Lacey's POV
I pulled up to Green Grove High fuming. I haven't spoken to Danny since we left his house. From the corner of my eye, I can see him glancing at me. He tried to get me to laugh, cranking up the music and doing his signature air guitar dance, but I still kept my mouth shut. Though, I did smile. A little. I couldn't help it, he's so cute. But I'm still going to stand my ground and give him the silent treatment. I turned off the ignition and stared straight ahead.
"Lace, I can practically see the steam coming from your ears. Are you going to talk to me now?"
"…"
"Lace…" he laid his hand on my shoulder and I shook it off.
"Danny, don't." I refuse to look at him.
"Are you angry with me or just irritated?"
"Does it matter?!" I finally turned to look at him. "Where the hell do you get off inviting me, without my consent, to meet up with Jo?"
He sighed. "Lace. I thought this was what you wanted. Last night you said that you wanted to be back in Jo's life." His eyes moved back and forth across my face. "Have you changed your mind?"
"Of course not, but I didn't want to be thrown to the wolves." I crossed my arms, definitely looking like a baby right now but who cares? Danny smirked looking at my folded arms. I can tell that he wants to make a joke and say something smart but he thought better of it.
"Ouch. That's a little harsh." I can't believe he seriously wants to laugh right now. "So do you want me to cancel?"
"N…no but…things like this takes time Danny. I wanted to go slow and if she wants me back in her life, I think she'll want it that way too."
"Okay…you're right." He held my hand and I let him. This time. "I understand, I should've asked you and Jo before inviting you…please forgive me?" He gave me the puppy dog eyes. Darn him!
I pretended to think about it. "…I forgive you…I guess."
"You guess?" He slid over to my side of the car and his eyes danced. He was smiling. Devishly smiling, I should say. He was up to something.
"What are you doing? Class starts in a few minutes." I tried to scoot away from him, but his hand wrapped around my waist and slid me back to him.
"I know," he whispered.
"You know? Then what are you…" Oh no. He was kissing my neck. My worst tickle spot!
"Stop Danny, nooo. It tickles!"
"Then say you accept my apology."
"No!"
"Okay then, shall I place another hickey on your neck?"
"Nooo! Okay, okay! I accept—"
We heard a loud thump on the front of my hood. We looked ahead and it was Archie. Staring at us, pissed.
"Get the hell out of her car Desai!"
Danny slid away and opened the door.
My heart started beating fast. I grabbed his arm and he looked back at me. "No Danny, he's going to try to fight you."
"Try is the word here. Good one Lace." He winked at me, got out, and shut the door.
"Ohmigosh-ohmigosh." Okay, I seriously sound like Phoebe. Shut up.
I jumped out the car to stop them. "Guys don't!"
Danny stopped a foot away from Archie. "Well hey there Archie, enjoy the show?"
Archie balled up his fists and looked at me. "What the fuck Lace, you let socio put his paws all over you? You're still mine!"
I was shocked. Is he on crack or something? "I told you it's over! How many times do I have to say it?"
"Yeah, how many times does she have to say it? I'll listen to her if I were you." Danny wasn't playing around anymore. I saw it in his eyes.
"But you're not me freak. You could never be and that sucks for you." He waved Danny off and walked towards me.
"I see somebody wants their ass kicked today. I wouldn't take one more step towards her." The vein in Danny's neck was throbbing, about to burst.
Archie stopped and looked at Danny. "You're still here? Piss off dude." He looked back at me and stepped forward once more.
Danny also took a step forward, "I mean it Archie." His jaw was clenching in that sexy, yet murderous way. No pun intended.
He ignored Danny but didn't take another step. He must have heard the tone in Danny's voice. The underlying message he was sending him.
Archie kept his eyes on me. "I told you I was sorry Lacey. Sarita doesn't mean anything to me…No, you know what, screw this. I knew he had a thing for you, but I didn't know you liked him too…and the one time I make a mistake, you decide to go whore around with—"
I ran up to Archie and slapped the shit out of him. At the same time Danny's arms were around his neck, taking him down to the ground. All it took was one punch to the nose for Archie to yell out a string of profanities. He was bleeding. Asshole.
"Come on Danny, before Principal Tang gets word of what happened," I pulled on his hand, "You're already in deep trouble as it is."
"One sec," he said. He pulled Archie up and punched him again. "Now I kicked your ass for referring to Lacey as a whore, when in actuality, you're the whore. I hope you learned this as a valuable lesson," Archie could only respond with a groan.
Moving the few strands of hair out of his face, he smirked. "Sorry baby, but it was worth it."
I shook my head and pulled his hand. What am I going to do with him?
Danny POV
We arrived to our classes on time, but Lace and I wasn't able to eat lunch together because we were being interviewed, separately, by Chief Masterson. Gosh, I really hate that my mom told him about our sleepover.
It's unfortunate that our fight from this morning didn't go unnoticed. There are newly installed cameras on the grounds of school. I'm sure it has something to do with a certain 'child murderer' returning to school. So, Principal Tang added a week of detention and extended my time with the school's therapist to my list of unfortunate duties. It was all worth it though. Archie was rewarded a week of detention as well and had to sign up for a teen's anger management class at the Green Grove Family Center. Adding to the list of my fellow detentionees, I will be joined by the crazy Sarita, the dumb jock Scott, and last but not least, my Lace. She makes everything better after all. I hate that she's in this because of me but does it make me crazy for thinking that she was ridiculously hot when she knocked the lights out of Archie? I love how sweet she is, but I also love how she can get down and dirty too.
At different times, we all spilled into the room where detention was held. Ms. Fisk wasn't there to supervise yet, so we all did what we do best and glared at one another. Seriously glared. Man! I thought I was the 'socio' here.
"Well if it isn't Mr. and Mrs. Smith themselves. What's it like having psycho sex with the freak Lacey?"
Lace got up so fast, that her chair flipped back. I grabbed her around the waist, not wanting her to get into any more trouble. She was already pissed about this morning.
"Lace, calm down, it's not worth it."
She struggled against me. "It was definitely worth it last time when I beat her ass," she said looking at Sarita.
"That you did," I laughed, still holding Lacey back. I think Sarita growled at us. That girl is…weird.
"Just shut up Sarita!" Who knew Archie and I would agree on something? Lacey stopped struggling and Sarita looked at him in shock. He paid her no attention.
We heard the door open and Lace eyes grew to the size of tennis balls. As did mine.
Just when I thought things couldn't get any crazier, Rico AND Jo strolled in. Sweet, innocent, studious Jo. In detention! I didn't even see her in school today.
She smiled at me, barely, and took her seat. She acted as if she didn't see Lacey.
Lace and I remained standing, unable to move. "Jo, what's up? Why are you here?"
Rico finally looked at me. I think it's the first time since I told him about the necklace. I hate that I messed up that short-term friendship. He was fun to hang with. Dorky but fun.
"We um…we kind of…" Rico couldn't finish.
"For goodness sake, Thing 1 and Thing 2, tell them already!"
"Damn it Sarita, shut the hell up!" Everyone went quiet. Jo, Rico, and I stared at Lacey. She stood up for them. That's my girl, making the first move towards healing their friendship.
I could tell that Jo wanted to laugh. No one knows that face like Lace and I do.
"Well…" Jo started. She was still reluctant to tell me…or Lace. I don't know which. "Rico told me about what happened so, we snuck into Principal Tang's office and tried to erase the footage from the fight you guys had this morning…to clear you guy's names…" she looked down.
"But we got caught…sorry." Rico finished for her.
"Way to go Jo! That's sexy…you're like a little cat woman—"
Archie looked at Scott and that silenced him. What an idiot.
Lace was surprised. She smiled at Jo. "Thank you Jo," she said quietly.
"You too Rico," I said. I walked over to him and held out my fist, knowing he couldn't resist. He looked up at me and hesitantly smiled. He reached out and met my fist pump. I smirked, "Good one bro, you'll be a fist pump pro in no time."
Jo was trying to keep from laughing because Rico had this huge grin on his face. He looked at Jo, "That was my third fist pump. All in a couple of weeks."
"Let me guess, they were all by Danny too?" Jo snickered.
Rico face fell a little but picked it right back up. "So what if it was? You can't take those fist pumps away from me." Lace and Jo looked at each other and burst out laughing.
At that, we all had to laugh. Even Scott joined in but of course Archie and Sarita didn't. Haters will always hate.
We all stopped laughing when we heard the door shut. Ms. Fisk walked in looking like she didn't want to be here either. Who could blame her, everyone was gone home except for us.
"What do we have here?" She asked, looking at Lacey's chair, which was still lying on the floor.
I picked it up for Lace and she sat down. "Well…" I said quickly coming up with a story, but Ms. Fisk wasn't having it.
"Sit down Desai, I'm sure whatever happened will be something I wouldn't like, so save the story so we can all get out of here, shall we?" I nodded and took my seat. That is totally fine with me.
She circled the class as she spoke. "You will all be doing your homework and if you don't have any I will find you something to do." She looked at her watch. "It is 2:30 and you have until 3:30 to work in silence. Understand?"
Some of us nodded and others groaned. She walked behind her desk but remained standing. "Oh before I forget, Coach wanted me to tell you two, Danny and Archie, that you will have to go to practice on Saturday for missing today-and for fighting."
"Wait…just us?" Archie looked at me pissed. That makes the two of us.
"That's right. Do you have a problem with that?" She looked at us both.
"-Not at all Ms. Fisk."
"-No."
"No what Archie?"
"No ma'am," he said like the wimp that he is. I smirked.
"Okay then," Ms. Fisk said sitting down. "You may begin."
XXX
"Okay, I thought that history was boring, but that was complete torture!" Lace said, pulling out of the school parking lot.
I laughed. "Try juvie, I bet you'll just love that!" Lace didn't find that funny. I looked over to her and she tried to smile but failed. Shit! I forgot what I told her about juvie.
I interlaced our fingers, stroking the back of her hand with my thumb. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you…I won't mention it again."
She looked at me, then back at the road. "No, babe, its fine. I have to get use to hearing you talk about juvie because after all, it was a huge part of your life. What happened to you in there, whether I like it or not…it made you who you are now. It's hard to walk away from an experience like that, without it changing you…It made you stronger, emotionally, physically, and in all ways possible." She glanced at me and smiled, squeezing my hand.
As she concentrated on the road, I kissed her hand, feeling how soft it was. I closed my eyes and didn't remove my lips, breathing in the serene smell of Lacey and the blue ocean lotion she still uses. "I love you."
I felt the car stop and finally opened my eyes. We were at the diner. I looked at Lace and she was staring at me. "I love you too."
I kissed her softly and laid my forehead against hers. "You're stronger too Lace, but you've never taken anyone's bullshit. Even when we were little."
She smiled and looked like she was in deep thought. "Jo seems stronger too."
I sighed. "Yeah, she does…and she's built walls around herself." I rubbed my thumb over Lace's dimple and kissed it. "You've built walls around yourself too baby and I know that's my fault. I hurt both of you and I'm going to try forever to make it up to you guys. I just don't want you and Jo pushing each other away because of my leaving. We're all best friends. We'll always be."
"…Well…I'm going to try my best to completely open up to her. After all, she did try to save our butts today." We laughed.
"Our Jo, in detention, for breaking and entering the Principal's office. Who would've thought?"
"Yeah, that was…that was something." Lace shook her head in awe.
I smirked. "Now what is this? My Lace being impressed by non-other than Jo?"
She hit me in the arm. "Shut up Desai," she grinned.
"Ow," I rubbed my arm, "someone's even more abusive than they were at eleven."
"You don't know how rough I can get ol' Danny boy." She bit her lip and crossed hers arms. Damn she's sexy.
"Well, I am soooo looking forward to seeing how rough you can get." I waved my eyebrows.
She gasped. "You have such a potty mouth."
"You so love it," and I kissed her again.
"Yeah…I kind of do," she giggled as I pecked several quick kisses on her lips.
"Call me when you're ready for me to pick you up…Rico, take care of my girl." We heard Chief Masterson yell out the window. Lace pulled away and we looked around making sure they didn't see us. I hadn't told Jo about me and Lace yet, so that would be an awful way for her to find out. Luckily, they didn't see us because we are parked on the side.
Chief Masterson picked up Jo and Rico from school to have a little 'chat' with them about getting detention. He wasn't even Rico's dad for Christ sake! I was kind of glad they didn't ride along though. That would be so awkward for Lace and Jo…for me and Rico too, if I'm being honest. Like Lace said, they need to slowly rebuild their friendship. Right now, sharing a car was out of the question.
I looked at Lace and she was breathing deeply. She was also concentrating on the dashboard. Hard.
I placed my hand on her shoulder, "Hey, you okay?"
She swallowed and turned towards me. "Yeah."
I kissed her hand. "Everything is going to be fine. It's just Jo. The girl who hurled all over your father's rug because she ate too many potato chips." That got her to laugh. Yes!
"I'm ready whenever you are," I told her, squeezing her hand.
She glanced at the diner and back at me, nervously smiling. "I'm ready."
Hi guys! I hope you liked it. I didn't really know where this chapter was heading, I just wanted the trio to be in this one. Did you like it? Next up is the trio+Rico talking at the diner. Ooo that rhymes! Thank you guys for your wonderful reviews! Also, I'm looking forward to getting more clues on Twisted and of course more Dacey! I passed out when Danny said, "That kiss…is all I think about." OMG *dead*
