Six

Druxy

(Adj.)

Something whole on the outside but rotten inside.

Jess woke up early Saturday morning. He yawned as he sat up. He needed to be up and awake in case Cliff dropped Daisy off.

He managed to get himself out of bed and he headed downstairs. His mom wasn't down there and it didn't look like she had been. Probably still wallowing in her sadness.

He went into the kitchen and looked through the food options. There wasn't much but he usually wasn't very hungry anyway, today was no different. He grabbed a baby orange and ate that.

Shuffling into the living room he collapsed on the couch. He wasn't in much of a TV mood so he just wrapped himself up in a blanket and pulled up his phone. He decided to scroll on Pinterest for a bit. (Idk yall what do normal people do on their phones?)

Knocking on the door brought him out of his daze. He jumped up quick and walked over there. The door opened to reveal his ex-stepfather.

"Cliff, hey." He smiled politely at the man before his eyes moved to the little girl standing next to him. "Daisy!"

He crouched down to her level and opened up his arms. She ran into them and hugged him tight. "Jessie!"

Cliff clearing his throat made Jess let go of the girl and stand up again. "I tried calling your mother but she wouldn't pick up."

"She's sleeping. Sometimes it takes a little work to wake her up." Jess said, trying his best to keep the polite attitude. Kleandra was probably out after bawling herself to sleep.

"Well, when should I pick Daisy up?" He asked.

"When do you want to?" The expression he made to Jess's question made it obvious he didn't even want to leave the girl here at all.

"Well, tonight or tomorrow. Depends what your plans are."

"I don't have any plans this weekend. I thought Daisy might be over so I cleared my schedule." Not that he ever had plans in the first place. He never had plans.

Cliff seemed to relax. "Well then. Tomorrow around lunch?"

"That works. One?"

"Sounds fine to me. Daisy, be good for your mom and Jess okay?"

"I will." The little girl grinned from her spot next to Jess's leg.

"Alright. I'm leaving now."

The man gave his daughter a hug and then he shook Jess's hand and left. Jess shut the door and turned to his little sister. "What shall we do now?"

"We could eat." Daisy said with a cheeky smile.

"Why, Daisy, have you not had breakfast?" He kept a smile on his face as well.

"I have, but nothing is as good as your peanut butter waffles." She answered and Jess had to chuckle.

The boy liked to cook and two Christmases ago he got a waffle maker as a present. He made his siblings all waffles for lunch and Daisy had decided to experiment with peanut butter on her's. Jess then added some chocolate syrup as well and she loved it. Cliff apparently didn't make that type of stuff for her because it was too unhealthy. He never told Jess not to make them anymore though.

"Okay, let's go make some waffles."

"Yay!" Daisy cheered and followed Jess to the kitchen.

"Grab the flour for me?" Jess asked while going over to the fridge for eggs. Daisy ran over and used a little step stool to reach the counter and grab the bag. "Careful."

"I know."

He made the waffle batter with Daisy's help, having her grab ingredients and stir. She loved stirring and then she licked the spoon afterwards. He poured the batter out and made the waffles.

They made just enough for five waffles and he gave Daisy two while putting one on his own plate. She smeared peanut butter on her own but he poured the chocolate syrup because he knew if he didn't she'd dunk the whole thing on it.

"Just a little more?" She did her best to give him puppy eyes but Jess was partially immune.

"No, you'll get sick. I'm not feeding you chocolate soup."

"But why not?" She whined but gave up on the fight, grabbing a silver fork.

They both sat at the slightly cluttered table and ate their waffles. A plate with the extra two stacked on it was in the middle. Jess ate his with regular syrup and a glass of water while Daisy drank her juice and made a mess with her unhealthy waffles.

She was halfway through finishing them when they heard footsteps.

"Jess..?" His mom's voice sounded unsure.

"In here!" The smile never left his face as his mom made a show in the kitchen. Her hair was in a messy ponytail and she had makeup smudged under her eyes but the frown from before immediately disappeared when she say the girl.

"Daisy!" She yelled and her hands shot up.

"Momma!" Daisy yelled too with a bright smile and she raised her hands in the air to mimick her mother. Jess chuckled while the girl scrambled out of her seat and ran to hug the woman.

Kleandra sniffled a little as she finally stopped hugging the child and Daisy skipped back over to the table to eat.

"We should go to the park today." Kleandra said while sitting down at the table. She smiled as Jess handed her the plate with extra waffles and began to pour syrup on them. "Ooh and go out to eat for lunch. Oh! And we could go swimming! Oh! Oh! And skating!"

Jess chuckled. "Slow down, Ma. We'll go out to eat and let Daisy pick one thing to do."

She looked hurt and a little frazzled. "Well I-" She then sighed. "Yes, yes. Daisy what do you want to do today, sweetie?"

"The park sounds fun." Daisy answered with a grin, taking the last bite of her waffle.

"Okay, the park it is! Then we can go to that Mexican restaurant you liked so much." She looked at Jess when she said it and he smiled.

He was surprised she remembered. He liked a small Mexican bar and grill over on the East side of town, not too far away from the park. He had eaten all his quesadillas quickly and told his mother how good it was about two weeks ago when they went. He really thought she would've forgotten by now.

"Cool." He grinned and his mother looked content with herself.

Once everyone was finished eating the oldest lady clapped her hands together. "Alright! Let me go get dressed and we can go."

"Yay!" Daisy's cheer rang loudly as their mother left the kitchen to go up to her room. "You go too! I'm not taking you to the park in your jammies."

Jess laughed at her sass and followed where his mom had went up the stairs. He went to his room and pulled off his baggy dark blue pajama pants. He grabbed a pair of black jeans and then pulled out a red shirt just because he knew if he walks downstairs in the same gray shirt that he slept in Daisy would send him up again to switch up his shirt.

He walked out of his room and down to where his sister was. She was digging through her purple backpack on the couch and was pulling out a pink jacket. She smiled at him as she pulled it on.

Moments later Kleandra walked down the stairs in a sunflower shirt and yellow shorts. Her hair was braided and the makeup stains were washed off her face. "Let's go!"

Daisy and her both walked out of the house with equaled childhood spirit. Jess followed behind them with a small smile. He felt more like the adult of the three but wasn't about to complain. His mom wasn't crying anymore.

Jess made sure Daisy was strapped in in the back before they took off. He buckled himself in as Kleandra backed out of the driveway. They made their way down the roads and towards their destination.

When they reached the big park Kleandra parked in the parking lot in front of the lake as opposed to the one in the center. The park was basically a gigantic chunk of grass next to the lake with pathways through it. There was a little bit of woods south of it and some trails through there as well. There were two gazebos on opposite sides with benches in the shade and little playgrounds scattered around.

Daisy sprung out of the car and ran for the jungle gym closest to them. Kleandra followed after with a wide smile and Jess trailed not far behind. There was only a couple other kids around so Jess didn't hold back from climbing on the jungle gym with Daisy and sliding down with her. Kleandra started swinging with her and Jess was going to but didn't when Daisy asked him to push her instead. She could swing by herself but claims it's more fun when he pushes her so she can go higher.

"Let's go to the other one!" Daisy exclaimed, jumping off the swing.

"Okay." Jess chuckled and he and Kleandra followed after the energetic girl.

As they passed by the center parking lot Jess looked over. He could see the exact spot Isaac had parked last night. The memory of eating fries and watching a sunset flashed back up.

He never envisioned doing something like that with someone. Much less someone like Isaac Johnson. A loud jock whose best friend is Ki. From an outsider's perspective he didn't seem like the type to enjoy that sort of thing.

Then again, he also didn't seem like the type to swing next to a boy he barely knew just because he seemed lonely. Maybe there were a lot of things about Isaac he didn't know and his curiosity seemed to grow with each new encounter. He definitely wasn't all that met the eye.

"Jess, come on! I wanna race you on the monkey bars!" Daisy yelled and Jess snapped out of it. He followed his sister over to the other playground area.

He needed to stop thinking about Isaac for the time being. Now was the time to focus on Daisy and the fact that she's here, not the time to think about the boy who turned out to be more of a mystery than he thought. He seemed like a pretty open book for someone who isn't anything like I thought he'd be.

"Momma look at me!" Daisy climbed up to the monkey bars and swung across. Kleandra cheered and clapped. Jess laughed, his mind coming back to the present and where he currently was.

They didn't end up leaving the park until five, so lunch at the Mexican bar and grill turned to dinner. They got home at six and watched TV on the couch until bedtime.

Sunday morning Jess actually got to sleep in more than he usually did. He wasn't woke up until nine when Daisy ran in ans jumped on him. Kleandra made breakfast and then they played with Daisy for a bit.  They joked around at home until it was time for Cliff to come get her.

Kleandra sniffled as they both said goodbye. Cliff at the sight of the woman seemed like he was in more of a hurry to leave than Saturday morning. After Daisy left Kleandra went up to her room and Jess did the same, he didn't see her for the rest of the day.

○●○●○

Monday. Jess hates Mondays. Then again, Jess hates a lot of things. He hates having to go back to school.

He stood up from his bed and immediately regretted it. The warm blankets and stacked pillows called to him, begging him to come back. Just crawl back into bed and go back to sleep.

Jess shook off the temping thoughts and moved over to his closet. He threw on a random T-shirt and grabbed a pair of jeans. He still felt half asleep as he left his room and headed to the bathroom.

He looked a little more refreshed when he came out of the bathroom and started the walk downstairs. He stumbled on the second to last stair but kept walking as if it didn't happen and went over to grab his shoes.

After getting his converse on he left the house. He rarely brought his bag home because he rarely had homework so there was no point. He walked in quiet, basking in the feeling of the slight breeze of the early morning.

When the school approached Jess wanted to puke. He hated puking but it'd be better than this. He still wasn't over Friday in Algebra 2 class. Maybe if he stopped holding grudges life would be easier. Meh, oh well.

When he reached the courtyard he paused. Across the parking lot was a familiar car, sitting in a parking space, still running. Isaac could be seen through the window sitting in the driver's seat with his head looking downward.

Despite his mind telling him not to because he could be embarrassing himself, Jess crossed the parking lot anyway. He walked up the side of the car and tapped on the window lightly. Isaac looked up and then quickly rolled down the window.

"What's up?"

Jess thought for a minute. He didn't know why he came over here except for the fact that he just didn't want to go inside. His eyes raked over to the clock on the dashboard. "We've got two minutes until first bell. Won't you be late if you're sitting in here?"

Isaac's eyes widened and he looked down at his phone, the same thing he had been looking at before. He saw the time and whispered a curse underneath his breath. "Thanks, I guess I lost track of time."

Jess just nodded, stepping out of the way so Isaac could get out. The brunette boy smiled at him, wide and bright as always.

"How was your weekend?" Now they were walking together which was weird. And Isaac was looking at him with a kind smile and curious eyes which was also weird.

"Uh, it was good. Yours?"

"Good." Isaac smiled contently. They entered the building and the bell rang. "See you later?"

"Yeah." Jess nodded a little and kept walking to his locker to grab his bag. He then went to his first hour class.

Classes were easy for Jess, they always had been. He picked up stuff fast so getting through work wasn't a challenge. Once he finished his work he got to draw or zone out.

His first four classes went by quickly. He did the work, what was expected of him, and then did nothing important. When the lunch bell rang he sighed with relief at a break in the system.

He walked down the halls, ready to go to the cafeteria and talk to someone just to feel more human. He hated the same routine over and over again. However that what his life was at school. That's why he switched it up at lunch sometimes, he didn't like doing the same damn thing all the time.

Right as he turned a corner he cursed his habit of not paying attention because he nearly hit someone. He froze and looked up at the boy, recognizing him immediately. Isaac smiled, surprise evident.

Why the hell do I keep bumping into this guy?

•○•○•○•○•○•○•

The ending there was cliche, sorry, I needed them to bump into each other again so I made it happen literally.

Love you ♡

- Z