Chapter Six

To say that Danny was enjoying being Sam's pretend boyfriend was not enough to describe how happy he was. In their free period, Danny got his gorgeous best friend to sit on his lap and kiss him like there was no tomorrow just outside school in the grass with students watching them with their mouths hanging open.

Kyle had passed by them, pretending to not see them at all. Danny had his eyes half open when he saw his rival passing by their side. Danny pressed Sam's body harder against his, enjoying torturing him.

Sam had her back turned to Kyle so she couldn't see the silent battle going on between the two boys. Even though Kyle was acting like he just wanted to be friends with Sam, Danny could read in his expression how much he desired that girl. Little did she know, that she was wanted more than she imagined. Kyle was wishing she didn't have Danny and Danny was wishing he could be with Sam without having to pretend.

Wasn't he supposed to be thinking of Valerie?

Danny closed his eyes in delight when he felt Sam coaxing his lips with her tongue.

Who's Valerie?

He softly parted his lips from hers to look at her face. She was breathing quickly and shortly. She was flushed. Her chest was raising and failing rhythmically. He could watch her forever. He smiled, caressing her neck softly, pulling her hair back.

It was so wrong… but he was going to use the pretend as an excuse from now on.

"I'm picking you up at seven." He said, giving her a quick peck before helping her stand up before he did.

"You're going to pick me up?" She asked, surprised.

"Of course, why wouldn't I?" Danny replied, confused.

"I thought we were just going to meet at the Nasty Burger or the mall…" She interrupted her line, waiting for him to complete her sentence.

"Nasty Burger?" Danny looked down at her with a huge grin. "Do you think I'm taking my girlfriend to somewhere as cheap as a fast food restaurant?"

"Danny, you know very well that you-" Sam tried to explain that she didn't want him to have trouble for a fake date, but he interrupted her in the middle of her sentence.

"I'm doing it right. True or not, we're going to be seen together so we're going to be in a fancy and mushy restaurant."

She tried to protest. But he silenced her with his hand. She finally gave up and shook her head, disapprovingly.

"I'll see you at seven, then." She gave him a small smile and entered the school for her last period.

Danny guiltlessly watched her hips swaying as she ran from him. She was his, even if it was just pretend, and that made him feel incredibly possessive.

When she was out of Danny's sight, Kyle approached her awkwardly. She smiled to him and greeted him unlike she had been doing in the past days, since now they were in friendly terms. He gave her a small white rose and walked away, saying he had 'important things to take care of.' Sam smiled at him and turned around, going to school.

Danny didn't enter school; he was looking for Tucker to go to class with him. Tucker had gone to the back of school saying something about milkshake and chips, but Danny didn't catch what he had said because he was too anxious to feel Sam lips under his. He searched for Tucker behind the trees and bushes and finally found him.

Danny's blood ran cold the moment he set his eyes on his friend. Tucker was sitting at a table, kissing Valerie.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sam tried on a black dress. It was strapless, body hugging and ended in the middle of her thighs. She sighed in frustration. It didn't look very gothic. Oh well, at least it was black. She wanted to wear a dress that wouldn't drag too much attention while she was with Danny, but it seemed that among all the dresses she had that one was the only decent enough for a fancy restaurant.

The clock indicated that Danny was already half an hour late, but Sam had seen it coming (he was always late) and tried on her boots. She sighed again when she saw that they wouldn't match the delicate dress, she took them off and put on a pair of sandals. 'What have I become?' she asked herself when she saw her reflection in the mirror.

She started putting on her make up, but stopped when she saw her usual lilac lipstick. Well, she had tried a new dress why wouldn't she try a new lipstick color? She opened her make up box and found a light pink one… the 'name' of the color was 'fairy dust'. 'Who is the genius that names the colors?' She thought. She put it on and looked at herself. Her eyes were standing out with no strong color to match them; they were unique in her face.

The clock indicated that Danny was an hour late and unless he had been stopped by a very powerful ghost, he should've arrived already.

She picked her cell phone and dialed his number. Danny answered the phone on the third ring and sounded very depressed.

"Hello?" He answered with a tired voice.

"Danny? Are you okay?" Sam asked, more annoyed then worried.

"Fine, why do you ask?" He imitated the annoyance in her voice.

"Oh nothing." Sam replied, intensifying her anger with a sweet voice that made Danny fear for his life. "It's just that I have been dressing up for an hour because I had a fake date with someone and he didn't show up…"

The silence in the other side of the line made Sam smile in satisfaction; she knew Danny had forgotten their date and knew that now he was having horrible crises of guilty conscience. His penalty for standing her up would be death by torture.

"Sam… I completely forgot about it." He said, his voice sounding very different, sounding very, very guilty.

"Really? I didn't notice." She replied, sarcastically.

"I'll be there in five." He said quickly, but Sam was fuming and wouldn't give him a change to apologize properly.

"Don't bother." She replied, hanging up before he could reply.

She threw the phone to the other side of the room with such strength that it was amazing it didn't break in a thousand pieces. She fell back on her bed, her knees hanging out of the bed. She was angry and she wouldn't cry because her best friend forgot their fake date. It was ridiculous. She was the one telling him to not bother in the first place; she had no right to be angry at him now.

The temperature dropped several degrees and Sam closed her eyes stubbornly, already knowing who was there to disturb her peaceful sulking time. She expected him to throw himself to her and beg for forgiveness, but that never came. He didn't even dare touch her (which surprised her a lot).

She opened an eye to see what he was up to and found him standing in the middle of her room eyeing her like she was a piece of chocolate cake. Was he drooling over her? She shook the thought away, thinking of it as something really ridiculous and sat up, glaring him angrily.

"What are you doing here?"

"I came to apologize…" He said, loosening the collar of his ghost jumpsuit. "And take you to our date?"

"After you forgot about it?" She raised an eyebrow cockily. "I don't think so."

"Sam… I had a lot on my mind, but I swear I didn't stand you up on purpose." He begged. He turned human to reveal he was wearing his casual jeans and a new polo shirt on, looking very handsome.

"Were you going out when I called you?" She asked in curiosity.

"What? Oh, no." He realized she was talking about his clothes. "I just put up them on before flying here; I thought you'd still be interested on the date…" He gave her a small smile. "The reservations are up until nine."

"You have reservations?" Sam asked, incredulously.

"I told you it was going to be a fancy date." Danny pouted. "Please, don't be mad." He offered a hand to help her up.

"Danny…" She sighed, accepting his hand. "Why did you forget it?" She asked, calmly, but not hiding her disappointment.

Danny sighed and put his hands on his pockets. He walked by her side out of her room, down the stairs and to the street.

"I saw Tucker with Valerie." Danny finally said.

"What?" Sam stopped walking in shock.

"I know it's unbelievable." Danny said. "He knew I liked her…" He looked down, feeling completely betrayed. "He's my best friend…"

"Oh Danny… I'm killing Tucker for you, if you want me to." Sam said, trying to make him feel better. Danny gave her a polite smile and put one hand on her shoulder, holding her closer while they walked. He didn't have to answer her. Tucker had some explaining to do.

"You know…" Danny gave her a small smile. "For tonight I was planning on forgetting about it. Let's enjoy ourselves. Tomorrow I'll corner him." He gave her a kiss on the forehead and resumed their way to the restaurant.

The restaurant Danny chose took Sam's breath away. She was very glad she decided to wear a dress like she did because the place was really fancy and they were specialist in vegetarian food. She would kiss him for that if they weren't just friends.

Oh… wait a minute… she could kiss him.

Danny looked down at Sam to see her reaction when he pulled her inside the restaurant, but when he looked at her he saw that she was staring back with a grin. He was going to ask her what was going on when she lifted herself on her tiptoes and kissed him sweetly on the lips, taking him by surprise.

'Why did she do that?' His brain screamed. 'Oh… that's right, we're pretending.' He smiled at her and was going to kiss her back when a waiter came to them asking for the reservations.

Danny was a perfect gentleman. He pulled the chair out of Sam and waited for her to order. He sat in front of her and reached out for her hand every time their hands were free. Sam thought that whoever was going to date Danny for real was going to get a very dedicated boyfriend.

They chatted animatedly about everything. That is, everything but Tucker and Valerie. Danny made her blush commenting on her dress, sandals and make up. He noticed how her eyes stood out with the light make up she had applied and how hot she was in that dress. Of course, he didn't use those same lines to her.

"I think that if you stopped wearing the tights, the baggy skirt and boots you'd be on the top list of the most beautiful girls on Casper High." He enjoyed seeing her blush.

"Well, I think I enjoy my unpopularity." She defended herself casually, not looking at him in the eyes.

"So, the special treatment is just for me?" He smirked.

"Just for tonight." She answered, busing herself with her orange juice.

"Then I'll have to take you to more dates."

Sam was going to answer him in her sarcastic way when the waiter came to them giving the check Danny had asked a few minutes before. She saw him reading the numbers and reached out for her purse, but he reached out a hand to stop her.

"What?" She asked.

"I'm paying." He said, opening his wallet and giving the waiter his credit card.

"Danny, this is ridiculous." Sam lowered her voice. "You don't have to pay it, it's a pretend date!"

"Yeah, but my parents left me a good amount of money, so I can spend as much as I want." He grinned. "Come on; let me be a gentleman this once."

"It's unfair…" She complained, but Danny didn't let her pay a single nickel. "Besides, I don't see a single person I know in this restaurant, so pretending is pointless."

"Yes, but what about the journalists?" He grinned. "For all I know they can be standing in the next table, they can even have a camera hidden in the waiter's pocket."

"You're paranoid, you know that?"

The waiter returned his credit card and Danny and Sam stood up and walked into the night. The streets were dark and empty, it would have been scary if they were alone, but by each other's side they didn't fear anything.

"So, are you coming over tonight?" Danny asked casually.

"Do you want me to?" She asked quietly. "I mean… now that Kyle turned out to be okay, I don't think that will be necessary."

"Do you trust him already?" He asked, trying to sound like it didn't matter, but failing miserably.

"Well, not completely, but I guess we'll be fine." She shot a tentatively smile to him.

"Okay then..." They arrived at Sam's house and she walked up the front porch. "I hope you had a good time."

"I did, did you?"

"The best." He reached down to kiss her softly and backed away quickly, afraid that someone was going to open the door again. "So... I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah… goodnight, Danny." She opened the door and walked inside, blowing him a kiss.

Danny walked lightheaded and daydreaming to his home and was only interrupted by his cell phone that had been ringing madly for several minutes before Danny noticed.

"Hello?"

"Danny, where are you man? I've been calling your house for hours and you wouldn't answer; why are you out so late? Another ghost?"

The sound of Tucker's voice brought Danny from heaven to hell in a stomach-dropping fall. Tucker had betrayed him. Tucker had stolen the girl he wanted.

"What do you want?" Danny replied, indifferently.

"I wanted to ask you about Sam, I mean, you two are not telling me anything anymore." Tucker sounded annoyed… how dares he?

"She's okay, why do you ask?" Danny sounded even more annoyed.

"Hey, are you pissed of? Did she break up with you?"

"Tucker, she didn't break up with me because we were never together, if you remember, we're pretending to date. And, yes, I am pissed of."

"Chill out man. I bet you're angry because she's not dating you for real, I mean… after all those kisses."

"I'm pissed of because my best friend stole the girl I had been courting for months." Danny finally said. He had arrived at his house, closed the door behind him and walked straight to the kitchen for no reason at all.

"Jeez…" Tucker had gone silent for a few moments. "That's one of the reasons I'm calling you…"

"Too late, don't you think?" Danny yelled. His ego had been hurt. A girl was stolen from him. He was not going to let it go that easily.

"Are you going to be immature and not let me talk?" Tucker yelled back.

"I don't want to hear you talk about how wonderful Valerie is; now I'm never going to find you, thanks to you!"

"That's right, because we're dating and differently from you, it's for real!"

Danny, being caught completely by surprise, couldn't find enough words to describe how angry he was feeling so he just hung up the phone. In his rage, he didn't notice he had pulverized the phone with his ghost powers.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Danny?"

Sam's sweet voice rang in Danny's head, he was grog from sleep. 'Stupid dreams' he thought, turning to the other side and trying to sleep some more.

"Danny, wake up."

If that was just Sam's voice in his head it couldn't have pushed his blankets away. The cold air hit his hot body and Danny woke up fully, opening his eyes to see Sam grinning at him.

"I didn't know you slept only in your boxers."

"I forgot to take it off last night." He answered sarcastically; annoyed that she had awakened him. "Why are you here in a Saturday morning anyway?"

"Because Tucker called me…" She sat up on the edge of his bed, giving a sad smile. So she knew what had happened.

"I don't want to talk about him." Danny turned to the other side, not wanting to face her.

"Danny, you know Tucker since forever, you can't throw away your friendship because of a girl." She said, patiently.

"She's not just some girl." Danny groaned. His reaction made Sam grow silent for a few minutes. Danny felt as she pulled the covers up again.

"Can I lie down?" She asked, timidly.

He grabbed the covers from her and lifted it up to help her join him. She kicked off her shoes and lay quietly next to him. He put his arm around her and opened his eyes to see hers staring back at him. Their noses were less than an inch apart.

"Why did you come here?" He asked, cuddling comfortably with her. She was better than a teddy bear.

"I was roughly awakened by my parents talking about how wonderful it was that I was giving Kyle a chance." She said, boringly. "It looks like yesterday's paper printed a picture of me at the restaurant with him… it means that today they probably printed you and me, so I ran away before they saw it."

"Then you must still be tired." Danny smiled, seeing that she was yawning.

"I'm not." She replied. "My cell phone rang when I was going to the library and Tucker told me about your fight." She felt Danny's muscles tensing up and she stared at him, almost commanding him to talk to her about the fight. "Tell me about it, please."

"I was angry because he was kissing Valerie and I lost control, that's all." Danny said, but her glare made him continue talking "He started showing off, okay? He said they're dating now." Danny tried to look away from her eyes, those eyes that always seemed to know when he lied, but she kept his eyes on hers by placing a soft hand on his cheek.

"I meant it when I said you shouldn't let a girl ruin your friendship, Danny." Sam said, "This attraction you and Tucker have for her will not last forever, but you're very good friends and it's not easy to trust someone as much as you trust each other."

"Attraction?" Danny smiled at her amusedly. "You're speaking like when you had that debate with Paulina."

"I always speak like that." Sam answered, relaxing into the conversation once more.

"Sam… do you really don't believe in love at all?" He asked, surprised. "I mean, I thought you were defending your subject like the teacher asked you to, but you sound like you really think it doesn't exist." Danny frowned.

"That's right." Sam smiled sweetly at him. "I think it doesn't exist, it's temporary attraction, just like I said back there."

Danny took his eyes from hers and pulled his arm from around her, to roll on his back and stare blankly at the ceiling. He had never heard such disappointing line in his life.

"Hey, why the long face?" Sam leaned forward, resting her chin on his chest. "Don't let my opinions get to you, they don't matter. You can believe whatever you want."

"But you don't." He said simply.

"Danny," She sighed impatiently, she didn't want to depress him with her philosophy, it was her private conclusion, and she wanted him to have his own. "I don't believe in love, but I do believe in attraction, it can last days, weeks, months, heck, even decades, you don't have to go all depressed about it."

"Why not call it 'love', then?"

"Because the word 'love' sounds too… transcendental; Like it's something magical that drive people insane in the name of something bigger than ourselves. I don't think it's all that, I just think it's something plain and simple, like attraction." She explained. Danny was staring at her, understanding.

"That's very courageous of you to knowledge that." He said. "I mean, I see people that lives for love, people that say that love is like destiny. It sounds like people who believe in it are fooling themselves in order to keep living. It's sad."

"I know." Sam caressed his cheek, grazing hers fingers over his jawbone and nose. "Life is sad." She took her hand from his face and rested it on his chest. "That's why I say you shouldn't fight with Tucker." She finally got back to the main subject. "Please, go talk to him."

"Knowing Tucker, he's probably angry right now. I'll just wait a few days for him to cool down." Danny saw that Sam was looking at him suspiciously. "I will, I promise, I'll just wait, okay?" Sam finally decided to let the subject drop;

"You know there is something else I have to tell you…" She rested her cheek on his chest "Mr. Miles installed security cameras around my house… I just saw it this morning." and drifted off in a peaceful sleep.

"It won't change a thing." He whispered to her not expecting an answer.

Oh my goodness... I can't stop writting fluffiness... I'm addicted. Seriously, addicted. Anyway, I think I'll take longer to update next chapter (a week and a half perhaps) because I have exams (do you have any idea how hard college exams are? I'm going to die! I mean it!) and I have to finish my movie's storyboard to finally start animating the whole thing (my art director is working full time, it's almost creeping me out. The poor girl will colapse!). Anyway, I gotta go and study more.

Reviews are always welcome!