#lookwhosback!
anyway thank you for all the support!
Despite it being Danny's birthday, he hadn't bothered getting up because he knew nobody would want to speak to him. Diane and Sam had grounded him for (probably) life, and the others (most likely) hated him.
Of course, Danny knew that they had good reason to but, on the whole, he hated them hating him. But they didn't understand. They all had origin stories-even if they weren't the nicest. But Danny, he didn't have anything. On a family tree there would just be him. He had never had any sort of family other than the millions of foster families he'd lived with. He just wished people would stop invading his privacy with their 'kind words'.
He probably had more privacy in all his group homes put together, including the one when he shared a room with a kid who would constantly and steal everything he owned.
More than anything, Danny just wished Tom would speak to him and they could go back to the way things were before Harry shoved his nose in and his mum got in the way. He wanted them to be able to stay up together, sneaking into each others rooms once everyone had gone to bed, listening to music with an earphone each and sneaking kisses between songs. But the big purple bruise on the top of Dougie's arm was a constant reminder of the person Danny truly was. And even though Doug had assured him things were fine and he knew that Danny didn't mean it, Danny knew that wasn't the case. And Dougie never seemed to be around Danny without Harry hovering in the background. Like an annoying fly nobody could swat.
Harry had been giving him the stink eye for the last couple of days and Danny wished he'd get off his high horse. Harry could never understand anything Danny did, he'd had a sheltered, middle class life for sixteen years and now he's a middle class orphan he'll get more sympathy from middle class people. Harry spoke posher than anyone else he'd ever met and all his mannerisms just showed that they were from such different social groups. Even if Danny had stayed with his biological parents when he was born he'd probably be living in a council flat. Or in a young offenders institute.
Danny couldn't help but think how Harry's parents status was probably the reason that he got such a nice foster placement so quickly.
And to think him and Dougie thought Tom was posh.
Danny looked at the time and decided that he couldn't hide away in bed all day, after all it was his birthday and he didn't want to look back on his sixteenth birthday when he's sixty (and none of what was going on now would matter to him) and feel sad.
"Oh look, the birthday boy decided to rise." Diane smiled as she got up and kissed his cheek and gave him a cupcake. Danny grinned back at her then sat on the edge of the couch, where the other boys were all sitting. Tom moved up to make room for him, which made him feel slightly happier. "So how does it feel to finally be 16 Dan?"
"Pretty similar to being 15 to be honest." Danny and Diane laughed and then the room fell silent, Danny realised that it was moments like this when Dougie would take it upon himself to stop awkward silences. But now, he was leaning over Harry's shoulder poking Harry's phone. Knowing Doug he was probably introducing Harry to candy crush. Hopefully Harry liked it and Dougie could send all of his annoying requests to him instead.
Danny couldn't help but notice that Tom was fiddling with his zip again; he was nervous. Being in Danny's presence was actually making him nervous and that made Danny want to cry. Tom was the closest Danny had ever been to anyone in his entire life.
"Morning Dan." Sam said quietly. "Treated yourself to an birthday lie then." Danny smiled widely and gave Sam a hug.
"Yeah, felt good to. I've been so tired recently."
"From beating up little kids?" Harry said, Dougie hit him and Harry just smiled smugly to himself.
He was always so smug.
Diane tutted and shook her head. "Why don't you boys go into town today, I'll drop you there if you like."
Danny looked at the other boys and shrugged: Tom smiled and Harry rolled his eyes.
Dougie got up to hug Diane. "Diane you always have the best ideas, I love you so much, also can I borrow a tenner."
If the tension was bad before it was awful now. It was Danny's birthday and none of the boys seemed to want to acknowledge that he was actually part of the group. Harry seemed to be acting as a buffer between Danny and Dougie and Tom was too busy being intimate with the zip on his coat to pay attention to anything else.
"You know Harry, you don't have to follow Dougie around forever." Danny said, fed up of Harry standing in his way all the time.
"Well, I would but I don't particularly want you to beat him up again." Harry replied, Danny knew he would cause and argument and at the moment he didn't care. Harry had only been in Dougie's life for about half an hour and already he was trying to control him. He barely knew Doug.
"I hardly beat him up did I? And if he's been in care for years, he knows not to get involved in family stuff." People in the highstreet were starting to look at them, Danny wasn't quiet at the best of times, let alone when he's angry.
"You are so stupid Dan he was trying to help you, after you'd already upset Tom. He didn't know you were going to slap him about."
"Come on, if he was in most other foster homes he would have ended up in hospital for what he did."
"Oh it was so kind of you to only beat him up a little bit, you really are the loveliest person in the world Dan, absolutely wonderful. An amazing person who beats up children."
"He's hardly a child! And the why do you want to protect him so bad, you barely know him!"
"What are you insinuating?"Harry said way to calmly as he squared up to Danny. Dougie started muttering "come on Harry." and trying to pull the pair away. "Because the only person who's having a sexuality crisis right here is you!"
"Harry, you're an absolute dick." Dougie said quietly as he sipped his hot chocolate, he'd managed to drag Harry away from having a fight in the middle of the street and drag him to the closest Starbucks to calm down. "You shouldn't have bought up Tom and Danny's thing, you should've stayed out of it."
Harry shrugged, Dougie hoped he was feeling guilty on the inside and desperately trying not to show it, he knew how arrogant Harry could be. "He shouldn't have beat up a kid and then carry on justifying it to himself, maybe he should show some sort of remorse for hurting you."
Dougie rolled his eyes. "He barely hurt me, I'm not a kid, I can handle myself."
Harry slouched over the table and looked up and Dougie. "Dougie, you don't get it, what sort of person wants to beat up..."
"Harry, don't call me a kid again."
"No, fine, okay. Who wants to beat up someone like you. Whether or not you're a kid, you're too innocent. Everything you do is done with good intentions."
"I'm a care kid Harry, there's no such thing as an innocent care kid."
"Doug, I just don't want you to get hurt and I don't trust him."
Dougie looked down at his hot chocolate again. "He's not there for you to trust, he's family."
"He's not really though is he."
Dougie shook his head at Harry and sighed. "Right, okay. The thing is for me, Danny is my family and I'm his. We've been together for almost three years, and for care kids like us, that's as close as family we will get. Tom he had a family before he came here, albeit a shit one. And you're a posh kid and you should't be here."
Harry took Dougie's hand. "Doug, why are you in care?"
Dougie pulled his hand away. "I don't want to talk about it, do you want another drink?"
"Why is Harry always so fucking smug?" Danny huffed as he walked along the street with Tom standing at a distance.
"Danny can you calm down or something?" Tom complained, trying to grab Danny's hand and calm him down, unsurprisingly Danny kept pulling it away.
"He thinks he knows Dougie best when really he's only known him for a couple of weeks. And what does he think he has in common with Doug? Nothing, he's a stupid posh boy who has no idea what it's like to have it rough."
"Dan come on, his parents just died. He's hardly had it easy." Tom said, still trying to catch up with Danny. He was getting out of breath, he should probably actually take part in one of his P.E lessons instead of getting somebody to forge a sick note.
"What so three weeks out of sixteen years have been a bit rough. I've had it everyday since the day I was born. Literally, nobody has wanted me since the day I was born. And then my first set of adoptive parents couldn't bond with me and then the second lot kicked got rid of me cos I kept getting in fights. Nobody has ever wanted me Tom!" Tom could hear Danny's voice break, he knew that this was something Danny never wanted to talk about. He always acted like he didn't care that he was in care but Tom knew it obviously wasn't easy for Danny. Three sets of parents had rejected him before he had even left primary school.
Tom finally got hold of Danny and turned his body so they were facing each other. "Danny, come on you know that's not true. You're mum even wrote that she wanted to keep you in her card."
Danny shook his head and then lowered it onto Tom's shoulder. "I don't know Tom. It's all too much, Dougie is basically my little brother and I still hurt him." Danny paused and sniffed. His eyes were glassy and Tom knew that if they were back in the comfort of their house Danny would be bawling his eyes out. "Then there's you."
"Danny, don't."
"I'm so mean to you and you're the nicest person ever to me. I don't get it." Danny moved away from Tom.
"Danny, you don't get it. When I first came to the house, I had gone from having everything to having nothing, and all I could think about how rubbish it was that I had to like boys instead of girls. And then that night, when I forced you to watch Back to the Future with me, we kissed, I knew that it didn't matter that my parents didn't want to know me because of who I am. Because if I wasn't who I was born to be, I'd still be living miserably somewhere in London and I wouldn't have you."
Danny smiled and took Tom's hand. "I still don't deserve you."
"I know you don't. But I love you anyway."
"Good." Danny laughed to himself. "I love you to."
THANKS FOR READING and honestly I swear writing nice reviews for me actually makes me want to write more! Thanks guys!
