Before I Met You

Chapter 11

It wasn't long before Leona began calling me and blowing up my phone full of text messages. I didn't feel like talking nor arguing with her because I know she's going to flip. For all I know she probably thinks I'm on the plane, going back to town. When the last call attempt ended, I sent a text.

'I'm at Dannys and don't bother to come. He's being a better friend than you are right now.'
I pressed send without thinking and continued resting my head on the couch, watching cartoons. He really has been a good friend though.

He's really cool and has a lot of patience with me, considering the fact that I am kinda hard to deal with sometimes. I never knew we'd have this much in common. Maybe he isn't just a barista boy after all.

I heard footsteps down the hall and out pokes a head. "Hmm..." he said, raising one eyebrow. "I'm surprised you didn't bolt out the door. Sorry I took a long time." He walked into the kitchen and opened the dishwasher. I sat up so I could sneak a better view of him. He's wearing blue pajama pants with a black shirt and his hair is wavy and damp.

My mouth curls into a grin. "You see, I would leave if your couch wasn't so comfy. Danny turned around to glance at me as he chuckled, and then went back to putting up the dishes.

"I was actually hoping you'd stay. I mean, I have no idea what comes next with everything. You and Leona are supposed to be leaving next week. Things would be way easier if you guys didn't live so far away." He shook his head a little. "And I really don't
want you to go."

My eyebrows furrowed a little as I turned around completely. "How'd you know we are leaving next week?"

He grabbed a red bowl and put it in a cabinet. "Leona told me."
"She what? When?"
"Not too long ago. She found my instagram account and texted me there."
"Stalker much?" I muttered.

He let out a laugh. "I don't know what's going on between you two, but you should talk to her and work things out. I can tell you've been friends for quite a while. A little bit of girlpower won't hurt."

I cringed. "That's not even what girl power means."
"But you know what I mean. Don't be....."
"Don't be what?" I questioned. He gave me a look.
"Don't be silly and drag what's going on between you two. You've been friends since childhood. What even started this anyway?"

I was hoping he wouldn't ask me that because technically I'm the one who started all of this by going through his phone and freaking out over something that wasn't even my business. If that wouldn't have happened, everything would be just fine.

Me and Danny wouldn't have gotten into a fight, and same with Leona and I. Maybe she's really done with me.

Maybe she's angry at me. I'm pretty angry at myself too. I pushed my thoughts at the back of my head and said, "I don't know."
Danny gave me that "I know you're lying, I can see it on your face," look. I rolled my eyes and let out a sigh.
"Okay fine. I started this. I'm sorry for reading your messages, and I shouldn't have left like that."

He finished putting up the dishes and sat next to me on the couch. I caught a whiff of his woody cologne and shampoo. I could feel him looking at me from the corner of my eye.

"It's fine. But Sapphire, even if it was for some reason my girlfriend that was texting me,I wouldn't have invited you into my house more than once and I wouldn't have asked you on a date knowing she was in town."

He does have a point as always. It's pretty small here and she would've found out. I nodded once and looked down at my lap.

Danny always makes me shy when he's this close to me. I'm not only overwhelmed by his smell and minty breath, but the way whispers my name. It's taking all I have in me to tell him everything and how I feel about him.

We didn't say anything else. I continued watching Tom and Jerry and he did the same. I wasn't really paying attention to the show though. I was thinking about how messed up things really are in my life.

I wouldn't be surprised if I get a "You haven't shown up to work in over a week and you never notified us or sent an email. I'm sorry but we're going to have to hire someone else to take your spot," text from my boss. And the only thing I'm looking forward to going back home is telling David everything and hugging my mom.

After about 20 minutes, Danny snapped me out of my daydreaming by asking, "Do you wanna sit on the balcony?" He was already standing up and heading towards the door. "It's pretty outside once the sun goes down."
I laughed because of how random it was. "Umm, sure?"

I haven't seen his balcony before. The curtains are always closed and I never bothered to ask. He opened the door to the warm summer air immediately brushing against our face. It was small and cozy, with 2 chairs and a round table on one side. On the other were plants and decorations.

"Wow," I said, taking in the view. The highway was roaring and a few lights inside other people's apartments were on. He chuckled. "You haven't seen wow yet."

He then grabbed a long plug that was laying by the door  and plugged it into the wall. The entire balcony had lit up. My mouth fell open. Blue lights hung all around the walls, making everything look magical.
"I love this," I said as I sat down in the chair. He sat on the other end of the table and looked at the view.

We were pretty high up, higher than I thought we were. I never acknowledged how beautiful Paris is from afar. Even though it was midnight, most lights were still on and people were walking on the streets.

"Thanks. It was my brother's idea to decorate it since I'm not really a big fan of decorating things, as you can tell by my apartment."
"You're so lucky. This kinda reminds me back in highschool when I dreamed of living in a big fancy apartment with an even bigger balcony." I exaggerate with my hands.

"With cream white sofa and classic paintings all around the walls."
He stared at me with the biggest smile. "What I live in now isn't like my dream though, although it's pretty nice and suits me more."
He nodded, letting me go on.

"It's kind of like a trailer house, but more fancy. Yes, it's quite small inside," I admit."But I like it. I really made it a home."

"Well that seems way better than living in an apartment. You don't have to lose sleep because of your neighbors and get annoyed by people stomping around above you."
I nodded in agreement.

"So how's the town? What's it like there?" He asked, leaning in. I kind of lost my breath. It's like it escaped my mouth so fast. The way he's looking at me like he's interested, the damp hair all over.... I could faint. But it made me remember that I  had a question in mind that I've been wanting to ask all this time. It's now or never.

"Where are we going with this?" I questioned. After I asked, he glanced at me and he quietly sighed and looked away at the view. It was quiet for a while. I thought he wasn't going to answer so I just looked down into my lap until he cleared his throat and whispered,

"I don't know. I honestly can't stop thinking about the fact that you're not gonna be in Paris forever like I am. You don't live here and when you leave, I feel like things will get bad again."

My eyes quickly looked up at him.
"What do you mean things will get bad again?"

Danny wrinkled his face as he looked down at his arms that were resting on the table.
"There's just a lot of bad things that happened to me when I was younger. Nothing you need to worry about."

He says that but I could hear the emptiness in his voice. He knew I was going to ask a lot more questions now that he said that, so he said, "I think we should get some rest, especially you. I'm going to drive you back to her grandparents house in the morning so you two can make up. I don't want to be the reason you stop being friends."

I nodded without saying anything else, and let the silent air take over.