It's Monday morning. Lacey is at her locker before 1st period. She's never so quick to get to school but you guys can guess why she arrived so early. ; )
"Boo" I heard as I shut my locker. I dropped my Bio book on the floor, which Danny swooped down to pick up for me.
"Damnit Danny. That wasn't funny then and it isn't funny now." Though I am smiling as he hands me my book. Who am I kidding, it's kind of hard to resist Danny's charm.
"It was very funny actually," he said smirking as he ran his fingers through his hair. God I love it when he does that. As a habit, I glanced over my shoulder to see if anyone was watching us.
"Are we back to this again?" He motioned between us. "You only speaking to me in an empty room where Blue Ranch potato chips are located?" I wonder if his smirk will be permanently placed on his face forever.
"I'm sorry Danny. I'm not use to us hanging out...again. That was five years ago. I'm just_"
"Taking it slow." Danny lightly finished for me.
"Um…yeah." I look down praying that his feelings aren't hurt again. Maybe I really am a jerk. I'm the one who invented his nickname socio and have been completely ignoring him in public. All he has done is tried to reestablish our friendship and all I can say is 'Not right now Danny, I can't. I want to take it slow.' Ugh!
I felt his finger slowly lift up my chin. "Don't do that to yourself Lace. Don't beat yourself up. I know you're a good person, so try not to be so hard on yourself okay? Remember what I said on Friday? I understand why you're taking your time letting me back into your life. I even encourage it. I want to earn your trust Lace. You're worth the wait."
And there it is. That gorgeous smile. How does he do it? Make me completely forget about my problems and focus on the hope for the future.
"Thanks for understanding Danny," I sniffed. Oh no, if I cry this time I will choke myself with a jump rope. Oh shoot that was so insensitive, just shut up internal monologue!
"Whenever you need someone to talk to, I'll be here Lace. Always have and always will." Whoever said eyes were the window to your soul must have known Danny.
"Lacey lets go, were going to be—"
Shoot, Sarita. Danny dropped his hand away from my chin and placed his hands in his pocket.
He sighed, "Hi Sarita."
She rolled her eyes at Danny and stood directly in front of me, so Danny had no choice but step back. "Sarita that was rude, what is wrong with you?"
She scoffed, "What is wrong with me? What is wrong with you Lacey? You're the one socializing with the freak and you want to know what's wrong with me? You know I didn't believe Archie until I saw it with my own eyes." She folded her arms over chest.
Danny stepped around Sarita. "Lace I'm going to class now so I'll—"
"Stay right there Danny" I said a little louder than I should. His eyes widened at my tone. All I can focus on now was my annoying 'friend' who at the moment was pissing me the hell off! "You were saying Sarita? What did Archie say?"
"You see?! That's exactly what I'm talking about, what Archie's talking about, what everyone in our little circle is talking about. I didn't want to believe him but he was right. You have feelings for the child murderer just as much as he has feelings for you." She stepped closer to me and whispered in my ear, "After I 'slept' over at Archie's last week, we laughed about his murder weapon. Seriously a jump rope? Yeesh, you were lucky he didn't strangle you and Jo with it as you guys played hopscotch together."
She didn't have time to back away from me because all I could see is red. Then, I felt arms around me. Danny's arms. And now that I'm standing at a good distance from Sarita, I can scrutinize the scene. Sarita is lying on her back on the floor, with her curly hair all over the place, and a long red scratch on her face. "You're just as crazy as he is bitch" she yelled at me but at that time Archie was coming from the gym. He stood in the middle of the scene completely surprised.
"Get the hell away from her murderer! What the hell happened Lacey?!" Archie was coming towards me, so I pulled away from Danny's arms, ignoring the hurt look on his face and walked towards Archie. I slapped him hard enough for him to see the heavenly stars. "Fuck off Archie, were done! Where the hell do you get off calling someone out of their name, you cheater! You and Sarita are perfect for each other!" his eyes widened at my knowledge. I through my promise ring at him that he bought me last year. Danny picked it up and looked at it. "Dude, if you needed more money to buy Lace a ring, all you had to do was call me. I had more money than that's worth in juvie." Then he threw the ring back on the floor.
Archie walked towards Danny when we heard Principal Tang approaching, arriving pretty late I might add.
"What is all of this commotion? Archie and Danny? Again?" He looked over to both guys and I stepped up, not wanting Danny to get into any more trouble. "It was me Principal Tang. And Sarita." Hey, if I was going down, so was she. I looked over to her trying to hold Archie's hand but he aggressively yanked his hand back not giving her the time of day.
"To my office Lacey. Sarita. And off to class everybody else. Nothing to see here… Danny, come here."
Danny looking slightly confused while walking over to Principal Tang. "Sir?"
He patted Danny on the back, "Did your mother happen to buy a new hair brush?"
Now Danny looked completely stumped. "Uh…I'm not sure sir. Is that something I should pay attention to? Women products?" Danny's face was completely serious but when he looked over to me, I could see a ghost of a smile. I covered up my laugh with a cough. Sarita looked over to me and rolled her eyes. I ignored her as usual and focused on Danny.
"Um…not at all son. Never mind, run along to class."
"Yes…sir" Danny wasn't sure if he should stay and ask Principal Tang what he meant about that question or just get away from him as quickly as possible. Danny's smart, so he chose the latter "right away sir."
As Danny picked up his backpack from the floor, I assume he threw it off to keep me from killing Sarita (no pun intended), he looked at me. "Sir, do you mind if I have a quick chat with Lacey?"
"Whatever for, Mr. Desai?"
Danny keeping a perfect poker face came up with something quick. "Well my mom wanted me to ask Lacey for her mom's recipe. They're still best friends you know? After all this time." Danny is laying it on pretty thick right now. I try to hold in my laughter.
"Your mother you say? Well of course, Danny, take all the time you need." Mr. Tang had a really creepy/dorky look on his face every time Danny's mom was mentioned. Was he in love with her or something? Ew.
Sarita sighed and I shut her up with one glance. "The recipe is in my locker sir." I wanted to give me and Danny some privacy. Principal Tang nodded and allowed us to go to my locker. Though, he and Sarita were still in view.
"So what's up Danny?" I looked up at him and he was flat foot grinning. "What?" I couldn't help myself. I smiled more today than I have in the past 5 years. And that's saying something.
"Nothing, just…I thought I was Rocky and you were Adrienne. Guess I was wrong." He smirked.
I giggled. Me. Giggled. "Shut up. You'll do right to remember it too."
"I definitely will."
"So what did you want? Your mom is so not Betty Crocker. She doesn't even know how to boil an egg."
"True…so what I wanted to give you is this. I was going to wait until after school but then I thought about my very exciting therapy session and plus you're going to be in detention now. Unbelievable. Lace in detention…now that's a sight to see."
I smacked his arm to bring him out of his reverie. A very strong arm I might add. I looked over to see if the weirdos were watching us. Nope, Tang was pretending to listen to Sarita's lies, while possibly daydreaming about Mrs. Desai. Gross.
"So, what did you want to give me?"
Danny breathed in slowly and exhaled. "This."
I looked at the small piece of torn paper. It was an address but to where?
"It's a place I went to once, two years ago to be exact. It reminded me of our fort when we were kids."
I was really confused now. "Danny, when did you have the chance to go to this place? You've been in juvie for five years!"
"I know." Hmm, he's being pretty nonchalant about this.
That confused me even further. "So what you're saying is…?"
"Lace" he stepped closer to me and whispered in my ear. "I broke out of juvie once but soon got caught. I was at this place when they found me. It's not far from there."
He looked at me reading my expression. I was in awe of his close proximity and what he just told me.
"You can't be serious." I'm sure my eyes are bugging out.
"I can and I am," he smirked. "It's why they added more time to my stay at juvie."
"But I didn't hear anything about this."
"Well of course they're not going to air it on news. No one wants to know that the teenage Michael Myers is on the loose," he laughed.
"Eh umm" Principal Tang cleared his throat.
I shut my locker. "I guess I know what that means," I said looking down. Not wanting to do anything but stay with Danny. I told myself it was to find out more about his 'break out' but seriously, who was I kidding? I surprised myself at how quickly I've become accustomed to him.
Danny lifted my chin again as he done earlier, pulled my hair behind my ear and kissed me right on the corner of my lip. I don't know if it was meant to be there or on my cheek but when he pulled away, I was sure he meant to place his kiss right where he left it.
His eyes melted the way they always did when he leaned back. "It's okay Lace. The day will be over soon. For what it's worth, you kicked her ass." He smiled.
His smile was contagious. I'm sure my face mirrored his at that moment. "I did didn't I?"
"You sure did…so, will you meet me here at 8 tonight?"
I paused. Am I ready for this? Then, when I looked into those beautifully lit eyes I knew my answer. "Please," he asked softly.
"Okay," I said. Then, I turned to walk towards Principal Tang.
But Danny caught my hand and I looked back. "You promise?" I can tell from his eyes that if I broke this promise, it will seriously break him.
I gently squeezed his hand. "I promise Danny."
Hey guys! Thank you for the great feedback. I'm new at this so keep commenting please. I'll like to learn more from you all. =)
