Disclaimer: I do not own anyone or anything from Twisted.

I'm baaaaack! So sorry for the delayed update. I should probably warn you guys now that I'll be busier again with work starting back up; so please be patient and I will try to update as often as I can.

In other news, I went on my first cruise last week and it was amazing! I'll be using my awesome trip as inspiration for the next upcoming chapters. Something for you guys to look forward to ;-). For now though, enjoy the new chapter!


Chapter Seven: Walking a Fine Line

I took one last look in the mirror and drew out a long breath to calm my nerves. Lacey was downstairs and in a matter of minutes, I was going to have to face her with the harsh truth about me and Danny. I already had a clear idea of what Lacey's reaction was going to be. The anticipation of it all nearly made my heart beat out of my chest. I had insisted that Danny go down first, hoping that showing up separately made us look less incriminating.

By the time I entered the kitchen, everyone was already at the table for breakfast. Even Eric and his lady friend, Julie, were there, sharing a plate of pancakes. I looked around and spotted Danny sitting next to Lacey. For a moment, I froze in place as Lacey's gaze met mine.

"Oh, there she is," Emma said, gesturing to a chair between Danny and Josh. "Better hurry up and grab some breakfast, Jo, before my brother devours it all."

"Hey," Eric protested. "I worked up a pretty good appetite after last night."

Julie giggled flirtatiously as Eric smiled at her, while the rest of us exchanged looks of slight repulsion. At length, Eric turned to Danny and nodded his head suggestively.

"What about you Desai? Get any action of your own last night?"

Upon hearing Eric's question, I nearly choked on my orange juice. To my relief, Josh was quick to swoop in and redirect the conversation.

"So Lace," he started as he cleared his throat. "You're here a little late in the game. Sorry you had to miss out on all the fun this weekend."

Lacey shrugged and gave a small smile. "It's okay. Work's been really hectic lately, but I figured the least I could do was come and wish you a happy birthday in person."

"Well, I'm glad you're here," Josh said.

Danny nodded. "Yeah, better late than never."

As inconspicuous as I tried to be, I couldn't help but feel like Lacey's gaze was boring holes through my skin. Against my better judgment, I simply ignored her and kept my eyes fixed on my plate. After some time, Emma got up from her seat and began clearing the empty plates on the table.

"You know, the weather's supposed to be really nice today," Emma said as she put the dishes in the sink. "We should all just spend the day on the beach before we have to leave."

Murmurs of agreement rang throughout the table.

"Good idea, babe," Josh said, nudging me under the table. "Nothing like the beach to cool us all down, right?"


Later that afternoon, I paced around on the dock at the beach, trying to find the best way to explain to Lacey what was going on with me and Danny. Truth be told, I barely knew what was going on myself. The only thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to be with Danny and he wanted to be with me. But let's face it: there was no way in hell Lacey was going to be okay with that. Eventually, I came to a halting stop at the end of the pier. I gazed out at the sparkling blue water and wrung my hands together, deep in thought.

"Hey," called a voice.

Without turning around, I already knew it was Danny. He came up beside me and placed his hand on the small of my back.

"I've been looking for you," he said with a grin. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," I replied, nodding hastily. "Just trying to gather my thoughts."

"We don't have to tell her right away, you know. If you still need to figure this out, we can just tell her another time."

I shook my head in protest. "No, I know what it feels like to find out something like this. Trust me, sooner is better."

Knowing what I was referring to, a regretful look passed over Danny's face and I mentally scolded myself for even bringing it up. To this day, Danny still seemed to carry a sense of guilt for those times he and Lacey hooked up in high school and never told me about it. I had told him years ago that I was over it, but Danny wasn't as forgiving with himself.

As we stood there and contemplated how to handle our predicament, we hardly heard the faint footsteps approaching us over the rhythmic roaring of the waves.

"Hey guys."

Danny and I snapped our heads towards the source of the all too familiar voice.

"Lacey!" I exclaimed, taking an instinctive step away from Danny. "What's up?"

"Just thought I'd come and see what you guys were up to."

My eyes darted over to Danny as if to say it was now or never. I drew in a deep breath and bit my lip before finally speaking up.

"Listen, Lacey, Danny and I have something to tell you…"

Lacey remained silent and gazed at me with unblinking eyes. The expression on her face was barely readable that, for a moment, I wondered if she had even heard me at all.

"I'm not really sure how to put this," I said, fidgeting nervously in place. "But um...I-we..."

"I kissed Jo," Danny blurted. "A couple of weeks ago when she went with me to the wedding."

"And I sort of kissed him back," I hesitantly admitted as I tried to avert her gaze.

I instead looked at Danny and saw that his gaze was fixed on Lacey as we waited for her to respond. From the corner of my eye, I could see that her nostrils were slightly flaring and her breathing had quickened as if she were trying to contain a maelstrom of anger.

"I should've seen this coming," Lacey said as her eyes moved from Danny to me and back. "I had a feeling something was going on when I talked to Emma last night."

My brow knitted in confusion at Lacey's statement. "Wait, what do you mean? What did Emma say?"

"I called Josh last night to wish him a happy birthday and Emma started asking me if there was something going on between you two."

I frowned upon remembering Josh mentioning that Lacey and Emma used to be co-workers. Emma probably wasn't aware of our complicated history and happened to pick up on the tension between me and Danny. I quickly realized the real reason why Lacey had suddenly decided to show up.

"So what?" Lacey continued, the anger in her voice becoming more palpable by the minute. "Are you two just hooking up behind my back now?"

"We're just trying to be honest with you," Danny explained. "Trust me, we're not doing anything behind your back."

He took and step towards her and tried to place a reassuring hand on her shoulder, but she was quick to pull away.

"How could you guys do this to me? I thought we were friends."

"We want you to know what's going on," I added, hoping to diffuse to situation. "Before anything gets too serious."

Lacey's eyebrows rose in genuine surprise. "What do you mean 'before anything gets too serious'? Are you guys seriously thinking about being in a relationship?"

Danny and I were rendered speechless but our silence was all that was needed to drive Lacey's rage over the edge.

"I can't believe you guys!" she exclaimed. "Have you even thought about how complicated that relationship would be?!"

"Lacey, just calm–" Danny said.

"And Jo, really?" Lacey interrupted. "What the hell would Rico think if he knew what you were getting yourself into?"

At the mention of Rico's name, a fire inside of me instantly sparked. I narrowed my eyes at Lacey, unable to believe that she was willing to hit below the belt to make a point.

"You have no right to bring Rico into this," I said firmly. "And I don't need you telling me or Danny for that matter what we can and can't do with our lives."

Lacey scoffed sarcastically, which only made my blood boil.

"This is coming from the girl who's always preaching about being a 'good friend'. It's all bullshit if you ask me."

My jaw dropped in utter shock at Lacey's stinging accusation. I felt a lump in my throat and it took everything in me to keep from slapping Lacey straight across the face. I could feel my nails digging into the palms of my hands from keeping my fists tightly clenched.

"That's not fair, Lace," Danny warned, stepping in between us. "Jo was the one who insisted on telling you about the kiss. This isn't her fault."

"Oh so you're taking her side now?" Lacey countered, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I'm just trying to–"

Lacey held her hand up to cut him off. "You know what Danny, save it. I don't even wanna hear it. We're through being friends. All of us."

She gave me one last piercing glare before storming off, her footsteps echoing sharply along the wooden dock.

Danny sighed in exasperation. "I'm gonna go talk to her."

Before I could say anything, he took off after Lacey, leaving me to watch as his silhouette became smaller and smaller. With a long drawn out sigh, I ran my hand through my hair and turned towards the water. I thought I knew what I wanted; but after this confrontation with Lacey, I began to doubt my gut feeling. Maybe she was right. Maybe a relationship with Danny was doomed to fail. Maybe I needed to walk away before I took a risk I would fatally regret.


I was angry. I was hurt. But worse of all, I was confused. I felt worse than I did a few days ago, going back and forth like a ping-pong ball between what I wanted to do and that I thought I should do. After the heated incident, I avoided Lacey for the rest of the afternoon and decided to take refuge in my room to pack. Truth be told, I was relieved to finally be going back home away from all this chaos. As I was putting some clothes into my duffel bag, I heard a knock on my door and turned to see Danny leaning on the door frame.

"Where's Lacey?" I asked.

"She went home," Danny said with a small sigh. "She was pretty pissed."

"Can you blame her? I'd probably feel the same way if I found out that one of my really good friends and my ex-boyfriend were hooking up." I shrugged and averted Danny's gaze as he approached me. "Maybe she's right about this whole thing."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean us, Danny," I said, forcing myself to look him straight in the eyes. "Do you really think we're doing the right thing?"

Danny was quiet for a moment and I saw him swallow hard before answering.

"Being with you last night was the happiest I've been in a long time, Jo. I know we'd have to jump through a few hoops to make it work between us. But if it means getting the chance to be with you then I'm willing to do whatever it takes."

I searched Danny's dark brown eyes as he said this, not realizing that he had taken a step closer towards me so that we were mere inches apart. Yet again, I was finding myself in a deep emotional tug-of-war. Last night, my doubts had been quelled by the feel of Danny's arms around me. Like him, it was the safest and happiest I had felt in a long time. But was this all really worth risking my already delicate friendship with Lacey? Could I really trust Danny with my heart when he had already broken it before?

"I know I'm not the only one feeling this, Jo," Danny said, gently placing his index finger under my chin. "I probably don't deserve it, but all I'm asking for is a chance."

And with that, he pulled me in for a tender kiss. His lips were so warm and inviting, and as pleasant as the gesture was, I willed myself to break away before desire got the best of me.

"Danny, wait," I said as I rested my forehead on his.

We stayed like that for a while, holding each other close and wishing time would just stop at this brief moment of clarity when everything we wanted was right in front of us.

"Tell you what," Danny quietly said, moving away to look me squarely in the eyes. "I'll be on spring break after this week. Let's go somewhere, just the two of us."

The thought of me and Danny running off together seemed so misplaced and absurd at the time that I actually laughed at little at his suggestion.

"I'm serious," Danny said with a slight chuckle. "Give me one week. Let's get away from here and just focus on you and me. And if after that week, you're still not comfortable with us being together then we'll just stay friends."

I raised a skeptical eyebrow at him. "And where do you suggest we go?"

"Well," Danny said with a knowing smile. "Have you ever been to the Bahamas?"


Don't forget to leave a review! Thank you kindly!