A/N. QAE3U: Okay, I know this is supposed to be answered every three, but I'm in a good mood. I'm picking a winner earlier. Or two, may I say…
"HAHA, I actually have an answer to the QotD (I'm still gonna call it that. It's easier.) My favorite actor is... *drumroll* DAVIIID TENANNTT! He's plays one of my favorite characters of all time, and he does it so well... The show is called Doctor Who, BTW. My favorite voice actor would probably have to be... Todd Haberkorn, who does Death the Kid and Keroro. (BTW, have you watched Sgt Frog or Soul Eater like I suggested? Cuz he plays in both of them. And Ouran.)"
"So. Good chapter. Seriously, every chapter gets better. Oh! And favorite actor! This is really hard... Hmmm,... It's either Josh Hutcherson... Or Josh Hutcherson... I'm gonna go with Josh Hutcherson. The reason why: First of all, I've liked him (not LIKE like, just you know, the 'I like waffles' kind of like) since I first saw him in a movie. Then, as he grew up, he became cuter, and a better actor. And in the interviews and stuff he's so down to earth and funny! Not fake and disgusting like a lot of Daphnewood guys. But I will never, ever call him hot. I hate calling guys hot. It seems so... I honestly don't know how to put it into words. Ugh. Dangit. OH! Another reason: I love when he cries in movies. He's so gosh darn CUTE! hehehe... Oh, I need help. :$"
So…CONGRATS EPIPHANY ON TOAST AND ANANNYMOUSE! YAAY! ^^
Oh, and thank you, twilightfunatic, for recommending this story to booksonclouds. She says she's hooked. Thank you so much.
By the way...this month, I've gotten over 1,030 visitors. That's...oh my gosh. I might start crying. Last month it was around 800 visitors. Just...thank you so much for all your support. I'm serious. I want to thank you all so much for helping me and this story. Really...you guys are the reason I love writing in general. :D
Chapter 45: Better Than Me
"Before I tell you anything, I have a question," Daphne said, frowning at me. "How do you know about Bryant?"
I sighed. "It's kind of a long story…"
"I've got time."
After a moment of hesitation, I resigned and decided to tell her the whole story. I left out the whole Bryant wanting me part though. Mr. Firay and Sage worried about me enough for a hundred people. The last thing I needed was for more people to fret over me.
"And that's how I learned about Mr. Firay's past as a gang member," I finished lamely, raising my eyes to look at Daphne for the first time since I started explaining.
She was staring at me like I was crazy. I didn't blame her. In retrospect, I realized everything that I did with any occurrence with the gang members was incredibly stupid. Especially the whole "punch everyone" part of it.
"How could Matt have dragged you into this? This is seriously dangerous, Daphne," Daphne warned me, finally speaking.
"I already know that," I responded. "And it's more my fault I became involved… Mr. Firay just complicates things."
"He should have kept you out of it though."
I frowned at her. "I'm the one who—"
Daphne shook her head. "It's still his problem, Daphne."
"It's my problem now too," I stated stubbornly. For some reason, I felt like I had to defend Mr. Firay. "Mr. Firay didn't have anything to do with that…"
Daphne raised her eyebrow skeptically. "Is that so?"
"It is." Okay, so it wasn't the whole truth, but it wasn't like Mr. Firay forced me to punch anyone. Daphne looked like she wanted to say more, but I cut her off before she could. "Now it's your turn to talk. What happened with Bryant?"
"Before I answer, I have one more question. How did you know it was Bryant who attacked me instead of the mugging I claimed it to be?"
"Umm…" I hesitated, blushing faintly from the embarrassment of my actions from the memory. "The night when I saw you for the first time I went to the park after I… left the hospital and he found me there. While we were talking he said, 'at least you're the right Daphne this time', so I figured he might have done something to you. And then Mr. Firay told me that you were mugged."
Daphne frowned at me. "Bryant said something similar to me when he figured out I wasn't who he wanted me to be. He said, 'Well, isn't it my other Daphne?'. At the time I didn't know you existed, so I was pretty confused."
"That was my reaction when Bryant said 'the other Daphne'. And that's how I figured out that you weren't mugged. "
Daphne sighed, tapping her finger against the metal rail on her bed. "You can't tell Matt."
"I know," I responded. "But why not?"
"I'm done."
The sudden coldness in her voice made me tense up. Her friendly demeanor had suddenly turned bitter, and her eyes hard. I had to look away, intimidated by her gaze. My initial nervousness returned with new vigor.
"I won't tell," I finally said quietly.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," she responded, her tone lighter again. "I just can't take this gangster business anymore. After Matt went to jail I promised myself that I would never get involved again— that's why I moved away. And now I have a son—"
"You have a son?" I asked in shock. Already? That meant she must have had a relationship at least two months after Mr. Firay went to jail…
Daphne shook her head, smiling at my expression. "He's going to be my step-son."
"When did you start dating your fiancée?" I asked before I could stop myself.
Daphne raised an eyebrow, but shrugged. "Probably a month after Matt went to jail."
"Oh," I responded. Only a month? She got over Mr. Firay in a month?
"Daphne, you're showing your innocence."
"What?"
"Your innocence," Daphne repeated. "The look on your face is telling me you don't like the idea of me dating after only a month of breaking up with Matt. A month isn't a short amount of time to get over someone. Don't get me wrong, I did love Matt, but I also wanted to forget about him and the gang because I was scared."
"Which I can understand," I told her, nodding my head.
"But…?"
I looked at her in surprise. "How did you know there was a but?"
Daphne laughed. "Matt was right. You're so easy to read."
"I'm not," I denied, feeling my face heat up.
"Daphne, what's your but?"
"It's nothing bad. I'm just wondering why you broke up with Mr. Firay right before he was put in jail. Don't you think that's a little cruel?"
"I do," Daphne responded honestly. "I still feel bad about it too, actually. But it's what I had to do. Being done with the gangster thing meant being done with Matt too. I wasn't going to make him sit in jail for eight months and come out only to be broken up with. That's why I did it before he went in. He had time to move on, and so did I."
"And you and Mr. Firay are still friends," I started, feeling a little confused, "even though you are done with this gangster thing?"
"I wasn't expecting to have to deal with gangsters again since he's a teacher now," Daphne told me. "I'm leaving again so I don't have to. I still love Matt, just not the way you do."
Immediately my face grew hot and I looked away. My first response was to deny it, but I couldn't. It was the truth. I didn't want to deny it. But it was still embarrassing to hear it said aloud.
"I want to be friends with him, and luckily for me, he wants to be friends too," Daphne continued, smiling slightly at my reaction. "Matt is a great guy. He's never held what I did to him against me; he understands I did what I had to do. He deserves better than me. He deserves you."
I looked at Daphne, taken aback. "What?"
"Why do you look so shocked? Daphne, not everyone can get involved with a gang because of someone and still love that person. You don't even seem to care about the danger involved. You don't even seem fazed that he was in jail!"
"I'm not," I told her, now growing confused. "Why would I be?"
Daphne stared at me for a minute in disbelief. "You don't even care the slightest bit?"
"Mr. Firay had his reasons, and I don't blame him for going to save you, even though he ended up in jail."
Daphne suddenly looked guilty, and she turned her gaze to the floor. "Daphne, you're a much better person than me. I don't know if he's ever told you this but…when we were in high school, I first asked him out because one of my friends, Rochelle, told me he had money. I was beginning to come broke –my parents spent money on unessential things like clothes and stuff. But then, I started to actually love him. Somehow, he found out that I had used him for money at the beginning, but he's forgiven me. I still feel really guilty. You look like me, but we're so different. It's funny, you're younger than me but so much more mature."
"Daphne," I started, feeling awkward using her name, "I love Mr. Firay. If it were any other person in the world, I probably would care that they were in jail, unless they had a really good reason, but since it's Mr. Firay, nothing matters. Don't say I'm a better person, I'm just… blinded by love," I ended lamely. I didn't know how else to make my point.
Daphne smiled at me. "I'm glad Matt met someone like you. I can't tell you how happy I am to see how much you care for him. Thank you for that."
"Don't thank me," I muttered, blushing again.
"Now all he needs to do is man up and tell you he loves you!"
I cocked my head at her, raising an eyebrow. "You know he's my teacher right?"
Daphne responded to my look with a confused one. "What about it?"
"It's not… right."
"Daphne, don't tell me you're worried about that," Daphne said, rolling her eyes. "You don't care about gangsters or prison, but you care about the fact that he's your teacher? Are you stupid?"
"N-no! I don't care that he's my teacher!" I corrected her, shaking my head. "But so far everyone that knows how I feel about him has been really supportive. No one has been judgmental about it. But I keep waiting for that one person to say something— Tell me he's too old for me, tell me it won't work out…"
"Is that what you want to hear?"
"No!"
"Then don't worry about it! Anyone who has seen Matt talk about you, or you talk about Matt, or I bet even just the way you two interact outside of class, knows that you two are right for each other."
"I'm more worried about the fact that Mr. Firay is an adult, and I'm an immature teenager… I don't care what other people think, but I don't want Mr. Firay thinking that."
Daphne rolled her eyes. "Please. You're the least immature person I've ever met. I'm positive Matt doesn't care that you're still technically a teenager."
A small smile spread onto my face. It was nice to hear what I wanted to hear from someone else. "Thank you…"
"You and Matt only have a four year and maybe three month age difference. My parents have a seven-year age difference. My fiancée is five years older than me. Don't worry about anything that has to deal with your age. As they say, age is but a number."
"Right," I agreed, feeling oddly refreshed.
"I hope everything works out for you two."
"Thank you."
"And I hope you don't get hurt."
I raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"Bryant," she told me. "Daphne, he's really dangerous."
"I know," I responded, adverting my gaze. "I know he is. I know the whole gang situation is."
"Promise me you'll be careful," Daphne ordered. "I don't want to see you taken away from Matt."
A small shudder ran through me. I didn't like the way that sounded. Taken away? Did she mean killed? Or something like what happened to her that would make me not want to be around Mr. Firay anymore? No, there was nothing that could make me not love him…
"I'll be careful," I said softly. "I won't be taken away."
"Good."
"I have a question, though."
"Yes?"
I tried to word my sentence carefully. "When you dated Mr. Firay…was there anything "unusual" about him?" I had no idea if Mr. Firay had told her he was an Everafter. If he hadn't, I wouldn't want to risk her finding out. I had used up all of my forgetful dust during the summer.
She blinked. "No, not really. Is there something unusual about him?"
Oh, so Mr. Firay hadn't told her. "He doesn't like sushi."
A grin broke out on her face. "I remember we went to a Japanese restaurant and he dragged me away when he saw and smelled the sushi."
"Why doesn't he like sushi?"
"I guess it's because-"
Suddenly my pocket started vibrating. Confused, I pulled out my phone to see I had a text message from Ariana. Since when did the hospital have service? Well, I wasn't going to curse it. I opened the text and smiled slightly.
"Is that a text from Matt?" Daphne asked teasingly.
I shook my head. "My friend, Ariana. You see, my friend Wendell is in the hospital too… he was also attacked by Bryant."
Daphne's eyes looked they were about to pop out of their sockets. "Matt involved another teenager?"
"No, no, no," I said quickly. "Wendell was completely my fault!"
Daphne gasped in realization. "On the news the other day… Dan, one of the members, was put in jail for shooting a teenager down town… That was your friend wasn't it?"
I bit my lip, but nodded my head. I couldn't lie to her. "That's the one."
"Oh my goodness," Daphne gasped. "I can't believe it. Shot? Daphne—"
"I know," I interjected before she could finish. "Trust me. Mr. Firay has repeatedly told me how dangerous this is. I've got it."
To my surprise, Daphne chuckled. "I'm surprised Matt doesn't have a collar around your neck. I wouldn't let you out of my sight if I were him. You seem like a danger magnet."
I blushed slightly. "I don't…"
"I take it your friend wants you to go visit him before visiting hours are over?" Daphne asked, smirking at me.
I nodded. "Yep. He wants to set plans for a get-together on Friday in stone."
"Well, I won't hold you back."
I stood up, straightening out my shirt. Daphne smiled at me and I couldn't help but smile in return. There was something about her that made you want to smile. It was strange.
"I'll, um, come visit you again," I said, fiddling with my fingers.
"Bring Matt with you too," she insisted. "I want to talk to both of you together."
I scratched the back of my head, forcing out a laugh. To be honest, as much as I liked Daphne, I didn't want to be in the same room as her and Matt at the same time. I knew they didn't have their old feelings for each other anymore, but it would still be weird to me. "I'll try."
"See you, Daphne."
"Talk to you later," I responded, giving a small wave before exiting into the hallway.
I practically jogged to Wendell's room, gaining strange looks from some of the hospital workers. When I made it, I burst into the room, out of breath. Wendell and Ariana both gave me questioning looks.
"Who were you visiting?" Wendell asked. "Ariana told me it was your mom's friend."
"This woman named Diana," I told him, using Daphne's old fake name.
"Uh-huh," Wendell said, but his eyes held a hint of suspicion.
Sometimes Wendell was too smart for his own good. I gave him a meaningful look that hopefully would prevent him from saying anything in front of Ariana. The last thing I needed was to explain the whole Daphne thing to both of them. Especially since Ariana had no idea about the gang thing.
"So here's what I want to do," Wendell started, sweeping his hair out of his face. "There's a fall festival going on Friday night, and I thought it'd be fun if a bunch of us went there to celebrate instead of just going to someone's house."
"There's a fall festival?" I repeated in surprise. "Where?"
"Fair grounds," Ariana told me. "They're going to have a bunch of rides set up and food booths. Later there will be fireworks too."
I grimaced. "I'm not a fan of fireworks…"
Wendell rolled his eyes. "C'mon Daphne, the last time you watched fireworks was like years ago. I'm sure it'll be a different experience now."
"Fine, let's go to the festival," I responded. "And you better hope the fireworks are a good experience, or you might just end up in the hospital again."
Wendell laughed. "Trying to sound tough, eh?"
"What time would we be meeting up?" I asked, ignoring Wendell's jibe.
"The fireworks start at ten, so what if we met up around six?" Ariana suggested. "That way we can hang out, do rides, and eat before they start."
"Who is 'we'?"
"You, me, Ariana, Tina, Colin, Josh, and Willow," Wendell told me. "The normal us. Though, I'm not sure if Red and Tom are coming –Tom's going down to Virginia for the weekend, and I think Red's going back to Ferryport by then."
I smiled. "Sounds good… it's been awhile since we've all hung out together. Though, I'm going to miss Red. I feel like I haven't hung out with her in awhile."
"It'll be good to have a night with no worries," Wendell commented.
"I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty excited now," Ariana added, a grin on her face. "I can't wait until Friday now."
"Neither can I. I want to get out of the damn hospital."
I laughed, rolling my eyes at Wendell. "If you get too over-excited, you might hurt yourself."
"I'll try to be careful," Wendell responded mockingly. "I won't randomly follow someone into the woods or anything…"
I sent Wendell a death look, which he returned with a smug smirk. Ariana missed the exchange between us completely, which made me feel relieved. She was busy tapping away at her phone; probably talking to Josh.
"Since when does the hospital have service?" I asked.
"I don't know but I'm not complaining," Ariana responded, still gazing at her phone.
"It doesn't matter to me," Wendell said, suddenly sounding irritated. "My phone was stolen…"
Ariana glanced up at Wendell. "I thought you said you lost it?"
I shot Wendell a warning look, and he quickly cleared his throat. "Stolen, lost, it's the same thing. It would have still been at the scene if it wasn't stolen, right?"
Ariana nodded. "True. Whoever has it hasn't responded to any of my text messages, though."
Wait, what? Ariana was sending text messages to Wendell's phone? My eyes widened and I looked at Wendell, who was giving me a questioning look. What if Bryant randomly decided to tell Ariana who he was? Or what was going on? I chewed my lip, suddenly anxious. I hadn't got any messages from Bryant lately, so hopefully he would never message Ariana…
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door and a young nurse appeared, looking bored. "Visiting times are over," she told us. "And Wendell, you have to go to physical therapy now."
Wendell groaned, slumping back onto his bed. "I hate PT."
I laughed, patting his leg. "Have fun, Wendell. I'll see you Friday."
"Adios,Wendell!" Ariana chirped, standing up. "I'll come back tomorrow! La manana!"
"Bye guys," Wendell said grumpily. "Enjoy your PT free day."
I rolled my eyes at him before gesturing for Ariana to follow me out of the room. Together we made our way to the hospital exit. The air was cool and crisp when we stepped outside, a refreshing scent after being in the hospital. Hospitals didn't smell so good.
"Do you have a ride home?" Ariana asked, rubbing her hands together. "It's cold…"
"Yeah, my mom's picking me up. Are you going home with me?"
Ariana shook her head. "Josh will be here soon. We're going to go to the mall for a little bit."
I wagged my eyebrows. "How romantic."
Ariana jabbed her elbow into my side. "Shut up. Oh, look! Perfect timing. Here he is."
A small white Honda Civic pulled up next to us and the window rolled down. Josh's head appeared, grinning at Ariana and me. "Hey guys."
"Hi," I responded as Ariana made a move for the passenger seat.
"You need a ride somewhere?"
I shook my head. "Nope, my mom's coming. Thanks for the offer."
"Want us to wait with you?"
"I'm good. She'll be here soon."
Josh nodded, glancing over at Ariana, who was now in the car. "Then I guess we'll see you later?"
"Hasta luego, Daphne!" Ariana called, leaning over Josh to see me. "See you in school tomorrow!"
"Adios," Josh said.
"See you," I responded, waving as Josh closed his window.
As the car pulled away, I caught glimpse of my mom's car entering the hospital parking lot. A small smile spread across my face. Perfect timing. She drove all the way up to the entrance and I quickly opened the passenger seat, to be greeted with a surprise.
"How's my girl?" Dad said, smiling.
"Dad!" I hugged him tightly, and saw my brother in the backseat, tapping away on his Nintendo. "Base! How are you, little brother?"
"Fine," he said absentmindedly as I opened the door and scooted in next to him, giving him a hug also.
"Glad to know you love me," I mocked offendedly. "So, how was New Jersey?"
"Fine."
"Basil met a girl," Dad said, smirking through the mirror.
My brother's face flushed. "No I didn't."
"You're almost as bad of a liar as Daphne."
"Hey!" I defended myself, cracking a grin.
"Hi honey," my mom greeted, smiling at me through the mirror. "How's Wendell?"
"Same old, same old," I responded with a shrug. "He's doing a lot better. He'll be out Friday."
"That's good to hear!" my mom responded enthusiastically. "It's too bad he can't be out tomorrow so he could come with us."
"Come with us?" I repeated.
My mom looked at me in surprise. "Oh, did I forget to tell you?"
"Tell me what?"
"Your mother made reservations at your favorite restaurant. Osaka," Dad said.
My eyes widened. "Really?"
"It is your birthday," my mom responded with another smile. "But it's actually for four people. Your father and Basil are only here for a short time again, so they're not going, but they'll spend today with us! Also, Puck and Sabrina have work again, so we're going to have a full-family dinner tonight instead of tomorrow. I assumed Ariana and Wendell would be going with us to Osaka, though."
"Oh," I responded, frowning. "Well Wendell is in the hospital, but I can ask Ariana…"
"I was thinking about inviting Matt," my mom commented in an off-hand voice. "As a thanks for watching you last weekend…"
"Your mom told me about your teacher. I have to thank him for watching over you," Dad said.
I stared at my mom in shock for a second ready to object. And was Dad actually agreeing? Usually he'd be all anti-boy. Though, Mr. Firay was actually a man... But, invite Mr. Firay to my birthday dinner? That had awkwardness written all over it. "But mom—"
"Don't you get along with him?"
"Yeah…"
"And don't you think it's fair to make it up to him because he watched you while I was away?"
A wry smile made its' way onto my face. If she only knew it was the other way around. "I guess."
My mom frowned, glancing at me quickly. "We don't have to if you don't want to. I just feel like I owe him, and I thought it'd be fun…"
"Daphne's being selfish," Basil piped in at the same time that I said, "It's not that!"
I mentally slapped myself for saying that too quickly. My mom gave me a suspicious look. "It's just, um, I don't know. I think it'd be awkward."
"Well what about that other guy you're friends with? Fred?"
"Fred?" I echoed. "I don't know any Fred…"
My mom shook her head. "No, that's not his name. Gerald? Shawn?"
"Sage," I told my mom. "I'm pretty sure we've been over this before."
"Oh yeah! Sage! Why don't you invite him too? Will that make it less awkward?"
Knowing Sage, he'd make it worse. But now I was feeling a little excited. Maybe with Sage there, Mr. Firay would confess… I shook my head. I couldn't get my hopes up. "Okay, I'll call Sage and ask. You ask Mr. Firay."
"Okay," my mom said, sounding as excited as I felt.
"Why are you so excited?" I asked curiously.
"It's nice to see you having an older male figure in your life," she told me. "Especially since your dad isn't around a lot."
My dad gave me a guilty smile. "Sorry I have to work a lot, Pumpkin. We have to get our income somehow, right?"
I let out a small smile of my own. "That's okay, Dad. I'm glad you love your job and working hard..." I swallowed, suddenly feeling tense. Was my mom trying to hint at something with the "having an older male figure in your life" thing? Did she think Mr. Firay was like an adult figure to me? Or an uncle-like figure? I guess that would make sense. Mr. Firay kind of was my uncle-in-law if you think about it… A feeling of dread spread through me. I'd be in big trouble if that were what she thought…
"I don't really think of Mr. Firay as my uncle," I told her, laughing nervously.
My mom laughed too, shaking her head. "No, that's not what I meant."
"What did you mean then?"
"Nothing, never mind," my mom told me. "Forget I said anything."
I frowned slightly, but let it drop. "Okay…"
"So," my dad started. "What's been happening in school?"
I responded to my dad's questions, but my mind was elsewhere. Would Mr. Firay feel good enough to go out to eat tomorrow? I prayed silently that he would be able to. Maybe if I played my cards right and I didn't confess, Sage would be right and Mr. Firay would confess first. A small bubble of excitement and anxiousness appeared in my stomach. Tomorrow couldn't come faster.
A/N. AHH! I PROMISE WARISHA I'D POSTED BEFORE 9:30! D: I'm late! So, sorry if this is a "messy" chapter. I'll fix it soon.
…OH! This is the end of the six-day-updates! Whoa. Okay, so I'm going to update again…eh, Sunday. Tomorrow I'm busy: I'm starting violin lessons, then I'm altar serving, then I'm going out with my family like I usually do on Saturdays…And we're watching a movie tomorrow. :3
To Eleni:…Really? Oh my goodness –I can't believe someone actually checked out my Wattpad works. Thank you. That means…so much to me –thank you. :D
Question for Next Week:
(This is the same as yellow.r0se's since I GAVE her the riddle)
Eleven men walked passed a pear tree. The tree had eleven pears. Each took a pear. How many were left?
Okay! Thanks again for your wonderful reviews!
~Lara
