Just a Bet

8. Confession

We walk out the restaurant, well, excluding Beca, her shift isn't over yet. 

"Danny, you staying at our house tonight?" Nathan asks me.

"Yeah, my dad still in town, so I'm not going anywhere near my house."

"I feel the same way sometimes."

"Oh, I never really asked about your parents, that's because I kind of, don't care."

"Ok, that's nice."

"Yep." 

~~~

I wake up and it's still dark out, look over at the clock.

3:28 AM 

I slide out of Carsons bed, being careful not to wake him up, and head downstairs for a glass of water. I walk into the kitchen and see Nathan sitting at the island.

"That's great."

"Nice to see you to Danny."

"There it is, again." I say slightly annoyed.

"What? Me calling you by your name."

"The problem is you never did it before, the problem is also the photo, and the fair, and the everything!"

"That reminds me, I still have that thing I need to tell you."

"Yep, I was afraid of that, just get it over with quickly, I wanna get back to bed." He flashes me a hurt look. "You see, you look so sad, and I'm even more confused." He gets up off his chair and walk towards me, he gets very close, to close, so close I start to back up into the fridge. "Danny, I'm in love with you."

"WHA-" He slaps his hand over my mouth. "No need to wake up Carson. Just let me explain. You weren't supposed to start dating Carson, I didn't think you'd actually sleep with him, you were supposed to get mad and come here, and I was supposed to tell you how I feel, I made a great plan, and you ruined it by sleeping with my stupid brother!"

He removes his hand from my mouth. "Let me get this straight. You thought that telling your brother to sleep with me would make me fall in love with you? You thought that sleeping with 3/4 of the girls at school would make me fall in love with you? You thought that dating my best friend would make me fall in love you."

"Well, yeah-"

"When? Please tell me when you 'fell in love' with me?"

"About two years ago."

"Two years ago? Why, what- what was the cause."

"You are, you- you're so smart, and brave, and courageous, and- and, and gorgeous!" I'm slightly taken aback by the actual complements. "You are the only girl who has every stood up to me, and all the other girls, just, melt in my hands. And I tried to forget you by drowning myself in other women, but it didn't work. And then, I had this great idea, fail grade 12, see Danny more, and then I had this whole reputation before I even knew it, and that's why I call you sweet pea, I honestly hate it more than you, and I don't even know who I am anymore."

I stand, eyes wide, baffled at the paragraph that came out in a matter of seconds. "That, is, a lot to unpack."

"Yeah."

"But, it's a no!"

"What?"

"All that stuff you did wasn't really you, but, it was still stuff you did, and it's icky."

"Icky?"

"Very, very, icky. Especially the photo." I cringe.

"Yeah, sorry about that."