CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
[21]

song: flawless by the neighbourhood

DAISY FOCUSED TOO HARD on trying to tame her feet from tapping onto the tile floors of the classroom, that she couldn't even register what the girl beside her was talking to her about.

Her heart beat in sync with her foot, and the clock that ticked above the doorway. She questioned whether or not everyone else could hear her, hear her and know what she did.

She inhaled deeply, almost choking on the forced intake of breath. That was too loud. She thought. They had to know. They had to know what she did— how could they not?

She squeezed her nails into her palm in an attempt to stifle her fidgeting as she glanced up at the clock. It was almost eight o'clock, Kai should be here by now.

As if on queue, he strode into the classroom, sunglasses and headphones on, completely calm and collected.

At the sight of him, Daisy felt a weight being lifted off her shoulders as she remembered his words. He had everything covered. She just had to trust him.

"—But I don't even think he likes me... like, the things he says are so—" The blonde girl besides Daisy carries on, Daisy didn't even know her name, but she'd been going on and on about this boy since Daisy sat down.

Kai stopped in front of the desk, he took off his headphones and looked at the girl. "You're in my seat." He spoke in a monotone voice.

Daisy bit the inside of her cheek, trying not to laugh. The girl scoffed, immediately standing up and getting out of Kai's seat. As he sat down, Daisy began to feel more relaxed.

He didn't seem bothered at all, he seemed completely fine. He glanced at her as he took his sunglasses off and adjusted into his seat. "You okay?" He says.

She shrugged quickly. "I don't know."

Kai glanced around the classroom at all of his peers that carried on with their conversations as they waited for the morning bell to ring. "You'll be paranoid at first." He says. "You just have to control your emotions."

The bell rang with a piercing scream, and the rest of the students scrambled to their seats as Mr. Groff stood from his desk and began the lesson with a sigh.

She leaned back in her seat, seeing Kai out of the corner of her eye. Daisy was completely confused by his lack of nerves, but she quickly remembered this was not his first time. He'd hidden many emotions from her for a while, so to him this was completely normal.

Kai must've noticed her uncomfort, as he gently grabbed her hand from under the table. Her shoulders fell at his touch, a reminder of his safety.

"Your hands are cold." Kai whispered as Mr. Groff continued the lesson.

She nodded. If her peers didn't know what she had done, the universe definitely did, punishing her with a blistering cold as she rode her bike to school this morning. Her teeth still chattered. "Don't have a ride to school anymore." She whispered back, with a hint of humor in her voice.

"Why didn't you ask me?" He asked.

She shrugged a bit. "Wouldn't it look... suspicious?"

Kai glanced at her and she turned to meet his gaze. His eyebrows were raised in an almost stern manner and Daisy blushed. "You give everyone a little too much credit." He begins, turning back to face the front of the classroom. "No one here is smart enough to even begin to piece things together."

He was right. It's been almost two months since he killed Jenna, and the police had found nothing regarding leads. She wondered whether or not that was because they were idiots, or if Kai's family had covered it up completely.

"Well— what about Josette?" Daisy asks. "You take her to school and I don't think she'd like it if we were together."

"She doesn't have to know." Kai says. "Just tell her since you and Tommy broke up, you have to ride your bike to school in the freezing cold every morning. She'll feel bad and make me take you to school with us." He shrugs.

"Okay, thanks." She spoke quietly. She opened her mouth to speak again, but stopped when she felt gazes of everyone else in the classroom turn to her. Kai slowly took his hand off hers as Daisy looked up at Mr. Groff, who had been staring at her for who knows how long.

"Do you have something to add, Miss. Hendrix?" Mr. Groff asked, raising his eyebrows sternly.

Daisy clenched her jaw, eyeing everyone who find it necessary to stare at her. She questioned whether or not she should snark a response back at him, but she wasn't in the mood for another detention. She shook her head and Mr. Groff continued his lesson.

—

"I hate the cold." Daisy whines, as she eyes the outdoor sitting area from inside the cafeteria. She grabs a fry from her tray and lazily tosses it in her mouth.

"But cold means Thanksgiving is soon." Josette adds happily.

"I hate Thanksgiving too." Daisy scoffs.

Josette looks at Jen with a shocked expression, and Jen just shrugged it off. "You hate everything." Jen says.

Daisy pointed at her friend. "Very true." She responded in a sarcastic tone.

"I love Thanksgiving." Josette says. "Every year we have our entire—" Josette stops herself and thinks for a second before talking again. "Family over. And they're all really good at cooking so that makes it a little bit more enjoyable."

Daisy smiled faintly as she glanced past Josette's shoulder to see Kai peacefully leaned up against a wall a few tables over, reading a book with his headphones on.

Daisy gaped openly as she observed his sharp jaw, chin, and cheekbones. His dark brows were actually graceful, but currently furrowed in concentration on his book. All of it was framed by thick, warm dark hair.

Kai subtly lifted a finger off his book and toward Daisy, and she felt a quick breeze fly past her, the chill sending a shiver down her spine. She blushed as Kai continued reading on, a cheeky smirk on his lips.

"Hello?" Jen says.

Daisy quickly turns back to her friends, raising her eyebrows. "Sorry." She responds.

"Where's Tommy?" Jen repeats.

Daisy's heart almost stopped beating for a second. For a good few seconds, she thought all of this was over, her and Kai were already found out— and she was off to prison for murder.

But sense quickly rushed back into her head and she realized Jen was only asking a simple question, so Daisy would give her a simple answer. "I don't know." She shrugged.

Daisy turned to see all of Tommy's friends eating lunch only a few tables over, completely unaware of the fact that their star football player's body was rotting in the woods.

"Did you not see him this morning?" Jen asked, continuing to eat her lunch.

Daisy shook her head. "We broke up. I haven't heard from him all weekend."

Jen and Josette's eyes widen, Jen leans forward quickly. "You broke up?!" She says.

Daisy tried to hide the amusement she felt when she said that her and Tommy 'broke up', knowing what really happened. "Yeah. At Mark's party."

"Were you going to tell us?!" Josette raises her eyebrows.

Daisy shrugged, trying to force an upset appearance. "I haven't really wanted to talk about it."

"Well, what happened?" Jen asked.

Josette punched Jen's shoulder. "She just said she didn't want to talk about it."

Daisy sighed. "I just realized we were very different kinds of people." She shrugged, eating another fry. "Tommy's belong with Carol's." She added. "And I am not a Carol."

"I bet he's taking it really hard." Jen responds, her shoulder sinking as she turned to see Tommy's spot missing from his table.

"Jen." Josette muttered, shaking her head.

"Sorry." Jen turned back to Daisy.

"It's okay." Daisy shrugged. "It was... mutual."

Her attention was redirected when she watched as Kai had left his spot, and she quickly turned around to see him walk out of the cafeteria. Daisy turned back to face Jen and Josette. "I just remembered I have to talk to Mrs. Lopez about the homework." She said, as the quickest excuse she could think of as she got up from lunch fifteen minutes to early. She grabbed her backpack off the floor and swung it over her shoulders. "I'll see you guys later." Daisy threw her trash away and swept out of the cafeteria without waiting for a response.

The halls were significantly quieter compared to the cafeteria, where half of the student body currently gathered, the other half remained in class and waited for their time to eat. She looked around the empty halls, wondering why she even followed him out here in the first place.

Suddenly, she heard a door open, and a strong hand latched onto her arm, pulling her into the broom closet she had just walked past. Instinctively, she opened her mouth to let out a startled scream, even if she knew it was only Kai.

His free hand covered her mouth as he turned on the light. She looked at him with wide eyes as he shut and locked the door with a key. "What are you doing?" She says, slapping his hand off her mouth.

He turns back to her with a happy exhale. "I missed you." He shrugged innocently.

"Why do you have a key to the janitors closet?" She questioned.

"So we can do this." Kai quickly leaned into Daisy, connecting their lips unexpectedly. This is not what she'd thought would happen when she followed him out here but she certainly was not going to object.

She tangled her arms loosely around his neck as he pushed her up against the shelves, Kai smiled into the kiss as he brought his hands down to her thighs, lifting her up onto a shelf. He rested his hands on the small of her back, as she leaned down to kiss him, her fingers grazing the rough skin on his cheeks.

The one thing Tommy and Kai had in common was their constant need to be touching. But she wasn't bothered by it, as long as she was dating teenage boys she knew that feature came with them.

He pulled away for breath, and as he leaned back into her, he stopped himself as he eyed the door. Daisy didn't want to stop, so she leaned back in and connected their lips again. He kissed her back, but only for a second before pulling away again and putting a finger to his lips.

"Someone's out there." He whispered quietly as he eyed the door again.

Daisy leaned back, trying to hear what he was hearing. Two feminine voices made their way down the halls, their shoes tapping the floors with them. Kai and Daisy exchanged quick glances before continuing to listen to the conversation.

"I think it'll actually work out this time." One of the voices spoke.

"It's Carol." Daisy whispered.

"He finally realized what he was missing, and we had our time apart." Carol continued. "It was a blessing in disguise, if anything. I think we both really needed that break up."

Daisy's mouth gapped open, then formed into a smile. "She's talking about Tommy." She whispered. Kai tried to hide his smile.

"Have you talked since Halloween?" The girl, who must've been talking to Carol, asked.

"No." Carol says overconfidently. "I think he's trying to play hard to get. He does that." The voices began to fade out as they continued down the hall.

Kai covered his mouth in an attempt to muffle his laughter that he couldn't hold in. Daisy scoffed, trying to hide her smile, she hit his arm jokingly. "Shut up!" Daisy whispered with a smile.

"Sorry." Kai shrugged, his muffled laughter dialing down a little.

"It's not funny." Daisy reminded, trying to sound stern.

Kai leaned towards her and cocked his head to the side. "Then why are you smiling?" He leaned towards her again and kissed her passionately.

She put her hands on his shoulder and pulled away. "Woah." Daisy scoffed. "Someone's eager."

He leaned back into kiss her but she dodged his lips, a frustrated groan escaping his lips as she found enjoyment in this. Daisy hopped down from the shelf. "I have to go to class." She said cheekily.

Kai grabbed her arm and turned her around to face him again. "You're lying." He whispered quietly as he leaned in again.

His kisses were addicting, she'll admit, if the stench of mop water wasn't filling this room, then she'd maybe give in. But this obviously wasn't the time or place. She pulled away. "Why don't you come over tonight?" She asked.

Kai whined annoyedly. "Fine."

a/n
i'm so sorry i haven't updated in like a month!!!
i've had no inspo for this update so i'm rly sorry this is a filler chapter :-( :-(
- jane