daisy let out, slamming the apple back onto her plastic tray loudly, before grabbing her backpack and standing up, quickly exiting the cafeteria before she started throwing her food at her peers.
Daisy stormed into the girls bathroom, her throat burning with frustration, she swung the door open, slamming it behind her. She stood in front of the mirror, gripping the sides of the sink as she stared at herself. Her eyes flashed of unbelief, of eyes she barely recognize as they just felt like they couldn't widen anymore. She let out a quick breath, before swinging her backpack around and dropping it on the sink, unzipping the pocket and shuffling through it until she found a pair of scissors.
She pulled out the pair she stoles from art class, grabbing a chunk of her long hair and opening the scissors, holding them to her hair right under her chin, panting quickly as she stared at herself.
The door swung open, and she glanced up in the mirror to see Kai. She turned around quickly, holding the scissors out towards him. "Can you not just leave me the fuck alone for— five seconds?!" She says, straightening her arm out towards him.
Kai glances at the scissors and back to Daisy. "Apparently I can't." He says. She takes a deep breath, slowly lowering the scissors down before rubbing her eyes frustratedly. "I'm sorry I was kind of an asshole just then."
"Yeah, you were." Daisy responds, putting the scissors back in her bag and zipping it back up.
Kai watches her, thinking to himself. "Why don't you try talking to Jen again?" He suggests.
Daisy turns around and leans on the sink, letting out a quiet scoff. "We don't really have anything to say to each other."
"Well there's a senior girls lock in tomorrow night at the school." He shrugs. "You should go together."
Daisy sighs. "That's not really my thing."
"It'll be good for you." Kai says. "Besides, we can't hang out anyways."
Daisy thinks a bit. Having a massive sleepover with all of her female senior peers, where she would have to sleep in a sleeping bag on the hard, cheap, school tile floor— did not sound like something she'd really enjoy. But he was right, it would give her time away from Kai, where her and Jen can hang out like they used to. "Okay." She shrugs. "I'll go."