"Danny you have to stop! You can't keep leaving gifts and notes in my locker!"
"Lacey," he replies reaching for her out of instinct even though he knows he shouldn't. It's the first time she's spoken to him in weeks.
"No, stop! I'm trying to move on. You can't keep doing this," she says taking a step back, instantly regretting walking up to him in the empty hallway. "We can't be together. I don't trust you. I can't trust you because I know you're hiding things from me."
"Lacey I understand that, but I can't tell you everything. I can't tell anyone. It has nothing to do with us. Don't let it get between us." He stares into her eyes pleading with her. "Please Lace."
She feels her defenses crumble and that when she knows she has to leave.
"No Danny. Just stop." It takes everything in her to walk away, but she manages it and heads straight out the entrance of the school with her head held down as she rushes through the now not so empty hallways. She can feel the tears coming and knows that if she can just make it to her car she'll have some semblance of privacy in which to shed them.
It's been weeks since she broke off her relationship with Danny. The break up had taken place in their childhood clubhouse after an especially trying day. At the time, the pain had been deep. Deep enough that it felt like her heart had ceased beating and her lungs were no longer functioning.
Instead of easing with time the pain just seems to worsen. Lacey does her best to avoid him both in and out of school, but in a town as small of Green Grove there is only so much she can do. With each glimpse of him in the hallway or at Johnny Cakes with Jo and Rico she can feel her resolve weakening.
"Just take him back. He loves you and you love him. Nothing else should matter," a small voice says in the back of her head, but that isn't true. Murder isn't a small thing, and she can't possible give herself to someone capable of that, especially if he's willfully lying to her. Except it's not exactly a lie, just an omission of the truth. But that's the same thing isn't it?
She's tired of thinking about it, and once her tears have stopped flowing and her breathing has evened out, Lacey starts up her car and heads home. She's skipping out on her last two classes of the day, but she needs to get out of there. She wouldn't be able to handle another confrontation with Danny, if one arises. For the most part he has been a gentleman and respected her request for space. It's just those notes and gifts that he insists on leaving in her locker that make the situation that much more difficult.
After pulling into her driveway, Lacey gathers her things and goes up to her bedroom.
"Sleep, that's what I need," she says to herself as she exchanges her school clothes for pajamas and gets into bed. Thankfully no one is home, and Lacey is able to cocoon herself in the comfort of her bed without her mother questioning her about her early arrival home.
Surprisingly Lacey is able to fall asleep (maybe being in his presence, even for a moment to argue, has calmed her soul enough for her body to find some pretense of rest no matter how fitful). She's awakened to a pounding on her front door. Disoriented she stumbles down the stairs to the door and opens it without checking who the visitor maybe.
"Danny," she smiles not remembering in her half-asleep state that she shouldn't be happy to see him. "Danny," she repeats more forcefully fully coming to herself. "What are you doing here? Just because I walked up to you in the hallway today doesn't mean you can come to my house."
"I know, but I'm tired of this. Of being without you," he says standing at the door with his hands braced on either side ready to stop her if she tries to slam it in his face. "We should be together Lace. Stop pushing me away." The pleading from before has returned to his eyes, but this time Lacey has nowhere to run. He's blocking the only barrier between them, and she very well can't run into the house leaving him at her front door. She knows that he'd only follow her away.
"Please Lace," he repeats taking off where he left earlier. "I need you in my life." He takes a step forward, effectively crossing the threshold of the house and invading her personal space in one bound.
Lacey smells his cologne, stares into his eyes, feels the heat of his body next to hers, and knows that if she doesn't find some way to put space between them she'll circum to his charm. She takes a step back, but just as she predicted he follows her with his own step forward, in the processing kicking the front door shut. She feels well and truly trapped when her back hits a wall after taking several steps back. He follows her the entire way.
Danny smirks raising his arms to either side of her head. "You can't keep running from me Lacey-"
"Shut up!" she says cutting off his sentence first with her words then with her lips as she gives into her body's desires.
Lacey feels alive again at the first touch of their lips. Gone is the perpetual fog that hung over her head in the weeks since their break up. Her heart beats rapidly and her lungs expand as if filling with air for the first time. He's in her arms and she is alive.
Just as they settle into the kiss, with Lacey circling her arms around his neck and Danny running his hand along her side raising her shirt with each caress, they hear a car horn honk outside the house. Lacey pulls back, but Danny doesn't allow her to push him away.
"That might be my mother. You have to leave, Danny!" She says glaring but allowing him to caress her face.
"I'm not leaving until you promise to talk to me. I want more than just this Lacey," he stares at her intently stilling his hand on her face.
"I do too," she says hesitantly staring back at him wishing she could read his mind, "but we can't do this now!" Lacey swears she hears her mother walking down the path that leads to their front door.
"Meet me at the clubhouse later," he says slowly removing his hands from her body. "Promise me."
"I promise I'll meet you. Just text me when you get there," she says taking his hand. "You have to go out the back door." She leads him to the back of the house where he kisses her one more time before escaping out into the backyard.
Lacey waits in the kitchen for her mother to announce her arrival. After several minutes in which the house remains silent and empty, except for her presence, she realizes that it was a false alarm. Her mother isn't home. Danny could have stayed. She laughs to herself exhilarated by Danny and the thought of almost being caught.
"It's probably for the best that he left," she thinks heading back to her room with a smile on her face. Her heart is still beating rapidly in her chest (though it has slowed since Danny's departure) and her lips tingle from his last kiss. She tries to stop smiling, to recall all the reasons why they shouldn't be together, but all she can remember are the feel of his lips, the warms of his arms, and the love she thinks she sees in his eyes.
She's back under her covers when she hears her cell phone go off. She has a text message, and it's from Danny.
Meet me at the clubhouse at 9. I'll be waiting for you.
Her smile grows bigger. She doesn't know if she's ready to start up with him again, but if just one kiss from him, one moment with him can make her feel this good then maybe she can overlook a few of his omissions of truth. At least for now…