"Danny, I like that name." Sarah said. Danny smiled and shrugged as they sat on the stairs.
"Ehh, the name's okay." Danny responded.
"I've always liked the name Chloe, too though…" Sarah finished.
"Me too, actually…" Danny said. Sarah smiled over to him and Danny accepted the smile. He liked her smile. It made him feel warm inside and it sent him to places he's never been before. No other girl had made him feel this way and honestly, he knew he didn't want to let her go.
"I never actually got your name," Danny said.
"Sarah, my name's Sarah." Sarah…what an angelic name, Danny thought.
"There you are, Sarah! Where did you go? You totally just missed half of Spanish class!" Carmen exclaimed as she approached the two on the stairs.
"Oh, right, sorry…" Sarah stood and turned to Danny, who had stood to return to his own class.
"I'll, uhh, see you later?" Sarah said hopefully.
"That'd be nice."
As Sarah and Carmen walked down the hall, Carmen said, "Sarah, that's my new step-brother! Do you like him?" In a teasing way.
"No way, that's your new step-brother? Cool!"
"Yeah, that's who I was going to have you meet this weekend."
As they each went to their own classes, they couldn't keep their minds off each other.
~…~
Sarah and Danny walked through the park on their way home from school that day with their newfound friendship. They had a lot to talk about, of course, but oddly enough for Sarah she couldn't keep her eyes off of him. Even though her heart felt heavy because of having been betrayed by her best friend that she's known forever, she felt like Danny was lifting it. Yeah, maybe it was too soon to start falling in love again, but she couldn't help it if Danny was taking her heart by storm.
"So, what exactly drove you away from Brent though?" Danny asked.
"I don't know. He seemed to just…disconnect himself so much lately that, when he hit me today…it…I don't know, something inside me snapped. I couldn't take it anymore. He had always just pretended I wasn't there, pretended I was nothing to him even though I was the only friend he has. Something inside me just tells me to forget about him because he's going to ruin his own life no matter what I say to him to turn him around." Sarah explained.
"Well, that sucks. I mean, you always want to be there for a friend with such problems like he has, but if he doesn't pay attention to you, you can't go on degrading yourself by staying by his side. I mean, you loved him and he sure as heck didn't treat you like a lady, which every real man should." Danny said. Sarah smiled. He was a good friend, she could tell already.
"I know. He never even looked my way with a smile. All I had really ever been looking for was a real smile. One that I knew he meant, and one that said that what I was saying to him was getting through his skull and getting to him and helping him. But he never let anything or anyone in. I just couldn't take it anymore."
"I don't blame you, either. You made the right choice for yourself." Sarah smiled to him.
"Danny?"
"Yeah?"
"I…I love you." Danny smiled. Instead of responding with words, Danny kissed her and after the initial surprise of the action, Sarah kissed back.
~…~
Brent swigged another sip of alcohol as he leaned against the wall to the drug store down the street and grunted.
"Stupid chic," he complained, "doesn't know what she's talkin' 'bout." But on the inside, he felt hurt. He felt that he had become the very man who had abused him only years ago, and deflected the ones who had loved him. He was falling to the very same fate.
Yet he kept sipping his alcohol. It was alluring and it made him stop thinking about his problems. It made all the world's trouble go away and it made everything better. So he kept drinking.
"One day, Sarah," He mumbled, "I will get you back."
~…~
"One day my ass…" Brent mumbled as he peered through Chloe's apartment. He saw her face and it reminded him of the soft features of the only friend he'd ever had. The stupid offspring of his love and his love's love looked too much like Sarah and when he saw her more it made him want to kill her more. Brent clutched the knife in his pocket tighter, but then took a deep breath in and told himself to wait.
"Just wait, Brent," he whispered, "the right time will come."
Then Brent began to observe everything about Chloe's lifestyle. He examined every tiny aspect of her life. He observed everything. What she liked to watch on TV, how she liked to sit, what she liked to wear when she was relaxing, the people she went out with and spent time with, everything. He observed her decorating style. He observed what she liked to surround herself with to make herself feel comfortable and have a sense of being at home. He observed when she opened her fridge what foods she liked to eat. He observed what drinks she kept in her fridge. He observed her neighbors and what they liked and what they surrounded themselves with. He would observe her for as long as he needed to and learn everything about her.
And he would use every bit of information against her.
~…~
"Hello?"
"Hey, Carmen! What's up?"
"Not much lately, what's up on your end?"
"Eh, not much. Hey, listen, I've got the weekend off from work and I was wondering if you had tomorrow free for lunch."
"Oh, gosh sure! I'd love to!"
"Okay, great! See you tomorrow then!" And with that, I hung up and went back to my TV show. The show, combined with having talked with Carmen, made me think of how Carmen had raised me over the years. She had tried to be so inspiring to me, and had tried her best to raise me without there being so much sadness. But I had been a miserable shrew all my life, hadn't I? My gosh, what was I thinking?
The thing that seemed weirdest to me was back when I went to the Tomorrow Academy, I had thought I liked Tony but something inside me had been saying 'You're close! Try his other friend there, the one that seems relaxed and collected.' But I'd never believed that little voice before, and I still wouldn't now.
Rhodey had never really had anything against me, either. He wasn't really ever mad at me for betraying them, he'd never told me to leave because you're not wanted…overall, what I gathered from this is that he's a good friend; but I couldn't help think that I should have gathered something more than that.
Short filler chapter! It's so baad, I know -.- review?
P.S.-Season 2 in 22 days! :D
