Daisy Haites: The Great Undoing: Book 4 (Magnolia Parks Universe)
Daisy Haites: Chapter 39

So Parks and Jules canned it the other night and it’s been strange vibes ever since.

Tonight’s shaping up to be weird as fuck because Jo’s throwing his annual Wet Feb party tonight at Math Club.

Magnolia insists on me and Henry coming to her house to get ready but both of us arrive ready, and I guess this is what happens when you can’t be alone and your friendship group is as incestuous as ours and I make a mental note to buy everyone a group therapy session for Christmas this year.

Parks says she’s fine but I know her face too well, after years of studying it when I shouldn’t have. How her face looks tonight, she looks lost.

Can’t do alone.

That’s why Henry and I are forced to stand in her bathroom while she asks us both if her mouth is the right colour.

Her mouth couldn’t be the wrong colour, it’s the second best mouth in the world and I don’t even want to kiss it anymore — but I can see it in how she’s fussing, this has thrown her. Whatever happened with her and Jules, it’s done a number on her.

I go to her kitchen to grab myself a drink, take the edge off and her sister’s in there, sitting on the kitchen bench.

“Hiding?” I ask her.

Bridget nods. “She slept in my bed last night.”

I give her a bit of a shrug. “You know her and alone.”

“Can’t do it even for a second.” She sighs as her eyebrows lift. “It’s getting worse.”

I pour myself some wine. Red. Top up Bridget’s glass.

“I think she fancied him,” I tell her, crossing my arms.

“Yeah, no shit, Sherlock—” Bridge rolls her eyes. “Though, she’d fancy a fucking door knob if it made her stop thinking about BJ.”

I shake my head. “I don’t know — I don’t know if this is about Beej.”

And Bridget gives me a look. “Everything about her — God, Christian, you of all people should—” She gives me an exasperated look, and she doesn’t need to finish that sentence. “Everything about my sister is about BJ.”

Henry speed-walks into the kitchen and rounds the corner gesticulating to us wildly, bolstering arms, thumbs up, jazz hands around his face, mouths the word ‘pretty’ and then she walks in to the kitchen to a chorus of “wow” and “ooh” from the three of us, and she puts her hands on her hips.

“That felt rehearsed…” She looks down at herself in her little white dress. “Do you not like it? It’s Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini— Should I change?”

“He’ll die when he sees you,” I tell her, trying to be helpful because it sounds like something she’d want to hear.

“Who will?”she asks, hands on her hips.

“Um… either?” I offer and she frowns so I try again. “N-neither? Both?”

(“Oh, fuck.” Henry sighs.)

“Magnolia—” Bridget boosts herself off the table. “BJ is — boys, back me up — in a perennial state of obsessing over you.”

“Yes,” Henry says and we both nod emphatically.

“Bane of my existence for a long time.” I give Parks a look as I nudge her and she smiles a bit.

“And Julian,” Bridget squares her shoulders, “is a fuckwit for how he treated you the other night—”

“How’d he treat you the other night?” Henry squares up.

“It was nothing, Hen—” She shakes her head dismissively. “It’s fine. Are these shoes okay?”

We all stare at them and Bridget is the only one dumb enough to say anything more than ‘Yes, they’re great.’

“They’re just black. They’re a black shoe.”

“Yes, right, I know, but the tie on my dress is velvet, so maybe I should — oh!” She darts out of the kitchen. “I got a velvet pair from Gianvito Rossi last week.”

She comes back in.

“Wonderful!” / “Excellent!” Henry and I say, and Bridget frowns again.

“They look the same.”

“For the love of God, shut up,” Henry says through clenched teeth and Bridget groans and bangs her head on the bench.

I throw back some more wine and clap my hands twice, because Daisy’s going to be there and I want to see her sooner rather than later.

Magnolia breezes back into the kitchen with a purse and a jacket over her arm.

“Ready.”

“Great—” I walk towards the door.

“Magnolia—” Bridget calls for her.

(“No!” I growl under my breath.)

“What?” She pauses, waiting.

“Do you think that perhaps instead of going out tonight and seeking validation from different men because you feel rejected by the two boys you’re romantically interested in, you could stay at home and work on processing those emotions?”

Magnolia stares over at her sister for a few seconds, blinks twice then erupts into laughter.

“You’re so funny, Bridge. I needed that! Thank you.” She bounces out the door and Henry and Bridget exchange weary glances.

As soon as we walk in to the club she spots Julian. Their eyes catch and she throws the first dagger with hers before Henry throws an arm around her and takes her to the bar.

Julian looks pissed off immediately and starts talking to Bianca Harrington, one of Jo’s close friends. Dead hot. American. Dad’s a diplomat. Pretty sure Jo’s declared her off limits to all of us but Julian doesn’t look like he cares about that tonight.

What the fuck happened?

Daisy’s chatting to some of the boys. I don’t want to seem to eager so I just follow Parks and Henry to the bar. I regret it immediately because Jordan’s there with a friend of hers who’s so annoying and so keen on me, so aggressively flirty — I don’t want a bar of it, don’t want Daisy to see and read into it, so I go replace my brother, tell him it looks sick and good job — give Tausie a peck and make a crack about it being Jo’s night and then Jonah gets shitty and walks off and then I make a beeline over to Daisy.

“Hey—” I kick Daisy in the ankle so she looks up at me.

She looks up and moves over in her seat, making room for me. “Hi.”

I kiss her on her cheek and she sort of looks surprised that I do.

Happy-surprised, but surprised.

“Good day?” I squeeze her knee.

“Yeah.” She shrugs. “Fine. Normal, you know — what did you do?”

“Nothing.” I pour myself some champagne from the table.

“You were with Magnolia?” she asks, I think trying to sound breezy — except that she doesn’t, so I hand her my champagne and pour myself another.

“Yeah.” I scrunch my face up a bit. “Hen and I went over to hers before—” I lower my voice.“I think she’s sad.”

“About my brother?”

I nod, looking over my shoulder to check on Parks and lo and behold, there’s BJ standing there at the bar with his girlfriend and some girl that was trying to chat my ear off a second ago.

“She looks sad…” Daisy says sarcastically as she eyes her down, unimpressed with my friend as Parks reaches over and touches the hem of BJ’s shirt while his girlfriend’s not looking.

“Oi,” I reach over and smack Jules on the leg. “Are you good?”

He looks instantly annoyed, like immediately and disproportionately shitty.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” He scowls, but his eyes drag over to Magnolia and BJ before he glares back at me.

I toss Daisy a look and then give Jules a vague look. “Why wouldn’t you be, I don’t know—?”

Julian rolls his eyes.

“I’ve got to say—” Daisy leans forward. “You do seem great — like, mentally, you seem in a really, good, happy place.”

Julian glares over at her and points one finger.

“You shut up.”

“And you—” I point at him. “Don’t talk to her like that.”

“Ey!” Julian’s eyes light up in a dim way. “We got a big man here today—”

“Oh, ignore him—” Daisy grabs me by the arm, pulling me backwards into the chair we’re on and I love it, it’s such a casual, mindless grab how she’s touching me. I want her to always be touching me. “He’s been in a bad mood ever since… you know—”

Carmelo leans in over Bianca (who pushes him off her and goes to replace Jonah) to insert himself into the the conversation.

“What happened?”

“Nothing—” Julian rolls his eyes.

Kekoa clears his throat and pulls a face. Something, obviously.

“What?” Carmelo asks, looking up at him confused.

“Julian and Magnolia are done,” Declan says as he pours Julian a shot and slides it over to him.

Julian glares at the vodka for a few seconds, like drinking it might be a tacit admission to something he doesn’t want to say.

Carmelo, though, he lights up a bit at the news. “Really? What happened?”

“Nothing happened—” Julian says, then takes the shot.

“Something obviously happened—” Miguel says under his breath to Declan but loud enough for Jules to hear.

“Can everyone just shut the fuck up?” Julian growls.

“You’re very in your feelings, Julian.,” Daisy tells him.

And he glares over at at his sister. “I told you already — there’s no feelings. We were just naffing—”

“Really?” Carmelo sits back in his chair.

“Yeah,” Julian shrugs. “Really.”

Carmelo looks over at him. “And you’re done?”

“Yeah.”

“Oi—” He smacks Jules playfully in the arm. “Then do you mind if I take her out for a spin?”

Julian turns to look at his friend, brows down, instantly frowning.

“What did you say?”

(“Shit,” Kekoa sighs under his breath.)

“Well, if you’re done with her, just flick her my number, yeah?” Carmelo shrugs.

“What?” Julian says, brows low, processing.

“She’s like, stupid hot.” Carmelo says —I don’t know how he’s not sensing the tone — “I want a turn.”

Julian’s staring at Carmelo, shaking his head confused. “A turn?”

“I mean, she’s got a tiny rack but she’d be a decent smash—” He laughs and I’m about to say something myself when Julian jumps to his feet, towering over his friend.

“Fucking say that to me again, bruv—”

Daisy goes tense next to me.

Carmelo jumps to his feet, ready to fight on a reflex.

Loving someone is weird. First thing I think is how I need to get Daisy the fuck out of here.

“Say it again,” Julian barks as he shoves Carmelo.

(“Feelings have entered the chat,” Declan whispers to no one in particular.)

Carmelo shoves him back, and there’s not a lot of room for anything to go down here — we’re in a tight space, there’s a table with a bunch of bottles on it, couches, too many people for them to fight how they would if no one was watching, but then, Jules’ eyes have gone savage.

“What’s your problem, man?” Carmelo shakes his head, smiling but it’s strained. “You said you were done—”

Jules shoves him again. “You’re my problem.”

“You afraid she might fancy some Italian sausage?” Carmelo says with a laugh, but I don’t like it.

Julian’s face shifts and I glance around, taking stock of the room. This could get dicey pretty fast.

“Jules—” Daisy stands and Julian looks back at her for a second, holds his arm out to keep her away.

“I can’t deal with your shit right now, Face, sit down—”

“Julian—” She reaches for her brother and he jerks away from her.

“Daisy, I said sit the fuck down.” He growls at her and I don’t like that either so I stand up, and pull her behind me.

“Do you want to talk about her again?” Julian asks Carmelo, chin jutted.

“Maybe I do, yeah.” Carmelo nods, and I don’t know what he’s playing at.

Egos, man. They’ll kill you.

Julian face pulls. “Go on then.”

Carmelo nods towards Parks. “Maybe I’ll just go chat to her myself, actually — how’s that?”

He goes to move past Julian and then — I don’t know how, it’s pretty fast — Julian grabs Carmelo by the neck of his shirt and twists it so it’s almost choking him, then yanks him close to his face. “Will you—?”

The room seems like it goes silent, like everyone’s holding their breath —

And then suddenly Magnolia’s in front of him, standing on the table of drinks so she’s taller than him. It’s the live-time manifestation of why our youth was so fucking dramatic, this idiot-girl here on the table.

She doesn’t see dangerous situations and run from them, she runs right to them. And I reckon a huge part of that has to be because BJ always just charges straight in after her. Chaotic childhoods, nothing really sure about her life until him, so she runs to the chaos and replaces him in it — but BJ, he’s standing here now on the sidelines of this, his face like a fucking cracked egg as he watches her duck a bit so she’s eye-level with a man who isn’t him, puts her hand on his chest to steady him. I look away. It’s hard to watch your friends get hurt and I’ve got a front row seat.

“Julian, stop—” Magnolia tells him, staring at his eyes, waiting for him to look back at her. “What are you doing? He’s your best friend—”

Julian takes the hand he’s not choking Carmelo with and puts it on top of Parks’, holding it to his chest.

I glance back to see how BJ’s doing, but he’s already gone.

“Stop,” Magnolia tells him again, and he listens. Lets his friend go with a shove, then turns to Parks, lifting her down off the table.

“Come home with me?” he tells her. “Now?”

Magnolia’s eyes flicker quickly over to where BJ was but he’s not there anymore.

She looks back at Julian and nods.

He nods his head towards the door and Kekoa leads them out.

I look down at Daisy, who I’m holding from behind — didn’t even realise.

She looks at my arm and back up at me, then sniffs an embarrassed laugh.

“Sorry.” I remove my arm, awkwardly.

She laughs again, her cheeks pink. “It’s okay—”

“I didn’t realise—” I babble.

“It’s fine—” She shakes. “I didn’t mind — it’s—”

And I feel sort of stupid about myself for a second, not really sure how she’ll react to something as overt as that.

Then she purses her lips, eyebrows up, tossing me a look. “So, do you still have a key to your brother’s office?”

Carmelo
2:05am

Jules, I didn’t know

Yeah me either

I wouldn’t have said shit if I knew

Its cool man

The whole thing snuck up on me

Does she know

Nope

She might now

Nah, she’s a bit of a twat.

Thankfully

Alright well it’s in the vault.

x

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