Broken Rules and Broken Hearts
Chapter four: Its Yet-Unseen Conclusion is Still an Illusion
Sam awoke to the static of the movie. What had been left of her salad was now all over her and the chair, while Tucker seemed to be very comfortable using the stack of empty pizza boxes as a pillow.
"Need a hand?"
Sam jumped out of the chair, but Danny flew around fast and caught her.
"What are you doing here?" she exclaimed. "Are you trying to get killed?"
"Shh, your parents are still asleep," he laughed softly, putting her down. "Now, do you want my help, or not?"
"Tucker said you were mad at me..." she started picking up the salad while he turned the T.V. off.
"I was," he replied. "I talked to Jazz and she calmed me down."
"Remind me to thank her..." Sam said a little distantly.
"You sound unsure about that," Danny went to clean up what mess he could without waking Tucker up.
"Oh? I've just been thinking a lot lately..."
Danny glanced at her. "Where's your skirt?" having forgotten, Sam jumped and covered herself. Danny laughed, "No, I mean, you're wearing pants."
Sam felt foolish. "I... I'd rather not say..."
"Why not?" he asked, then remembered a conversation he'd overheard his mother and sister having a couple years ago. "Oh..."
"Yeah..." Sam threw the container away. "Which reminds me, I need to go to the bathroom."
"I'll stay here unless your parents come," Danny said. "Once we're alone, I need to talk to you."
"Alright," Sam said. "Where should I meet you if my parents do come down here and you have to escape?"
"Nasty Burger," he replied without hesitation. Tucker snapped awake at the words.
"Of course," Sam rolled her eyes and went upstairs.
"Danny?" Tucker blinked. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to see you and Sam," Danny smiled. "I figured you two should be done talking by now."
"But... last night..."
"I just felt left out. I talked to my sister and she made sense of the situation."
"What kind of sense?" Tucker made no effort to help Danny in picking up the fallen pizza boxes.
"You already know," Danny said. "In fact, you've known for a while if I'm not mistaken."
Don't blow Sam's cover yet, Foley, Tucker told himself. "I have?"
"Of course. You've seen all the hints... we have too... we're just both too scared to do anything about it."
"Right... but now it's okay?" Tucker asked. "It's finally out?"
"Not yet," Danny said. "We need to talk to each other first... and I'd like to talk to you afterwards. Probably just going to say the same stuff she did, but I want us all to be on the same page."
"Right," Tucker nodded, thinking: It's about time.
"Samantha?" her mother called. "Are you awake yet?"
Danny went intangible. Tucker called, "She went to the little girl's room!"
"Okay," Mrs. Manson came down. "Aww, you cleaned up! Will you be going home now?"
"Actually, Mrs. Manson, Sam and I wanted to hang out today, too," Tucker said. Danny silently flew through the roof and then headed for the Nasty Burger.
"Well, not here, I hope," Mrs. Manson said. "It's much too nice a day to be in the house."
"So if I can get Sam to leave the house we can hang out?"
"Child!" she laughed. "You are the only thing other than school that can get her outside during the day."
"What about..." Tucker stopped. Didn't wanna get on bad terms with this parent.
"What about what?" she blinked.
"I was gonna say school," Tucker covered, "Then I realized you just said it."
"Oh, child," she turned and went back upstairs as Sam was coming back down.
"Danny leave?" she asked, looking around.
"I think so," Tucker said. "He went intangible first so he could still be hiding around here somewhere, but I think he would have pulled a prank on us by now if he was."
"Mm," Sam said in a confirming tone. "So let's go!"
"Right."
Tucker and Sam left and went to the Nasty Burger. When they got there, Danny was in the back fighting off a mediocre ghost. He captured it and turned around just in time to see them standing there with their arms crossed.
"Glad to see you didn't start without us," Sam said as Danny turned human and they went around to the front of the building.
"Why would I do that?" Danny asked.
"Eat breakfast this morning?" Tucker asked.
"No," Danny replied.
"There's your answer," Tucker grinned. Danny rolled his eyes. The three of them went inside, and Tucker offered to go order while Sam and Danny sat down. Same glared at him and Danny gave him a little half smirk. Tucker continued grinning and ran up to the counter. Sam sighed and took a seat at the nearest booth, and Danny sat on the opposite side of the table, facing her.
"Tucker sure can be a pain sometimes," Sam said so as to prevent any awkward silences.
"Yeah, but he means well," Danny smiled. While he was acting happy all day, he was dealing with a conflict inside. Since he'd voiced to his sister his suspicion of Sam's love for him the night before, he'd been thinking, and he realized, he really didn't love Sam. He liked her as a friend, and she could be cute, funny, and really nice to be around sometimes... but he didn't like her like that. He thought if he pretended to be all for it that his feelings would change, but in that moment as he smiled at her, seeing the look in her eyes as she sat there, it just settled. He liked her as a friend and that was it, nothing more. "Listen, Sam... I..."
"Sam do you want a..." Tucker trailed off. Oops...
"Diet Dr. Pepper, no ice," she replied with a sigh. He would always get her food order right because it was the only vegan thing on the menu... but once he got a regular soda instead of a diet soda and ended up wearing 90 percent of it.
"Right... bye!" Tucker took off back to the line. Sam rolled her eyes.
"You were saying?"
Danny bit his lip. What if she felt the same way and he was just going to make a fool of himself? No, no more stalling, no more what-ifs, no more doubts. This was going to get done, here and now. Maybe not right, but it was...
"Danny, hiii!"
Paulina was bubbly as ever... but, why was she talking to Danny?
"H...hi?" Danny blushed lightly.
"Oh you're just so CUTE!" Paulina pinched his cheeks and baby talked. Danny had half a nerve to take over her body and find out what kind of happy pills she'd been taking. Tucker came back with the drinks and placed them in front of his friends, looking very confused. Paulina looked at Sam and gasped dramatically. "Oh, I'm not interrupting anything, am I...?"
"No," Danny said, "Er, yes! I mean... I don't know!"
Paulina giggled. "Silly wittwe Danny..."
"Okay, spill it," Sam said, but before she could continue, Paulina smirked.
"Gladly," the cheerleader grinned, tipping Danny's soda over and spilling it into his lap. She then giggled and pranced off. Danny sighed, got up, and went to the bathroom. He went ghost, flew home, turned human, changed his pants, went ghost again, and flew back. By the time he got back, Tucker was just bringing over the last of their order and a new soda for Danny. Taking the signs to mean that he shouldn't bring it up yet, Danny 'forgot' what he was going to say by pushing it to the back of his mind.