DAISY

The aching pain has become steady, throbbing and stabbing with every breathe I take in. It has come to live in me permanently, that I give up seeking happiness I would never have.

Apparently, I can never go back to days where both my parents were present, days where my life was filled with contentment and joy. I used to be loved. I used to have everything under one roof.

Now, my energy to survive had been drained; I've become entirely worn out. I will give everything to lose my consciousness. It will be better. I just want all my pain to go away.

"Daisy, please, you have to eat something," Kay said to me when he walked into that room that I had packed and left behind days ago.

However, when I regained consciousness last night, I found myself lying on the familiar bed.

I could've fled, but then Kate emerged from the door and promised to stay with me.

It had been hours since then, but I couldn't blink my eyes to sleep; I couldn't bring myself to swallow anything. All that consumed me was my mom; she has suffered. She had worked hard to look after us, to give me what I wanted.

For the past eight years, she did nothing beneficial for herself; everything was about me.

She wanted me to go to the best school, she wanted me in the best college, she wanted me to wear the best clothes, she wanted me to watch the best Tv, so she paid the cables monthly, the rent, the food stocks, my college tuition, my daily need, she covered everything just to make me happy.

I could've saved her if she had been given some more time. I could've been with her if she had been given even a day more.

The accurate remembrance of how messed up I had made her stings inside of me poorly.

"I. Am. Not. Hungry." I quavered angrily.

"Daisy, please?" He came around the bed and settled next to me. My body instinctively shifted to the other side while I breathed heavily.

He noticed and lowered his gaze to my trembling fingers.

"I want to be here for you. You don't have to be in this alone, Daisy." He said. His thoughtful gaze on my hands become more intense.

I sniffed and breathed, feeling endless tears fall down my cheeks.

"I want to be alone, please." I croaked.

But it was too much to ask. Kay scooches over to me and grabs my hands in his warm ones, stopping mine from trembling.

"We promised to be there for each other. You might forget, but I haven't." He silently said, cupping my face with one hand until my watery eyes met his sad ones.

His stroke my cheekbone pleasantly subtle with his thumb.

I couldn't fight anymore; I didn't have the strength anymore. Hence, I leaned in and closed my eyes, having the soothing faint touch of his fingertips against my skin.

"Push me away a million times; it wouldn't make any difference. I won't stop pursuing you as long as my body is operative. So stop striving because I will be damn if I let you go this time." He muttered as a shaky whimper left my lips.

"Why? Why won't you just let it be?" I asked, opening my eyes, which felt so heavy from lack of sleep and pressure of tears.

He didn't respond. Instead, he brushed away a strand of hair from my face and pulled me closer until my head was against his chest.

His heart was beating so fast, I could hear it.

I felt his fingers stroke my back and my hair, yet I still didn't fight out of the embrace. Because if I am honest, I needed it.

"Friends don't leave when you need them the most." He finally answered.

***

Kay and I had remained in the same position for hours, where his heart rate became even, and I even got to sleep, just leaning against him, with our both hands around each other in the quiet room.

It was late afternoon. We still weren't pulling out of the embrace.
Kay wouldn't let go, and I didn't want him to.

For the first time since I've heard the news about my mom, I feel painless. So I didn't care staying here forever if it meant he would soak away my pain.

The creaking sound of the door opening alarmed us of someone's arrival, but none of us cared enough to look in the direction.

"Daisy? Oh my Goodness. Daisy?" A woman said, finally urging Kay to pull back and take a look.

"Mom?" He called; it was then I glanced up to where the voice came.

And I found a more refined and elegant version of Mrs. Chandler, smiling sadly at me.

I could only gape. I didn't know how to react. She seems so different.
Besides, she was really close to Riley than she was with me.

"Kaiser darling, can you give us some minutes?" She asked her son, who is scrutinizing me with cautious eyes.

He nods once and flashes a small smile at me before he releases my hand and surges from the bed, advancing to the exit of the room.

By the entrance, Kay halted with his hand on the door, peering at me reluctantly before he exited and closed the door after him, leaving me with his mother in the quiet room.

The woman stepped around to where I was and plopped into the spot her son left some seconds ago.

With my head down, I stayed quiet, waiting for her reaction towards me.

Then surprisingly, in a soft voice, she begins: "The day your mother's water broke when she was pregnant with you, we were having a conversation in our backyard about our new life with kids in it." There was a smile in her tone. It made me look over at her.

Mrs. Chandler is staring through the glass wall thoughtfully.

"Your mother panicked, forgetting that she was the one who told me a couple of weeks ago it was okay when my water broke." Mrs. Chandler smiles again at the memory while I watch her from the corner of my teary eyes.

"Myself holding two weeks old Kaiser and my husband and of course, your father, occupied the car, accompanying your mother to the hospital. She was terrified; she thought she wouldn't make it. So she made me promise to make sure nothing happened to you. She was so worried about you; she didn't care about herself."

I could barely see through my blurry eyes when I let out a shuddering breathe from the stubborn lump in my throat. It drew her eyes to mine, and she sadly studied me for almost half a minute, with her fingers stroking my hair until my trembling cools down and I could swallow again.

"I've never seen a woman so devoted to her family as your mother was. She will do anything to keep you together. I wish I had that kind of ability. It always makes me admire how she did it and how I couldn't. I was a terrible mother." She exhales a smile.

"That's not true. You tried." I whispered, mainly because I couldn't find my voice.

"No, I didn't." Mrs. Chandler shook her head at me, still sadly smiling. It is obvious she regretted how she had treated Kay. "I was constantly distracted by the business. I didn't care for my family, for Kaiser. But your mom was different, and so you are allowed to grief for losing her." Her finger tenderly wiped my eyes and came under my chin, lifting my head. "But I want you to know as soon as you are ready, I will be downstairs waiting to provide you with love and care and everything a mother will. Because that's what I promised your mother eighteen years ago. I might have failed Kaiser. I might have failed you for eight years. But not anymore, I promise." She nods, and it is enough to break me.

My resistance and stifling, eventually worn out, I wrap arms around her, nuzzling my face in her shoulder and let out the severe pain that wouldn't let me breathe.

KAISER

The whole point was to protect her, to make sure she didn't have to go through any more pain.

I spent hours making sure of it when my father found out about her in Sacramento.

The thing is, I had plans for her, but it was all crushed when she accepted that phone call in west bay.

Daisy deserves better; she had gone through enough, and like my father said, it's time she lived a normal life, free of fear, stress, and worries.

It is why I made a promise to confront Riley about all of this. I mean, after everything, and now that she knows mostly everything, even though I haven't talked to her, and I didn't feel like talking to her, I think she deserves an explanation.

I descended the staircase and found Malik and Kate finding something funny in his phone. The two had been here since yesterday, which explains their acquaintance.

On the other hand, my dad and Kane were already planning the burial arrangements, which my mom suggested to take place here in Sacramento.

"Hey, how is she?" Malik asked when he noticed my presence in the living area.

"Grieving." Saying that out loud ignites throbbing inside my chest.

I know how pain sucks. I was very familiar with it.
Realizing you will never get to see that person you've spent your whole life with, the impact could be exceedingly harmful. I don't wish that on anyone, let alone Daisy.

"Daisy is strong. She will be okay." Kate said from the sofa, and I dubiously nodded before heading to the room where Riley had been since last night.

Upon entering the room, I found her curled up against the wall, staring at the busy avenue.

She didn't say anything, and I am sure she is aware of my presence.

After her attitude yesterday, I had enough. If it weren't for her, Daisy and I could've been together for a long time. But no, fate had to come around and get her to my house so she could steal eight years and replace it with suffering for both Daisy and me.

Not to mention her public attitude to undermine my family's reputation. Now there's news all over the tv telling the opposite as the media will always do.

"We need to talk." I boldly say.

"You are Kay?" Her voice was hoarse. She didn't turn around to face me; she remained in her position, her hands wrapped around her folded legs.

"Daisy and I had been friends since I knew myself. She was the only person I was close to. When her family broke, and she left. You know how that went. I went through everything because I blamed her for not contacting me. Why would you take something that isn't yours?" I exasperatedly asked.

"I am sorry." She whispered, her body shaking lightly.

But I had to ask the question that had been running in my head: "Us? It wasn't real, was it? You appeared because you already know who I was."

She pulled herself up and approached me in her yesterday's outfit and messed up makeup; her lips were puffy and trembling when she stopped before me, with swollen eyes. "I didn't know it was you; the letter says, Kay." She sniffed, staring at the envelope in her hand. "I got carried away by the words and my desperation for someone to talk to." Her eyes raise to me, finally.

"Real, you asked. There wasn't a moment between us that was a lie. I don't have a happy home; why would I cheat in the safest place I found?" She held out the envelope to me. "I shouldn't have taken it. I wouldn't be standing here. Because I wouldn't have been friends with her, and it wouldn't have hurt this bad."

I collect the envelope without disconnecting my eyes from hers.
But Riley did; she stepped back and left for the bathroom, leaving me alone in the room with the envelope that could've saved me eight years ago.

So I walked to the bed and slowly sat down before unwrapping the piece of paper.