Belle & Daegan

Sandwich

Belle made grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch for her friends.

"We should take some out to Daegan," Reed suggested, ready to take her bowl of untouched soup out the door.

"No, Reed. I'll make a sandwich, and take it out to him."

"No, I'll take the sandwich out to him."

Belle sighed. "Whatever. Do what you want."

Reed rolled her eyes. "Ugh, I don't care." She put down her bowl of soup and started eating.

Harissa, Olive, and Qwin exchanged anxious glances.

Belle suddenly felt guilty. Reed was one of her best friends. She knew that Reed liked to flirt with boys. It was part of her personality. It was a hobby to her. She was basically telling Reed not to be herself.

"Reed." Belle walked around the table to sit by the blond-haired girl. "I'm sorry."

Reed looked up at her, frowning, but softened when she saw Belle's nervousness. "What for?"

"Well, I can't stay mad at you, for one. I'm obviously telling you not to be yourself, Reed," Belle said. "It's just...it's really, really complicated."

"You can just tell me."

"Tell you what?"

"Belle, you obviously like him. Why couldn't you just tell me?"

"It's not that. There's a way more complex situation than just jealousy," said Belle.

"What?"

Belle hesitated, meeting all of her friends' gazes around the table. "I don't think I should tell you. I don't want to disclose too much information."

"Belle--"

"Try to leave Daegan alone, okay? But we can all have a little party, us, my grandparents, and Daegan and his father. Harissa, maybe you can get us in on that new song of yours."

"Sounds great!" Harissa said excitedly. "I'll need to work on it some more today."

"We'll have it tomorrow night. We can set up lanterns on strings, bake even more food, and play games!" Belle exclaimed, growing more excited by the minute. "It should set off the last night we have here!"

"Awesome!" everyone chorused.

Belle could feel her spirits lightening. Now that she had made up with Reed, she could finally enjoy her time with her friends on the farm. Maybe Daegan would be able to finish the fence by then.

Belle had made a sandwich for Daegan, and had started walking toward his farm. He was working on the front-facing side of the fence now.

"I brought you lunch," Belle called.

Daegan jerked his head toward her, and smiled widely. "Well, well, well," he laughed. "Sandwich!"

"You must be starving," said Belle, handing him the plate and the cup of orange juice.

"Famished." Daegan took the food and started devouring it.

"So...how are things...you know, with your father?"

Daegan brightened to Belle's surprise. "It's actually starting to look up. Turns out when he's mad, it means he's drunk. He took it hard when my mom left, so he started drinking."

Belle gasped in delight. "So he's not abusing you?"

"He was definitely surprised to find my welt the next day, and he swore he couldn't remember it had happened." Daegan devoured more of the huge sandwich. "He doesn't remember ever yelling at me, remember, when I hid at your house?"

Belle nodded. "I seriously thought that he was abusing you," she said.

Daegan shrugged. "I was afraid that he had changed, and that I would have to live with a madman. But I was wrong."

"I'm so glad things are looking better. You won't have to run away after all." Belle glanced at the fence around her. "You did a really good job. I think he'll be pleased."

"Yep."

Belle started to leave. "Tell you what. We're planning a little party at our house tomorrow night, since it's the last night. Bring your father along, will you?" Daegan smiled with his mouth full, and nodded.

When Belle went back into the house, she noticed her friends trying to hide smiles.

"What?" she demanded.

"We took pictures of you!" Olive blurted out before anybody could stop her.

"What?" Belle stomped over to Reed and demanded for her phone.

Reed sighed and handed over her phone. "You guys just looked so cute together," she protested. "Please don't delete it. I promise I won't put it on the Internet."

Belle frowned, and scrolled through Reed's photos, until she saw several of the same one. She zoomed in, and saw herself smiling. Daegan had his back turned, but she could see a hint of a smile from her view of his cheek and temple. Belle began to look at the girl in the picture not as herself, but as a stranger. If the girl was a stranger, Belle would clearly determine that the girl was lovesick.

Was that how her friends saw her with Daegan? She had to admit, she did like him, but she wasn't sure if Daegan liked her back. He was just a guy. A guy she saw only on weekends and sometimes for weeks in the summer.

Reed was relentless. She had given up on winning his heart, and wanted to have him date Belle

"Can you just stay out of it? Let's just plan for the party," Belle interrupted Reed in her rant about how gorgeous Daegan was. "We still need to bake a lot."