22. Daisy

CHAPTER 22

Daisy

D aisy's insides burn with fury. Magic sizzles down her arms to her fingertips and she can't stop herself from turning and facing Sloan head on. "Fuck you and the shit-stained broom you rode in on."

Sloan smiles. She fucking smiles at Daisy.

"You have no fucking right to talk to me like that and to basically call me a whore because your magic found a goddess-damned vibrator in my bag. You violated my privacy, and you stand here like the prissy witch you are, thinking you're better than me? No." Violet sparks shoot from her fingertips to Sloan's feet, causing her to dance away as she avoids being set on fire. Thankfully, the sparks magically go out on contact with the floor, avoiding an embarrassing conversation with the inn about how she set the room on fire. "Also, why do you care about Barker?"

"I don't."

"Really? Because it seems like you're jealous, and frankly you have no right to be. We've made out, what, twice? That doesn't make us a couple. What it makes us is a mistake. A line that never should have been crossed." Sloan flinches.

"Or maybe you needed to test out what it's like to be with someone with actual power."

This witch has got to be kidding.

Power surges inside her, electrifying every ounce of her being and making her head swim. The strength of it is intoxicating. But the fury-formed magic quickly grows too much for her, and as much as Daisy tries to call it back, Sloan has hit a nerve and set it off beyond her limits.

She thought she had been doing well managing it. The evening walks have been helpful as a way for her to let go of tension and let sparks loose. That need for release was why she denied Sloan's attendance this evening. The thought of Sloan seeing how little control she has makes her stomach roll with embarrassment. However, despite having released power into the earth, Sloan's words have created a hurricane seeking destruction, and she doesn't have the ability to hold it back.

Violet currents explode from Daisy's hands, rocketing around the room, bouncing off the desk, and ruffling the curtains. A large spark bounces off the bed, singeing a hole into the comforter and sending feathers poofing into the air.

"Holy shit!" Sloan bounds forward, flicking her hand and putting out the tiny flame on the bed. With another flick, the feathers are contained, and the bedding is fixed, looking as if it had never been burnt in the first place. She steps toward Daisy, arms extended, trying to pull her into a hug.

Power pours through Daisy like a broken dam, and she can't find a big enough rock to plug the hole. She begins to shake, burning out to exhaustion, and as her knees start to buckle, Sloan's hands catch her. They slide under her arms and help guide her to the wooden floor, cool and comforting against her burning skin.

"You're okay. I'm here. You're okay," Sloan soothingly repeats over and over again, wrapping herself around Daisy. The pressure of Sloan's arms around her, holding her tightly, helps. The swirling hurricane of power softens to a tropical storm and then continues to dwindle as the power flows to Sloan, absorbed by her like before. Before long, the flood is nothing more than a trickle, and Daisy no longer feels like she is being consumed by magical energy. "You alright?"

Daisy's head rests on Sloan's shoulder, her nose touching the crook of her neck. As Daisy breathes in deeply, her nose fills with the smell of freshly baked cookies, and it's like she's back home with her parents as a young child, watching her mother pull a fresh batch out of the oven before school. The memory is a spark to the heart that burns a hole into her chest, igniting the pain she's been ignoring. Tears form in her eyes, and before she can try to lie to Sloan, they burst and open a new dam. A bigger one. A dam that feels impossible to stop once it starts to flow.

"Oh, Hecate!" Sloan says, placing a hand on the side of Daisy's head as she burrows it into Sloan's shoulder. She caresses Daisy's head, running a hand from the top of it down to her back. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I was such a bitch. I didn't mean to cause all that. I was trying to get you to admit that you were being a troll about us working together. I'm so sorry."

Daisy sucks back the snot in her nose with the most unattractive snort imaginable and awkwardly laughs. "Well, you fucked that up royally, didn't you?"

"Apparently so."

Daisy pushes herself away, missing the heat of Sloan's embrace. She wipes her tear-stained face with her sleeve, trying to find her words.

"You don't need to say anything. I shouldn't have pushed you like that."

"No, you shouldn't have," Daisy says. "But you're also not wrong."

"Oh?"

"Don't try to sound so surprised. Look, I know I've been miserable and avoidant. It's been a rough couple of weeks, and I've been barely holding myself together. We aren't, or weren't, friends. And frankly, aside from our history, I'm not happy with how things went between you and Petra last year, and I… have a lot of pent-up… personal stuff."

"Oh. I didn't know," Sloan says.

"Of course you didn't. How would you?"

"Good point. Do you want to talk about it? I know we aren't friends, but I think we've managed maybe to cross the border into acquaintance land after this weekend. I could be a good impartial listener," Sloan suggests, conjuring a tissue and offering it to Daisy.

Daisy takes it and blows her nose. "‘Want' is a strong word." She pauses, waiting to see if Sloan will move on or ask her something. When she doesn't, Daisy decides to open the door for her and says, "What do you want to know?"

"What happened between you and your ex?"

The question takes Daisy by surprise. Despite having talked about it previously, she expected more questions about her parents and everything she was feeling around that.

"With Stella? The short of it is that it fizzled out."

"What's the long of it?"

Daisy scoots over to lean against the repaired bed, which she will need to thank Sloan for at some point. She brings her knees up to her chest, wraps her arms around them, turns her head to the side, and rests her cheek on top. "I was the problem. As I am in all my relationships. When we ended things, she told me I had issues with trust and allowing people to get close to me. She said I tend to keep everyone at arm's length because I fear they will do something to harm me. I have my parents to thank for that."

Daisy wipes a stray tear from the corner of her eye before taking a deep breath and continuing. "Nothing like being lied to for half your life, only to find out your parents are serious criminals. Anyway, she wanted something deeper, and I couldn't give that to her. So we—well, she—ended it. Despite a rough break, she apparently still cares and came to help me a couple of weeks ago when I drunk-dialed her crying or something after everything went down with my parents."

Sloan nods along, listening but not interrupting. It's refreshing. Petra would have chimed in at least twice by now and tried to offer some opinion.

"Relationship-wise, I felt that we were a pretty good fit. We had fun and enjoyed each other's company, and what more could you want in a relationship? I thought we were good. We agreed when we started seeing each other that we didn't want anything serious, but somewhere along the way, she decided she did, and I wasn't giving that to her. It's really nothing nefarious. We wanted different things, and so it didn't work out."

"I'm sorry."

Daisy sniffles. "Nothing to be sorry about. We just weren't right for each other." A comfortable silence falls between them. Sloan's hand inches toward hers, her pinky finger reaching out to loop into Daisy's.

Sloan takes a deep breath. "When did you know you were bi?"

Again, the question surprises her.

"I think I've known, on some level, my whole life. I've always found both men and women attractive. I looked at them both the same way, curious about them, and developed crushes on both as a preteen and teenager. As a young child, that interest first showed as an equal pull to both boys and girls for friendships. I was that odd child who would bounce around friend groups, playing sports with the boys and dolls with the girls. Well, I bounced around until you all decided I wasn't worthy of having friends," Daisy says, unable to stop the jab before it's out. "But it wasn't until that preteen age when people started to ask which celebrity I had a crush on that I realized I was different. I started to think about what it would be like to kiss some of the girls at school and thought that was as exciting as kissing the boys." Daisy wipes a lingering tear. "I really thought that was normal until I got a little bit older, and some of the girls started teasing me about how I was ‘obsessed with them' because I wanted to be around them so much. I thought we all had crushes on each other. I didn't really know what bisexuality was at the time and didn't know anyone else who felt the same way I did. It wasn't until I left high school that I started to find others like me. The dating pool in Leeside has always been small, but the queer community is even smaller. Once I started to meet others in the queer community, I thought I had finally found my people, but being a bisexual, I was still seen as different. I was too greedy, or I needed to choose. I was queer, but not queer enough. What's funny is that while I was seen as different within the queer community, I was never ostracized from the overall Leeside community for being queer. We seem to accept people for who they are , but the challenge comes when the issue is what people do . Which, I get it, what my parents did was horrible. But I wish I didn't feel the fallout too. What about you? When did you know you weren't straight?"

Daisy feels Sloan's eyes watching her as if trying to determine if there is some ulterior motive. But there's none. Her eyes travel Daisy's body, and it feels like a soft caress, a ghostly touch that sends goosebumps down to her toes.

Sloan inhales a sharp breath, then begins. "I think, like you, deep down, I always knew. On some level, I have always appreciated the beauty of the female form. I love our curves, our softness, how we're anything but soft. We are so full of power and strength. I had girls who were friends, but that part of me wanted them to be girlfriends . To feel that connection, that bond, with them. The crushes as a teen were hard because it was never really returned. We all kind of flirted with each other, but I was the only one who took it seriously, hoping that it would turn into something more. When I actively started dating, not that I've done a ton of it, because, as you say, the dating opportunities in Leeside are limited, I realized I had no interest in dating men. I tried. I had one or two dates with a few different guys, but there was never anything there. No spark. No desire. I had no interest in even seeing if things would go further. At that point, I realized I wasn't attracted to them. But it was so different when I went on my first date with a woman. I was so nervous that seeing her gave me heart palpitations. She took my breath away. I realized that this was what I had been missing. This was what attraction felt like. I dated her for a few months before we went our separate ways, and I will forever be thankful that she was my first. She showed me how it could be."

"Wow."

Sloan looks down at her hands. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Daisy asks, confused.

"For all the pain I caused you."

She's wanted to hear these words for so long. To hear that there was some remorse for the hell that Sloan had made of her life. As she soaks the apology in, the darkness she holds within, the protective barrier, begins to shrink. "Thank you. We weren't exactly on friendly terms, and I was already a pariah, so it shouldn't have surprised me that I wouldn't fit in there either."

"You deserve connection, though. To feel that you belong and are worthy," Sloan says.

"Meh. I've grown used to it," Daisy responds, instinctively brushing off the attempt at empathy.

Sloan looks down at her hands, still spinning the ring on her thumb. "It doesn't make it right. I'm sorry you had such a hard upbringing and that I contributed to it."

"Thanks."

"So is that why you're doing this coordinating thing then? To try and prove everyone wrong?"

Daisy hesitates. Sloan nailed it. This event has been her chance to prove everyone wrong. To show them that they made a mistake in underestimating her. In pushing her away. She takes in a slow breath and whispers, "Yes."

Sloan nods again. Accepting the answer as the complete truth without needing further explanation. "Me too," she replies.

Daisy's eyes nearly pop out of her head. Sloan is… Sloan. She doesn't need to prove anything to anyone. She can and does have everything that she could ever need or want. "But…"

"I'm Sloan Wilks? Yeah, that's the problem. I'm tired of only being known as a Wilks. That's why I've been fighting, literally, with you to get this going and to be a more active part of it. I need this for me, to be a part of something good."

"I didn't know. I thought you were trying to get extra points with the council or something."

"I mean, if you had only listened to me and let me in, you would have realized quite quickly," Sloan says, allowing a tiny smirk to appear on her gorgeous mouth.

"I'm sorry, too. I have been a bit of a wicked witch."

"Only a bit," Sloan replies, winking to reassure Daisy that she's only teasing. "Do you think we could call a truce and actually try to, you know, work as a team? It would be nice if we could both come out successful."

Daisy's brain nearly short-circuits. She wants to say yes. It would be so much easier. And Sloan does have great connections to help bring her big plans to fruition. But she's asking Daisy to trust her. To rely on her. That's a huge step, especially given that she caused Daisy to set the bed on fire less than an hour ago.

She looks at Sloan, her warm, caring eyes watching her. Waiting. Hopeful.

Daisy releases a shaky breath. "Yes."

Sloan's face breaks into the biggest and purest smile. She pushes herself forward, flinging her arms around Daisy in a celebratory hug. "You won't regret this. I promise."

"Gret'off me," Daisy grumbles, pushing Sloan away. Sloan slumps back, and her smile is so big and so bright she could power a witch light. "I'm gonna get ready for bed."

Sloan nods in what Daisy assumes is agreement, and as she walks away, Daisy swears she sees her wipe away a tear.

Please don't make me regret this.