The Thread Between Danny and Me

Chapter 5: We're still friends

"Yo, MJ!"

"Danny!" I waved at him from across the hall. When we made our way to each other in the middle, he looked down at me and grinned. I returned it.

"We gonna skate later today?" he asked.

"Yeah! Maybe this time I'll manage to stop without falling."

"Unlikely."

"Come on Danny," I whined. "The least you can do is lie to me."

Danny laughed. "I'd never lie to you, MJ."

"Never?"

"Never." His ocean eyes swirled.

"Well, whatever. I'll see you after school, okay?"

"Yeah, MJ, see you after school."

I watched Danny leave. After he disappeared around the corner I walked back to my locker. Logan was also there, gathering his books.

"Hey Maria," he said.

"Hey! I'll walk with you to study hall."

He nodded, then looked at me, thoughtful. "You've been hanging out with Danny McGarry a lot. I didn't know you guys were friends."

"Yeah. We started sitting next to each other in social studies this year."

Logan was silent after that, and I couldn't understand why. Josh joined up with us a moment later, and his presence added to the thick, uncomfortable silence.

And then, it dawned on me.

"Oh! It's not like that," I said quickly. I felt my cheeks heat from embarrassment. "I don't like Danny. Not at all. We're just friends. I don't think I could ever like him. I wish people could realize a guy and a girl can be friends and not like each other, ya know?" I rambled.

Logan cast a glance at Josh.

"Anyway. Did you guys finish the algebra homework? If not, want to do a study group?"

"I haven't done it yet," Josh said.

"I have," Logan said. "But you guys should work on it. I've got some other stuff for science I want to do."

"Are you sure?" I tried to contain my excitement.

"Yeah, positive."

Once we were in study hall, Josh and I got permission to work on our algebra homework. We scooted our desks together in the corner and cracked open our books. I looked carefully at the problems and then began the task of solving them.

"You're really good at Math, Maria," Josh said after I'd shown him how to correctly do the problem.

"Thanks. I've already studied ahead so that helps. Next year we'll be in high school and that's when grades count for scholarships."

Josh looked at his math book again. "Did you do number twelve?"

As we continued to work on our homework together, Josh cast glances at me every so often. I wondered what he was thinking. Did he believe that I liked Danny? What if Josh liked me? I wondered how to broach the subject again without it seeming weird.

"It's cool you're friends with Danny McGarry," Josh said.

I sighed internally, glad he brought it up. "Yeah. I don't think we've ever talked until we were assigned seats next to each other. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised that people think we're going out. God, Danny must hate that," I laughed.

"Why would he hate that?"

I shrugged. "'Cause, I'm not his type. Emily Saladin is. Which is fine because he's not my type either. I dunno, I guess I don't really think about stuff like that. We're friends and that's the end."