Page 81 of The Sun
I tapped my pen on the edge of the desk. “Daisy. Not now.”
The bell rang, and Miss Weaver closed the door while Daisy stared at me like I was the fourth horseman of the apocalypse. Horrified and in complete disbelief. “Not now? Are you mental?”
“Aarons. Andrews. Benson. Black. . .” Miss Weaver called roll.
“If you’re doing what I think you’re doing, your daddy’s gonna—”
“Daisy?” Miss Weaver stood at the front of the class with her fists buried in the feminine flare of her hips.
“Here,” Daisy said, not even bothering to look away from me.
Miss Weaver snapped her fingers. “I wasn’t checking if you were here. I was trying to get you to be quiet.”
The class snickered.
“Oh. Well. Okay.” Daisy’s desk dropped to the floor with a thud, and she gave me one last, flustered glance before scribbling something in her notebook. Seconds later, she ripped out the page, and then passed the note to me.
You aren’t getting out of this.
I leaned back in my chair with a sigh, determined to find a way to tell Daisy what had happened without outing Brandon and without lying. Which would prove to be difficult since Daisy didn’t take anything at face value. I was convinced, at seventeen, that girl could already carry out successful interrogations for the F.B.I.
Daisy got calledto the principal’s office after school for shoving her tongue down Ben’s throat in the hallway, which meant I managed to “get out of it” until four o’clock.
The door to my bedroom slammed against the wall, and I glanced up from the calculus book spread open on my bed. Daisy crossed her arms with a hard huff. “Such bullshit,” she said, kicking the door closed behind her. “How many people do you see groping each other in the halls, and I’m the one who gets written up over it.”
“It’s because you’re the preacher’s daughter.”
“Oh, I know it is. I’m like Hester-fucking-Prin except instead of a scarletAI have a scarletPon my chest.” She grumbled something under her breath before laying across the foot of my bed. “Now. Before you start explaining this entire Elias ordeal, I want you to know that it’s not nice to lie to your best friend.” She snatched my math book away, thumbing through the pages before tossing it to the floor. “We’ll never use that crap.”
“I was trying to do my homework.”
“You’ll get the book back when you tell me what’s going on.”
“I don’t know why you’re so shocked.” I huffed. “You said Brandon and I were worms.”
“Come on, I just meant you guys acted like,” she frowned. “Friends.”
“Exactly. We just liked hanging out, and it took a minute to realize there wasn’t anything there.”
“So, I take it the sex wasn’t like whoa or anything?”
Closing my eyes, I sighed. “There was no sex, Daisy.”
“Damn. Good looking guys are wasted on you.”
I grabbed my pillow and whacked her with it. “There’s more to life than sex, Daisy.”
“I know that,Sunny.” She knocked the cushion to the floor. “Geez. So, Brandon’s okay with everything?”
“Did you see us sitting together at lunch today? Did we seem okay?”
She narrowed her gaze at me.
“And before you ask. He knows about Elias.”
“And. . .” She threw up her hands and closed her eyes for a second. “He’s stilltalkingto you? What is this life? There is no way Ben would still be civil to me if we broke up and I started dating some other guy. Sunny, breakups are supposed to be tragic and like life-altering. If the fifteen times we’ve watchedCruel Intentionshasn’t taught you that, I don’t know what will.”
Fighting a laugh, I smoothed my hand over Daisy’s hair. “Life is not like the movies.”
