true to his word, freddie came round to apartment 20 the next morning and they biked down to the beach.
there were about 5 other guys there as well and they messed around playing soccer on the beach near a group of about 5 girls.
daniel was good at soccer, he played back in jersey, top of his team. although considering the people at his school it wasn't hard to be.
the girls mainly sat on towels, soaking in the hot sticky sun and listening to music that was coming from a boom box.
he made eye contact with one of the girls, she was wearing a blue one piece with a matching hairband in her blonde hair, she was real pretty.
they smile at eachother until the ball was kicked into their group and all the girls went running down to the water, daniel juggles the ball on his knees and freddie laughs
"show off, you should try out for the team"
the boys run off and daniel chases after them "whos that blonde in the blue?"
freddie laughs "the hills"
"the hills? what's the hills?" daniels confused
"it's rich" freddie winks
both groups stay at the beach the whole day and as it gets darker someone builds a small campfire on the sand. they all sit around it, grilling sausages over the hot flames.
as he holds his sausage over the fire freddie pokes his shoulder "hey danny- hey danny"
"what" he replies, not taking his eyes away from the fire
"i think the blonde is lookin' at you"
"oh, yea, right" he laughs, clearly freddie was mocking him because of earlier.
"i'm serious. i think she has the hots for you man" freddie fidgets with the ball in his hand.
"oh, who could blame her? right freddie?" daniel plays along but as he looks up he sees that the girl was in fact looking over at him, smiling a little.
"why dont you make a move?" freddie raises his eyebrows
daniel hadn't had much practice with girls, if he was being completely honest, new jersey didn't exactly have its best pick.
"no, i'm eatin', man" he takes a bite of his sausage and spits it into the sand when it burns his mouth
freddie laughs "how could you think about eating, man? go make a move"
"i'm hungry" daniel whines, it wasn't a lie.
one of freddie's friends come over and puts his arm around freddie "maybe they ain't got moves where he's from"
daniel smiles "no, i've got moves where i come from, we have more moves than here"
"yea? yea?" the boys jeer and freddie smirks before kicking the ball over to the girls "let's see"
daniel walks over to her at the same time she walks over to him.
"hey, did you lose somethin'?" the girl laughs easily
"hey, i hope we're not botherin' you."
"hey, how do you, uh, how do you juggle?" she asks dropping the ball onto her knee
"oh, it's pretty easy" daniel smils,this was something he was good at, he could do this.
he shows her how to do it and then she tries, she wasn't actually bad, for a beginner.
she keeps trying and daniel goes to help, causing them to both tumble back.
she kicks the ball away, weird, and daniel runs after it "i'll get it"
when he gets back, another group of about 4 or 5 boys are on the beach, all wearing matching leather jackets and on matching motorbikes.
one boy, probably the leader, goes up to the girl "hey ali, i want to talk to you"
the blonde must be called ali.
the boy was tall, a lot taller than daniel, wide shoulders, real good shape, he wore a black hairband on his head and daniel catches sight of it as the wind brushes the boys golden hair to the side.
"just leave me alone" ali looks away from him, judging by the boys body language, he was not going to leave her alone "we've been over all this. i don't wanna talk"
"well i wanna talk to you, alright?" the boy reaches over and turns off her boombox
ali starts it again and he turns it off again "what is your problem?"
"look? why don't you just take your little cobra kais and get out of here" ali grabs the boombox and stands up
"oh, yea, right, and that's gonna solve everything?" the boy grabs the boombox from out of her hands
"give me my radio" ali says
"you promise you'll talk to me?" the boy holds the radio away from her
"yes, just give me my radio"
he gives the radio back and she turns on the music. which he doesn't like at all, he grabs it and smashes it on the ground
"you just break my radio?" ali shoves the boy
daniel goes to grab the boombox, to get it away from him.
"don't touch it, punk" the boy says, seeming to notice daniel for the first time.
daniel tries to give the box to ali "just let her have it"
"what are you deaf?" the boy grabs the box and holds it away from him "you want it?"
he gives it to daniel, a lot harder than needed and daniel falls into the sand, he gets up running at the boy, who his friends are calling johnny.
but johnny reads his movement and trips him as he runs past.
it takes another fall and a kick to the stomach for the group to think hes done.
"how bout you hero? you have enough?" the boy sneers
daniel uses johnnys temporary distractedness as a weakness and punches him in the nose.
"now we're even huh?" he says
the way johnny is looking at him, he can tell this won't end well for him
"no mercy, man. no mercy" he says it in such a way that makes it sound like he was showing mercy earlier, the pain in daniels stomach proves he was not.
the night ends with daniel, bleeding and face down in the sand.
YOU ARE READING
lawrusso
RomanceDaniel's just trying to fit in at his new school, he never asked for johnny and his friends to beat him up every other day, he never asked for any of it. the multiple detentions, which have him spending up to 2 hours alone with johnny, are definitel...
