He didn't want to be there. He should've taken his mom offer and stayed in the house one more day. It's not like his grades would've taken that big of a hit. But no, he had decided to wear the "I'm a big boy" hat today, and now here he was, looking awkward in the middle of the cafeteria.
It's not like he was being treated differently. He just felt that way. He had started to fall out of his clique when Jackson left for London, and when he finally had settled down with going out with Ethan he had to go and die. So now he knew he couldn't go to the table where all the other LAX players were because he wouldn't fit anymore. It wasn't that easy to hang out with the kid whose boyfriend had died, was it?
Danny suddenly realized he didn't have friends anymore. That hit him really hard.
He was about to leave and eat all by himself when Lydia's hand grasped him by the arm and steered him towards her table. Well, their table.
He hadn't even placed his tray properly when Stiles was already stealing some of his fries. Not even a dignified "Hey!" stopped him. Allison gave him a smile, and he nodded to McCall and Lahey. He still felt a bit awkward, like they all shared a big secret and wouldn't tell him, but soon enough he felt at ease with them.
He had never liked or disliked any of them (although Stiles annoyed the hell out of him), and even tried to hang out with them before Jackson went ballistic at McCall's sudden athletic prowess. He was surprised that they just took him in. At least for lunch time.
He was the last to get cleaned up that afternoon. He did it on purpose - he wasn't sure he could take all the hustle of the locker room after practice. Or so he thought: McCall's, Lahey's and Stilinki's stuff was still in their lockers. Apparently Coach decided it was a good day to torture them since they were doing burpees in the middle of the field. Even Stiles, and he had barely got up from the wheelchair.
-Finstock's gonna keep them there, isn't he?
Lydia and Allison were also waiting for them. Lydia was pouting as if her plans had been completely ruined.
-Yeah. I don't know what's got into him - ever since... that night, he's been particularly angry at them. And he's looked funny at you two as well.
-Yeah, we know.
-Anyways, if they are going to be stuck doing aerobics the rest of the afternoon, you are going shopping with us!
-What? Lydia, we've had this conversation before - I am not your fashion advisor.
-And who said we are going to buy stuff for me?
-I don't need new clothes.
-Danny, your boyfriend just died. You need a makeover.
He used to joke a lot with Jackson that Beacon Hills was this little bubble where nobody cared whether he was gay or not. However, one of the stigmas of being gay had haunted him ever since he came out, and it was that everybody thought of him as some sort of expert in the themes of fashion. Even Coach had asked him advice on an outfit once. Ironic that it was Jackson who dominated the subject since he was the one who always needed to look perfect. Lydia had rubbed on to him too much. He remembered how much Jackson used to complain about going shopping with Lydia, and now he thought it may had all been a charade to keep the macho persona up.
No - it was the fact that even when they were buying clothes for him Lydia had managed to make the trip all about herself.
But he couldn't deny that he was having fun? Well, not exactly his cup of tea - he would've gone back home and tried another hacking challenge, or maybe a speed run in one of his favorite games. If he truly felt that bored he would have started another calculus challenge, and he made a mental note to check where Lydia was on those, but it was true that he was keeping his mind occupied. When the charade finally fell off and Lydia started buying things for herself he could even enjoy a little bantering with them, and even finally had a conversation with Allison that lasted longer than three minutes.
Six stores, two suits, seven shirts and a cinnabon later he could even say he had a good afternoon.
He assumed that they were done for the day but before they could drop him back to school so he could pick up his car they stopped at a book store he hadn't seen before. It was out of the way, and it had a very suspicious looking tattoo parlor for a neighbor business. He never thought that either Lydia or Allison would hang out in a place like this, and for a moment Danny feared that all of this was an elaborate prank. At least the bookstore was well lit and the woman at the counter was pleasant enough. He let himself relax a little while he started to wander the shelves. He immediately recognized that they were in a used books bookstore, and that apparently a lot of the books were about the occult.
What the hell were these girls into?
-Do you have any books on Banshees?
That sent a shiver down his spine. What would Lydia want to know about the Wailing Women? Was it related to the attacks? It didn't take a genius to put two and two together and detect the Celtic theme of most of the events, including his mistletoe poisoning. He tried to position himself where he could hear the girls talking and maybe gather some information, but they were discussing the clothes and the amount of money the books would cost and for some reason Lydia said that Derek Hale should pay for them. He grabbed a book to pretend he wasn't listening.
It was about moonsingers. It couldn't be. He immediately looked to see if there were more books about it but apparently that was the only copy. He wanted to hide it or something, but if he really didn't want to bring attention to it he realized he should just buy it with a bunch of other books. So he grabbed a bunch of books and waited until the counter lady came back with a couple of obscure tomes (one that looked stained with something suspiciously similar to blood) and sold them to Lydia. He then approached them and tried to look nonchalant when paying two hundred dollars in books that were not even textbooks. His father was going to kill him but hopefully his grandpa would defend him. They needed to make sure nobody knew.
-Mahealani?
-Yeah.
-Do you know what it means?
-Heaven's moon. Full moon.
-Yeah. I just think it is funny that your last name is Full Moon, and among the books you are buying there's one about moonsingers.
-Well, what can I say? I'm attracted to those kind of things, you know, anything moon related. It's almost a fetish: once I bought this huge stuffed moon that we ended up giving to one of my cousins because it looked ridiculous in my room.
They all laughed and left the store. Lydia drove him back to BHHS where apparently Finstock was now yelling at McCall, Stiles and Lahey. Hadn't they been doing that for hours now?
At some point someone was going to sue Coach for... being so weird.
He hadn't realized Allison was going through the bunch of books he had bought. He tried very hard not to panic.
-Moonsingers. Never heard of them.
-Me neither. Like a said, a small obsession with everything... lunatic.
-Well, here you go. See you tomorrow?
-What?
-We'll be at the same table, dummy. Don't be a stranger.
Sometimes Lydia's smiles could light up the whole parking lot.
He knew they had their secrets, and he probably would never found about them.
He wondered if he could still be their friend with secrets of his own.