Sorry for the late update.

Chapter 6

Danny's lips hovered over mine before brushing them over mine again then settling beside me. I scooted over burying myself into his side tangling my leg between his. I planted my head over his rapidly beating heart and his hand immediately found its way into my hair.

My head rose as he inhaled deeply. "I love you, Lacey."

"I love you too."

We sank into the peaceful silence that accompanied our newfound relationship, but despite my fulfillment, I couldn't – didn't want to suppress the nagging prickle in the back of my mind. There was something weighing on my heart that demanded clarification.

"Ugh. I hate to sound petty – I'm really not a petty person – but you want me to be more open with you, so, this is me trying. So, instead of keeping what I feel or whatever to myself and getting angry about it later without you knowing why-"

"Just spit it out." His deep throaty chuckle reverberated through my body and calmed my worry.

I didn't know how to word my concerns; so, I just opened my mouth and wished for the best. "I don't want to be left out."

"Uh, okay?"

"No, that didn't – I don't – you talk to Jo. I don't want you to think you can't talk to me too."

Danny's body shook with laughter. So much so, I backed off him laying my head near his on the pillow, upset. "Never mind."

He rolled his to his side and turned my face so that our eyes met. "No, it's okay, I'm sorry. Maybe I didn't make myself clear; you're my girl. I'm not leaving you out of anything. We're in this together. You don't have to worry about me, babe."

I huffed still upset that he laughed. I was trying.

"Oh, Lace, come on, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have laughed."

"No you shouldn't have." I pouted squinting at him before he leaned in placing a kiss on my forehead.

"I know. Forgive me?"

I rolled my eyes. "I guess." I rolled my eyes. "Why not."

"Besides, I don't think you'll have to worry about me talking to Jo."

"She hasn't forgiven you and come bearing all her querulous charm? I thought you guys were back to your normal."

"No…no I haven't heard from her since the first time I tried to apologize after the video came out." There was sadness in his tone.

I wrapped my arm around his waist hugging into his side with my face buried in the crook of his neck. "I'm sorry. I know you miss her."

"Yeah…but I have you."

"That you do, but I know how much she means to you. She's your person. I get it, somewhat. As bad as Regina was, she had become something close to that for me. Not exactly like you and Jo but I understand.

We didn't speak further on the subject leaving each other to our inner ponderings. My mind drifted from Regina to Jo and all their differences that made them who they were and endeared me to them. I still missed them both. I would probably miss Regina forever. There would always be a whole in my life where she'd lodged her devious self.

Jo was the same animal with different stripes. Still alive, still capable of reconciliation but her pride or self-pity kept her from me and the boy she loved both familial and romantically. I still couldn't fathom why she felt so ardently about this whole situation in the first place. I'd said my piece. There wasn't more I could say that would change her mind. I just hoped she would come to her senses and forgive Danny so he could have the closest thing he could compare to family outside of his impotent mother.

Immersed in comfortable silence, I felt myself dozing off. Since this whole thing with the video, Jo, and Danny, I hadn't been able to get much sleep, and lying in Danny's arms I knew that was all going to change. That is until I heard his door creak open. Immediately I jerked from Danny's arms sliding to the opposite side of the bed only to be startled to see Jo instead of Mrs. Desai standing before us.

For the longest of moments, we all held our positions for completely different reasons, I'm sure. It wasn't until Danny spoke that the spell was broken.

"Jo."

She didn't respond, not in front of me of course. I lifted myself from the bed, "I'll call you later, Danny, okay." He nodded and I could see it in his eyes. I wanted the same. To touch him, kiss him goodbye, hug him but we wouldn't dot that in front of Jo. We wouldn't rub us in her face, especially when she thought we weren't supposed to be together. When I turned toward the door, I avoided Jo's penetrating stare and proceeded to exit the room. As my hand grabbed the knob, I heard Jo say, "Wait."

I stopped in my tracks, but I didn't turn to face her; I really didn't want to do this with her. I wasn't in the mood. I was finally happy for once in the past couple of weeks. I didn't want her to ruin it. "I really should go. I-I'll leave you to talk to Danny."

"I – I didn't – I've been looking for you."

I spun around leveling her with my gaze. What was she getting at?

She rolled her clear blue eyes at me then bit her lip. "I came to talk to you. I tried your home, but your mom said you'd left hours ago, and she had no idea where you went. So I figured I'd wait a while for you to show. When you didn't, I thought I'd come here and see if Danny knew anything. Your mom seemed kind of worried. When I got here, I saw your car out front. I called Judy to let her know where you were."

"Thanks, but why-"

"Today at school, when you passed my locker, I tried to get your attention, but you seemed zoned out – I don't know…I was worried. When I spoke with your mom, she said you'd been like that for a few days."

"I'm going to go down stairs and leave you two to talk." Danny interjected as he made his way out. When he reached Jo's side, she looked to him giving him a weak smile. I guess he was right about her. He didn't have to worry about Jo. Once at my side, his hand quickly grabbed mine giving it a quick squeeze before he was gone leaving Jo and I alone in his room.

I left my place in front of the door to sit on the bed. She followed me but didn't sit too close. I didn't say anything giving her the floor, the ball was in Jo's court this time around.

"Are you okay?"

"Huh?" I looked at her incredulously.

"It's just that – I-" she huffed then regrouped. "I've heard some of the stuff they're saying. I – you looked really out of it today. It was scary. Rico told me how you tried your hardest not to get the video released."

"Yeah I did. I didn't want you to find out about me and Danny like that. At that point, not at all. We were over by then, and I didn't see how it mattered."

"You should have told me."

"We weren't exactly best buds when he and I got together and by the time I had built up the nerve to tell you, you told me you were in love with him. Danny and I had just broken up; the time never seemed right."

"You could have told me."

"I might have had the video not come out and you stopped talking to me."

Jo flashed her eyes at me. "Yeah…" She fell silent.

But we had gotten this ball rolling no need for it to stop now. "Jo, I know you're as stubborn as a mule and don't really know how to express yourself when you're wrong-"

"Wrong?"

"Yes, wrong, but you were looking for me to talk for a reason. I know the last time I talked enough or the both of us even though you didn't want to, now it's your turn. The floor is all yours. Have at it."

She peered at me through hardened eyes. I guess it was me calling her 'wrong' that crawled up her butt and settled. Jo worried her lip before blowing out one of her trademark sighs. "It hurt me that you didn't tell me about Danny," I made a face and so did she before continuing, "so what, you guys went together, you could have told me. I would have been mad-" another look from me "-okay, I would have been crushed. I had convinced myself that I was in love with him. It would have hurt, but the way I found out hurt worse. I felt betrayed. We had become so close to what we used to be. It felt like a slap in the face. I told you I loved him and you still said nothing, Lace." Her eyes had glazed over.

"I was scared. I didn't want to lose you as a friend."

"A boy, Lace, you were scared to lose me over a boy."

"I did lose you over a boy." I said leveling her with a glare.

"I think it was more that you lied to me."

"I didn't lie to you." I didn't.

"Omission."

"Not a lie. If I lied by omission, so did you. You didn't tell me you were going to help Danny. You should have told me."

"I didn't think you'd want to know. You wouldn't have helped anyway."

I looked down. What would I have done? "You could have given me a chance. He was my friend to." I finished lamely.

"Yeah, a friend you hated."

"I didn't hate him." I whined.

""No, but you weren't going to help him and we both know that. Your pride is legendary." She smirked leaning into my shoulder.

I smiled back. Touché. We gave into the silence that beckoned. A lot had been said and for the most part we'd hashed out everything, but I still didn't know if we were friends again. I hoped, but I couldn't be sure.

"You never answered my question."

"Which one?" I angled my head to look at Jo.

"Are you okay?"

"You don't really want to know." She couldn't, right?

"No, Lace, I do, really." She looked at me and the sincerity in her eyes…she didn't care before. Before, it was all for Danny's benefit.

"Oh, uh." I had to let it go. As hard as it was, I had to let go and let Jo be there for me. Keeping myself locked in my little box wasn't doing anything for me, and it seemed she wanted to. "I'm better now. Before…" Did I tell her about Danny? Or should I wait for him? I didn't want to start from square one all over again.

"Before what?"

It would be the right thing to do. Tell her. Though we didn't say it outright, we'd made amends, implied as it may have been. It was time; she wouldn't have asked me if she didn't care. Unfortunately, this could make or break our new understanding.

"It's been hard. My family has been as good as they can be. I mean, their daughter was basically staring in her own porn, but they were supportive. School has been crap. You know that. I'm sure you got a kick out of all the inventive names they've called me. And who can forget the locker artwork. For the past couple of weeks, I've been miserable. There was no you, actually you were shunning me, and Danny was, well, we weren't friendly, and Sarita and the rest of them were leading the lynch mob. That left them out of the question as shoulders, not that I cared. I was just so alone. That – I think – was the most difficult thing to deal with."

"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that, Lacey." She said moveing closer to me on the bed. "Really."

"It's okay…now."

"Now…" she said with a lopsided knowing smile. "Does that have anything to do with Danny?"

"What?" I questioned clearly shocked.

"I saw you two when I came in – not that friendly – and when he left…he loves you."

"I love him too."

"Were you going to tell me?"

"Yes, actually but you spoke before I could. We – I thought it would be the right thing to do. Since we're officially friends and all, but you beat me to it."

"Well it was kind of hard to miss."

"And you're okay?"

"Yeah. I – Danny doesn't feel the same, and I don't think what I was – I was confused. Also there's this guy, Tyler."

"Phoebe's brother?" This could be good.

"Yeah, he likes me. I don't know; he's cute?"

"Yeah, super cute and he's not like the rest of them. He's an okay guy. But what about Rico?"

"What about Rico?"

Her eyes narrowed at me, and I thought I would die of laughter. The guy was besotted with her. How did she not know that?

"I thought you two – certainly seems like he – the boy has a thing for you."

"What? No." She sucked in her lips. "No he does not."

"Yes. Yes he does. I can tell."

Jo looked at me bashfully. "So, you and Danny, huh?"

I chuckled. "Don't think I'm letting that slide. We will talk about you and Rico. He's cute and smart, and like, in love with you."

Jo rolled her eyes shaking her head at me then punched me. "Come on, Lace. You and Danny."

I had to give her a break, but after today, it was hook Jo up with her cute, weird, best friend season. I rolled my eyes mocking her. "Fine." I pulled my leg up onto the bed facing her fully, and I told her about Danny and me. Not everything because she didn't need to know about everything, but for the first time since we were kids I gushed about a boy and tried to get her to give Rico a chance. We were at it for at least thirty minutes before Danny came in.

Standing in the doorway, he smiled brightly before joining us at the bed. "I got worried, thought you two might have killed each other."

"We thought about it." Jo deadpanned.

"Yeah but we decided we would be much more powerful as friends."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that, so…" Danny looked to me, but I had no idea what that look meant, except it wasn't his usual smoldering I need you Lacey look.

"I already know." Take Jo to know what Danny meant.

"You told her?" He shouldn't have sounded so surprised.

"No, she saw us when she came in."

"Yeah, you were pretty close for just friends."

Danny lowered his head so he could see into Jo's eyes. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

They remained in their intense eye-lock much longer than I felt comfortable with. I wasn't jealous. Danny was mine, but he needed his best friend and I was sure they had some making up to do. They needed to talk in private; so, I would leave so they could shed their tears and be all intense like they tended to be. "I'm going home. Mom's probably still worried; I should let her know I'm okay."

Danny broke his gaze from Jo's then turned his head to me. I was fine, but I guess he still had his doubts or wanted to know what had happened.

"I'm okay. You guys need to talk."

"Okay." He looked to Jo then to me. "I'll walk you out."

He grabbed my hand helping me from the bed but didn't let go of my hand even after we made it to my car.

"So you and Jo are really okay?"

"Yeah, we're good, I mean, we have an understanding, and we'll grow from here."

"I'm glad. Now I can have both of the most important people in my life at the same time. I just don't know what I'm going to do about her having feelings for me."

"I don't think you're going to have to worry too much about that."

He furrowed his brows in confusion. "Huh. Ya'll talked about that?"

"We talked about a lot of stuff." I said wrapping his arms around my waist.

"Including me, that had to be awkward." He squeezed me tighter.

"No it wasn't. We had bigger fish to fry than you." I kissed his neck right under his earlobe.

When I looked in his face, he was smirking at me, then without notice, his lips were on mine and his hand in the nape of my hair. Feverish and soft, sweet and spicy. His warm tongue glided across my bottom lip before nipping at it. Before we got out of hand, I pulled away. "Call me later."

"Sure, Lace." I smiled and he kissed me again. Much more subdued this time. Then, he opened my car door. As I drove off, I had the overwhelming feeling that everything was fine, like things were finally looking up. Danny, Jo, and I were back together, I couldn't ask for anything more. Well except for one thing…we still needed to find a way to clear Danny's name. I didn't know why he killed his aunt, but I knew that Danny was not a murderer. He wouldn't have killed Regina. Now if we could prove that before it was too late, life would be as near to perfect as a life could get.

This is it. The end. This was initially supposed to be like three chapters, but took a small life of its own. I hope you liked it. Do review. And...

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

nakala