Chapter Seven
I barged into Danny's room, "I need a huge massive favour."
Danny glanced up from his magazine, "hello to you too?"
I dropped my bag on the floor and shed off my work jacket, "are you going to hear me out or not?"
Danny set aside his magazine, "you have my full attention."
"Fantastic," I plopped down beside him on his bed, "ok, so I was at work today right, and out of the blue they inform me that there's an awards night coming up."
"An awards night?" Danny repeated leaning back against his pillows and stretching out his legs.
I nodded, "yeah, it has the same kind of concept as the 'random nights on the town,' except in this case someone decides we're all working to hard, and we need a nice shiny trophy to prove it."
"And you want me to come with you," Danny supplied.
I nodded, "I'll be eternally grateful."
Danny shrugged, "sure, I'd love to."
"Really?" I questioned, "Oh I love you." I got to my feet, grabbed my bag and began digging through it, "its for this weekend. Is that enough notice for you?"
"My schedule is completely free until next month," Danny replied.
I stopped digging and glanced at him, "really? What's going on next month?"
Danny shrugged and played with his fingernails, "we go on tour."
I froze and stared at him, "really, for how long?"
"Well the tour is two months, and then we head into the studio to do some demos before recording the new album," Danny explained watching my reactions carefully.
"Wow," I murmured plopping back down onto his bed, my search for invitations forgotten, "so you pull another Danny Jones disappearing act huh?"
Danny smiled softly, "something like that."
I was silent.
It was such a bizarre concept to consider. Danny leaving? I had become so accustomed to his little quirks and habits, and so used to seeing him on a daily basis, that it was easy to believe that he would be there forever. We were good friends, I liked him, I trusted him, I enjoyed spending time with him and I was attracted like hell to him. He was one of the few people in my life I felt like I could really count on.
But now he was leaving, heading back off into the music scene. Would he be away for so long that he became Mr. Room 302 all over again.
I nodded, and lowered my eyes, "you'll be back right?"
Danny grinned, "of course."
That broke the ice a bit and I grinned back, before continuing my dig through my bag. I finally extracted the invitations and passed him one, "here we go."
Danny scanned it and raised an eyebrow, "black tie dress code?"
I nodded and stood up, "yeah, you have a suit don't you?"
Danny rolled his eyes, "of course."
I put my coat back on, "fantastic. Listen I got to go, I have a few more days at work to slog my way through before I can booze it up with you."
Danny laughed and rolled off his bed, "you're going to get drunk at your awards night?"
I slung my bag over my shoulder, "absolutely. Last time Lana and I were so pissed we ended up on the stage singing "I Will Survive." It was the best night of my life."
Danny opened the door for me, "the worst thing about that is that I can actually picture it."
"We're rowdy when we get drunk," I informed him as I stepped out into the hallway. I paused and turned to face him suddenly serious, "hey, you'll call me and stuff when you leave wont you?"
Instead of answering Danny did the most perfect thing I could imagine in a situation like that. He stepped forward and pulled me into a massive bear hug. An 'everything will be ok' bear hug. He squeezed me tight before pulling back and pressing a kiss to my forehead, "of course I'll call," he assured me.
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"Hey are you ready yet? I think we…. Whoa!"
I glanced over my shoulder to see Danny standing in my doorway, hands firmly over his eyes. I smiled, "never seen underwear before Danny?"
"Not on you," he replied bluntly.
"Well, I suppose it was only a matter of time," I mused grabbing a towel and wrapping it around myself, "moments like these are great examples as to why one should knock before barging into a ladies room. Did your mother teach you nothing?"
Danny frowned, "I'm sorry. Are you decent now?"
"In a towel. But I can't find anything to wear."
Danny removed his hand from is eyes and glanced at my closet that was bursting to its seams with clothes. He stared at me, "you can't be serious."
"I'm very serious."
"You do realize we're late."
"I know."
"Amber," Danny whined.
"Well can I get an opinion?" I questioned. I grabbed two dresses from my closet and held them up for him to see, "what do you think?"
Danny glanced at them, "they're nice."
"Thanks, but which one do you think I should wear?"
"Is this one of those questions where there is no right answer?" Danny questioned plopping down onto my bed.
I shook my head, "I trust your opinion."
"You do?"
"Yeah, so which one?"
"I don't know Amber. You'd look nice in both of them."
"Danny," I whined.
Danny rolled his eyes, "ok then the blue one."
"Thank you."
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"Our first award goes to Cheryl Summers."
I groaned, "oh god."
Danny clapped politely and watched the middle aged woman practically run up onto the stage, "what's wrong with that?"
"Last year her speech went for half an hour," I informed him.
"She insisted on thanking everyone she could think of," Lana added from across the table, "maybe this year she can thank her mum for making that dress for her."
I sniggered.
Up on stage Cheryl took her award and pranced over to the microphone, "Thank you so much! Now as always there are so many people I would like to say a big thank you to, I have no idea where to start…"
"You can start with the curtains that are missing from your house because you are wearing them," Lana smirked.
Eric, Danny and I all snorted with laughter.
"You're particularly vicious this year, Lana," I mused slumping down into my seat and getting comfortable.
Lana frowned, "I hate awards nights."
"How many have you been to?" Danny asked curiously.
Lana smiled, "oh this is only my second one. I started working when Amber did."
"Lana's just bitter because she didn't get an award last time," I smirked, "which is quite understandable considering we'd only been working here for like three months."
"You got one," Lana pointed out.
"I give a good first impression," I replied with a shrug.
"Really?" Eric questioned, "I thought you were a right weirdo when I first met you."
I blinked, 'thanks Eric."
He grinned, "no problem."
I turned to Danny, "did you think I was a weirdo when we first met?"
Danny shook his head, "I thought you were beautiful."
It was one of those rare moments where I found myself utterly tongue tied with nothing to say. I stared at him and he stared back, and I felt it. That connection. I was distantly aware of Lana saying something to Eric, and the quiet chatter amidst Cheryl thanking individual after individual. But none of that really mattered at that moment. All that mattered was Danny's blue eyes boring into mine, and the awareness that sizzled between us.
At that moment I knew that he remembered. I realized he knew exactly what he said to me that infamous night. He was just opening his mouth to say something when suddenly my name was called.
"Amber Blair."
I blinked and tore my eyes away from his. The connection was broken. I glanced up to the stage in confusion and saw the Gremlin gesturing me to come up there.
Acting almost on autopilot I got to my feet and briefly met Danny's eyes once more before making my way up onto stage to collect my award.
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"What in the world was going on with you and Danny before?" Lana asked curiously later on that evening when the award giving was over and everyone had relocated into the ballroom.
I stared at my little plaque curiously before shoving it into my handbag, "we had a moment," I answered simply.
"A moment?" Lana repeated, "Could you be anymore vague?"
"I'm not sure," I replied utterly distracted, "do you know where he is?"
"Who?"
"Danny."
"Last I heard he was going to the toilets," Lana responded passing me a drink.
I took it, "I need to talk to him."
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Easier said than done. It's amazing how difficult it can be to make your way across a room when suddenly every single person wants to talk to you. Out of nowhere people I didn't even recognize were congratulating me on my award and buying be drinks.
Before I even realized what was going on it was closing time and we were all being loaded into taxis to go home.
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To be continued...
