Danny looks over at Archie whose face is solemn and unremorseful. After Cole had reported that it was Archie who had poisoned him and not Danny, the school board decided to revoke his expulsion. He and Archie wait outside of the principal's office to discuss the school board's decision and the consequences for Archie. Danny takes another glance at Archie who now cups his temples with the palms of his hands as he stares at the ground.
Breaking the ominous silence between the two sworn enemies, Danny asks "Why'd you do it?" He stares back at Archie, his eyes sparked with curiosity rather than judgment.
"So everyone could see you for the sociopath that you are." Archie snickered at the thought of his own cruelty. He couldn't help but despise Danny, he was always playing the victim although he started everything. He killed a woman then returned back to school expecting to live a normal, unsoiled life. He tried to take over the soccer team, Archie's pride as the captain, and blatantly wooed Lacey out of Archie's arms and into his own. He did all of this, and with such charm and charisma. Danny is a soulless sociopath, Archie thinks to himself.
Danny shakes his head doubtfully. "Everyone already thought I was sociopath before the whole Cole thing, why did you really do it?
Archie says nothing, he just stares blankly ahead, unwilling to carry out a conversation with this freak who thinks he knows it all.
"Come on, was it jealousy? Because I was doing so well on the soccer team?"
Still nothing from Archie.
"Was it because of my," he pauses, feeling momentarily guilty before realizing that the jerk did not deserve his sympathy. "Because of my relationship with Lacey?" He continues.
Danny taunts Archie, putting an emphasis on relationship and Lacey. He stops when he notices Archie's facial expression. It displays a new emotion for him, an emotion Danny would have expected the boisterous jock to be exempt from. Could Archie actually be feeling hurt?
Before Danny could process the probability of Archie's eminent vulnerability, Archie's saddened eyes merged into a fiery rage.
"Let's get this straight, you never had a relationship with Lacey. You manipulated a confused and vulnerable a girl. What were you trying to lure her into being your next victim?"
Danny normally took no offense to Archie calling him a freak or a sociopath. But implying that his motives were to hurt Lacey infuriated him. Danny rises up, marching vigorously towards Archie who stands to face him. The two boys now staring at each other eye to eye. Clinching his fists, Danny is prepared to release every ounce of his anger towards Archie into one brutal swing square in the center of Archie's face.
Archie pushes Danny away from him nonchalantly when he notices the fury in his eyes. "Okay chill."
Danny is breathing heavily through his nostrils, reluctant to cooperate.
"Look, I'm sorry about what I said."
Surprised to hear these foreign, apologetic words exit Archie's lips, Danny allows himself to exhale. He retreats back to his seat next to Archie who has already taken his.
Danny looks down at his hands, one of which he still has clinched into a fist. He releases his grip slowly and turns to face Archie whose calmness is equally as threatening as his rage.
"Lacey was um," Archie begins, "the first girl I actually cared about." Danny searches his eyes for the slightest bit of insincerity but determines that he is telling the truth.
"And the team," Archie goes on to say, "is my life. Literally, my entire identity is in that team. Everyone depends on me to carry them through the victories, the defeat. They look up to me. They um, believe in me. Which is something I'm not used to," he says this slightly beneath his breath.
Danny couldn't help but wonder what he meant by the latter statement, but he didn't press the issue. He was still dumbfounded by the fact that his arch enemy was actually opening up to him about his feelings.
"Even though I'm still the captain, when you joined the team, they started losing respect for me. Especially since you exposed me for meeting with the coach from another school that I had considered transferring to. The team froze me out for weeks."
"Look man, I-" Danny cannot get in a word.
"And then Lacey started to look at me differently because of you, like I was some kind of monster and you were just this beckon of goodness."
Archie pauses momentarily, lamenting on his once flourishing relationship with the girl he loved, the girl who Danny had stolen from him.
For once, Danny didn't know what to say. Archie wasn't entirely wrong. He had tried to diminish his character in front of the soccer team, and he did pursue Lacey behind Archie's back when the two of them were still dating.
All this time he pinned Archie as the antagonist, when they had both done their share of cruelty towards one another.
"I was wrong." Danny finally admitted.
"Look, you may be a raging meat head, but I should have never have come between your relationship with Lacey. You didn't deserve that. Danny cringes at the words he says next.
"I'm sorry."
Archie shoots back him, now raising his voice, "You didn't come between anything rope boy, I let her go!"
Regression? Danny thought, but we were making so much progress.
Trying carefully not to stir up any more negative emotions, Danny replies, "Okay, but just so you know when you two were together I pursued her, not the other way around. She um, she really loved you."
Archie winces at Danny's use of past tense. "Oh, she loved me? His face masks a cynical smile. "Now that's comforting."
"You never know, she may still," Danny clears his throat, hoping that Archie won't linger long on the possibility. "I mean, she did break up with me."
"Ha, Lacey Porter, destroyer of hearts."
They both laugh. "You know I think that's actually her legal middle name," Danny says jokingly.
For a few moments the boys bond over their mutual heartbreak, until Archie comes back into himself. Was he seriously having a heart-filled conversation with Danny De-Psycho?
"Seriously though, now that we're done being females for the day, you should know, I still hate you."
"Man, my superficial charm has failed in my attempt to lure my next victim? I really need to work on my sociopath skills."
Archie can't help but to laugh once more. "You're an idiot Desai."
Just then, Principal Tang barges through his office door, calling the boys back into his office, where their fate would await them. Archie gulps, knowing that if he is expelled it may affect his status on the soccer team. Both boys exchange glances. Whatever his punishment would be, Archie would accept it gracefully. Danny Desai may not be an innocent guy, really he's still a freak of nature, Archie thought. But even still, Archie was coming to understand Danny and his motivations, he may be a killer, a borderline sociopath, but he was a cool guy.