Why in the hell was I looking at this?
It was insane. I stopped myself before I started searching for aliens in West Virginia. As soon as I went downstairs, there was a knock on my door. It was Dee.
“Hey,” she said, “can we talk?”
“Sure?” I shut the door behind me and walked outside. “My mom’s still asleep.”
She nodded as I sat on the swing. “Katy, I am so, so sorry about today. Ash is a complete bitch sometimes.”
“It’s not your fault she acted like that,” I said, meaning it. “But what I don’t get is why she and Daemon acted like that.” I stopped, feeling that stupid burn in my throat. “I shouldn’t have dumped my food on them, but I’ve never been more embarrassed in my life.” Dee sat beside me, crossing her ankles. “I think it was actually kind of funny, what you did and not what they did. If I’d known they were going to be so terrible about everything I would’ve made sure they didn’t.” Water under the bridge, I guessed.
She drew in a deep breath. “Ash isn’t Daemon’s girlfriend. She wants to be, but she’s not.”
“It didn’t look that way to me.”
“Well, they do…hang out.”
“He’s using her?” Disgusted, I shook my head. “What a douche.”
“I think it’s mutual on both sides. Honestly, they did date last year for a little bit, but then it cooled off. Today was the most I’d seen him pay attention to her in months.”
“She hates me,” I said after a few minutes, sighing. “I don’t care about that right now. I wanted to ask you something.”
“Okay.”
I bit my lip. “We’re friends, right?”
“Of course!” She looked at me with wide eyes. “Honestly, Daemon scares everyone off and you’ve lasted the longest, and, well, I think you’re like my best friend.”
I was relieved to hear that. Not the part about me lasting the longest, because that sounded weird. Like they broke their friends or something. “Same here.”
She smiled broadly. “Good, because I would’ve felt stupid for say-ing that if you decided you didn’t want to be friends anymore with me.”
The sincerity in her voice struck a chord in me. Suddenly, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to question her. Maybe it was something she didn’t want to talk about because it was too painful. In the short time I’d known we’d grown close, and I didn’t want to upset her.
“Why did you ask?” she prodded.
I tucked my hair back, staring down at the floor. “Why didn’t you ever tell me about Dawson?”
Dee froze. I don’t even think she breathed, to be honest. Then she ran a hand up and down her arm, swallowing. “I guess someone told you about him at school?”
“Yeah, they told me he disappeared with a girl.”
Pressing her lips together, she nodded. “I know you probably think it’s weird that I’d never mentioned him, but I don’t like talking about him. I try not to even think about him.” She looked at me, eyes glistening with tears. “Does that make me a bad person?”
“No,” I said fiercely. “I try not to think about my dad, because it hurts too much sometimes.”
“We were close, me and Dawson.” She wiped a hand across her face. “Daemon was always the quiet one, off doing things on his own, but Dawson and I were super close. We did everything together. He was more than a brother. He was my best friend.” I didn’t know what to say. But it certainly explained the almost desperate quality to Dee’s friendship, and that common feeling we each recognized in the other. Loneliness. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up. I didn’t understand and…” And I was a nosy bitch.
“No, it’s okay.” She twisted toward me. “I would be curious, too. I totally understand. And I should’ve told you. I’m such a crappy friend that you find out about my other brother from kids at school.”
“I was confused. There’s been so much…” I trailed off, shaking my head. “Nothing. When you’re ready to talk about him, I’m here. Okay?”
Dee nodded. “There’s been so much what?”
Talking to her about all the weird crap wouldn’t be good. And I had promised Daemon not to talk about the attack. I forced a smile. “It’s nothing. So do you think I have to watch my back now? Go into the Witness Protection Program?” She let out a shaky laugh. “Well, I wouldn’t try to talk to Ash anytime soon.”
Figured that much. “What about Daemon?”
“Good question,” she said, glancing away. “I have no idea what he’ll do.”
…
The next day, I was dreading second period. My stomach was twisted, and I’d been unable to eat breakfast without wanting to hurl. There was no doubt in my mind that Daemon believed revenge was a dish best served in my face.
As soon as Lesa and Carissa arrived at class, they demanded to know what possessed me to dump my plate of spaghetti on Daemon’s and Ash’s heads.
I shrugged. “Ash was being a bitch.” I’m sure I seemed a lot more confident than I felt. I actually wanted to take the whole thing back. Sure, Ash was being rude and embarrassed me, but hadn’t I done the same thing to her? If I was the girl who dumped spaghetti on them, then she was the dumpee and that’s got to be more embarrassing.
I was ashamed. I’d never done anything to make anyone feel bad before. It was as though Daemon’s obnoxious personality was rubbing off on me, and I didn’t like it. I decided it would be best for everyone if I stayed the hell away from him from now on.