Daisy
“Where have you been?” my mother, Margaret Anne, asked me when I walked into the house and came into the kitchen. She was sitting at the dining room table, reading the paper and eating an apple.
I had left hours ago and taken an Uber around town, seeing how different everything was from when I left for college. I had never come back home because a part of me going to college was my parents buying me my own apartment. I think it was their way of making sure that if I didn’t come home, I couldn’t see Zeke.
They never approved of him and his work as a mechanic. They always saw me with some politician, and as much as my mother tried to set me up, I always managed to find a way out of each date.
“Went around town to see the sights.”
“If you went to see that boy…” My mother gave me a stern look as she looked up from her newspaper.
“What boy?” My father, Duke, walked in the exact moment the comment came out of my mother’s mouth.
“That mechanic boy she used to crush on.” My mother went back to reading her paper, leaving it up to my father to figure everything out. Zeke and I had met just after I had graduated high school when my car broke down and he came to give it a tow. We were inseparable from the very second we laid eyes on each other and my parents hated it. They tried everything in their power to keep us apart, but my mother knew the only way to get me away from him was to send me away. And I had left, willingly too, and that’s what made me feel the worst about what had happened with Zeke.
“You didn’t.”
“I didn’t,” I lied. I had gotten good at that over the years, not letting my parents know what I was doing at college. Drinking underage, skipping classes, plagiarizing papers, just to make sure I graduated.
And I had graduated.
One year early, because I took seven classes a semester and five during the summer. I just wanted out of there as fast as possible, and I took every means I could to make it happen.
“Good. Your mother has a date set up for you tonight.”
“No.”
“Excuse me.” My mother put the paper down this time. She neatly folded it and placed it in front of her. “You will go on this date. No excuses this time. You will show up, and Jameson will drive you.”
My mother referenced her driver and I hated it. That meant I couldn’t get dropped off somewhere else.
“What you are wearing now will be fine. I’ll text Percy to let him know you will be leaving now.”
“Wait. What?” I moved toward my mother, but it was no use. She was already typing away on her phone.
“Don’t argue with your mother,” my father scolded me. He turned into the mayor quickly, telling me what my duty was. “You’ll go on the date and appease your mother, Daisy.”
“Yes, Father.” I pulled my shoulders in, trying to lessen the impact of the caged life I had just walked back into. I had only come back to live with my parents because I had no money besides theirs and I needed a place to live while I looked for a teaching job.
I had told them I was looking at fortune five hundred companies and that seemed to appease them. They had no idea I had actually passed my school board exams for the great state of Oregon and was now actively looking for a teaching job as an English teacher.
“Jameson is outside,” my mother snapped and I walked to the door, grabbing the clutch I had dropped off when I came home. “Have fun, darling!” my mother shouted as I left the house to meet my fate.
I jumped into the black Escalade outside the house and Jameson was off without a word. I had no idea where he was taking me to, but I knew whatever restaurant Percy was taking me to would be one I didn’t like. I had met Percy a few times before. He was the governor’s son and was just the stuck-up kind of guy my mother would love for me to be with.
Jameson pulled up in front of Delilah’s, one of the swankiest restaurants in Bandon. They only served seafood and I hated the way you smelled when you walked out of it. The only good part about it was that it was smack-dab in the middle of the downtown area, right where the Christmas tree was lit, and next to a little tent that had trees for sale.
I waved to Jameson when I jumped out of the car and he drove down the road to park the car to wait for me. I looked over at Delilah’s, where Percy was talking on his phone, his back to me.
This was it, it was my chance to get away.
I sprinted over to the tent of trees as fast as I could and smacked into what I thought was a tree, but when hands wrapped around me and I looked up to see who it was holding me, I met Zeke’s eyes once again today.