Small Town Girl

Chapter 8

~Danielle's POV~

It's been about 4 months since Tanner and I broke up and his 19th birthday (yes I am older than him) is next week. It feels weird not celebrating his birthday with him. I had already had his gift picked out. I had bought him a brand new art kit but I'm not sure what to do with it anymore.

For the first two months of our break up I hardly talked to anyone not even Keziah, Jasmine, or Miya. That is also when Tanner started calling the first few times I answered but I just sat there listening to what he said trying to not cry loudly and when I didn't answer he just left a very long voice mail. I really wanted to be back with Tanner but I'm not if I should where we broke up just because I defended my friend. After two weeks Tanner finally have up calling me. I still jump and look wanting it to be him but it never is.

Since then I have continued with classes and I have started opening up to Lexi and Alex again. I told them what happened that night and they have helped a little. I am slowly opening back up to Ray and Nate. It was awkward at first being around Mark but then we got through that and now we are talking again. He stopped hitting on my after the break up, I figured it was because he had a girlfriend.

"Danielle, let's go shopping. We can go to the Hilltop Mall in Kearney." Lexi said seeing that I was acting sad again.

"Fine." I say walking out of my room. I was wearing jeans, boots, and a t-shirt. This has been my everyday look even when we go out I dont dress up anymore. Tanner was the main reason why I dressed up.

"Yay! Keziah, Miya, and Jasmine are meeting us there. We know you havent seen them in a while so we thought we would invite them." Alex says dragging me to her car.

I sat in the back seat starring out the window most of the way to Kearney. The girls kept trying to get me to talk but I wouldn't I was in my own little world. They finally turned the radio on and 'Why Don't We Just Dance' by Josh Turner came one and I couldn't help jamming out along to the radion. After that I was happy and then they couldn't get me to stop singing.

When we arrived to the mall we got out of the car giggling amd we started walking towards JC Penny's.

"Danie!" I hear someone yell. I turn around just in time to see Jasmine running towards me. "We haven't seen you in forever and you wouldn't talk to us!" She exclaimed out of breath when she reached me.

"I'm sorry. I've been a bad friend leaving you guys out of this, I just didn't want you thinking that Tanner was a bad guy. It is mainly my fault that we broke up." I say hugging all of them.

"It's ok we are with you now." Miya says. "Well I'm going to take Danie to the sport shops then you guys can have her to buy her fancy clothes, but first she needs sporting equipment."

We walk into Sporting Village while the rest of them to into JC Penny's. Miya immediately leads me over to the softball section.

"Ooooo this is a awsome bat!" She says handing me a black bat with blue on it.

"I love it!" I say taking it and then walking over to the gloves. "Should also get a new catchers mitt while we are here."

I picked up and all black one the looked like my old one and tried it on.

"This one fits. I'll by these two things." I say taking them to the counter.

I walk out with my new bat and glove and Miya also bought a new pitching glove and some balls to practice with.

We meet up with everyone at the good court to eat lunch before the drug me around the rest of the mall. First Keziah and Jasmine took me to Herbergers .

"Here try these on." Jasmine says while handing me a bunch of jeans.

"Fine, but looking at some of these sizes I doubt half of them will even fit." I say walking into the changing room.

I tried on what actually ended up only being ten pairs of jeans. There were a few that I couldn't get over my thighs and a few that I just didn't like. I ended up with your new pairs of jeans. One pair were skinny jeans with holes, I'm surprised they fit, and three pairs of boot cut each a different shade.

"Now for shirts." Keziah says handing me shirts.

"Ugh, will this ever end." I wine trudging back into the changing rooms.

"Kept it up and we will find more clothes Jasmine calls in after me.

"Fine mother, I'll stop complaining.

"That's the spirit." Jasmine says before going off to find shoes.

I tried on some plain t-shirts, some really cute tank tops, and there was a long sleeve plaid shirt that I really loved in the like Keziah have me. I ended up getting the plaid shirt, a blue and a green tank tops, and a black t-shirt. I walked out and have the shirts I wanted to Keziah and she put them with my jeans.

"Come on Danie, I found some cute shoes." Jasmine says all excited. I roll my eyes and follow.

"Here take these, these, and these to try on." She says handing my some brown strapy sandles, black wedges, and then she hands me a pair of knee high brown high heel boots.

"Jaz do you want me to die! You know how well I walk in heals!" I exclame at the shoes she handed me.

"Yes , now shush and try then on and walk in them for a little bit."

"Fine." I say putting on ths sandles and then modeling them. I did this with all three pairs of shoes and ended up liking then all.

"Ok, I've got your new pairs of jeans, two tank tops, a t-shirt, a plaid shirt, and three pairs of shoes. I think we are good here." I say taking everything to the check out.

Next Alex and Lexi took me to the Cinema and we watched 'Smurfs the List Village'. When the movie finally got over it was almost 6p.m.

"Well we better be getting back." I say yawning and pulling them all into a hug, "I've had long and awesome day with you guys. Thank you for helping me, I didn't think about Tanner all day. I guess getting over home won't be that bad."

"Well we will see you Danielle and call us if you ever need to talk." Keziah said before we parted ways.

We walked back to the car with all of my bags in hand and a few of Lexi and Alex's too. I say I'm the back seat again and fell a sleep this time and for once I didn't dream of Tanner.

When we got back we had the boys help carry all of the things up to our rooms. I unpacked all of my clothes and shoes and set my bat and glove on my dresser. After I changed into my pajamas I heard a knock on the door.

"Give me a second!" I call out running to the door to open it.

"Hey, Mark." I say when I see who it was. "What are you still doing up here?"

"Well it's been about four months since you and Tanner broke up and I've wanted to ask you out since it happened but I saw how upset you were with the break up so I've been trying to ignore my feelings for you. But the girls said that you had a lot of fun today and you acted like your old self. So I was wondering if you wanted to go out on a date with me next Saturday?" Marks says rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

"Oh, ummm....." I say shocked.

"Never mind forget that I even asked. Man, I feel so stupid right now." He says turning around.

"Hey, I didn't say no," I see him instantly relax. "But I didn't say yes. Let me sleep on this and I will get back to you in the morning."

"Ok that works. Goodnight Danielle." He says walking away.

"Goodnight Mark." I say to his back.

I close the door and went and layed down on my bed. I am so confused on what I want to do. I do still love Tanner but it is time for me to move on and I think that I do have some feelings for Mark. I eventually fall sleep debating what to do.

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What do you think Danielle is going to do?

What do you think she SHOULD do?

and

What are your feelings on Mark?