CHAPTER NINE
[9]

song: maneater by daryl hall & john oates

THE BRUISE HAD BEGUN AS A PRUPLE STAIN above her eyebrow that had sunk into the socket itself, and so now it had the appearance of a black eye.

Daisy winced at each touch, letting her feet dangle over the kitchen table as her mother aided her wounds. Susan lightly tapped a damp cloth over a cut on Daisy's cheek that she got from landing on the rough concrete. Allison sat beside her in a chair, anxiously tapping her foot and biting her nails, as George asked her numerous questions about the 'attack.'

"It's really not that big of a deal." Daisy shrugs.

Susan pulled away from her face. "Not a big deal?" She widened her eyes. "You're lucky you don't have any broken bones."

"We can file a police report on it, right?" Allison spoke up.

George nodded. "Y—"

"No." Daisy shook her head. "No way. It was just a few girls from school. Everyone gets in fights."

Susan shook her head, continuing to clean the blood off her daughters face. "That was not some petty school fight, that was assault." Her voice cracked a little.

Daisy felt a little pang to her heart. She didn't want her mom to worry about her anymore than she already did. "I really don't want to make this a problem." Daisy says.

George and Susan exchange a glance before George asks another question. "Do you know any of the other girls involved?" He says.

Daisy thinks for a moment. "Tommy said something about a girl named Jenna— I think she was the blonde one. Jenna Silvey maybe?" She shrugs.

George writes down her words on a little note pad, and she knew that whether or not they filed a police report— this was going to turn into a big deal.

The doorbell rang, and Susan sighs, putting the damp cloth back in the water bowl, before walking over to the front door to see who was here. Daisy's eyes trailed down over to the cloth, only to see it covered in her blood, they then trailed over to her sister— who looked completely petrified.

"Daisy, it's Tommy." Susan yells from the front entry.

George looks up from his notepad with a huff. "Let me have a word with him." He said frustratedly.

Daisy gently hopped down from the table, stopping George from heading to the door. "I can handle it." She says.

Daisy held her bruised side as she met her mother at the front door. Tommy stood on the porch with an upset expression on her face and she sent him a weak smile, stepping outside. "We'll be inside." Susan says, shutting the door and leaving the two outside.

Daisy swallows, looking up at Tommy who examined her bruised up face. "I am so sorry, Daisy." He shook his head, looking ashamed. "I don't know what I was thinking—"

"It's okay." Daisy shook her head. "I had it coming." She laughed, but it only hurt her ribs more.

"I should've been there." He says, angry with himself. "I shouldn't have let you walk out like that— not by yourself."

"Tommy," Daisy says, touching his cheek lightly to get him to stop talking. "I'm okay. Really." She smiled. "You shoulda seen what I did to them. I might've broken a nose tonight." She shrugs cheekily.

Tommy melted into her at her touch. "Thats my girl."

Daisy's heart fluttered, and she stood up on her toes to connect their lips. His hands fell to the small of her back, a tiny effort to bring her closer to him— but they both pulled away quickly when the front door opened.

"I think it's time he heads home." George says.

Daisy snorted, awkwardly bringing her hands off of Tommy and to her side. Tommy stiffened, sending George a quick nod. "Officer Arguello." He says, George doesn't respond, but his stern look was good enough. Tommy turns back to Daisy. "Bye." He smiles.

As Daisy watches Tommy walk back out to his car, her eyes trailed off to the Parker's house, half expecting to see Kai perched up on his car smoking— but his car wasn't even the driveway.

George welcomes Daisy back inside, to where her mother makes sure she went straight upstairs and into her bedroom to get some sleep. The last thing Daisy needed right now was to be watched over like a hawk by her mother, but she had a strong feeling that this is how things were going to be now.

—

Monday rolled around, and Daisy's black eye earned her many stares and whispers. She thought adding an equal amount of heavy eyeliner on the other eye would maybe even it out, but maybe that was what they were staring at.

She opens her locker, only to find a Daisy and a note tied to it. 'Sorry you got beat up while we were inside having a milkshake. Love, Jen and Jo.' Daisy snorted as she read it, rolling her eyes and putting it back in her locker, then grabbing her books for class.

Daisy took her seat beside Kai, like she did every first hour. Usually he didn't speak to her, and those were the good days. But as soon as the teacher finished instruction for the hour, he spoke. "I just got a new pack of acid tabs, if you want some." He said, as he carefully dropped a green tinted chemical into a vile of water.

"Pass." Daisy responds, putting the safety goggles on over her eyes. She begins to take notes on how the two chemicals react, but Kai continued to interrupt.

"What? You think I laced them or something?" He says.

Daisy nodded, putting on gloves and grabbing the dropper from his hand. "Yes." She responds.

"It's no fun to do acid by yourself." He frowns over dramatically.

"Then maybe you should make some junkie friends." Daisy responds. She drops a different chemical into the water, and a bit of steam falls from the surface of the vile.

"We aren't friends?" Kai asks, examining the vile.

"What would make you think that we are?" Daisy asks, writing down he observations.

Kai thinks for a second. "You talk to me."

Yikes. Daisy thought. "You tried to break my hand the other day." She says, turning to face him. Kai hid a smile as he continued working. She scoffed and turned back around to her paper.

"Miss Hendrix?" The teacher called out.

Daisy looked up, watching as everyone in the classroom turned to face her. Her heart dropped as she saw George, and a deputy, stand beside her teacher. "Yes?" She said suspiciously.

"Why don't you pack up your stuff, Officer Arguello needs a word." The teacher forced a kind smile.

Daisy looked at George confusedly, and his eyes fall down to his feet. What was going on? This is why she didn't want the police involved. The classroom was silent, except for the sound of her shoving her papers into her backpack and walking to the front of the classroom.

She followed George out of the classroom and into the empty hallway, the deputy shutting the door behind them. "What's going on?" She asks, readjusting the straps of her backpack on her shoulders.

"We just need to go down to the station and ask you a few questions." He nodded.

Daisy looked taken back. "What?" She scoffed. "Why? We didn't file a police rep—"

George stopped walking, and Daisy did too. "Thats not what this is about." He said, he wasn't in his normal chirpy mood— this was serious.

Daisy's mind filled with all sorts of possibilities before she spoke again. "What happened?" She narrowed her eyebrows at him.

George looked around before speaking, then swallowed. "Jenna Silvey was found dead this morning."