TWICE // D.S.

TWENTY-THREE

"we're here shortcake" daniel announced, after parking his car in a driveway, "oh right. elle, we're here"

aubrielle narrowed her eyes at him, "wait a damn minute" she suspiciously said before it dawned on her, "you did that on purpose so I'd shut up!"

"no" he responded, "well essentially yes but it was more so to test if you actually wouldn't talk" he quickly defended himself, "trust me when i say i love our conversations and hearing you talk" he admitted, pulling the keys out of the ignition, "but i also love your reaction to when i call you shortcake." he playfully winked before quickly getting out of the car and locking it.

aubrielle opened the door. correction, she attempted to open the door twice before she sent daniel a glare through the glass and manually unlocked it and got out of the car, "wow, so you confess something you love and then you lock me in the car!" she shouted, crossing her arms with a faux sad expression, "i see where our friendships stands"

"sorry shortcake, I like to have my fun" he admitted, his eyes widening when aubrielle snapped her head to him, "to be fair, I didn't mean to lock you in the car" he quickly said as he slowly backed away glancing the distance between him, the girl, and the house, "but I still do love your reaction to shortcake" he admitted, before running up the driveway, causing aubrielle to quickly follow after. until he barged into a house, leaving the door wide open as he cautiously looked at the girl with a couch and multiple feet between them.

aubrielle immediately halted at the door frame, "daniel!" she whispered yelled, "what the hell are you doing?"

daniel's widened eyes had turn back to normal as an over-confident smile appeared on his lips, he glanced to his left before looking at aubrielle who stood dumbfounded at the doorframe, "you sure like making good impressions"

aubrielle's eyes furrowed in confusion, something that could be mistake as genuine annoyance, "what are you talki-" aubrielle abruptly stopped upon appearance of an older woman. she had short brown hair with some highlights to lighten it up which went well with her dark brown eyes. before she could take further notice into her outfit she stammered, "um- uh- I'm sorry about- daniel?" she questioned, noticing how the lady had a pleasant smile on her face, "mind explaining how you're in this lady's house?"

"oh!" the lady voiced, her hands swung up before going on her lap as she bent slightly, "I'm keri, and I'm guessing you're aubrielle?" she asked, extended her hand.

aubrielle hesitanly took it before she made another realization, "you're daniel's mother" she confidently said, an uneasy feeling in her stomach. she would've preferred a more mature introduction, to set a better impression. that was out of the window now, "I'm sorry about earlier, I just thought daniel entered into a random house. I wouldn't leave it passed him to do it" she shrugged, narrowing her eyes at daniel who watched the interaction.

in reaction, daniel brought his head back as if he couldn't believe aubrielle would make such assumption, "yeah right, I would not walk into a random house" he retaliated, "clearly you wouldn't sense you're still nervously standing outside of it" he chuckled, his eyebrows raised in amusement.

immediately aubrielle took a step into a house before she rolled her eyes, "so tell me keri, how did you put up with that for so many years?" she asked, gesturing her hands wildly as daniel stepped closer to the pair.

keri laughed at aubrielle's words, before her smile faded, "sweety, you're not serious are you?" she asked

"of course not!" aubrielle quickly responded, "well, actually, if you had an answer I wouldn't mind knowing" she sent her a kind smile.