letters to dan // dan smith

Chapter 28

The sixth surprise

We're lying in bed, Dan reading, me watching cartoons on YouTube, when Dan sits up.

"I have an idea."

I grunt in response, not particularly interested in doing anything. Dan nudges me with his shoulder, and I look over.

"C'mon, it'll be fun," he whines.

I shake my head, looking back over at my laptop.

"Beeeethh."

"No," I push his face away, and try to ignore his pestering.

""Mmmm," he nuzzles his face in my neck, and as hard as I try to ignore it, I can't.

"What do you want?"

"Pay attention to meee," he whines again, and I laugh. "See! There we go! Okay, get out of bed, I have an idea."

"Uhg, fine." I climb out of bed and pull on a pair of leggings. "Happy?" I turn and see Dan beaming at me, and I smile back. "Where are we going?"

"It's a surprise!" Dan says excitedly, pushing me out the bedroom door, "Come on! Race you to the car!" He zooms off.

"Hey, not fair! I'm carrying an extra person!"

He comes back grinning sheepishly, leaning down and pecking my cheek. "Sorry, let's go." He grabs my hand and pulls me with him.

We chat in the car, quite uselessly, about everything. Conversation switches from movies to music to what colour we should paint Astrid's room within minutes. I'm in a good mood, Dan's in a good mood, and everything is great.

We pull up in front of a shopping centre, and I'm surprised. I turn to Dan with a questioning look, knowing how he hates shopping. He lifts his eyebrows at me, daring me to say something. I raise my hands in surrender, shrugging as I get out of the car.

"Okay, come on!" He says, grabbing my hand again.

"God, Dan!" I laugh.

We walk through the shopping centre, me stopping occasionally to glance inside stores, Dan tugging me away impatiently. Finally, he stops in front of a place I'd never noticed before, and now that I think about it, I have no clue how I missed it.

"Build-a-bear!?" My voice sounds incredulous.

"Yes!" Dan sounds eager, bouncing on the balls of his feet like an excited kid.

I can't help but laugh. Laugh because Dan is a dork and this is such a cute thing to do and hell I need a teddy bear.

***

We come home with a bear each. Mine's a blue teddy dressed kind of like Dan - Black pants and a t shirt and tiny white converse (which nearly killed me with cuteness - Teeny converse? My life is basically complete). Dan's is a brown bunny with floppy ears, and although he claims it's supposed to be me, I see no resemblance. I don't think I've ever worn a pink tutu in my life. Ever.

The Seventh Surprise.

We go to a fair, which I think is horribly cliché but still heaps of fun. It smells like fairy floss and roasted chestnuts and I can hear kids shrieking with laughter on the rides. The Ferris wheel sticks up over the top of everything else in the massive field. I'm sad for a moment, because I will never get to take Astrid to fairs, buy her sweets and watch her get a sugar high. Then I remember, she's got Dan, and I'm in no place to be moping because I've got Dan too.

I pull Dan over to a stall where we try to knock over milk bottles to win prizes. Dan misses every single one, but I hit two, and win a big plush bear.