CHAPTER SIX
[6]

song: smalltown boy by bronski beat

"GOOD MORNING." Daisy says, getting in the passenger seat of Tommy's camero before he pulled out of her driveway.

Tommy had been driving Daisy to school every morning for the past two weeks. She felt bad, as her house was a bit out of the way, but he insisted that if they were going to be boyfriend and girlfriend— he shouldn't make her drive a bike everywhere.

He asked her out not long after their first kiss, and everything's been pretty okay. There was no need for awkward family introductions, since they already all knew each other. There was no need for having to get to know each other with those awkward 'new relationship' questions, since they've been classmates all throughout their educational careers. Everything seemed to be proceeding as normal.

"I have something for you." Tommy says, driving down the road. Daisy narrows her eyebrows at him and he gestures to the back seat. She turns around to see a box of donuts from Andy's.

"Yes!" Daisy says excitedly, turning around to grab the box.

Suddenly, Tommy slammed the breaks on and Daisy quickly resituated back in her seat. Tommy honks his horn at the black jeep driving in front of him, and it didn't take long for Daisy to recognize the car.

"This dick keeps break checking me." Tommy says angrily.

Daisy rolls her eyes. "Just ignore him and let him get ahead."
Tommy ignores her, speeding up to where he was practically riding the back of Kai's car. "Tommy, stop it." Daisy says.

Tommy rolls down his window and peaks his head out. "Hey asshole!" Tommy shouts, keeping his hands on the wheel as he drives.

Kai slams his breaks on again, Daisy felt her heart drop as she waited for impact between the two cars— but Tommy slams his breaks on too. Daisy couldn't see Kai's face, but she knew he had that smug expression plastered all over it.

"Fucking drive!" Tommy shouts out the window again as the two cars sat still in the middle of the road.

"Tommy." Daisy says, trying to calm him down.

Tommy leans back into the car as Kai began to drive again. "Jesus christ." Tommy scoffs, shaking his head.

Daisy swallows nervously. She'd never seen Tommy angry, she'd never even seen him curse. She'd also be lying if she said it wasn't a little bit attractive. "He's crazy." She says, trying to make conversation.

"Who is he?" Tommy says, following Kai's car down the road to school.

Daisy shrugs. "Kai Parker. Josette's brother. They moved in next door remember?."

Tommy glances at her and back to the road. "That prick's your neighbor?"

Daisy returns to grabbing the box of donuts from the backseat, she opens it up and takes a bite from one of the donuts decorated with pink icing. "Unfortunately." She says with a full mouth. "Thank you for these, by the way."

"I've never even heard of him before." Tommy says. "Who's he friends with?"

Daisy scoffs. "No one."

Tommy raises his eyebrows. "Hm."

Daisy watches Tommy for a second before focusing her gaze back on the road. There was something about Tommy that drew people to him. It didn't hurt that he was a good looking boy; but it was more than that. He was quiet, but not out of painful shyness. It was a reservedness, like a conscious choice to observe the lie of the land before he got involved. Yet he wasn't stand-offish, he remained friendly faced and welcoming in body posture.

For those reasons, for the sole fact that people liked Tommy— a lot of people— Daisy felt completely out of place when she was around him. She felt like a straggler amongst his friends, like they were only tolerating her because she was 'Tommy's girl' as they called her. That made her question if they even knew her name.

The school parking lot was packed of students taking in the last drops of morning sun before fall approached and the temperatures dropped. They sat on the lawn, or on the outdoor tables, catching up on the homework they completely forgot about the previous night.

Tommy pulled into his parking spot and Daisy got out of his car, swinging her backpack over her shoulders. He walked over to her, planting a kiss on her lips. She had to stand up on her tippy-toes to reach him, but he thought it was cute.

"I'll see you in Econ." Tommy gives her a smile, before turning to catch up with his friends that entered the building.

Daisy took a deep breath, looking around for someone to rescue her from the painful awkwardness of standing in the middle of a parking lot alone. Her eyes found Kai, sitting in his jeep with headphones on, the windows down.

Immediately, her blood boiled, and she stormed over to his car. He paid no mind to her, but she knew he knew she was standing there. "You could've gotten us in a wreck." Daisy spoke angrily.

Kai didn't even turn to face her, just tapped nonchalantly on his headphones. Daisy huffed and reached into his car to rip them off his head.

Kai slapped her arms away and took them off himself, turning to look at her with a cheeky smile. "Yes?" He says, in a mocking tone.

"You could've killed one of us." She says.

Kai unplugs his headphones from his walkman and puts them in his glovebox as he speaks. "That's a bit dramatic." He says.

Daisy rolls her eyes, shaking her head. She looks inside his car to the passenger seat. "Where's Josette?" She asks him.

"She walked." Kai says, he turns back to Daisy. "Said I was a 'reckless' driver. Who woulda thought?" He spoke sarcastically.

Daisy huffed, turning on her heel to walk into the school. She glanced behind her to see if Kai was following, as they were both headed to the same first period, but instead he just watched her walk away.

She turned her head back immediately to avoid his gaze, but she felt it burn into her skin all the way up to the front doors of school.

—

Though the classroom walls are bare the windows are large. Everyone wanted a window seat, to sit in the unsubdued light of the morning. Outside the sky is blue except for a few strands of stratus that trail like aeroplane trails. Whoever painted the walls in the classroom must have had an imagination bypass, but then isn't that the education system all over?

The teacher walks in looking as inspired as a used tea bag and already Daisy felt a daydream starting, a really good one. This teacher's gonna have to be really interesting if she wants to compete.

Daisy slumped back into her chair, examining the backs of the heads of her classmates. Tight, perfect curls, packed tight with hairspray, hung on the head on almost every girl in the classroom. And all the boys had the same haircut. Daisy didn't know anything about men's hairstyles, but they were all boring.

Even Tommy's, the only way she could differentiate the back of his head was the fact that he was significantly taller than everyone else in the class, and he looked almost awkward sitting in that tiny desk chair a few rows ahead of her.

Her eyes then trailed to Kai's chestnut hair, she didn't have to see his face to know that he was zoning out just as much as her.

But then he moved, not to face her, but to pass a folded piece of paper back behind him to her desk. Daisy grabbed it from his hand and unfolded it subtly, only to quickly refold it when she caught sight of a rolled blunt.

She wanted to smack him in the back of the head, was his goal to get caught? As she was about to hand it back at him. Kai raised his hand. "Can I go to the bathroom?" He asks.

Daisy's eyes flick up to the teacher, who's lesson was just interrupted. "Uh— yes." The old lady nods, before continuing her lesson.

As Kai stood up, he sent Daisy a knowing glance, before turning and walking out of the classroom. She held the piece of paper in her palm, swallowing as an unknown feeling filled her stomach. What was he doing? Was this his way of offering a truce? A truce for something undiscussed and unlabeled?

Daisy shoved the paper in her pocket, before raising her hand before she could tell herself she shouldn't. The teacher sighs. "Yes?" She says, with an annoyed undertone in her voice.

"I need to go to the nurse." Daisy spoke confidently. Years of bathroom-smoking break practice had led her to understand the do's and don't's.

Don't say you're going to the bathroom, that only takes a minute— and any longer than that, people will think you're having bowl issues. Do say you're going to the nurse. The nurses let you stay in the office for as long as you need, and you can take your backpack with you.

"Why?" The teacher asks.

"I think I just got my period." Daisy says with no hesitation. She heard a few whispers throughout the classroom, but paid no mind to them. Tommy turns around to look at her but she kept her hand raised and eyes on the teacher.

"I suppose." The teacher sighs. Daisy smiles, grabbing her backpack from the floor and walking out the classroom with a proud feeling in her stomach.

The hallway was empty, as everyone was in their designated classes at the time. Daisy looked around for any sign of Kai, and she questioned what she was even doing in the first place.

She made her way down the quiet hall, her big boots squeaking a bit against the cheap tile. Her attention redirects to the men's bathroom door closing, and she makes her way that way.

Daisy reaches for the door handle, peaking inside. Kai stood in the corner of the bathroom, the blunt already in his hands. He leaned against the wall, dressed in the same dark trench coat that he always had on.

The toilet flushed, and a student walked out of a stall, looking at Kai with a scared expression. "Do you need something?" Kai asks annoyedly as the student stood still.

"I—" The student searched for words. "Can I wash my hands?" He says.

Kai gave him a weird look. "Get out." He snapped.

The student jumped at his words, scrambling out of the bathroom and past Daisy, who held the door for him, but barely even glanced her way. She hesitantly stepped inside and Kai happily sat on one of the sinks.

"Welcome." He says, gesturing around at the bathroom like he was introducing her to his home.

The bathroom was similar to the girls, except everything was switched around and there were a few urinals. "What are you doing?" She asks, shutting the door behind her.

"Smoking." Kai says, and Daisy felt like they've had this conversation before.

"No—" She shook her head. "Why am I here?"

Kai shrugs, placing the blunt in between his lips before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a lighter, tossing it to Daisy. "I was bored." Kai says. "You were bored."

Daisy lights the blunt and puts it to her lips, handing Kai back his lighter. "How do you know I was bored?" She asks, leaning against the door.

"I know a lot of things." He sighs, happily. Daisy scoffed, taking a long drag. "I know you touch yourself at night."

Daisy choked, pulling the blunt from her lips. "What?" She spoke, her eyes wide.

Kai took another drag, leaning against the mirror of the sink he sat on. "Come on." He huffs. "Don't act like you're not doing it on purpose. Leaving the lights on, blinds open..." He trails off.

Daisy breathed heavily, staring at him with the most fury shes ever felt. "You are fucking disgusting." She says, before slamming the blunt on the ground and stomping it out.

"I'm simply stating what I saw." Kai says lazily, putting his hands up in defense.

Daisy storms over to him, grabbing the collar of his jacket and yanking him off the sink. She forcefully pushes him up against the nearest wall, feeling his bones hit the tiled wall under her hands.

"Leave me the fuck alone." Daisy says, getting in his face.

Kai leans towards her face, a smirk tugging at his lips. "You're the one who followed me in here."

Daisy retracts, pulling her hands off him. Anger boiled deep in her system, as hot as lava. It churned within, hungry for destruction, and she knew it was too much for her to handle.

She stormed out of the bathroom, back into the empty hallway of the school, feeling frustrated tears fill her eyes as a knot grew in her throat.

His presence seemed to buzz around her like a fly that you can never swat. Every word, movement and breath he performed seemed to infuriate her to no end.

a/n
wbk highschool!kai was a fuckin weirdo

anyways i'm really proud of this book so far and would really appreciate it if you guys helped me share it so it can reach a bigger audience:-)

thank u guys for all the votes and nice comments:)💖

also r u guys listening to the songs that i put at the beginning of the chapters?? it's all 80s music so i thought that was fun hehe

p.s.
for those of u that think that the 'touching yourself' part of this chapter was weird,, (i deleted the comments bc, ew) 1.) i warned y'all at the beginning that this book handles mature topics— so give me that same mature energy back pls😌 2.) girls masturbate. get over it!

- jane