Forever His Princess

-forty one-

AMARI ROUSSEAU

"Yo!" We turned around to see Jeremy, running towards us.

"Hey, Jer." He winked at me, making me roll my eyes.

"Who's that?" He asked, looking at Ryan.

"This is my brother, Ryan." A smile graced my lips when I heard Ant refer to him as his brother, it obviously made Ryan happy too since he had the biggest grin on his face.

It quickly formed into a frown when we reached the front gate. "It's gonna be a good day, Ryan, I promise." I kissed the side of his head as he blinked away the tears that were stacking at his eyelids.

I remember the anxiety that came on the first day of school. The pressure to look good. Ryan isn't the most sociable person as well so it might be harder for him to make friends.

"Amari..."

"Ryan, just breathe with me for a couple minutes, ok?" I said calmly and he followed my breathing patterns, allowing him to calm down.

"Hey, you'll do great. You've got me and Jer. If you haven't made friends by break then you can chill with us, yeah?" Ryan nodded wordlessly. "If anyone tries to step to you, you come and tell me, ok?"

"Ok." Ryan clutched his bag and let out a breath, nodding his head as if he was silently building the motivation to go in. "I can do this, right?"

"Of course you can." I said.

"Alright, let's go, we'll get your timetable, I'll show you around the school and then I'll take you to your first lesson." The three of them waved me goodbye before walking in. I watched until they disappeared into the school before turning back to the car.

"Was he ok?"

"He's got Ant and Jer, he'll be fine." Danny nodded wordlessly. "You still haven't told me what happened between you and Lex." I said to him as I drove us back home and he sighed heavily to himself.

"She ghosted me, Ri, there's nothing else to it."

"You liked her a lot, didn't you?"

"I told myself I didn't want a relationship of any sorts, we were supposed to be fucking and that's it. I didn't mean to catch feelings."

"It happens, Danny, we can't stop it when it does. Look at me and Niko for example, we started off the exact same way and we both caught feelings. Now I can't imagine my life without him."

"Except when it came to you two, both of you caught feelings. With me and Lex, it's one sided. She doesn't like me." I watched him bite his lip when it started to quiver. "It hurts so fucking much, I hate it." I pulled over the car and reached over to hug him.

I heard a quiet sob leave his lips and I held him tighter. "I'm sorry this happened to you, Danny. You deserve to be happy more than anyone and you'll find that happiness, whether it's with Lex or not. I can say without a doubt in my mind that it's her loss." I felt him nod before I pulled away. "You know what, we need to have one of our sleepovers. No partners, just me, you and Liv, like old times. We need to wind down because a lot has happened recently."

He nodded in agreement with a small smile on his face. His cheeks and eyes were slightly red and I wiped away his remaining tears.

"You're gonna be just fine. In fact, you're gonna be fucking amazing. You are Daniel Martin, you always come out on top no matter what. I mean, seriously, look how far you've come."

"I hate you so much, you're ruining the tough guy persona I've created." He said through laughter as he tried to stop himself from crying.

"I'll stop, I'll stop." Danny leaned his head back and let out a breath. "I really want you to know you'll always have me. You're my bestfriend and it'll always be like that."