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Daisy’s friendship with Fitz was like a kindergarten companionship, iron tight with no discernible beginning point as if they had always been friends and that was that. Wherever Fitz was, Daisy wasn’t far behind and vice versa. But it did, in fact, have a beginning, and like a kindergarten friendship, it was one formed through being thrown into one of the deep ends of life. This particular friendship between Leopold James Fitz and Daisy May Coulson started, as any good friendship does, over an overly rowdy high school party and a bathroom.
Daisy had not particularly wanted to go to said party. It would just be a bunch of loud teenagers dressed in half-assed Halloween costumes, honestly, no one respected the art of a good costume anymore, getting drunk. Daisy was much more inclined to hang out with a small group of friends, play board games, drink Sprite, and talk. She had no problem with other people’s choices, they could do as they like, she just wasn’t comfortable with it herself. But Raina had invited her and Daisy didn’t have too many friends. Well, really she had no real friends and plenty of people she talked to to survive a class period.
When Daisy had arrived, there was no sign of Raina amidst the pandemonium of the party. All she could see for the entire length of the open floor plan house was kids four years older than her jumping in place and shouting over very loud dubstep. Quickly feeling rather overwhelmed, Daisy ducked to the side, her hands brushing the wall until she found a corner of the house that was pretty much unoccupied and claimed a couch.
The house smelled like alcohol and teenager’s B.O. and Daisy couldn’t help the annoying bit of self-consciousness that picked away at her insides as she fiddled with her werewolf costume. Why hadn’t she just gone as a sexy corn cob or something? She shook her head when the thought came to her. It was no use doubting herself now, plus she was rather proud of her fake nails and scary werewolf teeth. It was Halloween dammit, she could dress as she pleased like everyone else.
She must have been sitting on the couch for several minutes, taking deep breaths and planning a course of action to escape the party without Raina noticing. Honestly, though, how could Raina even tell if she had left early or not with all the madness going on. When a couple plopped down on the couch next to her and started to eat each other’s faces, Daisy quickly excused herself from her now contaminated corner and made for the bathroom.
She didn’t really need to use the restroom but it seemed like a better place to think or freakout, whichever gripped her first. When she finally managed to find the damn room, it appeared like the freakout would win the fight over her heart as the door was locked up tight and occupied.
“Hello? Is someone in there?” Daisy hollered over the music and through the door, punctuating the question with a stampede of knocks.
Even over the ruckus around her, Daisy clearly heard clangs and clatterings come from inside the bathroom like the occupant had knocked something over in a rush. “Uh, almost done! Sorry, give me a minute!”
Was that a Scottish accent? She could have sworn she had heard that voice before… Daisy narrowed her eyes at the door like the action would give her laser vision only to back away seconds later as it flew open to reveal a boy who looked as though he had had the same idea as her. The moment she registered his cute and nice-looking face, she remembered how she knew him. Not only was he in her freshman biology class but he had moved into the house just down the road from her.
Fitz’s was a welcomed sight as he was far more approachable than any of the tall scary senior boys that she had run into so far at the party. Not only was he a familiar face, though she had never actually spoken to him, but he was a kind one as well. His hair was a mop of sandy curls and his cheeks and nose were pink like he’d been walking around in the chill of the autumn night. With a quick glance, Daisy noticed he was dressed up as a character from Doctor Who. She couldn’t say what Doctor he was, not watching the show herself, but she remembered seeing the costume idea somewhere.
He stood in the frame of the doorway and it took her a second to process why he wasn’t moving, the reason turning out to be that she was standing directly in his way.
“Oh, sorry--I’ll just--yeah.” Daisy backed away from the door, jerking her thumb over her shoulder.
“Don’t you have to use the bathroom?” Fitz asked quietly.
“What?”
He gulped and cleared his throat like he had to stretch his throat muscles to talk louder. “The bathroom, didn’t you need to use it?”
Daisy looked over his shoulder into the tiled room. It was glowing far brighter than the dim lights of the party and it did seem inviting, but something about Fitz’s pink-tinted cheeks and slightly runny nose made her change her mind about her escape plan.
“Uh, no,” she yelled back. Using her sharp black fingernails, she scratched at a spot on her temple nervously before brushing aside a lock of hair. “I was actually going to hide in there as a way to escape the noise for a second.”
When he shot her a sort of relieved look, she smiled brightly, the party no longer seeming so lonely.
“Me as well,” he muttered, but Daisy managed to catch it.
There was a moment after he spoke where neither of them really moved, hovering between quietly parting and continuing to talk. By the way both of them planted their feet, they were simply waiting for the other to proceed with the conversation.
“Your name is Fitz right?” Daisy finally asked in a shout.
“Um--ye--yeah. How’d y--”
“You live down the road from me. My dad talked to your mom. We’re the Coulson’s.”
His eyes turned bright as realization dawned on him. “Wait, you’re Daisy!”
“That’s me.”
“Wait, I have biology with you. Oh my god, I’m so sorry I didn’t recognize you. How could I have not recognized you that’s so rude of me you must think I’m a total wanker!”
“Hey, no! It’s okay, really!” Daisy rushed, shooing away his worry with her hand, “I sit all the way in the back and never say anything and you’re all the way in the front. It’s seriously no biggie.”
“Still, I’m sorry.”
“Well, we know each other now so no harm done right!”
He gave her a small smile but his eyes still screamed with guilt.
She turned to look out at the party before her gaze shifted back to him, still standing in the golden light of the bathroom.
“The person who invited me is nowhere to be found,” Daisy continued as her eyes caught his. “You?”
He looked around the party before back at her. “I sort of think I got invited as a joke.” He was so quiet but Daisy heard the words loud enough to make them burn.
“Why would you say that?”
“Well, I don’t talk to many people and--umm--I thought that these guys in my welding class were just being nice but I guess I didn’t realize they were mocking me when they said that I should come to this party. I showed and they all started laughing and one of them said ‘nice costume’ so…” He sniffed and looked down at his shoes, digging his toes into the wood flooring.
“Wow, what a bunch of dickhead dumbasses. They’re probably just pissed because you’re smarter than them and the things you build are freaking incredible,” Daisy replied, shoving his arm lightly with a smile.
Fitz looked through his lashes up at her. “You’ve seen the things I’ve built?”
“Well, yeah. All your stuff gets put in the display case. I especially liked the little spring monkey you made. It was super cute.”
He gave her a look like he couldn’t believe the compliment but his words of thanks were perhaps the most genuine words she had ever heard from one of her classmates.
“You know,” she said as her legs got tired of standing but her mind wanted to continue the conversation, “if you want, we can be party friends?”
“What?”
“Party friends. Friends you make at a party with the mutual goal of conversation and survival.”
Fitz let out a chuckle and the noise was like a victory for Daisy. “Sure.”
Sitting down in the corner next to the bathroom door, the two talked like they had been friends forever. Fitz talked about moving away from Scotland, Daisy talked about her life as a military kid before her mom left the service and about her dad being a teacher. They talked about Harry Potter and computer games, Fitz tried his best to explain Doctor Who, and Daisy ranted about her passion for Halloween after Fitz complimented her terrific take on a werewolf. Tucked away in their corner, they hardly realized that the party had begun to die down, only leaving when Raina kicked them out.
“That’s my dad,” Daisy said as they stood on the curb outside Raina’s, catching her father’s red Corvette coming around the corner.
“Whoah, is that a ‘62 Corvette?” Fitz asked, his eyes bright as he spotted the vehicle.
Daisy looked from the car to Fitz, rolling her eyes. “You and my dad would get along great.”
Something about Fitz’s reaction to what she said struck her heart, a look that read like she had just said something unbelievable, but she quickly tucked away the feeling. Whatever the expression had been about, she would learn about it in Fitz’s time. That is, if he still wanted to be her friend once they had parted ways.
“Hey, Fitz?”
“Yeah, Daisy?”
Her dad honked the horn and she quickly shot him a “one minute” finger. “Would you want to be real friends?”
A relieved grin made his blue eyes beam and Daisy instantly thought that Fitz might just become her best friend in the world one day. “Very much.”
“Good. Now come on, I’ll give you a ride home.”
And it was the first of many.