Aer

2

'Come on I'll take you for a ride in my wheelchair'.

Daisy smiles widely 'You've been pushing that thing around all day'.
'Yeah,' Alex looks down at it 'infirmary is busy, they're running out of everything there. But I do have time if you want a ride?'.

Daisy works in the shop, she's got a big beautiful smile to greet everyone, there wouldn't be anyone who could replace her. She's got grown out bleached blonde hair and dark brown eyes that sparkle when she's in a good mood, which is almost always. Everyone likes her, those who don't are jealous, it's the normal teenager way.

'You know I'd take a ride off you in that wheelchair any day,' Daisy grins at Alex.
'Well then,' he smiles widely, he leans on the counter, becoming more serious 'You hear about Johnny?'.
'No?' Daisy frowns.
'He's dead'.
'Jesus,' she shakes her head 'you really know how to kill a mood'.
'Sorry, sorry,' he says 'it's just hard you know?'.
'I get that, but we'll get through it, at the start of all of this I thought I was going to die, either kill myself or be killed, then I found this place,' she smiles widely 'There's bad and good in every situation, and unfortunately, people die but we have to deal with that'.

'You're a good girl,' he smiles.
'I know,' she laughs.
'Anyway, I must go finish my jobs,' he smiles 'I'll see you around'.

'Hey,' Daisy makes her way towards Conor and his two goons 'This isn't a library'.
She takes the book out of Conor's hand, Alex's older brother, the two were complete opposites, in every way, Conor was a little smaller and didn't have the same dashing looks as Alex.

'Come on Daisy,' he says 'don't be like that'.
'Well I wouldn't mind you reading if you were looking at the book and not at those girls over there,' she puts the book away.

'It's just fun,' Jason says, he follows Conor all over the place, dresses the same as him, acts the same as him, he may as well be his shadow.

'Don't be weird, go over and talk to them,' she laughs.
'I wouldn't want you getting jealous,' Conor winks at Daisy.
'You don't have to worry about that,' she smiles.

'You guys hear about the new camp?' Seán changes the subject, he's been flicking through pages of a book, not paying attention to the conversation.
'What?' Daisy frowns.

Seán hangs around with Conor and Jason from time to time, a lot of the time he does his own thing and doesn't bother with much people.

'I'm going up tomorrow, Aaron warned me about some new camp, apparently they've guns,' he says 'he was making a big fucking deal about it but I don't know, if we avoid them we can't get in trouble'.
'Is that what killed Johnny?' Conor asks.

'Okay, okay,' Daisy interrupts them 'you know Aaron has a rule about spreading that kind of information, plus I want this shop to be filled with positivity'.

'Aren't you cute?' Conor grins.
'I guess,' she winks at him 'but not as cute as those girls'.
Conor shrugs 'I mean...'.
'Stop,' she laughs 'now if ye aren't going to buy anything please leave, you're scaring away my customers'.

'Annie!' A scream interrupts them, the four head out of the shop. All the kids have gathered around, Lily stands in the middle of them, looking up. Daisy follows her gaze and looks up at Annie standing on the railing of the second floor, kids are gathering around the back of her, their eyes wide.

'Annie it doesn't have to be like this,' Lily says 'we can help you'.
'You're the reason my brother's dead!' She sobs.

Daisy pushes her way through to Lily, she meets Annie's eyes before speaking 'Annie, if you fall from this railing you will not die you'll probably break your legs, at most, and what would be the point of that? Johnny would still be dead. Come down from there and talk to us, because if you fall you'll be in bandages for days, stuck in the medics and you'll have to talk to them, talk to me, Annie, talk to someone who understands'.

Annie stares at her, there's nothing but silence, she points at Lily and then at Charlie, who's further back in the crowd 'I don't want to talk to them'.
'That's okay,' Daisy looks at Lily, Lily nods and walks away, Daisy presumes Charlie does the same thing 'Now come down'.

Annie begins to lower herself, Alex comes up from behind her and helps her get steady, he whispers something to her and Annie nods.

Daisy takes Annie's hand and brings her into the shop, she closes the shutters and soon people begin to disperse.

'When James died I felt the same way as you, I thought I'd never feel okay again,' Daisy remembers her brother, he died before Daisy found Aaron again, who she thought had died at the very start of everything 'but time does pass, it does, they never leave your memory but you move on and sometimes you don't think about them and then other times they're all you can think of but tomorrow's always a new day and that's something to look forward to, I promise'.
Annie nods slowly 'he's just gone'.
    'I know, it's hard, it is'.

The door opens, only one person has a key to all the doors 'Annie, what did we speak about?'.
'Aaron, now isn't the time,' Daisy says as Aaron walks towards them.
'Annie,' he ignores Daisy 'I'll leave you off this one time but if it happens again there will be consequences. We can't have people getting scared and anxious, you know that'.
She nods.
'Can you leave me with Daisy, please?' Aaron gives her a fake smile as she leaves.

   Annie leaves the two by themselves. Daisy feels the awkwardness come into the room.
'I appreciate your help, I do,' he says.
'I'm sorry I'm not a boy but I'll do my best,' she says.
   'That doesn't even make sense'.
'Well that's what I said,' Daisy looks Aaron up and down, judging every bit of him 'Can you please leave my shop? I don't like negativity in here'.

'Look we don't get that much time alone-'
'But we used to,' she interrupts 'until you decided to be gay'.
He sighs 'It has nothing to do with you, you weren't the problem'.
'Look I've Alex coming by later, I want to open up the shop again,' she says.
Aaron raises an eyebrow 'Alex?'.
'Charlie?' Daisy does the same facial expression.
  'You don't know anything'.
Daisy scoffs 'Oh yeah sure I forgot I came down in the last shower'.

'Well all I can do is apologise,' he says, walking away.
    'What's the story with the new camp?' She calls after him.

Aaron turns to her, he has an expression on his face that Daisy has never seen, almost as if he's already given up.
'It's nothing to worry about,' he lies.