AN

Thank you so, so, so much for all of your reviews and messages! I remember the first time I started putting this story out there years ago, people were really angry with Seth speaking to Nessie like he had and Jake letting him do it. So he's teaching Seth a lesson, just for a little while, but they'll be back to being brothers soon.

I hope you're all enjoying where this is going. I'm so excited to get more out there and have some more drama happening. It's going to move pretty quickly from here, now that this pair have gotten to know each other!

Jake had me running patrols every night for a week, after my shifts at work, and on my days off. I managed a few hour's sleep between the restaurant and heading out for the long nights, starting at midnight and getting home in just enough time to get changed and head back out.

My days off from work were a struggle, and the looming patrol each night had me quieter than usual. Jake hadn't put himself on with me, hadn't answered messages I'd sent him apologizing. He was ignoring me, and I couldn't blame him for that. I'd lose my temper if he'd spoken to Daisy the way I'd treated Ness.

Daisy was well aware something was going on, but she didn't question it. She cooked for me, always having food ready when I showed up at her house. It was always the same few meals, the ones I'd taught her. The following Tuesday night, my first night off from patrol in over a week, she'd ordered pizzas to celebrate me not having to work in the morning.

"You look wrecked," she frowned, facing me on the couch instead of the movie on the television screen in front of us. "What exactly has Jake had you doing the last few nights?"

I yawned widely. It was only seven o'clock. I wasn't ready to leave and head to bed, but I knew my body couldn't take much more conversation. I'd be falling asleep behind the wheel, at this point. My body would be able to stand any collision I could potentially have, but my truck probably wouldn't handle it.

"Just odd jobs," I murmured softly. I sighed and shuffled down in my seat, tossing the empty pizza box on the small coffee table we'd picked up for her living room a fortnight earlier. "I've managed to finish all of them now, so I don't have to head out tonight."

"Thank goodness for that," she muttered, a little angrily. "I don't think it's fair that he put it all on you this time. There's enough of you to help out over there, and it's not like you're getting paid for it."

"It was something I needed to do," I reasoned. "Don't worry about it, it's done now."

She smirked at me, raising one eyebrow and lowering the other skillfully. I didn't know she could do that. "And you're not going to tell me what said 'odd jobs' were, are you?"

I grinned and she rolled her eyes. "Not important."

"Of course," she let out in a breath. I blinked, my eyes staying closed for a moment too long, and she sighed and grabbed my shoulder, pulling me down so my head was resting in her lap. This was new.

"I've never seen you like this, you know. Even with all the long days you do at work. You're not yourself."

"I'm just tired," I reasoned, my eyes focused on the television so I wouldn't lose myself in her hold on me. She sighed again and leaned her back in to the cushion behind her, her legs crossed underneath my neck and shoulders, my head against her thigh and stomach. She lifted her hands and brought them to my face, pushing my hair from my forehead gently and running her fingers through it, so softly it gave me goose bumps.

"You cold?" she asked with a chuckle, knowing very well I wasn't. Her bare feet were like ice beneath me, and I was comforted in the knowledge she'd at least warm up a little from our position. I turned my head toward her, looking up into her face. It was thoughtful, and she gave me the most gentle of smiles as she traced her fingers along my cheek, resting her hands against either side of my face.

It would be so easy to tug her down and kiss her right now. The thought of it twisted my stomach, and I clenched my hands into fists to stop them from trembling at the idea.

The television was forgotten for a few minutes, the two of us looking at each other silently, speaking with our eyes instead of our mouths. I loved her. I loved her so much, and I knew I couldn't tell her. I was falling in love with her more and more every day, whether I saw her or not. There was something else in her eyes, too. Something that had started before the bonfire and had grown into what she was showing me now, but I told myself I was reading into it too much. There was something there, in this small, broken girl's expression, but I was going to allow her to be the one to act on it.

She'd told me, what felt like forever ago, that she was finished with relationships. She'd been hurt in the past by someone she'd trusted long-term, and she didn't want it to happen again. I wanted to assure her that I would never, ever hurt her. I would make it my job to protect her and keep her safe and happy until the day I died. The imprint bond was so strong that even marriage seemed trivial, and she would never understand the depth of what I felt for her, even when she found out about the life I kept hidden from her now.

She'd been hurt by more people than her ex boyfriend. She hadn't told me her entire story, but I knew there was a lot that I was going to learn over time. I watched her hide herself when she was feeling vulnerable, sometimes smiling at me while all expression fell from her eyes when I asked her difficult questions. We'd watched a small family at the beach not too long ago, and while I'd been smiling at the parents lifting their small daughter before the water could reach her feet, I'd turned to her to find her watching them with hardened eyes, her jaw tightened and her lips pressed together tightly. She'd never had parents in her life who had treated her as such.

Some nights, I heard her cry and speak in frustrated tones to her younger sister, while I watched on from my place at the edge of the forest. Those calls usually ended with her sister hanging up on her, and Daisy throwing the phone to the end of her bed so hard it bounced off and landed on the floor. I'd asked her what had happened to cause the cracks on her screen the next day, and she'd lied and told me Hugo had knocked it off her bed while they were sleeping.

She hadn't opened up to me again like she had when we first met, as though she didn't want to bother me. She shut down my prying questions when our conversations turned to her family with a laugh and a distraction, and I let her do it, though I wanted to learn everything about her.

I closed my eyes at her touch, her fingers tracing my cheekbones, tickling my skin in a way that felt too good for what she was doing, and she sat in silence for another couple of minutes. Her voice was almost a whisper when she spoke again. "I think you should stay here tonight,"

That woke me up. I opened my eyes, staring straight into hers, not having anything to say.

"You changed into tracksuit pants, sorry – sweatpants, after work," she smirked at a previous joke I'd made of her calling such simple things by different names when I'd arrived. "They're basically pajamas. You can't drive home like this, I'd be worried about you."

"I don't know if we'll fit as comfortably in your bed as mine." I started lowly.

She shrugged, her hands stilling on my face as she looked up, toward the television. "I don't care. You'll keep me warm, if there's not enough room."

"And what about this one," I nodded my head toward Hugo, who had been sitting on the floor with his chin resting against the couch cushions, watching us as he expected us to move to allow him room for the last half hour.

"He'll have to deal with the lounge," she decided. "It won't kill him."

"He'll be angry with me."

"I'm sure he'll forgive you." I yawned widely, again, and she smiled and shifted to get me to sit up. "C'mon. We'll have an early night. We can sleep in in the morning. I'll make you breakfast, and we'll spend the day doing whatever you want. If you want to sit inside and watch movies all day, we'll do it."

"We're not going to spend our day off inside," I disagreed, rubbing my eyes in an attempt to ward off sleep. Daisy had been good at organizing her work for days other than the Wednesdays and Thursdays I kept free. We'd been lucky that the two days she was teaching were already scheduled to different times, and with any painting jobs she was quick to assign to hours I would be at the restaurant.

She stood from the lounge, turning off the television and tapping on the cushions for Hugo to jump up. He obeyed her, watching us closely as we switched off the light and left the room.

"Stay, Hugo," she said softly. He lowered his head to the cushions, his eyes wide as they followed us into the hallway.

She opened her linen closet, pulling out one of two orange towels I'd never seen before and handing it to me.

"New towels?" I asked curiously. She'd only ever had pale pink towels before. This was fluffy and free of any marks, as if it had been purchased, washed and put away without being used.

"I bought them a couple of weeks ago. I figured, if you ever had to shower here, you'd want a more manly color."

"I could deal with pink towels, Daisy." I was thrilled that she'd expected me to stay at some point, though it was just a towel. Nothing that should get me excited like it was.

"Have a shower, take your time. I'll jump in after you."

I followed her orders, shutting myself in the bathroom and throwing the towel over the glass door of the shower. I was suddenly feeling much more awake. I showered quickly, brushing my teeth with my finger and her toothpaste, rinsing my mouth under the shower head, using the lavender scented body wash in the tall bottle on the shelf build into the wall. It smelled like her skin, without her natural hint of warm vanilla, and I breathed it in deeply.

She met me at the bathroom door after I'd pulled on my sweat pants once again, giving me a small smile as she avoided looking at my chest. "Go lie down. I'll be in in a minute."

I wandered into her bedroom alone, my eyes heavy but my heart beating a little faster than normal. She'd already turned on the lamp on her night stand, the warm light filling the room gently. Her quilt cover was pulled up to the matching pillows, and I tugged it down, folding it over her side so I just had the sheets left on her small, full-sized bed. I lowered myself on the mattress, leaning my head into the pillows, my brain hazy with her scent surrounding me and filling my nose.

I noticed she had a skinny heated blanket under the sheet on the window side, but she hadn't switched it on. She wouldn't be needing it tonight. I took up more than half of the bed, though I attempted to stick to my own side. My feet hung off the end from midway down my calves with my legs straightened. I bent my knees just enough to keep them on the mattress.

She wandered into the room, a small matching pajama set in light aqua cotton covering the bare minimum of her skin. She didn't wear that to bed on nights I watched her through the window. It was just a small, loose-fitting tank top, the straps thin on her shoulders, the matching shorts showing off the entirety of her legs. I could see the creases of her backside as she stretched to throw her towel over her bedroom door, leaning up on her tip-toes. I hadn't seen this much of her before, and I couldn't have prepared myself for how perfect she was. She was even more beautiful than I could have imagined.

Her thighs were slender, in proportion to the rest of her. Her hips were narrow, like her ribcage, but she was full in her chest and rear, soft and moulded perfectly like someone who had worked hard for their physique. I wondered if she'd been a gym-goer before the move. The small lines in her calves and on the outer edges of her thigh were gently defined, like her biceps. She wasn't muscular, by any means, but I couldn't exactly call her skinny. She looked as if she took care of herself, balancing out her eating habits with enough exercise to keep herself in shape.

She turned and caught me staring, blushing slightly as she smiled and skipped toward her bed. I was on the outer side, and with her side against she wall she had to climb over my legs to get to her space.

"No blankets?" she asked with a smirk as I cleared my throat to answer her.

She made an attempt to lean over me, but I reached out to grab the switch for the lamp before she could take it herself, not trusting myself to not act if she was that close to me.

"Have sweet dreams, Seth," she whispered when she room was dark. She was facing toward me again, much closer than she had been in my bed over a week ago. I would only have to move my left hand a few inches to reach her, but I resisted, knowing it would never be enough for me with our current position. Her eyes were wide again in the dark, seeking me out though she couldn't see me. I looked back at her, my stomach clenching every time she made contact with my eyes without realizing.

When she finally relaxed, closing her eyes, I felt myself do the same, immediately falling into a deep sleep, grateful I didn't have to wake up at any point during the night.

She'd found my hand during the night, or maybe I had found hers. I woke up, curled on my side toward her, mirroring her small frame on a greater level. She'd tossed half of the blankets over me again, and I was warm, but not uncomfortable enough to make any movement to disrupt her dreams.

Her hand held mine loosely in her sleep, her fingers curled around my own gently. She'd given up on her pillow in favor to press her face against my upper arm, her cheek slightly squished against my skin. Her lips were parted just a fraction, and her breathing was slow and even as I watched her, wanting to push the small amount of hair that had fallen over her eyebrow and cheek out of the way, but not daring to move.

I don't know how long I stayed like that, watching her sleep. Her eyelids fluttered from time to time, like a hummingbird's wings, thick and black, brushing against her cheekbones in a way that should have been unnatural. They finally beat a little heavier than normal, and they fluttered as she opened her eyes, brushing against the skin on my arm as she blinked the sleep from her eyes, finally opening enough to look up at me.

Her face was neutral for a moment, still caught up in her dreams, and then she turned into my arm, rubbing her eyes against me in an attempt to wake up quicker. "I'm so warm," she sighed blissfully, and I smiled softly, proud I was able to make her comfortable.

"How did you sleep?" my voice was rough from being unused, and I cleared my throat gently.

"Like a log," she murmured, leaning against my arm once more. She studied me silently. "How did you sleep? Is my bed too small?"

It was actually surprisingly comfortable, despite the fact I had to keep my legs bent to fit properly. I'd gone a while without getting a new mattress, having purchased my bed when I'd officially stopped growing at seventeen, a few years after making the change. I'd been gangly and too tall for a long time, from just fourteen years, and my body had been slow to make the changes my older brothers had experienced all at once with their added years.

"I slept really well," I told her honestly. I wasn't as light a sleeper when she was next to me, I'd realized both times I'd had her next to me. Perhaps it was my subconscious knowing my entire life was with me, safely hidden away from the rest of the world, protected with my being so close.

She breathed a laugh when Hugo's loud sigh sounded from the floor beside the bed. "I guess the lounge wasn't good enough for him, after all."

"That, or he doesn't trust me to be alone with you." I smirked.

She laughed again, not bothering to sit up as she called out to her furry son. "He was a perfect gentleman, Hugo, which is more than I can say about you."

We both chuckled, and I took the opportunity to push her hair off her face. Her smile fell from her lips as she watched me, both of us silently speaking to each other yet again. There was an expectant look to her eyes, and I watched her for what could have been hours, my heart speeding up to a quick and heavy thrum, the sounds of her own heart doing the same. And before I could stop myself, think about what I was doing, I was leaning toward her face…

She leapt from the bed, her legs slightly tangling in the blanket as she hit the floor clumsily, causing Hugo to raise his head quickly in alarm. "I'm going to make you breakfast!" she announced cheerfully, grinning too widely, her eyes full of something close to panic before she turned and marched out of the room, her shorts high on her legs taunting me as I watched her go. "How do you like your eggs?" she called out, once in the kitchen.

"However!" I called back, sighing in frustration and pushing my hands to my face, enough to be a little painful, screaming at myself internally at the huge mistake I'd made. I was an idiot. I'd pushed her, I'd gone too far, and I'd freaked her out. She obviously hadn't wanted to kiss me, though I'd assumed otherwise in the moment. Her reaction following was enough to tell me I'd stepped over the line we hadn't discussed, and I felt like an idiot. I wasn't going to get another chance like that, not if she knew I was feeling this way about her. We'd had a perfectly good and comfortable friendship, and I'd just gone and ruined it all with a stupid mistake I should have been able to control.

She was humming over a large frying pan, the smell of bacon strong in the air. She didn't turn around when I pulled out the stool at the counter, loud enough to alert her to my presence. Her bare arms and legs were pimpled with goose bumps, and I wanted to tell her to put the pink robe on the back of her door on, but I knew it wasn't my place. Especially not now, when I'd terrified her.

She still didn't look at me when she crossed to the freezer, grabbing out six slices of bread, separating them with a satisfying pop and lowering two into the small toaster.

"Orange or apple juice?" she asked me, her voice loud and curious, glancing at me quickly before she crossed to the fridge and opened the door, bending at her hips to bury her head inside like she was digging for them, though they were on the shelf in plain sight.

"Orange," I murmured, pushing myself out of my chair and tearing my eyes away from her ass. I needed a break. I walked, a little too quickly to be subtle, to the bathroom and closed the door, locking it behind me.

I stared at myself in the mirror, breathing too heavily for the situation. I tried to get the image of her bent into the fridge out of my mind, feeling my body's natural reaction, not helped by fact I'd just woken up beside her. I slowed my breathing, filling my lungs as much as I could before releasing each breath through my mouth. I needed to get myself under control before I left the room. I turned on the tap, the water freezing from sitting stagnant in the pipes over night, and took two massive handfuls, splashing it messily onto my face.

I could hear her in the kitchen, muttering to herself under her breath, but her words were too fast and too quiet for me to be able to make them out over the sound of the bacon cooking, even with my hearing as good as it was.

It took me a few moments, scolding myself in the mirror, until I'd reigned myself in enough to leave the little bathroom. She had gone back to humming distractedly, and I stopped at her bedroom on my way back to the kitchen to grab the fluffy robe on the back of her door, handing it to her when I entered.

"Thanks," she grinned, pulling it on quickly. I wondered if she'd noticed how cold she was.

I was quiet, and though I tried to convince myself to speak, I struggled with it. The third lot of toast popped, and she buttered them silently, pulling the eggs from the pan and setting them down on the two matching plates. I realized, a little bitterly, that this was our first breakfast together. I'd imagined it, in the past few weeks, to be full of gentle kisses to her forehead, spoken words of soft affection, the two of us already entered into the relationship I'd hoped was coming. I'd ruined all of that, I supposed.

"The sun's out," she stated, her voice as sunny as usual, her expression back to its normal ease. "Should we sit outside? I feel like we should take advantage of the weather."

"That sounds nice," I agreed, standing and dragging the chairs from the tiny dining room table to the back door. I'd never been out the back of her house before. The grass was ready to be taken care of, long and green, and there was a small room with a laundry and toilet joined to the back of her house, a little clothesline strung from beside the door undercover.

"I want to get some plants for out here," she told me as she carried our plates out, handing the largest to me and taking a seat beside me. She'd dumped an extra three egg whites on my plate, the yolks they were missing sitting on her toast. She caught me staring, and grinned. "I don't like the whites. They're gross."

"They're the best part," I managed a genuine smile back. She didn't seem to be bothered anymore, and I was grateful for that. She was apparently going to forgive me for my forward actions, which was more than I could have asked for.

We were more quiet than usual as we ate. She'd lied about her cooking skills again – it was definitely the best plate of bacon and eggs I'd ever tasted.

"I burned the bacon a little bit," she admitted, chewing on a piece she held in her fingers. "I get distracted when I'm cooking."

"It's great, Daisy," I wondered if I should bring up the incident in her bedroom, but I was nervous, and she seemed more than happy to act like it had never happened.

"So, what do you want to do today?" she asked after a few minutes of silence. We'd taken to watching Hugo roll on his back in the damp grass, pausing to stare at us up-side down every minute or so and sneeze.

I didn't want her to spend the day with me if she wasn't happy to do so, but her eyes watched me, waiting for my answer. "I guess we could go to the beach, it doesn't look like there's any chance we'd be stuck in the rain,"

"That would be nice," she nodded, forking a large piece of toast and cramming it into her mouth. She chewed it slowly before continuing. "I can't actually imagine First Beach in the sun."

I chuckled, finishing off my meal. "Well, we should head out there sooner, rather than later. I don't want the clouds to come over and ruin it for you."

She hesitated, tracing her knife along her plate, following the shape with her eyes. "I have to have a shower and call my friend Jasmine, before I leave. Can I meet you at yours in an hour or so? And we'll leave straight away from there."

"I've never heard you mention a Jasmine before." I accused softly.

She smirked at me. "You've never asked before. If you must know, she's like a sister to me. I've known her for years. She's kind of my counsellor of sorts, and we talk a few times a week."

I didn't have to imagine what they'd be talking about this morning.

She finished her breakfast and I took her plate from her without asking, balancing them in one hand as I scooped both chairs up and carried them inside. Hugo followed us instantly, not wanting to miss out on the company.

"Come out whenever you're ready. If you feel like having the day to yourself, just let me know." I wandered into her room and picked up my t-shirt from the night before, pulling it over my head. I was desperate for a shower and a change of clothes myself.

"I don't want to be by myself," she insisted. "I'll be out soon."

"Okay," I answered and she watched me go instead of walking me to the front door, smiling at me warmly as I turned to close it behind me.

I heard her feet march quickly from the hallway back into the house, and I walked just as quickly to my truck, starting it up and not allowing it to idle in the cold weather.

I was about an inch away from falling into a major panic session, and I pulled out of her street, turning down another quiet road and parking the car in a corner where no one would notice me.

This could either give me answers that would make me feel a lot better, or completely blow up in my face. I ripped my keys out of the ignition, slammed the door, and wandered into the woods, picking up my pace when I disappeared out of the sight of anyone who could have been watching from their windows. I pulled my shirt over my head as I walked, stepped out of my pants, and let myself make the change instantly.

Hey, Seth, Cooper's voice was surprised at my arrival, and he paused as he listened into my thoughts. Oof. And now you're checking up on her?

Can't help myself, apparently. I grimaced at how pathetic I'd become.

He was uncomfortable with my situation. Look, man, I know this won't help, but she seemed really into you at the bonfire. Maybe she just wasn't expecting –

I can figure it out for myself, thanks, Cooper. I didn't mean to snap at him, but I had no time to listen to him now. I settled myself in my usual spot, with the view of the back of her house. My much more tuned-in hearing centered in her direction, and I could see her movements behind the sheer curtain in her bedroom as she paced slowly

Her phone was on speaker, and she held it in one hand, digging for something in her dresser with the other.

"Hello?" the voice on the other end was thick with sleep when the phone was finally answered, and I kicked myself for not knowing what time it was where she'd come from.

"Sorry to wake you," she said sheepishly. "I need some girl advice."

"Don't worry about it, I'd have to be up in an hour and a half anyway." I got the impression that the voice on the other end was trying to guilt her in some way for the early call, and I wondered how good a friend this girl was to her. Her voice was not the same youthful tone as Daisy's, and it somehow made her accent sound a lot more harsh, though I knew there wasn't any difference between it and my imprints. "What's going on?"

"Smoke a cigarette with me?" Well, that was new.

The voice on the other end chuckled, and Daisy paused, perhaps hearing movements that weren't clear to me through the distance as she waited for her friend to get out of bed.

There was talk of turning cameras on so they could see each other, and I watched Daisy make her way back outside and sit on the edge of the cement, her bare feet resting in the grass before her.

"You're wearing the dressing gown I gave you!"

"Yeah," she leaned her phone against the wooden post holding up the short outdoor ceiling, and pulled a small box out of her pocket. "Cigarettes are much cheaper here than at home, by the way."

"I'm surprised to see you smoking. I thought you only took up my bad habits when you were at my house."

"Well, I feel like under special circumstances…" her voice trailed off, and she lit the cigarette, bringing it to her lips and taking a deep draw.

It was an odd thing, to see the girl renowned for her colorful dresses and bright personality, to be taking part in an act like smoking. I'd never picked her to be someone who even knew how to do it, but I found it fascinating over anything else. I'd never smelled it on her before, so I knew it wasn't a habit she was consistent with.

"Something happened with Seth, didn't it?"

Her friend, Jasmine, knew my name. I felt a bit of confidence flood through my chest at hearing this, and Cooper sent me an 'I told you so' in my direction, though stayed out of my head as much as he was able.

"Yeah," Daisy sighed. "And I think I've fucked everything up."

Okay, she was not my Daisy when she was speaking to this girl. I watched on with interest, straining my ears to hear both sides of the conversation.

"Did you fuck him? I thought you were holding out with guys once you were over there."

"No, I did not," Daisy reprimanded sternly. "I am being every bit the princess I was back home, most of the time."

Jasmine laughed quietly. "So, what? What have you done?"

"I…kind of convinced him to stay last night, and when we woke up he tried to kiss me. So naturally, I freaked out and ran away, and then he was quiet, and I think he tried to convince me to stay home and not see him for the rest of the day." She sighed and took another draw of her cigarette. "So, I guess he hates me now."

I almost growled in response to this. Apparently Jasmine felt the same way, because she sighed heavily. "He does not hate you. No one could hate you, Dais,"

"I hate me," she muttered, kicking at a patch of grass.

"Look, what do you want to happen? I feel like we've been talking about him more and more since you told me about him. I know you're very good at acting like you don't feel certain ways about people, but you're also a liar and you need me to tell you when to stop being an idiot."

Daisy smiled softly at her friend through the phone. "I don't know what I want."

"'Seth's so handsome! Seth has a beautiful smile! Seth is super tall and super ripped, and he smells like sunshine!'" Her voice was taunting, high-pitched to sound like her friend, and I grinned despite myself.

"Well, that's stretching my words a little," Daisy finally lost her smile and brought the cigarette back to her lips, her eyes lowering to lose their excitement over her call. "Look, I think he's probably the nicest guy I've ever met in my life. And whether I think he's handsome or not, I've been enjoying spending time with him as friends…" she trailed off and shook her head. "And you're the first to say I have a boy phobia! You know I'm not good at this stuff."

"So, nothing's happened otherwise? No little hints that he would try to kiss you? No offence, but I don't see how you invite a boy to stay over if there's no motive behind it. Even for you."

"I don't know," Daisy sighed again. "When I was meeting his friends last week, he put his arm around me a couple of times. I think it was just to keep me warm, but I knew you'd read into it too far if I told you about it the other day. And…we've started…holding hands, kind of. And last night he was really tired and he just laid down in my lap, and I touched his face, and I got all gooey and gross, but it's me so I didn't know how to go about it. So I just kind of…stared at him! And he's so freaking beautiful, but he's also too good and he needs to be with someone a little less fucked up!"

"Hey! Can you not say that like it's a bad thing? I pride myself on how fucked up I am, and look at my relationships!"

"Yeah," Daisy scoffed. "How is that going, by the way?"

"Don't change the subject." Jasmine said harshly. I almost laughed at the way she spoke to my imprint. If anyone else had talked to her like that, I would have a mind to back them into a wall and tell them to wake up to themselves. But hearing it from this unknown girl, I could sense the love and affection in every hard word. "I know I said I wanted to suss him out first, make sure he was good enough for you, but you're doing this all on your own, and I think you should be making your own decisions."

Daisy hung her head back and groaned. "But it's just so much easier when I have you to pressure me into things!"

"I'm not pressuring you into anything. It's been forever since you were with my dickhead brother, and like, a year longer since you admitted to me that it was well and truly over. You put up with shit for long enough, and you deserve to have some fun."

"And what if he is a 'fuck boy'?" she smirked as though they were sharing an inside joke. "What if I get shat on all over again?"

"Then have fun while it lasts, and I'll kick his arse when I come out to see you."

"Great," Daisy muttered. "Thanks for that, Jas,"

"Any time," there was another long pause, and they both inhaled at the same time, Daisy watching the smoke as she pushed it through her lips. "You come to me for my honest opinion, and I'm going to give it to you, seeing as you woke me up in the middle of the night. I know you always say you're not brave enough to act on these kinds of things, but at least try if you want to. And I know you're going to say you're just friends, and spew all that crap at me, but you're obviously crushing on this guy. You wouldn't spend every single day you have off following him around, if you weren't."

"Yeah," Daisy sighed heavily, and I resisted screaming in triumph, not wanting to freak her out with an overly loud howl from such proximity to her house. "Well, I'm going to the beach with him today. I'm not going to do anything, so stop looking at me like that. I really just need a friend at the moment." She put out her cigarette on the cement beside her and tossed it out of my sight. "And Seth's way too nice to just act out like that, and have to deal with me when I regret it."

"I can't wait to meet this guy, and see how nice he actually is."

"I'm a good judge of character."

"Yeah, hanging around with me, and all,"

Daisy laughed at her friend and stood up, picking up the phone and heading inside. "Well, I'm going to have a shower and get ready to leave now. You should try and get some more sleep. I love you."

"Love you. Call me tonight."

"Okay,"

They ended the phone call. I sat, frozen, thinking over their words, until I heard her shower running. I bounded back to my clothes, still lying on the forest floor, and pulled them on quickly, bounding to my truck in a rush to make it home and get ready before her arrival.