Chapter 2 – Crash

'Just crash, fall down, I'll wrap my arms around you now'

"Hi there, Daisy-pie."

I'm not a bad person. Granted, I'm no saint but I'm 96.7% certain I won't go to hell. But come on, God. Even you have to admit that making that person (if they even are classified as a human) destroy the only happy thing that's happened to me all year is cruel. And it's October now. Seriously. That is some whack shit yo.

The playful atmosphere that had encompassed our group shattered; his very presence was a sledgehammer to all joy.

"Hi Scott," I said, refusing to let him see my mounting panic. My ex loomed above me, a maliciously fiery look in his eyes. The Strumpet army a little way behind him tittered.

"Hey look guys, it's twat face. What do you want twat face? Another broken nose?" Josh mocked with a sarcastic smile, while scooting protectively closer to me. The other boys, and Abi, followed suit, surrounding me.

Dan just looked between Scott and me, eyes narrowed, a frown marring his face.

"Oh, nothing. Just wanted to say hi." The way he said it made it obvious that he wasn't over here for a friendly greeting. He knew exactly what he was doing; I hated him even more for it.

Scott and I didn't break up on the best of terms –cough-understatement of the century-cough. He was the foulest, most chauvinistic man-pig to ever walk the face of the planet and I don't know why I was ever interested in his stupid jerk face.

He treated me like a piece of his shitty property the whole time I went out with him; he kept trying to keep me away from the boys – Josh in particular – but I refused. No one, and I mean no one, comes between me and my man-slut ~sassy finger snap~. At one point, he actually came and dragged me away from them which resulted in Josh punching him in the face so he left alone and with a broken nose. Ah, got to love violence. And then, to top off the cherry cake of cunt-ness, he cheated.

He cheated.

Then had the balls to claim it was an accident. (What, a girl just happened to trip and impale herself onto your cock, while your and her clothes were accidently off?)

There is no such thing as accidental infidelity.

To make the situation – which already seems pretty bad – even worse, he did it on my birthday. What kind of twat-face would do that?! I mean, it's just plain harsh ok. I walked in to his bedroom to find him starkers with a skank on his pathetic excuse for a penis. Let's just say, I'm scarred mentally from that experience.

I must have mutilated puppies in a past life or something because my life went so downhill since that night… I literally hit rock bottom… and there is no bus service like there was in Spongebob either.

Anyway.

He'd had a string of girls since then but it always seemed to come back to me; always texting and calling to the point where I had to block his number, he followed me to my old home once and stood outside my house smiling to himself. I got so scared I called Josh but by the time he arrived, Stalker-Scott had vanished – probably into some shrubbery somewhere. From that point on, Josh had walked me to my house every night. Just to be safe.

"Well, you've said your hello. Now let me make my greeting to you clear. Fuck off." I shooed him off, adrenaline pumping.

He didn't like that one bit. The smile stayed on his face but his eyes, his evil muddy-brown eyes, they held threats of violence. All of a sudden, he turned to Dan.

"Be careful with this one – Dan is it? – she'll drop you like that," he clicked his fingers and I flinched, "I mean, who knows what kind of diseases she's got after she shagged–"

He didn't get to finish.

Josh knocked him down with a punch and Max, Chris, Matt and Dan all stood up, looking like some indie teen A-Team. Dan looked like an avenging angel in a grey beanie. He was the epitome of gorgeous. Swoon.

Scott's cocky look had all but vanished as he sat up, gingerly touching his face. He was flocked with squeals of outrage from the Slag Squad, hysterically asking if he was ok. Scott flashed them an award-winning smile and they calmed. Wow. I was officially embarrassed to be a girl.

Josh turned to me, inspecting me for cracks as if I was a porcelain doll. I slapped his hands away, affronted. I was a strong independent woman; I didn't cry or faint or call for help at the first signs of danger. I did, however, want to get away from all the curious eyes. Josh saw this and tilted his head slightly, asking. I nodded minutely.

"Come on guys, let us leave these peasants for we far out rank them. Besides, I need to flaunt my calves."

He headed towards the canteen door, doing a ridiculous diva strut that made everyone laugh, except Scott and Slut co.

In fact, Scott called after us, "Watch your back Dan. You never know where the knife is going to come from."

I froze. Oh no. Why? Why would he dredge my name through the mud like that? I didn't mean to. Dan would never trust me if he knew the truth. No one except Abi and Josh knew what I did. And I honest to god liked him.

Everything went slow motion for a minute.

Dan turned on the spot, looked down at Scott and said, "I'm a good ninja. Thanks though, Scott."

The day dragged like a caveman's penis across the dusty cave floor. Unneeded problems popped up everywhere; I'd left my book in my locker, I'd left my homework at home, the teacher chose today of all days to pick on me. I just gave her a look that said, 'look bitch, I've had a really bad day, although the boy I like basically denounced my ex as a pathetic shit-stirrer. But still. It's not been a good day.' And when that didn't work, I stood up and said, "Because Jesus, that's why." The class had burst out in hysterics but Miss looked like she was about to have an aneurysm. Needless to say, I got more homework than anyone else.

After school when I met up with everyone, they walked on fucking egg shells around me, as though it was a sin to mention the canteen catastrophe. I got sick of it real quick.

Max: Knock, knock

Me: (sigh) Who's there?

Max: Daisy

Me: (über sigh) Daisy who?

Max: Daisy me rollin', dey hatin'

Me: (with face like thunder) Daisy me kicking your ass

Abi and Josh were being fussy parents, patting my head and fiddling with my hair and holding my bag for me. As if my bag was the cause of all my problems.

I wasn't a girly girl. People knew that. I didn't expect to meet my prince charming and ride off in the sunset upon a white steed (although I did dream about it – dreams aren't reality and I believed firmly in reality.) Sure, my supposed 'Prince Charming' turned out to be a life-ruining, faith-in-humanity-destroying ass clown but I've already seen the fence and climbed over that fact. Fairy tales didn't exist. Case closed. Hatchet buried. End of story.

The only person who wasn't going to get a Pissed-off-Daisy-Special was Dan. And not just because he was a sexy bastard who I happened to quite like. No. It was because he stayed quiet. No stupid, unfunny jokes that avoided anything 'sensitive'. No pats on the heads or hugs to make sure that I wasn't going to drop down dead of heart-break or anything. Nope. I appreciated that.

When it came to Abi and my departure from our voluntary torture chamber, I gave everyone a quick hug until I was stood almost awkwardly in front of Dan.

I rubbed my arm, wondering what it would be like to hug him.

"Bye Dan. Sorry about lunch. I'll see you tomorrow."

I turned and made to leave but as I did, someone cleared their throat. I slowly twisted back around and saw something that made my day oh so muchbetter. It was like Heaven's doors had opened for me. I could hear Elvis and Freddie Mercury and several hundred choir members singing 'Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah.' And it was like the sun had come out in winter in England. A miracle.

Dan Flint was stood with his arms wide open, head cocked to the side with a sly smile gracing his lips.

I almost screamed with pure happiness as I tried to subtly race into his arms. From the chuckles around us, it was another unsuccessful attempt. Ok guys, I understand that subtlety isn't my strong point. But you would want to run into his arms too.

He smelled deftly of aftershave and boy and heaven and unadulterated joy and oh my gosh I just felt like staying in his arms forever. In his arms, the stress and panic of the day just melted off my shoulders and I felt a security that I felt nowhere else. It was paradise. I never wanted to leave but too soon it was over and I was stepping back from him.

Suddenly, the world was cold and I felt vulnerable, like my armour had been stripped from my back. I looked with wide eyes at Dan. He gave me a small smile and blinked at me, seeing my fragility, acknowledging it and locking it away, like he somehow understood that I didn't want the others seeing me like this. I closed my eyes for a millisecond, wondering how he'd managed to do that. I hadn't known him a day yet he'd managed to get under my skin and somehow know me better than my best friends.

I took a deep breath and walked back to Abi, plastering that too-familiar smile on my face.

We got in the car but before I closed the door, I heard Josh say, "Dude. Why do you look like you want to make owl noises?"

Author's Note:

I hope you enjoyed that dansy moment there; there's plenty to come in the future. Let me know your thoughts on this chapter and any requests are welcomed with open arms

~ painted-on-silence