Danny sighed as he stared up at the ceiling of his bedroom. There were glow-in-the-dark stars and a large moon glowing faintly down at him with a dull, neon green light. Though they had been there for years, they still clung stubbornly to the uneven ceiling, where splashes and swirls of plaster created vague and crazy images. At the moment, Danny couldn't make any of them out in the darkness so he stuck to staring at the dimly lit stars and the crescent moon grinning down at him like the Cheshire Cat.

The only sounds came from his breathing, his chest rising and falling slowly, perfectly in rhythm. Danny's blue eyes stared into oblivion, hardly registering a thing that happened around him. The light from the street-lamps slipped in through the cracks of the curtains as the wind crawled in through his open window and tossed the blue fabric around gently. Cars sped down the road occasionally, a low swoosh following it as the headlights came and went in a flash. However, there wasn't a peep from any other human person, for they were all asleep.

All except for Danny, who stared at his ceiling as he lay silently on his back. The blankets pooled around his waist, one arm draped across his torso while the other rested above his head. The sixteen-year-old's t-shirt was bunched messily at his waist but Danny hardly cared that the feeling was uncomfortable. His raven hair stuck in all directions but no one was there to see so it didn't really matter. Blue eyes stared vacantly above him, barely blinking as the time passed slowly around him.

Lost within his thoughts, Danny thought only of the girl he had known for a night. However, even still, he remembered everything about her, from her cropped ebony hair, violet eyes, and devious grin. He remembered the sound of her voice and the feel of her fair skin against his own and the way her eyes had sparkled in the moonlight as they talked. He remembered the way her hair had wisped around her face from the wind and her laugh when Danny nearly tripped over his own two feet.

Sam, her name had been. She was his muse and had been ever since that one, fateful night that Danny's peers had all but forgotten about by now. He was the only one who thought about it constantly and, while he would love to talk to his best friend about it, Tucker had obviously grown tired about Danny's persistent chattering, as had the teen's parents and sister. Danny didn't fault them for it either.

After all, as far as evidence went, Sam didn't really exist. She was nothing more than a "figment of Danny's intoxicated imagination."

Even still, the sixteen-year-old boy couldn't bring himself to believe such words. The night had been too real and he remembered everything much too vividly. His skin still pricked when he thought about Sam's soft hand over his as she supported him gently and carefully. His heart still fluttered when he remembered her easy teases. The teen remembered how the two of them had sat on the ground and done nothing more than stare.

Danny remembered how, upon seeing her smile for the first time, his cloudy mind had became clear.

Groggily, Danny opened his eyes and looked around at his surroundings, wondering what the heck had happened. His head pounded, foggy and unclear, and his stomach hurt. His ankle throbbed, probably from when we had tripped earlier and twisted it painfully. His eyes squinted against the bright moonlight covering the large clearing; the expanse of it was covered in foldable tables, red solo cups, and cans of every kind. Where cars had been lined up and parked before, the area was now completely clear. Not a single person remained, leaving Danny all alone and without a ride home.

Just to be sure though, the teen called out for anybody as he sat himself up straight but winced at the sound of his voice. Pushing himself up made his head spin and Danny pressed a hand to his forehead, trying to calm down the pounding that thrummed against his skull incessantly. A groan escaped his throat as his stomach churned terribly, making him want to cough up all the contents that lay there.

Danny called again, willing anybody to hear. He wouldn't even mind if it was his bully that answered him, as long as he knew somebody was there with him. Besides, Dash might even be a little nice to him. The party that had taken place at the clearing had destroyed all social barriers between Danny and his peers and it had been nice, even if it was only for a night to celebrate the beginning of spring break. However, no one answered the dazed boy, leaving him to unsteadily stand up, putting all of his weight on one leg so his left ankle wouldn't throb so painfully from being twisted.

Moving slowly, Danny began limping for the road. He hadn't driven his truck up to the party. Instead, he had hitched a ride with Tucker and Danny vaguely wondered why his best friend had left him. It wouldn't have mattered so much if someone else had stayed behind but everyone was gone. The area was completely deserted. There wasn't even a car driving along the road so that he may be able to hitch another ride back to town.

The sophomore barely got twenty feet before he tripped over a pile of cans his dazed mind hadn't bothered to register. Danny went sprawling into the grass again, yelping as pain shot through his ankle. He followed it up with a hiss and a curse before he sat himself up again. As he did, Danny took notice of the pair of combat boots a foot or two away from his face. His eyes lifted up, taking in the sight of the only person left in the clearing with him.

The boots belonged to a girl, who was giving him a dry look as she looked his disorganized form over. She wore a black crop-top with a purple oval in the center, showing off her midriff. She had a black and green plaid skirt that hugged her hips, a pair of purple tights under them, which tucked into her boots. She had two black bands clinging to her wrists and her ebony-hair was cropped, some of it pulled into a ponytail. Her violet eyes sparked with irritation as she shook her head at him, showing no signs of amusement as she looked his disheveled form over.

Without an ounce of gentleness in her brash voice, the girl said, "Well, you've certainly made a mess out of yourself, haven't you?"

Danny couldn't bring his pounding head to care that she was being sarcastic with him, instead sighing in irritation as he looked her pristine form over. Glancing behind her, he saw no vehicle, which meant he was still screwed. This irritated him further as he looked back up at the girl and said, "Look, I don't know who you are, nor do I care. I just wanna get home before my parents freak and then call my ride and question why he ditched me, ok?"

"Some friend you have if he forgot about you." The girl commented. She crossed her arms over her chest, tilting her head at the boy sitting near her feet as he rubbed his face and sighed.

"He probably didn't really forget me. We got split up during the party and I saw him drinking too. For all he knows, I went home with someone else. Really, I'm just irritated because my phone was in his car, which means I can't even call a cab." Danny stated, shaking his head in an attempt to clear his head but only making his skull pound worse.

The ebony-haired girl seemed surprised by Danny's defending statement and Danny ignored it as he sighed deeply. Watching him intently, the girl said nothing as the teen boy started to move his feet back under him, getting ready for the impossible task of pushing himself back up to his feet. The girl rolled her eyes as she watched him struggle and said, "You shouldn't have been drinking."

Danny only grinned up at her and replied, "I'm a teenager. I have imperfect judgment."

It was small but the teen boy thought he saw a smile starting to twitch at the corners of Sam's lips. His grin grew as he saw hers begin to sprout and, in the next moment, he was shocked as the girl extended her hand in a silent offer of help. Danny took it, grabbing her wrist and allowing her to pull him unsteadily to his feet. The raven-haired girl helped him steady himself, taking silent notice of the way he favored his left foot. Danny's grin only grew and he said, "My name's Danny. What's yours?"

"I'm Sam. Don't call me Samantha." The girl replied teasingly, finally allowing herself to smile at the taller boy. As if by magic, Sam's smile made Danny's headache start to lessen and his ankle didn't seem to throb so badly anymore. It was like she was his clarity and it only made Danny grin a little bigger as his heart pounded against his chest.

"Yeah? How about I call you Sammy-kins instead?"

"Ha! You won't do that unless you want to be smacked."

Everything that happened after that was amazing and Danny contemplated it every waking minute.

Because Sam had no car, she and him had started walking in the direction of town, side-by-side. The girl had carefully supported him to the side, telling him that he shouldn't be walking on a bad ankle. Danny had allowed himself to be supported, leaning gently against the girl as they had walked the rest of the way to the road. Then they had turned in the correct direction and began the trek onwards.

The two of them had talked lightly at first, chatting about similar interests they had and arguing about their varying differences whenever they stumbled upon one. They were never hostile, just teasing and claiming that they were better for liking this or that or that other thing. They had laughed and joked around and just had a good time while they walked along the road slowly, taking a much longer time than it would if Danny hadn't been hurt.

It was a little while longer before either of them had decided to open up about their lives. Even so, Sam had been particularly vague when answering questions pertaining to her social life. Danny only knew that she went to a different school, her best friend's name was Valerie, and that she lived in a really nice part of town. She, too, was a sophomore and, when Danny asked, she had smiled and said that she'd love to hang out with him again before her grin had faltered, suddenly looking sad. Danny had asked about it but she brushed it off as nothing.

The duo had continued on again after that and, though Danny wanted to, Sam wouldn't talk about any future plans at the time. So they'd stuck to telling funny stories about each of their lives, making each other laugh as they trudged along the desolate and dark road. Every time either of them perked at a sound they heard in the forest surrounding them, the other was sure to jump on them for being a scaredy-cat. More laughter always erupted afterwards as they both tried to tell each other that a serial killer certainly wasn't following them in the pitch-black woods.

The night had been so much fun and the more time Danny spent with Sam, the more he started to like her. The feeling he got was the same one he recieved whenever he saw a pretty girl for the first time. While the feeling usually faded away quickly, because he got to know the girl or because he never saw her again, the feeling had only intensified with Sam. It had startled him but, oddly enough, he had also been ok with it. Danny thought he'd have the feeling with him for a long time, which would make him happy, right?

However, as Danny stared blankly at his ceiling spotted with glowing, plastic stars, he knew it wasn't true. He was miserable and sad but still his heart fluttered every time he thought of Sam. No matter how much he tried to make his train of thought ride somewhere else, it always came to her, to her smile, to her pretty eyes. It was painful and it always stabbed at his heart but he couldn't forget their last words together as they rested on the side of the road when Danny grew tired of limping constantly. They had settled down in the grass and sat close to each other, arms wrapped around each other for warmth against the chilly night. Their faces had been oh-so-close to each other, their warm breaths falling on each other's bare skin.

Danny, much more tired than he should've been, began drifting off to sleep. He didn't know when but Sam had brought him into her arms and the dreary conversation that followed was glued to Danny's mind as he stared at the stars covering the ceiling above him, hardly moving except for the silent rise and fall of his chest.

Danny grinned up at the girl as he half-laid against her, drearily zoning in and out. Sam's arms were wrapped around his torso, holding him closely as she sat with her back against a tree. The teen boy's eyelids were drooping over his crystalline blue orbs while Sam was as awake as when they first met, still talking to him and brushing his hair out of his face as she looked at him and the stars above them and the road just a feet away from the pair. Danny hardly ever interrupted the girl, just listening as her voice continued to chatter on slowly, a story or another about her and her friend Valerie ringing in the boy's ears.

While he listened, Danny thought about all the things he wanted to do with Sam. He wanted her to meet his parents and his sister, knowing her eccentric personality would fit right in without his special family. He wanted to meet with her after school and go to his favorite hangout, the Nasty Burger, and go to hers, whatever it was. He wanted her to meet Tucker and watch them size each other up, arguing about one thing or another (because something told him they would). He wanted to meet Sam's best friend and maybe her family and get their approval. He wanted her to be with him every day and they'd text when they were apart and they'd always be happy and, if they got into a fight, they'd make-up because being together meant more than empty words spawned from anger.

Most of all, he just wanted Sam to be with him.

The teen boy, before he even knew it, called, "Hey Sam?"

The girl stopped in her story and her cool hand paused on his forehead. Danny liked the feeling of it gently brushing against his skin but didn't mention it as Sam looked down at him curiously, smiling sweetly as she asked, "Yeah Danny?"

"Will you still be my friend when we get back to Amity Park?" Danny asked, his grin still twitching at the corners of his mouth as his eyelids drooped further. Even so, he could still see Sam's smile start to falter again, her violet eyes becoming sad as she watched him. Worry entangled Danny's chest, his smile dimming as he watched her smile fade away. "Sam?"

The girl's hand brushed against his forehead again, sweeping his black locks back before she lifted her hand up again, allowing them to fall back over his forehead. Sam brushed his locks back again and again, not saying anything. Her violet eyes studied Danny's for a little bit and Danny stared curiously back. Finally, Sam said, "We'll see, Danny. I can't promise anything. My life is really busy and it's really hectic and I'd love to keep in touch with you but… Uh, it's a mess."

"Will you try?" Danny asked, anxiety tangling around his chest and crushing his rib-cage so he couldn't breathe. His lips were twisted into a frown now, a very obvious frown.

Sam's hands continued to brush Danny's ebony locks out of his face, slowly and contemplatively. The boy noticed her violet eyes had lost their shine. Still, she was smiling down at him but it looked sad on her face. Nothing but a whisper, Sam said, "Sure, Danny. I'll try. Now why don't you rest for awhile? You're exhausted. I'll watch for cars while you sleep."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah Danny. Now go to sleep."

Danny nodded and, as his eyes began to close as he succumbed to the dark embrace of sleep, he could've sworn he saw the faint outline of wings on Sam's back as her form began to fade away, leaving him lying in the grass as his entire world became nothing but a vast expanse of black, no dreams to comfort him as he slept the rest of the night away.

When he woke up, it was day and a woman with red hair and green eyes was shaking him awake, asking him his name as he lay on his back in the grass beside the tree. Danny ignored her as he asked where Sam was but the woman only replied that there was no one else around. It was only him.

That left Danny to wonder where the hell Sam had gone to while he slept the night away, lying in the lush grass and a blanket of stars above him. He didn't know why she had left him and Danny had no way of knowing when she disappeared as he slumbered. All he knew was that, when he had gone to sleep, she'd been there beside him and, when we awoke, she'd disappeared into the wind, as if she hadn't been there at all.

Because the girl had lived in his city, Danny searched all the schools after spring break flew by him and he got none of the things he wanted to do done. The boy couldn't focus on anything when his train of thought always stayed on Sam and where she went, leaving him to sleep all alone on the side of the road. It was distracting and, though Tucker was patient with him when they hung out, he slowly became irritated with the way Danny was completely hung up over nothing more than a hallucination.

And all the evidence seemed to point to the simple fact. None of the schools in the city had any girls named Samantha that dressed goth-like and liked to be called Sam, instead of her given name. But no, no one knew her and Danny had tried searching for her friend, Valerie, but there were so many Valeries in the area and how would he know if they knew Sam? It's not like he knew the girl's friend personally. He'd only heard about her in passing.

With no answers, Danny had turned to the internet to try and help him. However, the boy didn't know Sam's last name so he couldn't narrow his results down. Just like with Valerie, there were a lot of Sams in Amity Park. One would think a female going by the name would stand out but, no, nothing popped up that caught his eye. He had tried Samantha as well but that was another mess that would take forever to sort through. Who knew if he would find the girl in the list of names anyway?

So spring break came and went and not a single thing was found out. It left Danny desperate to know where the girl went, no matter how many people told him Sam was nothing more than a hallucination induced by the alcohol he had consumed that night. But that couldn't be. They talked; he knew things about her that most people wouldn't when they first looked at her. She had touched him; he could still feel her silky, wispy hands against his forehead, brushing his hair from his eyes. He'd heard her voice; it was deeper than most girls' but it sounded purely like Sam, if that made any sense.

She'd been too real to be nothing more than his imagination.

Danny couldn't concentrate in school. Everything his teachers said went in one ear and quickly flew out the other and Danny didn't even realize they were talking most of the time. His worksheets and tests were all written in a language he couldn't understand and he always found himself back at that night, staring up at Sam as the stars twinkled like a halo around her head. Her smile was always sad as she looked down at him, brushing his hair from his face as she told him that she'd try to stay connected with him.

However, school wasn't always so bad… It's where he found out the truth.

"Mr. Fenton."

The boy in question hummed as he looked up at his balding teacher. Mr. Lancer looked worriedly down at him as he clasped his hands behind his back. The other students were already packed up, some of them walking out the door. However, Danny hadn't moved a muscle since class began and he hadn't even known that the class had ended,; he hadn't heard the bell ring loudly as the clock hit a certain time.

Danny blushed as he realized that some of the students were snickering at his inability to move and focused on his teacher's face as much as he could, ignoring his peers. "Is there something you need, Mr. Lancer?"

The man gestured for Danny to follow him as he began turning around, saying, "I would like to talk to you for a moment, if you don't mind, Daniel."

The black-haired boy nodded and quickly packed up his things. There wasn't much for him to do, seeing as he hadn't really gotten anything out during class. Danny made quick work of his things and got up, slinging the backpack over his shoulder. The rest of the students filed out of the doorway as Danny approached Mr. Lancer's large desk, chatting and laughing with their friends as they left.

Stopping in front of his English teacher's space, Danny asked, "What do you need to talk about, Mr. Lancer?"

Once again, the man looked the dazed boy up and down, clasping his hands in front of him as he propped his elbows on the desk surface in front of him. Papers covered in red ink and professional documents sat in a mess around him and his computer had a dozen different tabs pulled up, researching different teaching material and his email inbox overflowing with emails from students, other faculty members, and the school. Still, Mr. Lancer still managed to look calm and collected in the midst of chaos, not disheveled in the least.

"Daniel, I've noticed you've been very distracted in class the past few days." Mr. Lancer stated bluntly, frowning worriedly. "Did something happen over spring break that has effected you negatively? I'm not trying to pry but you were always such a bright student and I hate to see you fall behind."

Another blush came over the teen's face as he listened to his teacher. Danny smiled reassuringly, shaking his head at Mr. Lancer as he did, willing the flush in his cheeks to go away. "No, Mr. Lancer. Nothing happened. It's just… Well, I don't think you'd understand. So far, no one has and it's a little embarrassing to talk about…"

The English teacher opened his mouth to speak but, before he could, his phone rang. With a sigh, he gestured for his student to stay for a little bit longer while he answered the phone, greeting, "Lance Lancer here. What do you need?"

While Mr. Lancer became engrossed in whatever he was discussing with the person on the other side of the line, Danny looked around the classroom and spotted the pictures hanging on the wall off to the side. They were official school photos of the classes Mr. Lancer had taught over his many years of teaching. Each picture had a date along the border, as well as a different color on the edge each photo. They were all placed carefully in frames and arranged in chronological order.

One in particular caught Danny's attention and he silently moved over to the wall, studying one of the photos from a few years beforehand. He scanned the three rows of students, not recognizing a single one of them. Well, all except for one…

Sam.

She was in the middle row, standing between a Latina girl and an African-American girl. Sam seemed to favor the African-American girl over the Latina, standing with her back to the fair-skinned girl. The dark-skinned girl on Sam's other side smiled deviously, mirroring the look Sam had on her face while the Latina on the other side tried to hide her disgust with a smile, though it looked more like a grimace than anything else.

Danny stared at the photo, shocked and oh-so-confused as the photo of the ebony-haired girl grinned into the camera. He hardly heard Mr. Lancer quickly dismissing the person on the phone and hanging up, turning in his chair to face the direction his student had gone in. Curiously, Mr. Lancer asked, "Is there someone you know up there, Mr. Fenton?"

Turning around and giving his teacher a distressed expression, Danny pointed to black-haired girl and asked, "Who's that, Mr. Lancer?"

Confused by his student's forlorn look, the teacher got up from his spot at his desk and hurriedly walked to where Danny was, looking at the picture Danny was pointing at. Seeing the girl, Mr. Lancer's eyes light up in recognition as he responded, "That is Ms. Samantha Manson. She was my student a few years ago. Her story is one of tragedy, I'm afraid. She died in a car-crash coming back from the field all the sophomore's go to when spring break lets out. It was a shame. She wanted to be a nurse." Looking down at the confused boy, Mr. Lancer asked, "Why? Did you know her?"

The teen boy bit the inside of his lip as he mumbled, "I guess you could say that…"

Danny suddenly dreaded going home, where he would waste the rest of his day before he went to bed. He knew he was gonna be up all night.

And, just as he thought, Danny had been up all night, just staring at the ceiling and thinking all sorts of things while his mind also stayed completely blank. It was a weird limbo he had fallen into but Danny couldn't bring himself to come out of it, no matter how much he tried. It stayed with him as he tossed and turned, trying to find a comfortable spot so he could fall asleep. However, his thoughts attacked him and kept him awake throughout the night.

There were plenty of times that night where he'd been startled out of his thoughts. Danny thought he had heard Sam's voice dozens of times. Each time he thought he heard it, a sudden jolt would run through him and his heart would pound heavily on his chest, rushing adrenaline through his system as he sat up, his ankle throbbing, even though it had long since healed. Danny would look around his room, searching for the owner of the voice, but he found nothing every time. The only thing he could do after that was lie down and try to sleep again, despite it being a fruitless endeavor.

Miserable and feeling sick, Danny moved for the first time in a long while and turned onto his side. His blue eyes stared at the clock, which read 2:31. Confused and feeling completely nuts, Danny scrunched his eyes shut so he wouldn't cry, no matter how much he wished he'd let himself let the tears fall. He pulled his sheets around his shoulders and hugged his pillow close to him, trying desperately to sleep the rest of the night away so he wouldn't have to deal with anything for awhile.

However, Danny felt another press up against him, lying beside him and hugging him close from behind. The teen boy thought he heard his name whispered and, though another jolt swept through him, Danny didn't get up or answer like the last few times. Instead, he laid still and pretended there really was someone beside him, brushing their fingers through his black locks and watching him silently as he tried to fall asleep.

But there was no one there at all.

And that's why you don't fall in love with someone over the course of a few hours. You hear me, Disney, the worst offender of all?!

Anyways, this is my first (and probable last) attempt at romance! It probably isn't that good but, hey, I tried, right? It's inspired by the song "Up All Night" by Owl City, which is a fantastic song so, if you haven't heard it, go listen to it because it's frikkin fantastic, like I said. I've only listened to it 210 times today or so says ListenOnRepeat. *shrugs*

And I'm not surprised my first romance story is also a tragedy. I'm so predictable sometimes. ^^ Peace out, y'all!