Mother Lucker | ✔

Chapter 9

drunkard daniel and the unfathomable truth | 09

IF ANYONE WAS WONDERING, practice was not going well.

Daniel was plastered onto a couch, stationary. He would have looked dead if his chest wasn't weakly inflating, and deflating.

"We're supposed to be practicing, but you know, this is fine too," Harriet deadpanned, glaring at Daniel's sleeping form. Daniel opened his eyes, and lazily turned his head towards Harriet.

"Why do we hate eachother?"

Now Harriet might be unlucky, but she did take pride in her quick motor skills and even quicker reflexes. So the fact that she felt like someone had punched her gut, leaving her absolutley speechless, made her want to cry.

"W-what kind of question is that?" Harriet stuttered, trying to hide her surprise. "You look like a pale Shrek right now." (Harriet didn't know why she said that. She needed to say something mean to him to cover up her panic. In fact, Harriet didn't think Daniel looked like Shrek. He looked very nice at the moment).

"You know," Daniel squeezed his eyes, ignoring her jab, "How we don't like eachother? I've just gone along with it. But why?"

Harriet opened her mouth. Was she suppose to lie? Was she suppose to tell the truth?

What was the truth? When did she start hating him? A memory flashed in her brain.

It was ten years ago, Melissa More had stomped up to Harriet, her face red and splotchy. "Just so you know Harriet," she snarled in her squeqky voice, "Daniel does not like you! Not as a friend, and definitively not as a girlfriend! He thinks you have cooties, and that your hair looks like a beach ball!" Harriet scowled. "Shut up Melissa! You're only saying that because your momma doesn't care about you!" Melissa turned even redder. Daniel looked at them from across the black top with a confused expression.

Was that it? Nah, Harriet thought. Just a stupid memory. Harriet knew why she never liked Daniel. Even if he was stupidly handsome.

"I-I guess, we're just too different." She racked her brain for an appropriate response. "There's no way we could possibly like eachother... So for me, the best closest thing is to hate eachother."

Daniel looked confused. He got up, swayed for sometime, then casually walked up to her. "How are we different?"

Harriet was feeling overwhelmed. She didn't know how to answer these questions alone, let alone in front of him.

"I guess... It's everything about you. You just, frustrate me."

Daniel came a little closer. Well that's distracting, Harriet thought. "How so?"

Harriet took a deep breath. "You're just, always there. But you watch. You never do anything. You're complacent. And oblivious."

Daniel frowned. "I'm confused. Can you give me an example?"

"Well, I don't know. How about how you always turn a blind eye in school?" Harriet felt a crescendo in her voice. "How you never try to help those who aren't as fortunate as you? You are always living in that popular bubble, you know? You see everything, but pretend they don't happen!" Daniel looked taken aback. And very, very pink. Harriet crossed her arms, thinking back to her Home Economics class. "Also, you made fun of my mother. That's a dick move."

"Sorry about your mother, it's a habit, you know, insulting you," he mumbled. Harriet huffed. She didn't even notice that her heart was racing from her latest epiphany.

Daniel looked up with semi-clear eyes. "Also, I see what you mean. I always thought you hated me for no reason."

"We're polar opposites, Daniel. We weren't meant to like eachother."

Daniel frowned. "Well then, I made a mistake."

Harriet's heart stopped. "What does that mean?"

Daniel innocently smiled. "I had a crush on you in second grade. Sorry."

Harriet sighed in relief. "You don't mean it. You're drunk and it was second grade. That's okay."

Daniel shook his head. "But I do like you. I try not to, but I still kind of do," Daniel looked down at his chest, and pointed to his heart. He looked frustrated and tired. "It's like a part of my heart doesn't know why I'm suppose to not like you."

What? Harriet tried to cover her ears so she could unhear what he was saying. She was feeling very conflicted at the moment, and when drunk, cute Daniel Mormon was spewing out nonsense from his attractive lips (oh, bleuch) her feelings were becoming more confused than ever. Didn't she just yell at him for being selfish?

"He is drunk, he is drunk," Harriet chanted to herself.

But a drunk man's words are a sober man's thoughts, right?

▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪

Daniel walked into class the next day,  completely ignoring Harriet.

Thank goodness, Harriet shrunk into herself, He doesn't remember.

Daniel positioned himself in the middle of Sebastian Despe and Colton Duke. Harriet eyed them wearily.

If she was relieved, why was she also feeling slightly disappointed?

▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪

Sebastian Despe was getting on Daniel's nerves.

Daniel didn't know why; Sebastian and him went way back to second grade where they became close friends over a rotten turkey sandwhich. And even though Sebastian was blunt and rude most of the time, Daniel had come to accept who he was. But Sebastian was annoying Daniel. A lot.

And he didn't know why.

"Man, Daniel, Harriet's ass is looking fine."

No. Idea.

"Dude," Daniel complained, "Shut up."

Sebastian looked taken aback. "Why? I say these things all the time," he scoffed, "And you hate her."

He did, didn't he? But he remembered something. Someone had told him that he let things off the hook too easily. But who?

"Yeah, I know," Daniel scrambled for the right words, "It just seems disrespectful."

Before Sebastian could say anything back, Colton Duke came up to Daniel. "Dan and Seb, my mans! Did you come to my party last night?"

Daniel refocused on his pounding headache. Yeah, he remembered the party, but everything after the party was very fuzzy. Like, how did he get home?

Sebastian absentmindedly nodded, still eyeing Daniel weirdly. Colton excitedly sat down beside them, leaving them to quietly stare at eachother. Sebastian looked away first.

"Disrespectful my ass," Sebastian mumbled, taking out his notebook. The teacher came into the class a second later. Daniel never understood how Sebastian could sense Ms. Vesham before she came into the room; it was probably her hideous floral perfume.

- - - - - - - - - - -

I EDITED. THIS CHAPTER. I DONT KNOW WHY  I AM KIND OF BORED.