Mother Lucker | ✔

Chapter 15

the end | 15

HER OUTFIT WAS ITCHING IN THE MOST uncomfortable spots. Which was crazy considering she was wearing a plain white t-shirt and black jeans.

"When are we going?" Harriet hissed to Daniel, who looked too nervous for her own liking. Seriously though, why did they both look like two people about to go to an orchestra concert?

"Hopefully, not soon," Daniel whispered back. "God, I have to pee."

"Hey," Harriet shook him, "Stop being so nervous. You've gone to the bathroom five times in the past hour and that is not good, so breathe."

"But-"

"Breathe, Daniel, goddammit."

Daniel nodded, uneasily inhaling. Harriet didn't dwell on the fact that this was the first time she saw Daniel nervous.

"Okay," Harriet smiled, "Now we're not doing this to win. As long as you do better than me, everything will be okay. And you know that's not going to be hard."

Daniel chuckled. "You're right."

Harriet punched him in the arm, but he didn't feel the resentment that came afterwards. In the background, their names were announced, but even though their names were suppose to stimulate endless sensations of panic and terror, he felt weirdly calm staring at Harriet. Like he got high just by looking at her. Which was super weird.

Except the moment she turned around, he felt a bubbling sense of hopelessness. Like he was bursting at the seams, trying to say something he was too scared to admit.

The balloon known as his sanity popped with a satisfying crack.

Daniel swallowed."Harriet!" He started to run after her. Harriet turned before going on stage. "I have something to say."

"You have a lot of things you have to say, lately," she speculated, looking at the stage. Her dark eyes held an unreadable ocean of emotions.

"You know what I said at your house? The night that I was drunk?"

Like she got pinched, Harriet whipped her head, looking shocked and paling ever so slightly.

"I meant it."

Before she could say anything, he walked on to the stage, leaving her to decide what he felt.

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Daniel wasn't surprised about what he said.

No. He was terrified. He was unsure. But he wasn't surprised.

The day after their last practice, Daniel had gone home with only one thought on his mind, and that thought consisted of a girl with a hard-to-crack and tougher-than-steel attitude. A girl with eyes the color of Midnight and skin the color of buttery caramel. A girl with just the right words on her tongue and lips that bent into the most breathtaking smile.

Yes, Daniel liked Harriet Benchman.

And even if he almost drowned himself in fear from the revelation, he just couldn't say that he was surprised.

The moment Wright had paired them up, Daniel knew that what was going to happen was going to be disastrous, but now he saw that it was turning out to be disastrously beautiful. How else was he suppose to describe the emotions that came with Harriet? She was a hurricane; one that didn't know whether it was going to be destructive or harmless.

So the night before, he spent a lot of time contemplating (and talking to his mirror) before deciding that it was better to take the dive headfirst than wait and possibly lose whatever palpable emotion was apparent between them.

So he said what he had to say.

He was just hoping that Harriet wouldn't end up kicking him in the nuts like poor Colton Duke.

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I want to finish this book so bad do you feel me I need to finish and be satisfied with something in my life even if it sucks god I can feel rant vomit in my throat goodbye.