Danny looked down the hall as Lacey sauntered off with her hound of a boyfriend. He sadly sighed and turned to class. He knew that he should have expected that from her though. It had always been like that since he came back. Not that he could blame her. He knew that what he had done in the past had left a really bad mark.
He let out another sigh as he heard the loud and annoyingly shrill ring of the class bells. It was psychology. A class that he really didn't mind since Mrs. Fisk was actually a tolerable teacher. Ignoring the fact that she pointed out the possibility of him actually being a sociopath in front of the entire class. Plus Jo was in there.
He walked into the class room to get the routine stares before he took a seat behind Jo. She seemed to be wrapped in whatever homework was on her desk. He leaned forward to tap her shoulder. When she turned around, he hesitantly looked around the room with a small smirk. "I'm starting to think that people here don't really trust me." Danny teased, letting out a small laugh and shaking his head.
She laughed with him and shook her head. "Yeah, um, the possibility of a murderer being in the room usually turns people off from wanting to be your friend." She chuckled as she sat her pencil down.
Danny gave a light forced smile. He couldn't tell if he was comforted or disturbed by her words. There was no denying it. He was a murderer. He had killed someone before, and just because someone else in the town was new to the whole murder train, didn't mean that he was washed of all of his sins.
He decided to change the subject. "You and Rico going to the diner later?" He asked as he sat back in his seat a little bit.
"Yeah." She nodded and turned around in her seat. "Well, I am. Rico has a family thing this afternoon. His crazy aunt is in town or something." Jo lightly chucked and shrugged a shoulder. "You should join me though. You could, ya' know, "She smiled, "Watch me do my homework and stuff." She made a face and shook her head. "With that kind of offer, I can't imagine why you would refuse." She said sarcastically as she pushed some of her messy curls out of her face.
Danny smirked. Jo always knew how to make him feel a bit better. Even when she wasn't meaning to. "No, I'll go. I'll just pretend you didn't give me that exhilarating prediction of the afternoon."
Jo had started to say something, but Mrs. Fisk had made it known that class was now starting. Jo turned back to the front of the class room and started to focus on the days lesson as she always had.
After class hand ended, Jo and Danny walked out of the class together mumbling about something they had learned. Truthfully the class was pretty fascinating.
"I need to stop at my locker before we go to the diner. Is that cool?" She looked up to him pointing down the hallway her locker was at.
Danny pulled his brows together and chuckled. "What am I gonna say? No?"
Jo rolled her eyes and smirked. "Always such a smart ass." She muttered as she started putting in the combination.
Danny watched her struggle with it for a few minutes before he decided it would be best to intervene. "Do you need help?"
"What?" She scoffed and nervously shrugged a shoulder. "I don't, uh, I don't need help. No."
Always trying to hide any form of weakness.
"Alright." He said as she leaned against the locker next to hers. He looked down at her hands and nodded. "What's your combination, and I'll tell you what you're doing wrong."
Jo rolled her eyes. "I don't need you to baby me through this, ya' know?"
Danny simply looked up and gave her an expecting look.
Letting out a defeated sigh, she breathed out an "Okay," and started to move the dial. "My combination is one, four, and three."
Danny watched as she started to move the dial. She stopped precisely on the one a started to spinning it to the four. "Wait." He said as he caught her hands. "You didn't spin it around enough times on the four. Watch." He ghosted his hand over her fingers and moved it the appropriate way. After a moment of that he swiftly pulled away. "Um, try now." Danny said, running a hand through his hair.
That was weird. He could feel small nervous jitters in his chest. He probably could feel a flush on his face if he wasn't so well self-controlled. He looked over to her to see if she had any kind of reaction like he had.
Jo wasn't able to hide her reaction as well as he had. A beautiful crimson washed over her cheeks and she immediately broke eye contact from him. She pulled on the lock and it easily came off of the locker. "Um, thanks." She said in a small nervous voice.
Danny nodded and looked to the ground smiling. "Yeah, no problem." He took a deep breath as he watched her pull a book out from her locker and close it. "Let's go watch you do your homework." He smirked and pointed toward the door.
The walk was quiet. Both of them felt a little awkward. But the silence gave Danny a lot of time to think. Jo was much more understanding than Lacey. She wasn't afraid to be around and talk to him. She even sacrificed her chances of having a normal social life just so she could try to give him a fighting chance.
She was funny, dedicated, passionate, smart, sarcastic, real, and fun. She wasn't afraid to tell him when he was doing something stupid. Very beautiful. Most of all, after all the absolute shit he had given her over the last five years, she still stuck by his side.
There was something missing between him and Lacey, that was now obviously there between him and Jo. Maybe he had been having eyes for the wrong person from the very beginning.