It took a lot longer than he wanted, but Danny had finally convinced Lacey to come and hang out with him and Jo. Just like old times. That was something he wanted so badly since he had come back. It was like a chunk of his childhood was left unresolved. But now was the chance to attempt to make it up. What made it more comforting was that they agreed to meet at the fort.
When he told Jo about the entire situation she was… apprehensive. Something about Lacey completely put Jo at an unease. When he told her, Danny was almost worried that she wouldn't have been able to get her to go.
"Are you kidding?" She pulled her brows together and asked him with mild disbelief. "She wouldn't even stick up for you over something as big as being a suspect in a murder, and you want to invite her out for an old family bonfire?" She leaned against the locker and waited for some kind of reply.
"I just think that it'll be good to get all of us back together." He defended. "Besides what's the worst that's going to happen?"
"It could be a disaster." She answered immediately, earning an annoyed sigh from Danny. "Look, Lacey and I stopped being friends after you left for a reason." She said seriously as she pushed some of the hair out of her face.
"Well now that I'm back, we can all try can't we?" He asked hopefully with a small crooked smile.
"I don't think that I should go." She said slowly as she closed her locker door.
"Come on Jo." He gave her a look. "What do I need to do to convince you?"
She rolled her eyes and started to walk to her next class. "Nothing at all. I am inconvincible in this situation." She said sweetly looking back to him as she kept walking.
Danny quickly caught up to her and lightly tugged on her arm to get her to listen. "S'mores?" He smirked. "Think about all the amazing chocolate, and marshmallows we can have." He tilted his head to her expectantly as she he gave her that award winning smile of his. "Come on. You can't resist that."
Jo smirked before letting out a small defeated sigh. "Fine. But you have to walk with me to the fort. I don't want to be alone with her there. I'd be awkward if it were just me and her."
"Deal." She smiled victoriously. "Meet you at the stop sign by your house and we'll walk there?"
Jo stood patiently leaning against the stop sign. So many things about this were telling her that it was wrong. Plus she felt uncomfortable waiting by the stop sign for so long. She felt like a prostitute just… lurking.
Finally she watched as Danny walked into her vision. "About time." She let a small chuckle pass her lips.
The walk there wasn't too terribly talkative. They were both trying to figure out and predict how the night would go.
When they finally got to their old hang out, Lacey hadn't gotten there yet. Jo let out a small breath of relief and looked around. The fort looked even better than she expected it. "Wow…" She muttered. "Did you clean this place up last time you were here?" She looked over to him curiously.
"Yeah, a little bit." Danny smiled as he started to pull out things they needed to make smores, along with a few sodas.
"Ah," She said as she looked around for a little bit. She had forgotten some of the details about this place. "Not bad."
"Ya know, Masterson, the only thing you've said to me that's even relatively close to a compliment was 'no bad.' Is it so hard to say 'Good job Danny'?" He smirked to her while taking a seat on the stool that was by the dead fire pit.
"Only when it's due." She smiled and bent down to look at the firepit. She stood back up with a sigh. "I should probably go get some firewood." Jo pushed some of the hair out of her face and started walking to the exit.
"Actually," Danny started with a smile. "Already done." He pointed to the corner where he had gathered enough sticks and wood to keep the fire going most of the night.
Jo looked to the ground and shook her head. "Always a step ahead." She tried to hide her smile. She kept her gaze to the ground and lightly sighed. "Good job, Danny." She looked up from the ground at him with a mix of a small smile and a smirk.
Danny flashed a crooked smile and nodded. He started to say something but the presence of a new person threw him off. He looked toward the door with a smile. "Hey, Lace."
Lacey walked in and gave the place a quick look over before looking at Danny. "Hey. Did one of you clean this place up a bit since…" She trailed off from her sentence, but she was referring to the last time her and Danny and her had been there.
"Yeah." Jo interjected, feeling like Lacey hadn't even given her a glance since she walked in. She started to think that Danny had roped them both into this unwillingly. "Danny did."
"Nice." Lacey looked over to Danny with a minuscule forced smile. It was obvious that she felt uncomfortable.
A small silence had grown between them. So many things had gone unsaid in the past five years, but most of the things all of them wanted to say was long past expired.
"Well," Danny said as he stood up to pull a lighter from his pocket. "Let's light the fire. It's getting dark outside." He spoke a little more cheerfully in hopes that it would get the mood up.
Jo let out a small laugh and sat down on the ground near the fire pit. "You were always the pyro of the three of this." She muttered and as she lightly shook her head at the memories.
"Why? Because I was always just the gentleman who wanted to help you out?" He teased and attempted to defend himself as he crouched next to the fire pit. "Here. To be fair we can both do it."
Jo laughed and rolled her eyes. "How thoughtful of you Danny." She said sarcastically as she scooted over closer to him.
He pulled her hand to his where they could both hang on to the lighter. Danny quickly lit it and smiled over to her. "Alright."
Jo pulled their hands to one stick, while Danny tried to pull it to another.
"What the hell are you doing?" She laughed. "This one is going to be easier to start." She persisted and kept tugging their hands and the lighter to her preferred branch.
"No, it won't. It's too big." He easily kept her hand from trying to get it to it. "If I'm such a pyro, you should trust my intuition about this." He smirked.
Lacey looked between the two in disbelief. Were they actually going to play this little patty-cake-we're-all-friends-again-let-me-ignore-y ou bullshit? Her brows drew together and she looked at them for a few more minutes before the livid anger actual boiled over. "This is all just such complete crap." Her voice carried over the top of theirs, effectively silencing them.
Jo's smile fell as she just looked up to her. Danny's lips curved into a small frown and he looked at her confusedly. He let go of the lighter, Jo taking advantage of it, lit the pit her way. Finally Danny found words. "What are you talking about? We're all having a great ti-"
"No." She interrupted. "You two are having a great time. Just like when we were kids. I sit back and listen to you talk almost like…" She shook her head angrily trying to figure out the right word. "…A- a third wheel while you two carry on having a grand old time." She spat and crossed her arms.
The two were frozen for a moment. How where they supposed to react to something like that? "Lacey," Jo started staring at the fire, hoping that it the break of eye contact might somehow dissolve the situation. "You know you could just hop into the conversation at any point." There was an undeniable hint of annoyance in her voice. She didn't bother to hide it. She knew this was a bad idea from the beginning.
"Yeah, right." Lacey rolled her eyes. "It's nearly impossible, and I'm sick of trying. I don't get you guys' senses of humor. And I don't know how the hell to react to your weird pyromaniac flirtation."
The girls bickered back and forth for a moment before Danny stepped in. "Guys." He said lightly. "Why don't we all just talk about the old days?" He looked between the two of them, but their gazes were glued to the dancing fire in front of them. There was a long moment of silence before Lacey finally stood from her seat. "Maybe I should just get home. I told my mom I'd be back an hour ago." She said quietly as she walked out of the fort.
A deafening silence fell over the fort. The only audible noise was the sound of the fire crackling.
Jo lightly sat up in her seat and continued to put a marshmallow over the fire. "I told you so." She pulled an annoyed fake smile on her face and shook her head as she skewered a marshmallow.
Danny pressed his lips together and nodded. "Yeah. You did." He agreed with a disappointed sigh as he snatched the bag of marshmallows off of her lap and grabbed one for himself. "I think we at least had a chance to get things back together though, ya know?"
Jo shrugged and looked down to the fire. "You can't recreate the past. No matter how badly we want to." She took a bite and smirked. She paused for a moment before looking back over to him. "But when I said 'I told you so,' I was actually talking about the fire." She smiled to him.
He smiled back to her, but didn't really have anything to say. It was clear that he was kind of upset that things didn't turn out the way he wanted.
"I wasn't trying to ya know…" She paused, unsure of that word to used. "…sabotage this, or anything." Jo looked over to him apologetically. "I was just having fun with you."
Danny smiled and lightly nudged her shoulder. "Yeah, I know. I was too." He let out a sigh and shrugged a shoulder. "I guess it really isn't anyone's fault."