Daisy plucked, p.7
Daisy, Plucked, page 7
She placed the bottle on the floor below her window, arranging the curtains in a way that hid it from view if her mother were to pop her head in. She glanced outside and saw the Polos walking up, and she bounded out of her room and down the stairs to greet them.
“Perfect timing!” Hana exclaimed as she walked down the stairs, looping her arm through Daisy’s. Daisy gave her a dazzling smile in return.
“Great to see you, Hana. How was your Christmas?” Henry asked, handing his coat to the boy they hired to run a coat check out of their front den for the night. This party may have been hosted at the Holm house, but the Holms didn’t really lift a finger once the guests arrived. Hana’s father insisted on hiring staff so that Noriko could enjoy the night she spent so long planning. Hana was happy with the decision because it meant that her mother wouldn’t give her tasks all night like she did when they hosted smaller dinner parties.
“It was good! My parents always give the best gifts,” Hana replied easily. Henry smiled at her warmly.
“Wonderful. I’m glad you enjoyed it. Now, do you know where your father is? I have something for him,” Henry said before looking over his shoulder towards the rest of the party.
“Last I saw my dad was in the living room,” Hana said, trying to be helpful.
“Thank you, Hana. Will, Daisy — you two behave. None of that fighting, you hear me?” Henry pointed his finger at each of his children for a beat before turning and walking away. Daisy rolled her eyes and Will slunk away, probably to see if he could use his height to trick the wait staff into thinking he was of age.
“You and Will get into a fight?” Hana asked, walking Daisy towards the dining room where there were appetizers sitting out to be picked at.
“Yeah. Same old dumb stuff. Mom was big on New Year’s resolutions, and I wanted to do that today, but Will said it was pointless because no one keeps their resolutions,” Daisy complained.
“That’s annoying. Even if you don’t stick with resolutions, what’s the harm in having them?” Hana asked, though she agreed with Will.
Daisy nodded, shooting a glare at Will’s back. “Exactly, it’s not about the goals. It’s about trying to be closer to Mom. I mean, I barely remember her anymore. He’s just being a baby about it.”
Hana sighed and pulled her friend into a slightly awkward side hug. “Well, you can keep it alive, and when Will realizes what he’s missing, he’ll come around. Boys are idiots anyways.”
Daisy laughed. “You’ve got that right,” she said, her smile starting to return.
The pair combed through the buffet, taking too many of the small cakes and cookies and a handful of the savory dishes as well in an attempt to keep some form of balance. They ate perched on either arm of an armchair with their feet in the middle, earning a disapproving glance from Hana’s mother that they pretended not to see.
They people watched and chatted about nothing important, and when the clock began to wind towards midnight, Hana directed Daisy upstairs, snatching two glasses of sparkling cider on the way.
“Cider? Bold choice, Holm,” Daisy joked.
“You know me. I live life on the edge,” Hana quipped back, earning a golden laugh from Daisy. When they were sitting in Hana’s room, she flipped on her TV to show Times Square glittering away behind a crowd of too many cold faces. The sounds of the party were muted by Hana’s closed door, and Hana turned down the volume on the pop singer obviously lip synching on TV. Something settled over them, like a glowing, buzzing aura so delicate that anything loud or sudden would destroy it. Hana knocked back her sparkling cider before retrieving the stolen champagne with a grin.
“I got this before the party started, so it might be a little warm,” she said. “I was hoping that being by the window would help, but I’m not sure it did.” She tore the foil off the top of the bottle.
“You know I’ve never had champagne warm or cold, so I have no taste to compare it to. I think it’ll be fine,” Daisy said. Hana had brought Daisy to one of the last parties she went to a few months earlier, and Daisy had a few drinks, but she hadn’t really gotten drunk. Will drove them home after the party, and he sent Hana a very long text saying that Hana was an idiot and Daisy shouldn’t have been drinking for the first time at a party. Hana never told Daisy about the text. Daisy hated how overprotective her brother could be.
“I also don’t know if this will go everywhere. I watched a tutorial online on how to open champagne, but we’ll see if it was bogus advice or not,” Hana said. She wrapped a t-shirt around the cork and twisted it, hoping that it wouldn’t send a spray of the fizzy liquid across the worn hardwood floors of her room. Luckily when the cork popped, nothing sprayed out. Later, they would call it a sign that the night was meant to be theirs, but for now it was just convenient.
“You’re an old pro. Are you sure this is your first time?” Daisy teased.
Hana laughed and poured them both glasses. “Cheers?” she said, holding her glass out.
“What should we cheers to?” Daisy asked, swirling her drink around in her glass and watching the bubbles shoot up in the center of her glass.
“To friendship?” Hana suggested. Daisy gave her a smile tinged with something Hana didn’t quite recognize.
“To friendship,” Daisy agreed, clinking their glasses together. They both took sips, and Hana was surprised by the feeling that the champagne left on her tongue. Daisy let out a small laugh of disbelief.
“It’s like fireworks, isn’t it?” Hana said. “Like fireworks on your tongue.” Hana took another sip and echoed Daisy’s joyous laughter. They both downed their glasses in a few seconds, and Hana poured them each another one, still giggling at the light feeling in their chests and the bubbles dancing on their tongues.
On the screen behind them, the final countdown began. Hana glanced over at it, suddenly aware of the fact that Daisy hadn’t leaned back after Hana poured her more champagne, and now they were sitting with their knees almost touching. It wasn’t unusual for them to be close; when they were younger they held hands everywhere they went, and as they got older that turned into them constantly draping themselves all over each other. Even after Hana came out things didn’t change, mostly because Daisy made sure they didn’t. But it usually didn’t feel like this, like there was a delicate hum of energy between them telling Hana to lean in, to figure out any and every way that she could possibly be closer to Daisy.
As the crowd on screen counted down from five, Hana swore that Daisy felt it too, the invisible string between them, and Daisy’s gaze darted from Hana’s eyes to her lips. Hana inhaled shakily, and as the ball dropped and everyone celebrated the New Year, Daisy grasped Hana’s cheek and pulled her forward into a tentative kiss. In that moment, every other kiss Hana ever experienced was reduced to a high school production, and this one was a broadway show. Her world was shifting, all her thoughts reduced to the feeling of Daisy’s soft lips and the warmth of her hand against Hana’s face. The kiss was tentative, a question, and Hana kissed back with all of the hope and love she kept locked away for so long.
The little gilded box where she stored all her feelings for Daisy burst open, and an explosion of longing and lust and desire and love all poured out into the kiss. Hana forgot about the glass of champagne in her hand until she spilled some on her lap, and she pulled away with a guilty smile, laughing at herself.
“Happy New Year,” she said, barely an inch from Daisy.
Daisy let out a laugh and sat back. “Was that okay?” Daisy asked, sounding breathless.
“More than okay,” Hana said, then she had a thought she had to voice, but first she knocked back the rest of her champagne. Daisy giggled and copied her, taking both of the glasses into her hands and placing them gently on the nightside stand. “I mean, it was okay if you actually wanted to kiss, you know, me, and not just someone at midnight. Was that what it was? Because if it was—”
Daisy cut Hana off with another kiss, this time using both of her hands to cup Hana’s face and pull her closer. Hana placed one hand on the side of Daisy’s throat and another on the back of her head, knotting her fingers into Daisy’s curls to pull her closer. The hum in the room had grown to a symphony, and Hana’s love for Daisy was harmonizing with the fire the kiss ignited in her. There was no going back to friends from this kiss — it was life altering, and Hana’s world was changed forever.
This time, Daisy pulled away first, resting their foreheads together. Hana smiled, her eyes still closed from the kiss.
“Does that answer your question?” Daisy whispered. Hana didn’t have to open her eyes to know the look on Daisy’s face — a small smile quirked up more on the left side of her face than the right.
“I don’t know, I think I may need more confirmation,” Hana replied. Daisy laughed and kissed her again, and Hana’s thoughts slowed to just one word repeating itself, an endless string of Daisy, Daisy, Daisy drowning out the party and the thoughts of what the year ahead would hold.
Chapter 7
Daisy — July 2019
Daisy made her list of suspects and put off reading Hana’s journal while she looked for alibis for all of them. It would probably make more sense to just rip off the Band-Aid and read the journal, but she couldn’t get over the feeling that she was betraying Hana’s trust.
Without reading Hana’s journal or starting to investigate Mark Hom’s death, all Daisy could do was try to cross off suspects by imagining possible motives. This mostly involved Daisy trying to remember any petty arguments between Hana and her friends and family as well as a fair bit of social media stalking, but she didn’t find anything conclusive.
To be sure of alibis, she needed to figure out exactly when Hana died. Theoretically she could find out by getting a copy of Hana’s autopsy report, but the thought of reading it made her sick, so she turned to social media.
There were accounts on Twitter and Facebook that posted about emergency calls in Penfield, and Daisy combed through both accounts looking for calls that could be about Hana. She knew that Noriko had found her, but she didn’t know if Noriko called 911. Maybe Noriko screamed so loud that a neighbor heard. Maybe someone heard the gunshot, but Noriko got there before the police. If Noriko wasn’t the murderer, there would need to be enough time after Hana died that the murderer could escape.
On Thursday, she found the tweet about Noriko’s call.
Penfield Scanner | @PenfieldScanner
Paramedics and police called to Fiddlers Hollow.
June 18th - 2:07 p.m.
Daisy grimaced at the tweet but screenshotted it for her records. She wrote down the time of the tweet in her notebook and wondered how much time passed between Hana dying and someone calling 911. She switched over to look at the account’s Facebook page and found the parallel post, but there were comments and replies under this post. She felt disconnected from her body while she read through them.
Penfield Scanner
Paramedics and police called to Fiddlers Hollow.
June 18th - 2:07 p.m.
Comments:
Jody Thomas
This is just too sad. RIP Hana
Jennifer Foster
Such a tragedy. I heard a gunshot around 1:30 but thought it was a firework :( I wish I called it in. No mother should find their child like that.
There it was. The answer to her question, right there in the Facebook comments. The name Jennifer Foster was familiar — the Fosters lived down the street from Hana. Mrs. Foster wasn’t a big gossip or someone who sought out attention, so Daisy believed her comment. It clearly wasn’t a play for personal sympathy, more so a desperate need to share something that was eating her up inside. Daisy understood the feeling.
She crossed out 2:07 p.m. in her notebook and instead wrote “between approx. 1:30 p.m. and 2:07 p.m.” She wanted to trust Mrs. Foster’s timeline, but she couldn’t hinder her investigation on a time that was probably accurate.
Daisy was brainstorming how she could possibly get an alibi out of Hana’s mom and uncle when her phone buzzed with a text from Chrissy, Hana’s best friend and roommate at New Paltz. Daisy opened the text immediately, not sure why the older girl would reach out.
Chrissy
Hey Daisy! So since none of us could make it up to the funeral we were thinking we could come up to visit the grave and have a little memorial just for our group. We were planning to be there around five on Friday, is that cool with you? We can do a different day if it’s a bad time for you, we all really want you to come
Daisy stared at the message. She would go, of course, to try to rule them out as suspects. Would she be able to get their alibis without being too obvious about it? She would need to figure out how to ask everyone where they were when Hana died without alerting them to her investigation, but there was still time to consider that.
Daisy
That sounds great. The funeral sucked anyway. Too much preaching and crying. Hana would’ve hated it. I’m good for 5 on Friday tho, so I’ll be there. Need me to bring anything?
Chrissy
Okay, awesome, I’m so glad you can make it. I’ll let you know when we’re close to picking you up. I think Skippy is driving bc she gets to use her mom’s minivan so we can all fit
Daisy
Sounds good. I’m excited to see you guys, it’s been too long
Chrissy
I know, right? See you then!
Daisy spent the week looking through the Instagram, Facebook, and even Twitter accounts of everyone on her list. Noriko stopped using social media after Mark died, a decision Daisy was beginning to understand more by the day, so it wasn’t helpful for researching her. Dennis was fundamentally against social media, but Daisy still searched for anything from him despite sitting through his latest rant at Thanksgiving. Hana’s friends weren’t the type to tag their locations, and any stories they posted were long gone. Social media didn’t give any easy alibis, so Daisy resigned herself to the most awkward line of questioning in the history of the world at the memorial on Friday.
She tried to think of subtle ways to bring up alibis, but by the time Friday came, she decided to wing it. She just hoped she could be somewhat present — she did like Hana’s friends and seeing them would be nice. Her goal was mainly to rule them out as suspects so she could narrow her search, and she hoped she could do that while also gaining more insight into Hana’s last year. There was a lot that Hana hid from her, but there were no secrets in a murder investigation.
Before Daisy left for work Friday, she laid out her clothes even though she knew she would have hours of time to get ready later. Facing the difficult decision of what exactly she should wear was a good distraction from the fact she didn’t have any leads on Hana’s case yet. Chrissy had made a group chat for them all, and Skippy let everyone know there was a party that her friend was having near one of the colleges downtown that they would go to afterwards. So Daisy needed to wear something that was appropriate for both her ex-girlfriend’s memorial and a college party.
She ended up opting for a pair of black denim shorts, a dark gray tank top, and a collection of gold rings and necklaces so her outfit wouldn’t be so plain next to whatever Hana’s friends showed up in. She was sure they would look good.
After getting dressed, Daisy grabbed a random tote bag from the back of her closet and slipped the warm six pack of beer she bought for the occasion into it, concealing it with a sweater. She wouldn’t have to worry about driving, so she could drink with other people again.
Just after five p.m. Chrissy texted her that they were out front, and Daisy took a deep breath before going outside to greet the group.
“Daisy! Hi!” Skippy yelled from the open window of a burgundy minivan. Victor leaned forward to wave from the passenger seat, and the back door of the van opened to reveal Aaron and Chrissy. Daisy waved back and watched Aaron start climbing back into the third row. Daisy gave them her first real smile in days.
“This seat is all you,” Aaron said, patting the headrest with a smile.
“Thanks! And thanks for inviting me,” Daisy said, climbing into the van.
“Yeah, we knew we wanted you to come as soon as we started planning it,” Victor said. They turned to look in the back seat, and their smile warmed the cool, sharp lines of their jaw.
“Of course,” Daisy said. “Honestly, the funeral sucked. It’s good that you couldn’t make it — there were all these people that barely talked to Hana in high school there, all acting like they knew her. And it was all really religious — I think you would’ve gotten hives, Vic,” Daisy joked. Victor regularly went on long rants against the actions of the Catholic Church. Daisy caught one the only time her dad had let her visit Hana, but Hana also texted her a multitude of times telling her that Victor was on another one of what Hana deemed their Morally Upright Anti-Church Monologues. Victor knew it bothered Hana, but it didn’t stop them from launching into their spiel anytime the Church was mentioned.
“Probably true. Think I’ll catch fire as soon as we cross onto sanctified ground?” they joked as if keeping the tone light would stop this from feeling so debilitatingly depressing.
Hana’s friends were mostly from Brooklyn and Long Island, so they were convinced that upstate New York was just a hellscape of conservatives and cow pastures. While they weren’t entirely wrong, it still bothered Hana, and Daisy by extension, that they judged a place they had never visited. Hana often tried to convince them that even if upstate sucked, the actual city of Rochester had some great spots. The group finally agreed to come visit during the summer, partially because Skippy had an older friend that went to the University of Rochester, and she wanted to visit him. Hana planned to show them all the sights of Rochester — Daisy helped her when she started planning the trip. Now she wondered if the itinerary was ever finished.
