New To This

Therapy

Daya's POV

"Friends?" Why would you write a spec script for a show that ended?" my new film friend Alyssa says. We just finished another day of the writing program and are sitting outside of the academy sharing a bag of kettle chips.

"Because I just wanted to," I argue. She laughs and I pull out my phone to see if my dad has sent me that, "I'm coming late," text which isn't needed because the hard concrete I'm sitting on tells me that. No, but a notification from settings saying my screen time has increased by 20%. This makes sense because I've been spending a good amount of time texting Ziyah since we, "slept," together.

"Oh my god, is that you? who drew that?" Alyssa says. Her eyes are focused on my screen time which is of course the portrait Ziyah drew for me.

A sudden wave of uncomfortableness come over me. "Yeah uhh my boyfriend drew it for me?" I say mostly to myself. Just that phrase makes me cringe as I think of how annoying I found girls who start all of their sentences off with 'my boyfriend'.

"That's cool," she says and I'm glad she leaves it that because Harper and now Navia have squeezed all of the Ziyah talk out of me. Although Ziyah amazes me everyday giving me so much to talk about. Somehow we ended up talking about boys though, but Alyssa's relationship with them.

"I just can't see myself in a relationship, you know being part of someone else's life like that, hooking up is just so much easier," she says and we both burst into laughter. Not that I would know about the fun in hooking up. I get up to throw the empty bag of kettle chips away, and when I walk the 4 feet back to Alyssa another girl is sitting beside her. She has her hair in a perfectly shaped bun with the cutest pink clips on the sides kind of reminding me of a bratz doll. As i sit by Alyssa I recognize her as Caylee who's also in the writing program.

"Hey Daya," she says as I sit back down. I give her a little wave and Alyssa begins filling her in on what we were talking about. "You know some guys really are dicks, and they are ruining it for the guys who are actually nice," Alyssa says.

"Do have a nice one Daya?" Caylee asks. Damn if only she knew how sweet Ziyah is.

"The nicest," I say and they make an "ooh," noise similar to Jada and Vicki. Alyssa and Caylee laugh at the smile painting on my face, and just as I think about telling them every detail about Ziyah and I my dad's car pulls up with his weird engine sound.

"Ooh he's cute," Alyssa says with her eyes on the car. For a second I'm a bit disgusted, but then I see Vince is sitting in the driver seat.

"That's my brother," I say with a slight laugh after we exchange numbers. I hop into the passenger seat and Vince flashes a smile at Alyssa and Caylee who I believe are waving to me.

"Who are they?" he asks.

"My friends," I say proud I can actually say that.

"Your friends are-"

"Not Vicki." I stop him and he kisses his teeth as he begins driving down the north hollywood streets.

"You're dropping me off at Harper's right?" I ask.

Vince's bright smile quickly drops. "No i'm dropping you off at mom's appointment and she's taking you to Harper," he clarifies.

"What appointment?" I ask. Taking me off guard Vince slams his hand on the horn and the break making me fly forward a little.

"Fuck, no left turn dumb ass," he yells at the red subaru in front of us. When the light turns green Vince's anger goes away, and he turns to me with a subtle look.

"You were saying," he says and I just shake my head not caring about my question. Fifteen minutes later we arrive in front of a red brick building where I notice my mom's car among all of the empty parking spaces. Across from the building is a skatepark and skate shop that doesn't look as depressing as the side I'm on. As I undo my seatbelt I notice Vince is just staring at me tapping his fingers on the steering wheel.