Page 104 of Distortion
I go into my room and close the door, my mind awash with all the things I ever heard my father say about Daisy.She was stupid. She didn’t apply herself. She needed to make friends with other girls. She needed to smile, stop fighting, stop arguing, stop pretending she was special, be like the other girls. The list went on and on, and although my dad was pretty much the same with Andy and me, I’m kind of thinking now that Daisy got the worst of it.
Where was her mom through all of this? I can remember April being there. She was usually in the room while my dad was going off on his little tirades when Daisy would come home from school, but she never said anything in Daisy’s defense, even when my dad was clearly wrong.
I can see Daisy in my mind’s eye. She’s standing in the middle of the room, not saying a word, not looking at anything except the floor. My dad would invite her to explain her actions or lack thereof, but she never did. When Andy or I did something wrong, he would make us do extra homework or lines in the library, or we’d lose TV and videogame privileges. But he’d get in Daisy’s face and scream at her. He’d make her go to the kitchen to help the staff or to the upstairs bathrooms to cleaninsteadof doing her homework. He’d tell her that was the life she could look forward to if she didn’t try harder. Her mom never stopped him, never spoke up.
At the time, I never even considered how weird it was. I was just a dumb kid with no experience of married couples, but now that I think about it, I don’t get it. My dad could be a real fucker, and Daisy had no one fighting in her corner at all. Why didn’t her mom seem to care?
I lay on my bed for a while, and I realize the guys were right. I don’t actually know Daisy. I did understand her when we were kids, but I actually don’t know the first thing about her these days. She’s staying, at least for now. Maybe it’s time I actually put in the effort to become her friend the way I was ... or thought I was, when we were thirteen. Maybe I need togive her a chance. It’s been ten years since everything happened. She was achildand she’s right. She’s paid her debt.
She’s back and she still has no one to look out for her. No one but me.
I could be that person. I could make sure she’s okay and taken care of the way she should have been in the month since she got here. I mean, I didn’t even ask her if she was okay after April’s funeral, a day that’s seared into my mind. I didn’t even think of Daisy. I just assumed she didn’t have the capacity to care that her mom was dead.
What a self-absorbed prick.
Maybe the appledoesn’tfall far from the tree. I shudder at the thought of being anything like that son of a bitch.There’s no way I’m going to be if I can possibly help it, I think as I get up and go into the hallway. I go to Daisy’s door and knock.
Time to be the person I should have been for her.
The problem is that’s not a brother.
10
DAISY
Iopen the door to find Shade out in the corridor. My eyes widen and something low in my gut feels weird. It’s not unpleasant. It’s quite the opposite and it’s something I’ve felt before.
When I was about sixteen, one of the blanks at The Heath was young and good looking, and whenever I used to see him, I’d feel hot and my stomach would do this same weird flip. He was only there for a couple of weeks though. He got the sack ...was firedfor ‘gross misconduct’, which I always took to mean he’d done something very bad, but I never found out what it was.
This feels more ... intense though. I blink up at him and can’t help but remember how he pushed me down on that desk. How I was naked and he and the others were fully clothed ... how the others watched.
I try to conceal my small gasp and thankfully he doesn’t seem to have an inkling of where my thoughts are taking me.
‘We’re gonna have some dinner and watch a movie downstairs.’ His eyes move over me as I watch him. He’s looking atme differently than he has been since I got back. Like a predator. The thought has me shivering slightly under his perusal, despite being fully dressed now.
‘Do you want to join us?’
‘Me? You really want me to come ... hang out with you? Like we used to?’
His lips thin a little. ‘Yeah, Daisy, I do.’
I frown. ‘What’s changed? You hate me.’
‘Oh, Daisy,’ he says quietly. ‘I never hated you. I think I wanted to. I think I listened to all the shit my dad spouted and I forgot about ... We had fun back then, didn’t we?’
I nod, giving him a small smile. ‘Remember when we used to wait until everyone was asleep and have video game wars?’
His smile makes his eyes crinkle. ‘I’d forgotten about those. How about when we used to sneak down to the kitchens and take cookies off the cooling rack?’
I laugh a little and he looks surprised.
‘You know, I didn’t think you ever enjoyed anything. You never smiled or laughed. You barely spoke. I didn’t know why you hung out with me or followed me around.’
I shrug. ‘I had no other friends. Plus you had the videogames.’
He laughs a little, but my attempt at a joke seems to fall flat. He stays where he is for a moment before speaking again. ‘I’m sorry for how I’ve acted. For the river and the bar. For all the other things. I was an asshole. I knew it would fuck with your head, but I did it anyway.’
‘Why do you want me gone?’ I ask, tilting my head.
