Chapter 2

Danny hadn't been lying when he said he could talk for both of them; since that first conversation three days ago, she'd gotten used to the fact that Danny could and would talk about any and everything.

He reminded her of Jessica, if Jessica were a male, less vapid, more witty, and came from a small town that actually had interesting things happen because unlike Forks is was a tourist town.

"That's around the time Tucker decided it would be a good idea to flirt with biker dude's girlfriend, if I was any less of a good friend I would have let him suffer the ass kicking alone" Danny groused.

"Alone?", Danny, she had learned while a terrible liar could be very particular with his words.

"I tried to back him up and got to suffer with him" Danny droned with false cheer

As Danny had told her, the purpose of the call center was to let teens "bitch and moan" with people who couldn't and wouldn't know anything about them, who had their own problems, and as such wouldn't judge.

'Why deal with all the teenage angst and bitterness, when they can just make the teens turn it on themselves' Danny stated dryly that first day, 'They already know we're not going to tell them anything of significance anyway.'

It became pretty clear after day two that Danny was using her as a personal diary to grumble about all the little injustices in his admittedly kind of messed up life.

"You didn't tell anybody?" she asked more to say something than for actual care of his life; it was a skill she was slowly picking up to make her seem more involved and less (broken, dying, incomplete) out of it.

Her dad at least had noticed the small almost insignificant change, given the way he tended to stop and stare every time she responded to something he said.

She winced, 'This was the point, make herself seem fine so she could stay a little while longer, it wasn't her fault she was so broken, she shouldn't feel guilty'

Her conscience didn't care for her reasoning

"Who would I tell?" he asked dryly "The dude's girlfriend laughing at us, my parents who sent me to my room for the night three hours ago, the cops who hate me, school teachers who'd question why I was there and tell one of the previous two?"

Fact number two she had learned about Danny was he didn't trust adults or authority figures in general.

Apparently Danny was involved with something that got him into a lot of fights, had him skipping school, and basically made everybody in school think he was on drugs because he always showed up to class pale bruised and red eyed.

She wasn't sure how she was supposed to feel about the fact she was talking to a delinquent, no matter what he called himself.

'How did I get here, talking with some troublemaking head case' she thought a touch harshly, but she didn't feel like being fair anymore, she'd been more than fair her whole life, 'for what, to have an excuse to stall being in the same town I met the man who (didn't want, hates, left, gone, gone, gone) dumped me?'

Because interesting stories and witty dialogue aside, Danny had problems; real not teenage problems. He got into fights, gave advice to criminals when said criminals weren't mugging him or causing problems around the town, he had issues with his parents, he had a creepy uncle who hated his father and flirted with his mother and constantly tried to discredit his parent's work, he had a runaway homeless cousin that he let sleep in his closet and to top it off he had a grand total of two friends one he was currently having issues with. Problems

"I don't know how to help you Danny" she finally replied tiredly and wanting to end this mandated conversation.

"…You don't have to" come his reply, "I wasn't asking for your help"

"…Oh", had she zoned out again and missed something?

"…Listen, Iz"

"Bella" she corrected automatically, regretting the day she'd made the mistake of telling him her full name, he apparently had a thing about giving people nicknames.

"Listen" he continued on as if he hadn't heard her, "I know why you're so reluctant to talk"

"I doubt that" she snapped trying to cut that line of conversation

"Um chello girl, have you forgotten your talking to the spokesperson for Teen Angst United, I know about not wanting to have to talk."

She conceded to the point that he probably did, though still silently maintained her situation was different.

"And I know you think your situation is special, and it probably is" he said picking the answer from her head, reinforcing the idea that he knew what he was talking about, "But you don't have to talk to me about the big stuff, not everybody is a big stuff talker, I wasn't"

'Could've fooled me'

"Your probably thinking could have fooled you right"

'Is he a mind rea-(pain, broken, not whole, Ed-) THAT' she thought sarcastically, 'wouldn't matter my heads too messed up to read anyway'

"My sister forced me to do this, so I decided to be a sarcastic ass or blatantly lie about any and everything they told me" Danny continued on, "My so called mentor thought my name was Tom, and I used that as more of an excuse to ignore him while he talked"

'…I should've thought of that' she thought, thinking about her stupid nickname. Despite the sarcasm of her thoughts she was paying close attention to his words.

"Eventually I had a day, one of the bad ones, the ones where life just seems to do its best to beat you down and stomp on you while you're there, y'know"

'She knew, Godhow she knew'

Cold forest, cut on her finger burning like the James' scar, pain and darkness and "I don't want you"

"So I snap at the dude and let it him and his helpful ass feel it" Danny continued, "I told him how angry I was all the time, I told him how terrified I was of what that anger would do to my future, I told him how I was always such a freaking outcast, that I walk around every day feeling half dead and that sometimes I want to just get it over with and finish off that other half because all these human emotions were killing me. Because my 'not rightness' in the head was driving me INSANE!"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

" Y'know what he said" Danny asked after a long moment when neither one of them spoke

She didn't answer

"He said that I could if I wanted to"

"What!?" she couldn't hold back the shocked emotion in her voice, her throat scratched from lack of using such high octaves.

On the phone Danny laughed

"Yeah that was what I was thinking too, along with, 'is this guy serious'?" Danny chuckled like it was a fond memory, "I could hear how uncomfortable he really was, but he told me he was just some guy from Cincinnati, with a former drinking problem and a deadbeat mom and a dead dad, he couldn't do anything to stop a guy whose real name he probably didn't even know."

"…"

"But, but if I wanted to vent at someone, talk about things I couldn't say to anyone else to a guy who wouldn't say anything to anyone else, who didn't have preexisting standards of me, then he was my guy."

"…That's, actually kind of mature" she finally got out

"So you see Iz"

"Bella" she corrected

"So you see" he ignored, "You don't have to worry about sounding crazy, or that I'll do something you don't want, or even if it's something mystical like you happen to be a demon hunter" she slightly choked at the last one, "I'll listen, but more importantly we don't have to talk about the big 'IT' right now, we all have our snapping point, but for now how about you just tell me about your day?" he finished before remaining silent.

"…"

"…"

"…It rained"

She could hear the smile in his voice when he responded,

"I'd love to hear about that"