The Art of Playing Pretend (On Hold)

12. Danny

I am the biggest asshole that ever walked the earth. My heart urged itself to go to Lizzy and apologize for the world of hurt that I brought her, but my head told to stay here and just be silent. Of course, being me, I opted for my head.

My parents have been bombarding me with questions since Vi informed them about what had happened. I didn't answer any of them.

They were telling me about how Lizzy had been crying and sleeping a bunch at home. He dad informed them on that. They told me that I had to go apologize to her. They also think that I don't care.

Oh how wrong they could be. They don't understand what it's like to be like this. It fucking sucks. I'm constantly brining people pain and I hate it. I want to change so badly, but at this point it seems to be practically impossible.

Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like to have parents that weren't famous. Maybe I'd actually have a girlfriend that loved me. Maybe I wouldn't feel so used all the time. Maybe I'd actually feel okay.

I walked out my room and slowly descended the stairs. I walked into the kitchen. Light shined through the window which blinded me for a second or two. I proceeded to rummage through my refrigerator for something to eat. I grabbed leftover pizza and ate it along with water.

When I finished eating I walked up back to my room and decided to go for a run. I changed into the appropriate clothes and tried to be as silent as possible, since it was 6 in the morning.

As I was about to go down stairs, Mae's door opened and she popped her head out. "Where are you going?" She asked in a tired voice.

"I'm going to run," I whispered in response. "Do you want to come?"

She scoffed and rolled her eyes. "I'd rather have my arm bitten by a shark." She croaked. "Don't do anything stupid." She slammed her door shut.

I sighed while stepping down the stairs. "Too late for that."

********

I ran for what seemed like eternity along to the music on my phone. It's times like these where I feel like myself again. I loved running around the city and appreciating everything around me. I haven't done it in a while, so I'm glad to have done it today.

I decided to take a break, so I rested on a bench on the Malibu Pier. I sat back and felt the warmth of the sun shine onto me and the breeze go by. My music blocked out the sounds of the people in the pier. This was the most relaxed I've felt in a while.

"Oh my god... is that... OH MY GOD! It's Daniel Clifford!!"

I frowned and I flutter my eyes open. I gasped when I realized that I had fallen asleep here.

Oh shit.

I looked behind me to see a crowd of teenager girls and moms forming. I had to act quickly. I sprung up from the bench and started sprinting away from them.

"HE'S GETTING AWAY!" A girl screamed. They all started to come after me.

Why?? I'm not my dad!

At the end of the pier I had two choices: to run into the streets and hopefully lose them that way without getting run over or running on the beach and losing them in a crowd of people. I chose the later.

I ran across the beach apologizing to people I hit and yelling the occasional "watch out!" I epically jumped over a few people sun bathing, which I can thank my time on the track team freshman and sophomore year for allowing me to do that without fail. Eventually, I lost them in the busy beach since they gave up after half a mile.