All the Difference

Not Your Love Story

     "What's wrong with her?" Kyle asked as I stood next to him. I knew he was referring to Dani.
     "I'm not sure. I don't even want to be in a relationship," I responded.
     "But honestly, how could you ever pass someone like that up?" Kyle asked.
     "It's pretty easy considering I'd rather date someone who knows how to wear a full pair of pants," I answered sarcastically. I looked over to see Dani giggling to her friends. She caught my eye and smirked in a way that made me uncomfortable.
     "You should at least do something with her," Kyle pleaded. I noticed he was staring at her in a way I'd never seen before.
     "Yeah, I think that sounds like a better idea for you," I said. He instantly snapped out of his trance.
     "Sorry," he said weakly. "Seriously you should just give it a try. Hang out with her or something."
     "But we literally have nothing in common and I just don't want a serious relationship right now," I shot back. This was really starting to piss me off.
     "It doesn't have to be a serious relationship. Just take her home, hang out with her, anything really. A simple hangout doesn't mean forever," Kyle said.
     "I guess you have a point," I said.
     "Don't I always," said Kyle with a stupid smirk on his face. I just stood there wondering what I was getting myself into when he shoved me and yelled, "Go make a move!"
     I drug my feet back over to Dani and her crowd. The friend on her left poked Dani's shoulder and pointed towards me. Dani's eyes instantly lit up at the sight of me. When I got over to her, I could feel myself getting nervous. One wrong word and I would be flattened by all the jocks in an instant.
     "Uh, Dani," I started, "I was wondering if you'd want to come over tonight or something." I started rubbing the back of my neck. I knew what her answer would be before I even asked the question.
     "I'd love to!" she yelled while jumping over her friends to get to me. "What time?"
     "I guess you could just come home with me after school or something...if that's okay with you," I suggested. She started getting dangerously close.
      "Oh, that sounds perfect," Dani said with a little giggle. She looked into my eyes and for once I held eye contact. I noticed then how her eyes were a beautiful emerald green. I couldn't help but think a blood-red eye-color would suit her better. At that instant, she leaned in and pecked my cheek. She blushed, spun around on her heel, and strutted back to her friends.
     I turned around to see Kyle have two thumbs up and wink. It felt like my breakfast was going to have a grand reoccurrence on his face when I got over there.

     After a long day of school, I met Dani at her locker. Nobody was surrounding it, and it actually made Dani look like a normal person for once. It was now that I finally got to take a good look at her.
     She had long, chestnut brown hair with amber highlights that cascaded down her back in loose curls. She had a gray cut-off sweatshirt and she wore black leggings with holes just above her knees. The tattered holes revealed her pale skin. She wore white high-top converse sneakers. I had never realized that she was so tall, probably because she was always huddled with her friends or looking down at her phone. She was very skinny, but you could only see this at her hips, hands, and knees.
     "Hey," Dani said, giving me a slight smile. I snapped out of my trance and met her gaze. Even though she had only said one word, she sounded like a completely different person. She didn't seem as fierce as she always did.
     I also noticed how her face looked different. It looked softer and understanding. She still wore quite a lot of makeup, but it didn't seem as overwhelming.
     "Hi," I said awkwardly.
     "Calm down," she said, "I'm just a person."
     "I know that," I said dumbly while tilting my gaze to the floor.
     "Then what's the problem?" she asked, smiling.
     "It's just, I don't know. I've never really done this before," I muttered.
     "It's okay. I know what I'm doing," she said, a malicious smiling occurring on her face. Girls really confused me.
     "Oh, well, should we get going?" I asked. "My bus should be here soon." I motioned down the hall.
     "Oh I guess we should," she said, her expression softening a bit.
     As we walked down the hall, we were spaced apart. We weren't talking either. I don't know why she was quiet, but I know I was just analyzing the situation. This could go a million different directions.
     As we walked further down the hall, people kept looking at us. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing either. Some gave reassuring smiles.
     The closer we got to the lobby, the closer Dani got to me. I kept my gaze straight ahead. She started lightly nudging my hand, but I didn't give in. I had to remind myself that I wasn't ready for a serious relationship.
The bus ride home was quite interesting. Dani sat right up next to me and tried cuddling up to me a few times. After a few attempts of me not giving in, she finally got frustrated and went on her phone.
     When we got off the bus, we walked down the road to my house. It was still raining pretty hard. She walked in front of me the whole time, mumbling different things about this and that, almost as if she was talking just to hear her own voice. She kept splashing in the puddles, so by the time we got to my house, her shoes were soaked.
     Upon arriving to my house, we realized we were the only ones there. Daniel and Riley wouldn't be home for about half an hour, and my parents would get home in about an hour. The only person I had ever had over at my house was Kyle, and so I wasn't quite sure how to go about this.
     I unlocked the door and opened it, letting her go in first. We took our shoes off in the mud room and hung our jackets there.
     "Are you hungry?" I asked, pointing towards the kitchen. "My mom just made cookies last night."
     "What kind?" Dani asked with a suspicious look and a tilt of her head.
     "Chocolate-chip, of course," I said.
     Her eyes lit up, and she followed me to the kitchen.
Dani instantly shoved a cookie in her mouth. Watching the crumbs fall from her lips on her shirt made me realize that behind all that "popularity", she too is an imperfect person.
After she was done stuffing her face with chocolate-chip cookies, Dani said she wanted to go up to my room.
"What's up there that's so important?" I asked. My room felt like my own personal space to me, and I wasn't ready to have somebody who I barely knew invade that.
"Oh, I don't know," she said. She looked around corners to find my room.
"It's upstairs," I said while gesturing towards the steps. I was slowly starting to be put at ease by her presence.
She went up first with a little skip in her step. I followed behind and showed her to my room. She instantly jumped on my bed and just took everything in.
"So, you like bands?" she asked.
"Yeah, you could say that," I said while walking towards her.
"I've heard of some of these," she said while looking around. She noticed my rack of vinyls next to my computer desk and walked over to them. She rubbed her delicate fingers along them.
"Be careful," I said nervously.
"Don't worry," Dani said while eyeing up a Green Day vinyl.
"Whatcha got there?" I asked.
"I listen to them," she said. She slid the vinyl back in place and stood up.
All of a sudden, I heard the front door open followed by heavy footsteps on the stairs. Daniel and Riley were home.
"Hey Brantley! Who's backpack is downstairs?" Daniel yelled.
In a state of panic I answered with, "My friend's."
"That doesn't look like Kyle's backpack," Riley whispered to Daniel.
"I think he has a girl over," Daniel whispered back.
Next thing I knew, Riley poked her head through my bedroom doorway.
"Hi!" she said cheerily.
Dani glanced at me. I shrugged and Dani walked over to Riley.
"What's your name?" Riley asked. Daniel slowly started making his way into my bedroom as well.
"I'm Dani. How old are you?" Dani asked.
"I'm eight!" Riley replied. "How old are you?"
Dani laughed and said, "I'm 18."
"Wow, that's old," Riley said.
"Riley!" I scolded.
"Sorry," Riley said. "Hey Brantley, can you get me a cookie? I can't reach them."
"Sure," I said while following Riley downstairs. Dani waited in my room until I got back.
When I went back in my room, Dani was sprawled out on my bed with her face in my black and white sheets.
"Um, you good there?" I asked. I noticed I caught her off guard because she jolted when she heard my voice.
"Your sheets smell like you," she said, sitting up with the sheets up to her face.
"Well, that kind of makes sense since I sleep in them every night," I responded. I then wanted to smack myself for always being such a smartass.
"Does it really?" Dani asked sarcastically. I may be sarcastic, but she sure can give it right back to me. Dani had a big smile on her face.
I heard the front door open again, and I realized my parents were home. My mom instantly walked upstairs, hence the extra backpack in the mud room, and saw Dani on my bed.
"Who's this?" my mom asked with a worried expression on her face.
"It's my friend Dani," I answered. It was then that I noticed Dani's face would scrunch up every time I called her my friend.
"Oh, that's lovely," my mom said. She motioned for me to come over to her, and I could tell both her and Dani were uncomfortable. When I walked over to my mom, she started whispering.
"Since when do you talk to girls?" she started.
"Don't worry mom. This isn't anything serious. She's just a friend," I said, trying to sound reassuring. I know how my mom felt about having girls come over.
"Don't try anything," my mom said while leaving my room, shutting the door on the way out.
I walked back over to Dani. "Sorry my mom's just a little overprotective," I said.
"Oh, mine is too," Dani said. "I get it."
We spent the next few hours getting to know each other a little bit, especially since this was the first time we'd ever been alone. She always had her crowd around her at school. I learned that Dani was actually pretty nice, and she wasn't as stuck up as a I thought she was. She even seemed to have a soft side.
By 8:30 P.M., I figured Dani should get going.
"But I don't want to leave," she pleaded. We were both sitting on my bed, and she was relaxed next to me.
"It's getting late," I said.
"In what world is 8:30 at night late?" Dani asked while shaking her head and smiling. She started getting close to me.
I turned the lamp on my bedside table on. It emitted an almost orange light, not too bright, just dim.
Dani started looking in my eyes. She got in a position to face me. She started running her fragile fingers on my cheek, and they were cold to the touch. I noticed she kept glancing down to my lips, and I couldn't help doing the same to her.
What was I feeling? Earlier today I thought she was obnoxious with how she threw herself at me, but now I was basically asking for it. Did I like this? Why couldn't I make up my mind?
Dani must've been able to tell I was deep in thought because she asked, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," I said while focusing back on her brown eyes. "Why is this happening?" a voice in my head kept repeating.
Dani was now sitting on top of me, facing me. She barely weighed a thing. I couldn't help but tuck her hair behind her left ear. I realized now, this girl was gorgeous.
She put her hand in my hair and went in slowly for the kiss. I felt my hands slide down her back slowly, as if I was feeling every little detail of her. Her lips pressed against mine. She wasn't cold and fierce like I had imagined. Her lips were soft and delicate, and so was her kiss.
After a good amount of time, she pulled away, but she continued to stare into my eyes. She slid just a bit closer to me. My hands were still at the bottom of her back. She started smiling a little, but my expression remained still. I wasn't feeling anything.
This hadn't been my first kiss. I once kissed a girl in eighth grade who ended up moving away that summer. Still, I felt more during that kiss than I had just felt, yet everything else about it felt just right.
"What's wrong?" Dani asked. She looked worried.
"Nothing," I said while pulling her in for another kiss, this time a quicker one. I still felt nothing, yet I felt everything.
Dani put her arms around my sides and snuggled up to me, her head nestled on my chest and under my arm. "I think I love you," she whispered. When I didn't respond, she looked up at me. I just continued staring out the window at the November moonlight.
I didn't want this girl. She wasn't right.
Dani glanced at her phone. "It's 9," she said, "now I really better get going."
I followed her downstairs. She slid her jacket on and slung her backpack on her arm.
"You can't let her walk home!" my dad yelled from the living room.
"It's okay, Mr. Hughes. It's finally done raining, and I only live a mile away," Dani responded.
"Are you sure?"my dad asked.
"Yeah, I'll be fine," Dani said. She gave me a hug and walked out the door. I followed her outside.
"You good?" I asked.
"Yeah, are you?" Dani asked.
"Of course. I'll see you later, I guess," I said.
"See ya," Dani said with a little wave and a head-tilt. She spun around on her heel and started walking down the road, her long, chestnut hair bouncing the whole way home.