Daisy (lashton)

Chapter 16

Luke groaned as he rolled out of bed, the early afternoon sun rays beaming in through the cracks in his dark curtains. He knew he had already managed to sleep through his two morning lectures, and at this point really didn't see any reason to attend his art history discussion. One little day playing hooky wouldn't hurt.

The mumbled voices from the kitchen caught Luke's attention, and after taking a few minutes in the bathroom to freshen up, Luke stumbled his way into the kitchen for a cup of coffee. Still half asleep, Luke yawned and made his way over to the coffee maker, completely disregarding the others in the room.

"Lukey!" A little voice made Luke choke on his coffee and he whipped around to be face to face with none other than Ashton's daughter.

"What the hell?" He grumbled, looking around for signs of the older man, but only coming upon Michael with half a bagel stuffed in his mouth and an apologetic looking Crystal. "What is happening right now?"

"Daddy had to go to work!" The little girl shrugged her shoulders as she continued to spoon Mac and cheese into her mouth.

"And? Why isn't she in school or something?" Luke asked, aiming the question more so at the couple across from him.

"They had a half day of preschool today and he didn't have anyone to watch Daisy, so he asked me to." Crystal shrugged as if it were no big deal she'd brought a child into their apartment without asking him first.

Luke quirked up an eyebrow as he cautiously took another sip of his mug. "So why are you watching her here?"

"My roommate had a... special friend... over last night, and he was still there this morning, so I just thought I'd bring her over here." Luke glanced wearily over at where the little girl sat, humming something that sounded oddly familiar to the drum line from Tusk. He was mildly impressed.

"Lukey are you my Daddy's special friend?"

"Excuse me?" The little girl looked up and quirked her head to the side as she furrowed her eyebrows.

"Daddy said that special friend means you sleep in the same bed. You were sleeping in Daddy's bed. Are you Daddy's special friend?"

"No, Daisy, Luke isn't your Daddy's special friend... yet." Crystal mumbled the last part under her breath but Luke could still hear it and shot her a dirty look.

"Then why were you in Daddy's bed?" Luke glanced to his friends for help but they were just stifling back a laugh.

"That's, ah, I think that's a question to ask your dad, kid." Daisy accepted Luke's explanation and continued on eating her lunch.

"Okay, well this is fun and all but I think I'd rather be anywhere else." Before Luke could run from the room, Crystal was standing in front of him with her hands on her hips.

"Where do you think you're going?" Luke furrowed his eyebrows as he stared at her over his coffee cup.

"My room?"

"No you're not!" Luke scoffed as he tried to move around her and she stepped in his way. If she wasn't his best friend's girl and there wasn't a child in the room Luke wouldn't think twice about running her over.

"Hey now, you're the one that agreed to babysit today, not me." Crystal rolled her eyes as she glanced towards Michael for help.

"Actually, Luke, we were hoping you could watch Daisy here for a little bit," at the sound of her name Daisy perked up, dropping her spoon into the bowl and making some of the gooey cheese splatter up onto the counter. Luke cringed.