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spicy sauteed zucchini and glazed carrots for her parents. Her stomach growled. Was she hungry or was it upset from being the recipient of another charitable act?
     
     
     
    The scent of fried onions still lingered in the apartment the next morning when her parents’ bedroom door creaked open at 4 a.m. Daisy rolled over to face the back of the couch. She just couldn’t go to bed as early as her parents. It seemed to be biologically impossible. She was losing sleep every night, but no matter how tired she got she couldn’t fall asleep before midnight. The middle of the night wake-up calls from her brother sneaking in and her mother getting up for work were killing her. She was drinking so much coffee at the book store she needed to buy a bag of ground coffee for Mary to make up for all that she was using.
    Daisy kept her eyes closed when she heard her mother emerge from the bathroom and head to the kitchen. She was going to turn the overhead light on. The fixture was positioned perfectly to torture Daisy with its harsh fluorescent assault. A laser blast, right in the eyes, five days a week. Keeping her eyes pasted shut was less painful. Besides, she already knew what she would see. Her mother wearing a white half-slip and sensible, cotton bra. She always came out to get a glass of orange juice and bowl of corn flakes, dressed in her underwear. When Daisy asked why she did that, she said it was to make sure the body lotion had soaked in before she put on the waitress uniform. The scent of roses from the moisturizer drifted behind her like an infatuated ghost. A sneeze producing specter that often left Daisy’s nose itchy for hours afterward. In another hour her dad would emerge from the bedroom and make his coffee wearing only his tightie whities before heading to the bathroom to shower and get dressed. After that he would bang around making his version of breakfast. The meal usually ended up smelling like the dumpster behind a pizza place. She didn’t ask his reason for walking around half-naked. He probably wouldn’t have one anyway. Watching a hunky boyfriend wander around in his underwear would be exciting. Seeing her parents do it was creepy and disturbing.
    As soon as her father slammed the front door shut behind himself that morning, a high-pitched giggle floated down the hallway. Bobby’s girlfriend, Tina. The couple had slithered into the apartment after midnight, scaring the crap out of Daisy in the process, since she had just fallen asleep. Her dream of shopping in a fancy yarn shop while Bradley Cooper held her basket was interrupted by the horny, drunken couple. Now a rhythmic thumping echoed through the apartment accompanied by moaning and mumbling. More sleep wasn’t in the cards for the day even though it wasn’t even 7 a.m. and she didn’t have to be to work for another three hours. She pulled a wrinkled t-shirt out of one of the garbage bags that was still acting as her closet and stomped to the bathroom. Thankfully the whining exhaust fan drowned out the x-rated soundtrack emitting from her brother’s room.
    She emerged from the shower when the temperature of the water started to drop, but left the faucet running. She dried her hair, got dressed and applied makeup accompanied by the soothing sound of gurgling water. A cloud of cold mist greeted her when she pulled open the shower curtain to shut off the water. As she gathered her dirty clothes, she mapped out the rest of the morning. She would get off the bus one stop early and buy a couple hot, fresh doughnuts from the little bakery that looked like it had been around forever. Then she could eat her greasy, sugar-coated breakfast in the peace and quiet of the book store’s break room. Anything was better than staying in the apartment with Bobby and his main squeeze.
    Daisy opened the bathroom door and sucked in a breath. Bobby stood in his bedroom doorway across the hall, naked and scowling at her. A tattoo of a rattlesnake coiled on his belly