Girl Crush

Chapter 22

"Eddie and Dani's grand adventure...man, we could travel all over the country. We could see whatever we wanted. We could sleep outside," Eddie grinned, looking down at Dani. "Just you and me, like Sam and Frodo, two best friends on the most metal road trip ever."

"And where would we go?" Dani asked.

"You know we have to go to L.A.," Eddie said, lying down next to her inside their make-shift hobbit house. "That's where the music scene is. We could end our trip there and I can make it big with my band and I can buy a huge house, like the most epic house with so many rooms you can get lost. You can live with me. We'll have a secret tunnel that goes from your room to my room and slides from the top floor to the bottom. We won't have to walk down the stairs. I'll make sure you have the most amazing library ever, every book you could ever want. We'll have our own movie theater with a popcorn maker and I'll always make sure we have Twizzlers. I'll have the coolest DnD dungeon, like a real dungeon underneath the house. It will be all stone and I'll get those torch things for the walls. I'll get a massive pool put in that's in the shape of a guitar or maybe a bat, you know, as an homage to Ozzy's very metal moment. We'll have people to cook us meals and clean for us. No more Saturday chores. Oh, and I would have stables so you could have horses because I know how much you love them. We could have anything we wanted Dani."

"You'd really want me to live with you?" Dani asked.

"Of course!" Eddie exclaimed, laughing. "It's you and me forever princess." He suddenly sat up quickly, crossing his legs. "Let's make a pact."

Dani looked at him curiously, rising to sit cross legged, facing him. Even after three years of friendship, it was still hard sometimes to try to guess what he was going to say or do but she loved that about him.

"If we make it to thirty and we're still single, then you and I get married."

"What?" she laughed. "That's insane. Eddie, we're fifteen. Thirty is so far away."

"Yeah, but it's good to have a plan," he said with a shrug. "I know you think you won't find anyone as good as your dad was or find what your mom and dad had so consider it a back-up plan. I mean, you probably will find someone, but just in case, you know? That way we know we won't be alone."

Dani smiled at him. She had been in such a dark place these last months. Her dad's death had caused her to spiral, sinking her into a dark abyss she didn't think she'd ever crawl out of. When she'd met Tyler a few weeks ago, she had thrown herself into a relationship with him, desperate to feel anything that wasn't anger and despair. When he dropped her for another girl, saying she was too depressing and clingy, she had sunk into her anger again. Through all of it, Eddie had been there, helping her lift herself out of that pitch black hole bit by bit. Even when she'd been nasty, when she couldn't even stand to be around herself, he'd stayed. She could never express to him how much it meant to her to have him by her side.

She kind of loved the idea of just spending her life with Eddie. It was such a simple, soothing idea. He was the other half of her. He was the only person she was truly comfortable with but she wondered if he was just offering this plan to make her feel better, knowing how upset she'd been. Dani didn't want him to ever feel obligated to her. He'd done more than enough. She wasn't sure she would be sitting here today if it hadn't been for him.

"Eddie, we'll always be friends so we won't ever really be alone. And please, you're going to have girls falling all over you once you're a rock star. Groupies as far as the eye can see. You're going to have so many options. I don't think you're going to have any trouble finding someone."