Mark My Words

Chapter 15: Danielle

I sat out in Liam’s lawn staring up at the sky. I had to find a way to get in contact with Danielle, and fast. Not only was I due to go home, but I had to find her before she was gone. It had only been like two days, so she couldn’t be very far from home. Where did she live, again?

I cracked open Liam’s front door, peeking in. Niall was sitting on the floor playing on his phone.

“Niall? A little help here, please?”

He nearly jumped out of his skin. “Aye, Jordin,” he sighed. “You scared me. What do you need? Shouldn’t you be leaving?”

“Shh!” I motioned for him to come outside so Liam wouldn’t hear us. Niall followed me out. “I need Danielle’s phone number. Can you give it to me?”

“Why do you want her number? Can’t you just let it go?”

“This is important.” I held my hand out for Niall’s phone.

“I don’t know about this. I don’t even have her number. Even if I did, I still don’t think I’d give it to you. Why do you want to call her?”

I ran my fingers through my hair, feeling more frustrated than ever. “Please, you have to just trust me,” I took a deep breath. “I don’t have a lot of time, and I need your help. Could you please get Liam’s phone for me? Just read Danielle’s contact and write down her number. Please, Niall.” I begged. 

He looked down at the grass and bit his lip, looking completely confused. “I’ll see what I can do. Can’t make any promises, though,” he turned to walk inside.

I sat down in the grass again, pulling out a long patch of it with my hands. A very familiar car drove by, but I couldn’t exactly pinpoint whose it was. I thought nothing of it, and turned to look at Liam’s front door. Niall had been inside for two minutes already. The noise of a car backing up and stopping alarmed me.

“Jordin?” 

Oh my God, no. I thought. Anybody but her. I did my absolute best to pretend I didn’t hear her voice. Maybe if I ignored her, she’d think it wasn’t me after all. Or maybe it was too late, she probably already saw my face-

“Jordin! Hey, what are you doing here?!”

I made eye contact with my cousin Rae-Anne. “Hi.” Why now? Why ever?

“What’s up? I was just driving by looking for this season’s X Factor contestants’ houses. This season there’s a really hot guy named Trevor who lives somewhere in Wolverhampton, so that’s what I’m doing and that’s where I’m going. Are you sun bathing? This isn’t your house, is it? It looks different.”

I rolled my eyes at her low attention span and poor memory. “No, Rae-Anne this isn’t my house. You’ve never been to my house, anyway,” I explained. She nodded her head and waited for me to keep talking. I had nothing to say, really. There was a long, uncomfortable silence, throughout which Rae-Anne didn’t stop staring at my eyes. I looked anywhere but at her.

“But what are you doing here? You don’t live in Wolverhampton,” she said.

I rolled my eyes again. Honestly, my cousin was the dumbest girl I know. “Yes I do. I’m just at a friend’s house is all. He just went back inside.” It was in that exact moment that I prayed for Niall not to walk outside until Rae-Anne was gone for good. If she had found out I was spending time with two members of One Direction, she would freak out. Yes, she had already met Zayn before, but that was before their fame. In present day, however, she would be her normal freaky self.

“Is he your boyfriend?” She winked.

“No,” I lied, but I wasn’t about to tell the truth to this psycho. “Well I better go, see you around.” Without any second thought, I got up and went into Liam’s house again. I went into his dining room and watched Rae-Ann leave from the window. Niall finally came out by the door with a piece of paper in hand.

“Niall!” I whisper yelled.

He jumped again. “Jesus, Jordin.” He walked over to me and gave me Danielle’s phone number. “Good luck with whatever it is you’re doing. Let me know how it goes.” 

I thanked him and left Liam’s house as quickly as I could. 

When I finally got home, my puppy greeted me at the door. “Bella!” I squealed. Bella was a ten month old Corgi, I got her from a rescue shelter when she was 4 months, and she was all mine. I scooped her up in my arms and headed up the stairs. “Mum? Dad? I’m home.” 

“They went out to the store for something.” My brother Josh emerged from his room.

“Well hi, Josh,” I opened my one arm for a hug, but he didn’t really want one. “What, didn’t you miss me at all? I was in Mexico!”

“It was quiet without you, which was kind of nice,” he laughed.

Josh is three years younger than I am. He used to have an identical twin, our other brother Jonathan. A tragic accident that we don’t really talk about brought the duo down to one about seven years ago. Josh hasn’t been the same since then, especially not on their birthday, which was coming up next week. It was the day after Liam’s, actually. August was always a slow and sad month for him, for all of us really, so we always try our best to be positive around this time.

“Yeah, I really am loud, aren’t I?” I chuckled. “Did you take care of Bella or did mum?”

“Mum did, but I played with her and she slept in my bed.” He answered.

“You’re the best, thank you.” I set Bella down on the ground and watched her scurry away.

“Where have you been?” Josh asked.

“I stayed at a friend’s house since I got home late last night. I didn’t want to wake any of you.” I didn’t lie exactly, all I did was withhold the truth. I hate lying, but sometimes you have to do it.

I chatted with Josh a little longer, and finally he went into his room to play Xbox and I went into mine to call Danielle.

I dialed her number and anxiously held the phone to my ear. She answered on the fourth ring.

“Hello?” She answered.

“Danielle?” I didn’t know what else to say.

“Yes, who is this?”

“Jordin Heil, we met through the boys. I came with Zayn to Mexico.”

“Jordin! I remember you, hey sweetie. How are you?”

She seemed so sweet over the phone. I couldn’t picture her being anything else. “I’m doing okay, but if you don’t mind, I have to ask you a few questions. Is that okay?”

“Uh, I don’t see why not.”

I sighed. “Okay well first you have to promise you won’t get upset. It would actually be easier to talk to you in person, do you have time?”

We discussed a good time to meet up and we agreed on 3 pm today at the local Starbucks. I stared at the clock and waited. I needed to solve this for Liam's sake.