"Sam, it's your turn, now," Delinda says and Sam looks up from her phone to see all her friends's faces turned towards her, looking at her impatiently, eagerly. Nessa's smile is so huge that Sam is fairly sure her face is going to break from smiling so hard. "Time to share your childhood anecdote."
"Right. Childhood anecdote," she ignores them all and starts typing on her phone again. "I don't remember agreeing with this."
Nessa glances at Mary and her smile turns into a smirk and out of nowhere she violently grabs Sam's phone from her hands and stands up on her toes, making it impossible for Sam to reach it.
"Hey! Give it back!" Sam tells her, frustration already in her tone and on her face.
Even with her heels, Sam is still too short to reach Nessa's hand. Then Nessa—feeling like being petty and annoying till the end—throws the phone to Mike—himself scared of Sam—immediately throws it to Delinda, who sent it to Mary and finally Danny is the last person to gain the precious phone.
It's the unsmiling and cold look that Sam wears on her face while walking up to him that has Danny sink further onto his seat. Surely, Sam wouldn't hurt him for a phone, right?"
"Give. It. Back," her face is very close to his, and she looks rather scary and determined.
But Danny feels bold and brave (and maybe he has a death wish too), and puts the phone in his pocket. "Nope. Just tell us something and only then, I will give you your phone back."
The glare she throws him screams betrayal and revenge and Danny swallows a little. Sam can be terrifying when she sets her mind to it.
"Yeah, right, spit it out, Sam," Nessa tells her, smirking. "We don't have all day."
And it's Danny's smug face that makes something clink in her mind. This is gonna be so amusing.
"Alright," she turns away from Danny and falls back onto her seat. She is aware of the gaze set upon her, and she clears her throat once she found out the right story to tell. "So, when I was little my dad used to tell me stories about a mysterious island that flies in the sky. See, there was a castle on this floating island and I was a firm believer that the castle existed and little me wanted to prove it to everyone. So one day, I run away with a boy that saved my life once, and we went looking for the island with for sole companion our determination. We hid wherever we could. At some point, cops caught up with us and we run away, fell in a hole and met an old and homeless man that thought he was still a miner. He told us he believed in the existence of the island too. In the end, he helped us the best he could and you know…" Sam stops, her face deadly serious, daring anyone to say something.
Danny looks away, fighting a smile.
Mary frowns.
Delinda looks rather suspicious.
And Mike shakes his head, even more certain now that Sam is completely crazy.
"That's complete….rubbish," Nessa stutters not believing a word of Sam's story.
And Sam's laugh bursts all around them, around Danny and it feels funny tingles running all across his skin at the sound of it. He could hear her laughing all day.
"You're being so rude, Nessa. I didn't judge your childhood story, you shouldn't judge mine," Sam says as the brown in her eyes seem to sparkle. She meets Danny's gaze and she winks at him because she knows he got the reference.
A laugh rises from Danny's throat then because only her would do that. Only Sam would use movie plots and make up childhood stories based on those movies.
They've watched it together, Castle In The Sky, it's Sam's favourite; he found out after they spent a few movie nights together. Danny remembers how her eyes changed, how her face relaxed when she immersed herself in the movie, as if she wanted to be inside, as if she no longer wanted to be Sam Marquez but someone else that nobody could take, nobody could catch, because the person didn't exist. Maybe she didn't want to exist, maybe she wanted to disappear. Danny just hopes she won't.
"Stop laughing, Danny! She didn't tell us the truth!" Nessa says, offended. "And don't you dare give her her phone back! A deal is a deal."
Sam smiles at Nessa and slides forwards Danny. Her lips brushes Danny's ear and he shivers as she whispers to him. "I used to be left-handed but when I was a kid I fell from a tree and broke my left arm. It was horrible and if I concentrate hard enough I can remember how painful it was. Anyway, when I fell down I stayed by the tree, I didn't call for anyone, I just sat still and cried for hours and eventually passed out from pain and exhaustion. Turned out I broke my arm in three different places and I couldn't hold a pen with my left-hand for about four months, so I had to learn to write with my right-hand. Now I'm good with both hands but I prefer using with my right-hand because sometimes it still hurts holding just a simple pen for too long with my left-hand… The pain is still here even if I got accustomed to it."
This time Danny knows she's telling the truth. Because there's no pretence, no fake smile on her face. Her eyes are bare and full of genuineness. Besides, he noticed the marks on her arm, he counted the tiny scars from the surgery on her skin one day when she was sleeping and he had nothing better to do but watch her. He never asked her about them. Because he doesn't want to force his way into Sam's life, he wants her to let him in, at her own pace.
"Was it a good enough story for you?"
Now her nose is touching his, it tickles a little, and her lips are not far from his either. If he moves forward—just a tad—he can kiss her, full on the mouth. He wants to, but he doesn't because he promised her he wouldn't, wouldn't expose their relationship until she was ready to do so.
So he just nods to answer her question, the movement causing his nose to slightly brush hers.
"Good. Now, give me my phone," she holds her hand out to him and he has no other choice than giving her the phone back.
"You're not allowed to tell them what I just told you," she steps back as she turns around to leave, his eyes following her figure.
"Danny!" Nessa hisses and punches him in the shoulder.
"She told me something, Nessa," Danny says, holding his hands out in defence. "Something real...this time."
"How do you know? Maybe she was lying," Mike asks as he finishes up his drink.
"She wasn't," he says simply. Danny realises that Sam's always sincere with him. Even when she lies which is funny. Sam is at her most authentic, at her most honest when he's around her.
"You're not going to tell us, right?" Mary asks him.
The smile on his face and the shake of his head say it all. "Nope. She'd end me if I do and no offence but she's scarier than all of you combined."
