Disclaimer: I don't own McFly
And we begin again…
Who should he call first, Danny pondered. Dougie was her age, so he figured he may have a little insight on what a girl of the same age would want. It's not that Danny wasn't her age, because he was only a year older, but he just needed some insight on this whole situation. He pressed a few buttons on his phone to call Dougie. It rang once, twice and finally he picked up on the other end.
Answering the phone with a nontraditional greeting he said, "How home Dan?"
"It's not bad, how about for you?"
"It's decent. My friends here pretty much made me their god, no big deal."
"Right," was the only skeptical comeback Danny could come up for him.
"We are only three days into break, did you really miss me that much already."
"You wish, actually I need your help."
Puzzled, Dougie was curious to find out what Danny could possibly need help with. Danny didn't really like asking for help, unless it came to collaboration on writing music. "Well there's this girl…"
Dougie didn't allow him to finish his statement before jutting in his opinion, "Like you are having problems with girls. Girls throw themselves at you constantly. How could you being having problems."
Danny heard Dougie laughing and tried to reword and defend his words, "It's not like that Doug. I'm not trying to sleep with her; she needs a friend or something. She won't tell me anything about herself. She's got some big secret past or anything. I just have this urge to help her."
"Maybe she's a lesbian," Dougie suggested. In response Danny rolled his eyes, even though he was well aware his expression could not be seen over the phone. A brilliant idea popped into Danny's head. "Do you want to see this girl?"
"I guess, but if she's a lesbian Danny, you got no shot, I mean you looked great in that nurse's outfit, but you got junk in the front." He referred to the Please, Please video shoot.
Competently ignoring Dougie's statement, Danny pulled the phone away from his ear. Mumbles were still heard through the receiver. Paying no attention, he opened the recent recorded video, selected the destination to the current number he was dialed to, and pressed send. Moments later, his companion put him on hold to watch the girl dance. The video was fuzzy and while Dougie enjoyed the recording, Danny decided to review his filming skills. Watching her bound about brought back every element of mystery to his head. Abruptly stopping, the last image to be frozen on the screen was in the middle of shedding her t-shirt. The curves of her stomach were imprinted on his mind.
Pressing his ear back against the speaker, he awaited Dougie's answer. "Well the video was unfocused and a little shaking, but she looks hot. I'm not getting the lesbian vibe."
"Okay so what do I do? How can I earn her trust."
"How the hell should I know?"
"I need some suggestion, I've got nothing."
"Well, um," he thought long and hard, "Well be her friend."
"Obviously, but how do you get someone to open up."
In his most feminine voice Dougie could muster up he said, "Slumber party!"
Simply agreeing was the only way to make him stop. Danny thanked his band mate for the suggestion and finished with a little chat about what was going on at home for Dougie. Hanging up eventually, Danny had to figure out how to execute Dougie's suggestion. Should he get her attention through her window, giving away the fact that their windows were completely lined up or should he just go over there. Right now he was wishing he had gotten her number to make it easier. How could he forget, she was living at his neighbor's house, he had the number for that. Walking out of his room, he found his mother's address book.
He scanned the G's for Ms. Grafton's number. His finger slid down the page, finally landing at the destination. Dialing the number carefully, he waited a moment before pressing send. The phone seemed to take forever to connect and then the ringing almost felt like slow motion to him. What resembled an eternity, this life long neighbor picked up on the other end. "Hello?" she inquisitively answered.
"Hey Ms. G," he coolly responded.
"Oh Danny! How was your day today? Thank you so much for taking my niece out, she really needed to get out of the house. You are such a thoughtful young man. You will have to join us for dinner sometime this week. Maybe Thursday? I think I might make my famous ravioli…" she kept going, but all Danny could hear was, "Blah, blah, blah."
He would randomly add in "Yeah" or "Mmhmm." Forever had just doubled and eternity dragged on as she continued to talk. Finally she paused for a long enough moment for Danny to get a few words in, "Is Ryder available? I was wondering if she would like to come over for a bit."
Without even consulting her niece, "Ryder would love to."He heard her voice in the background, "I would love to what?"
Danny heard Ms. Grafton's ring clink against the receiver and he assumed she placed her hand over the phone trying to block what she was going to say to her niece, but he heard what she said anyway. "I have Daniel on the phone and he has invited you to come over. Go get ready and head over there."
He had a feeling she would have argued the point if he had asked her himself. Sensing she made a face making it seem as though she didn't want to go, her aunt said, "Come on Ryder. He's such a handsome boy. Go have fun. You need fun." She stressed the word fun. She came back onto the phone with Danny and he pretend as though he had heard nothing of what she had said to Ryder. "She is so excited," she lied, "She is on her way over."
"Thank you so much Ms. Grafton," he said in his most polite voice, "I will see you on Thursday for dinner?"
"Ah yes of course, for ravioli."
"I'm looking forward to it, see you soon." Ending on that note, he hung up the phone and waited for his new-found friend. He began to regret inviting her over. Did he seem desperate; they had been hanging out all day and all of a sudden he wanted to spend all night with her too. What were they going to do? What did girls do at sleepovers? He wasn't about to do the whole facial and pillow fighting thing. Rethinking the stereotypical pillow fights, he determined that wouldn't be so bad if she was in her underwear like girls were in movies. She didn't seem like that kind of girl so he put that idea out of his mind. That was it, they could watch movies. Girls liked movies, he liked movies, it was appropriate. Then he became paranoid that they wouldn't be interested in the same genres. He became so worried that he almost didn't notice the doorbell ring. Luckily he got to the door before his mother; the last thing he wanted was for another conversation to arise about him. Invited her in and quickly pondered whether to go to his room or go to the living room. She interjected before he could decide.
"Your house is beautiful. Could you show me around?" He agreed and began a quick tour of his home. As it worked out, the last room he showed was his bedroom. He hoped she wouldn't assume that he wanted her to come over just to sleep with her. That was the last thing he needed to do if he wanted to earn her trust. After the tour, she asked, "Did you miss me that much that you couldn't even wait 'til tomorrow?"
Her question felt a little bit like déjà vu, it resembled Dougie's question from the phone conversation earlier that day. The truth was he wanted to be around her as much as possible. He wanted to know everything in her life and he wanted to know now. He had never been this curious about a girl before. Actually he recalled being intrigued by a young girl when he was about 13. She had dark hair that had a faint red glitter in her hair. She was energetic and full of life; she did cartwheels and screamed at the top of her lungs for no reason. These were during his shy years. It was the week that Ms. Grafton had visitors. The young girl bounded and leaped as if she was on the moon. She captured his heart and he couldn't even go over to talk to her. He hadn't thought about those days for a long time. Picturing the little girl again dancing and flipping in the front yard, his mind shot back to today watching Ryder through the window.
By this time they were sitting in awkward silence. Two and two were put together, the girl from when he was 13 was Ryder; Ryder was the girl from when he was 13. He must have had a quite surprised look on his face cause once he snapped back into reality she was giving him an awfully strange look. "What?" he awkwardly asked, darting his eyes from side to side.
"Well we've been sitting her for about ten minutes and I'm beginning to wonder why you invited me over," she asked with a little bit of a disappointed tone.
"Sorry," he immediately apologized. He began to think he should fill her in on his previous thoughts, they could show that he's always cared about her. It might be risky, but at this point he was frantic for any topic for conversation. He continued his apology, "I was just remembering this week from when I was little. There was this girl over at Ms. Grafton's who just caught my attention and I was always too shy to talk to her. Then when I really thought about, which made me completely space out just now, that girl was you."
Her cheeks turned crimson and she was unable to react to his remembrance. Then her mind shot back to those days. She was happy; she could dance freely without having to think about it. Everything was so easy and care-free. Smiling didn't feel guilty then. Visiting her aunt was a vacation, not her life. Everything she had left behind rushed back into her head. Her eyes glossed over, and a tear slipped out. Danny immediately noticed the tear and regretted everything. He shouldn't have taken Dougie's advice. It was too soon to see her again, he was being pushy. Wanting to wrap his arms around her and give her a big hug, he held back thinking that he would be considered too forward.
She wasn't upset with Danny, but it was just too much at one time. She didn't want to remember. Soon her hands rushed to cover her eyes. Danny couldn't figure out what to do, he had never been in this position before. Most girls he saw crying were trying to get his attention and freaking out because they were so close to him. He didn't know how to handle this situation, so he the only thing he could think of one thing to do. Reaching out his hand, he placed it on her knee. Unable to handle his touch, she pushed it away lightly. Pulling her hands away, she was able to manage to speak with her quivering lip, "Thank you for inviting me over. I will talk to you soon."
This was such a foreign situation to him so he managed to come back with a 'sorry' and led her to the front door. He kept his hand on her back as they walked to the front door. His hand stayed there until she had completely passed through the door. His blue eyes didn't stare away from her, looking until she was out of sight. Returning to his room, he stared out the window. Soon she burst into her room and immediately sat at her desk. Even from across the yard, Danny could see the massive amount of tears falling from her grey eyes. It was so hard to watch, yet he couldn't look away. Bending down, she grabbed something out of a drawer and continued with her tears.
She began to write furiously. Her pen ripped across the page. Everything exploded. Danny could sense her frustration and maybe even a little fear. He wished there was more he could do. She left him with more questions and being more curious. He hated this feeling and just wanted it to go away. He wanted her to let him in, not close him out like she had be doing and he certainly wouldn't be going to Dougie for anymore advice. He watched her intently until she finally decided to get to sleep. Taking that as his cue, he laid down with his hand positioned behind his head. It took awhile for him to fall asleep. He tossed and turned with her on his mind. Ryder was driving him crazy and neither she nor he had any clue of what to do next.
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