Toto and the Boys III: Dannie

Chapter 14

A piece of the past...

With her father now in prison, Troy thought Dannie would start to recover.

But two weeks after her father was arrested and sent to prison for child abuse, he noticed that Dannie was getting worse. She looked unkempt compared to her usual clean and tidy self. And she barely fought back to his banters.

"What do you think is wrong with her?" he asked Miguel and Lee.

"Her father's gone to prison, right?" Lee asked.

"Maybe they are still adjusting. The man worked for their food," said Miguel.

"Her mother doesn't work?" Troy asked.

Lee shrugged. "We don't know a lot about Danica."

They later confirmed that Dannie was having money problems after eavesdropping in Jackie and George's conversation.

But with everything he had heard and with how Dannie was acting in class, Troy couldn't help but think that something else was happening with her. He just couldn't point it out.

PRESENT DAY

"Bored" was not enough a word to picture what I was feeling that time.

It was not summer season so there were not a lot of sexy vics and gals around. I could even count with my tires the number of vehicles that caught my attention over the past two days or so of my stay on the island.

I was missing a lot of action in Bacolod. The wedding was on its way and I knew the bride and groom would be going around town meeting a lot of interesting people. And I needed something fun and fresh even for just a while.

Dannie baby and Troy seemed to have forgotten that they had driven me to this freaking island. When would we go out of the resort and tour the place? The last time I was here, Jordan and Georgie were having some push-and-pull issues of their own that they forgot the island had more things to offer than kissing and fighting. I couldn't even close my headlights and remember what had happened the last time I was here because it was a total failure. Jordan was a big failure that time and I prayed Troy would not follow his example.

*****

After their dinner at the seashore, the air around them had somehow relaxed. Dannie was glad that Troy was back to his old self and thankful that he chose to forget about what he found out about her past. If he was still bothered, he never showed.

"What do you want to do?" she asked him the following day. They just had breakfast at the Filipino restaurant in the resort and Troy was playing with his camera again.

He mumbled something which she did not catch.

"What?"

He looked up and looked at her with a blank expression. "What?"

She gave out a sigh and slouched in her chair. "This was your plan, remember? Don't you have any plans for today?"

"Why? Are you getting bored?"

"No, but I'd like to know if you have any plans so I'll know what I can do today."

"Should everything be planned for you?"

She stared at him for a time before answering, "I like to be organized. So?" When he continued to tweak his camera instead of answering her question, she prodded, "Troy." When he continued to ignore her she kicked him under the table as she called, "Brady!"

"Ow! What? What?" he asked with irritation.

"What's the plan?"

He placed his precious camera on the table and leaned back in his chair. "You're so impatient. Why don't you just relax in your seat and enjoy this moment? Enjoy the view," he finally said, waving one arm toward the open blue-green shore. "Breath them all in before you lock yourself in that convent."