Beneath Our Faults (16 page)

The attendant told me my total and I pulled around the side of the building. "Here," Daisy said, shaking the money at me.

"I got it," I ordered, ignoring the money again.

A brush of air left her mouth. "No, you drove all the way up here for me, so please just take the damn money."

"My mom told me to never let a girl pay for her own meal," I lied. My mom never taught me shit.

She muttered something under her breath and crumbled the money into a ball, setting it in my cup holder. I would find a way to get it back to her later when she wasn't being so cranky. "Where to now?" I asked, after paying for the food and unwrapping one of the five cheeseburgers I ordered.

"Turn right at the next light and my house is on the end of that street," she guided, dipping her spoon in the sundae and taking a large bite. I obliged, controlling the steering wheel with my leg and shoving the burger down my throat.

"Right here," she pointed, when we turned down the street. A small, brick house was perched on the corner. I braked, pulling into the uncovered driveway in front of the garage door. It was dark, so I couldn't see much except for the front door with a bright light shining above it.

We shuffled out of the car, feet in the snow and her dad opened up the door, clad in a full police uniform. I wasn't sure if he had just got off work or if he was trying to convey a message to me. "My Daisy girl," he greeted, engulfing her into his arms.

"Hi dad," she replied, her voice tiny.

"Keegan," he said, his voice turning deep. "Thank you for bringing my girl."

"It was no problem." I dragged my hand through my hair, shaking out the snow.

"Are you two hungry?" her mom asked, walking into the entry way and giving Daisy a tight hug. "I can whip you guys up something real quick. I'm sure you're starving since you've been on the road for hours."

"Thanks mom, but we stopped and got something on our way here. We're just tired," she answered for the both of us, yawning.

I glanced around the room. The best word to describe it was: homey. The living room was flooded with pictures and knickknacks covering the walls, tables, everything. I did a loop, studying the pictures as I passed them. Most of them were of Daisy but my feet skidded to a stop at one. She was wrapped in some guy's arms on the beach, smiling. Her dark hair was shorter and curlier but the best part about the picture was her smile. It was real and I knew it was because of the guy. Her eyes sparkled, looking up at him with a beaming grin so different than the artificial ones she gave out now.

My focus moved to the guy, the ex-boyfriend, I could only guess. The kid was the fucking poster child for the "All American Good Guy," the guy parents dreamed their daughters would bring home. The complete opposite of me.

With my curiosity still piqued, I looked at every picture of Daisy and golden boy, or some with a blonde chick that smiled too big, it was almost creepy. I finally figured out who each person was when I reached a photo with the words,
Tanner, Tessa and Daisy, Spring Break 2009
, scrawled across it. Ahh, so the blonde was the girl on suicide watch, who looked strangely similar to the boy with his hand wrapped around Daisy's hip. Interesting.

"Keegan," Daisy's mom startled me and I whipped my eyes her way. "The guest room is all made up for you whenever you're ready." I nodded in response, following her up the stairs. The small room was plain and filled with trinkets like the rest of the house. I swear, I had already noticed five different things that said the words "home sweet home" on them. An older, wooden sleigh bed stood in the middle of the room with a large quilt spread over the top.

As soon as her mom left the room, I grabbed the top of my shirt, pulling it over my head, and grabbed my phone from my pocket before sliding off my jeans. I had a shit ton of missed calls and texts because I had been ignoring everyone while we were on our way to the hospital. Tossing my clothes on the dresser, I climbed into the cold bed to answer everyone. A soft knock drew my attention away from my phone towards the closed door. "It's me," Daisy called through the door.

"Come in," I answered, in a low tone so I wouldn't wake her parents. The door creaked open and she sauntered into the room, wearing only a tiny pair of pajama shorts and a tank top, clearly showing she wasn't wearing a bra underneath. I could see the hard outline of her nipples through the thin fabric, making me harden between my legs. Fuck, the girl must have been trying to torture me.

"Hey," I said, moving around to adjust myself. I scooted over and patted the blanket with the palm of my hand.

"I just wanted to say thanks for bringing me here and really for everything," she said, fidgeting.

"It was no problem," I responded, trying to tear my eyes away from her breasts and calm my dick back down.

"You're really not as bad as everyone tries to make you out," she settled down on the bed beside me, sitting Indian style. My eyes dashed from her chest to her bare legs and I fought the urge to bring my hand up and run it along her smooth, olive skin.

"People say I'm a bad person?" I replied, feigning hurt by putting my hand across my heart. "You tired?" I asked, dragging one of the pillows crammed behind my head and tossing it next to me.

"Yeah," she answered, her fingers tracing the patterns on the quilt. "I just can't sleep. It's so weird being here."

"Why?"

Her shoulders shrugged then slumped down. "It just is."

"Did everything go okay with your friend?"

"I guess but I'm pretty sure she's still pissed at me."

"Why would she be pissed at you?"

Her fingers froze on the blanket. "Because it's my fault," she whispered, shaking her head.

"Bullshit. Did you slit her fucking wrist or hand her the blade?"

"Well no," she answered, shutting her eyes. "But I wasn't there for her when she needed me."

"She's not a little girl and from the looks of it, you have your own set of fucking issues you're trying to figure out."

"You don't understand," she stressed. "You wouldn't understand but I left her at a time when she really needed me." Her full lips started to quiver and I wrapped my arms around her waist. I kept my hold on her, dragging her across the bed until her back was against the headboard and she was sitting next to me. My mouth became moist at the feel of her bare arm hitting my chest as she moved around to get comfortable.

"People do fucked up shit all the time, but you can't blame yourself for all the bullshit that happens to them. You have to worry about fixing yourself before you can fix anyone else, babe. You've obviously been having a rough time dealing with whatever you've got going on but you're not trying to off yourself because of it. So what, you left her. People get left behind all the time, trust me, I could write a damn book of how times people have left me." I paused, watching her eyes widen at my revelation. Shoot, I was surprised I even said that. I never told anyone about my problems. "Some people run away to get a fresh start. Your friend needs to find a way to be as strong as you are."

She scoffed. "I am far from strong."

My arms tightened around her, bringing her closer into my body. "You are strong. I mean, you resisted my perfect charm even when we share a bed," I snickered, remembering how it felt when her warm hands ran over my chest.

She rolled her eyes, elbowing me in the side gently. "Just when your nice side comes out, you have to go mess up everything with your stupid ego."

"You love it," I boasted, pinching her side, causing her to squirm. "Why was that guy being a complete asshat to you earlier? Damn, he really has his boy's back."

She averted her gaze back to the blanket. "He's not mad about me about that. I said some horrible words to him before I left and obviously he's still mad at me," she replied, obviously refusing to share anything else. The girl was packed with secrets, a puzzle I just couldn't seem to figure out. I wanted to climb into her brain and unlock everything she was hiding.

"So you and Tessa were pretty close, huh? I noticed you had a ton of pictures of you two all over the house," I asked, trying to mask my attempt at prying.

"Yeah, we've known each other since I came out of the womb. Our parents were all best friends and I guess they passed that torch down to us."

"So she tried to kill herself because you moved away to Atlanta? Sure seems a bit overdramatic, if you ask me."

"Not exactly," she said, drawing out the words. "Her brother was my ex-boyfriend. Things didn't exactly, um, work out between the two of us so I decided to leave."

"I see." She had run all the way of Atlanta because of some guy. I guess that made sense as to why she was sad all the time. But weren't high school relationships not supposed to last anyways? I was certain there was some pie chart out there that supported my theory. "So have you lived here your entire life?"

Her head nodded against the pillow and she finally looked up from the blanket. "My parents bought this house when they found out my mom was pregnant with me," she answered, around a giant yawn. "My dad had just gotten hired at the station and they had him working second shift."

"Shit hours.”

"And of course, I decided I wanted to be born on his first day on the job at two in the morning."

I chuckled. "Why does it not surprise me that you were even a pain in the ass still in the womb?"

"Hey! I'm not a pain in the ass.”

"Yeah right! I remember the first day I met you and offered you a simple, friendly ride to school. You looked at me like you wanted to cut my balls off and grind them in your blender."

She shook her head trying to keep her smile at bay. "Uh yeah, maybe because I had just witnessed you getting your freak on like eight hours before."

I squinted my eyes at her. "You were watching me get my freak on," I corrected, tilting my head at her and chuckling.

Her arms crossed her chest, covering up my perfect view. "I was not watching," she yelped, and then covered her mouth when she realized how loud her voice carried through the room. She moaned, making my dick throb at the sound. "Okay, what would you do then? Here I was alone, on my balcony hanging out then I hear some loud moan and I think one of my neighbors are watching porn on TV. Instead, I look over the railing and see you two doing," she paused, searching for words she wasn’t too embarrassed to say, "your thing. I completely just froze up, unable to move."

"Your face was priceless. You looked like you had just got caught with your hand in the cookie jar."

"Hey buddy, your hand was the one in someone's cookie jaw," she teased back, giving me a sense of relief at the brief glimmer of a real smile twitching on her face. She yawned.

"You should probably get some sleep," I said, settling into my pillow. She nodded and my eyes practically bulged out of my head when she dipped her body down further into the blankets and settled down next to me - still in my bed.

“He’s dead,” she said, out of nowhere, and surprising the shit out of me.

“Who?”

“Tanner, my ex-boyfriend, he’s dead,” she said, her voice soft, but clear. Well fuck, that sure complicated things. No wonder she had problems.

“How did he die?”

“He got shot.”

“I see.” I wanted to wrap her tiny body into my arms and comfort her but I was scared she would stop talking if I did. “Was it an accident? How did it happen?”

“It was a school shooting,” she paused, and took a breath. “The guy who did it. I knew him. We all knew him. We’d been going to school together since kindergarten. I cheered with his girlfriend, but he cheated on her all the time. She finally got fed up and broke up with him. When she started to date someone else, he just snapped. His dad was actually on the force with mine, so he just grabbed a gun from his dad’s collection and shot everyone in her class.”

She paused, inhaling a deep then exhaling. “He killed twenty kids and our Geometry teacher. I knew every single person that died in that classroom and heard their screams while he killed them because the class was right next to mine. I can remember how scared I was that he was coming to get us next.” A few tears dripped down her face and she sniffled.

“Baby,” I said, dragging her body closer into mine. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.” My fingers ran down her arms, attempting to comfort her. How did you comfort someone who had to listen to their boyfriend get murdered in the room next to them? “What happened to the kid?”

“He killed himself by putting a bullet in his own head.”

“Wow, what a waste,” I whispered. And an asshole. I hated when I saw shit like that. If you want to kill yourself, just do it. There was no need to take others out with you.

“The sad part was, he was actually a decent kid until he started hanging out with the wrong crowd. He started doing drugs and partying all the time, and I mean hard partying. I guess it just messed with his head. They said when they did his autopsy, his system was loaded with a deadly combination of drugs, they were surprised he could even stand.”

“Is that why you don’t talk about your life here? Because you don’t want people to know?”

She sighed. “If people knew, they would have treated me like a porcelain pony. Everyone here acted like I was some freakshow after everything, which is what I didn’t want when I moved to Atlanta.”