Words are Words (Dan Smith - Bastille Fanfiction)

Chapter 23

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I turned my body to face the car door as Dan opened it for me, his usual smile appearing as I stepped out and held on to his hand for a brief moment so he could help me out.

"Thank you." I smiled, unwillingly loosening my hand from his grip.

I stopped gaping up at him and let my eyes glance around where we were, to see we were stood in front of a large building, it's outside walls cream in colour, littered with still growing plants. You could barely see the door, but I knew there was one somewhere hidden underneath.

"Where are we?" I asked as another growing smile began to form on my face.

"We.." he began, leading me across the stone covered path to the entrance, "..are at my favourite place."

I beamed up at him before looking inside the doorway as Dan opened it.

The sunlight instantly engulfed me as the door opened to a whole other place, a garden full of different plants and flowers all different bright colours. It was very dated, which was obvious, there was literally nobody here apart from us.

"I used to come here as a kid, there's a small café somewhere down from here."

"I don't even know what to say." I replied, looking up into his deep blue eyes. Before I could stop myself, I leaned in to his body and lightly kissed his cheek, taking his hand in mine and leading us over to a bench infront of one of many walls full of green plants in pots hanging off of the brickwork.

"This is now my favourite place." I smiled warmly, seeing his eyes melt as I touched his lower arm.

"You haven't told me about the song you were writing." I remembered as I moved my hand off his arm.

"Oh..yeah." He muttered as he looked away, laughing his breathy laugh.

"Well, if you really wanna know..." He added.

"I do..tell me." I encouraged, standing up again and walking up to the wall behind, observing the different colours and styles of the plants, smiling to myself as I heard Dan stand up too, and before I could turn my head to face him, he snapped a quick picture of me without me even noticing, until now.

"Dan!" I laughed, quickly walking up to him and snatching his phone off him, looking at the picture he'd taken. I raised an eyebrow at him and tilted my head to one side.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist." He laughed, taking his mobile back off me.

I moved closer to him as I moved my tongue to the roof of my mouth, pursing my lips together as if trying to act angry at him. However it didn't work, I ended up laughing along with him again, my cheeks beginning to hurt from all the smiling.

He began to speak again as his breathing slowed down when an interruption below on the ground began to tickle my ankles. Confused, I looked down, to see a small dog of some kind, looking up at me as it jumped up on to my legs, it's front paws batting at my skirt. I laughed and looked at Dan to see him staring at someone in the other corner of the gardens. My eyes followed his line of sight.

"Harley! Get down now!" A young girl; about the same age as me shouted, making her way over to us as she laughed herself. Her honey blonde hair was styled in a messy plait to one side of her head, she wore a simple white shirt with denim shorts. Harley; who I'm guessing was the small dog, ran up to her so that they met in the middle. She bent down to scoop him into her arms, stroking the ragged fur on his head as he wagged his tail.

"Sorry about that." She laughed as  she came into contact with us, gesturing to my skirt. I looked down and flattened it as she struggled to keep Harley positioned in her arms.

"Dan? Hi!" She smiled, realising who we were.

"Hey Laura." He replied, raising his eyebrows.

They shared brief eye contact before I looked up to Dan as if asking him to explain what was happening.

"Oh...I'm sorry, Violet, this is my friend Laura.. Laura, Violet, Violet, Laura." He explained, using hand gestures to introduce us.

"Hi! I would shake your hand but.." Laura exclaimed, referring to Harley still moving about in her arms.

"It's okay..nice to meet you." I muttered, still wondering who she was and why she was here.

"You too." She smiled, her bubbliness showing through all of her actions.

I looked back up to Dan to see him already smiling at me, making me turn away quickly and putting my hair behind my ear.

"So..do you wanna get some drinks from the café?" Dan asked, facing me.

"Uh...yeah sure." I smiled, watching him smirk back and walk away over to the café leaving me and Laura to talk.

***

"So how long have you known Dan?" I asked Laura as she lightly stroked Harley's ears. We were sat down at a picnic table, another one of many pieces of this place that was covered in flowers and plants.

She squinted her eyes, looking up to the light blue sky as she breathed out heavily.

"It's been years, since we were little kids. We were best friends, now..we still talk a little, but not often." She replied, a small hint of sadness in her voice. I wanted to know why they were so close, for some reason but I don't know what. Before I could stop myself, I ended up asking.

"And there's never been anything...any..erm.."

"Oh no, no! Me and Dan, we're just friends...I've never even thought of him in that way." She replied, laughing, instantly knowing what I was getting at.

"Oh, sorry for being so nosy." I admitted. I sheepishly smiled, looking down at the ground as Laura kept on stroking Harley.

"Oh it's fine!" She replied. I could feel her stare stay fixtated on me as I looked over in the distance, the sun soaking through into my skin.

"But you? And Dan?"

"No, we're...um, we're just friends." I instantly replied.

"Really? Well, you had me fooled."

"What do you mean?" I asked, not dismissing her response. I looked over to Dan further away, still buying some drinks from the small café.

"I mean, it's probably just me, but..it's the way he looks at you, you can tell, there's something there, it's just.."

She quickly glanced back from Dan to me.

"...you know, it doesn't matter. I don't want to scare you away, if there's nothing there, there's nothing there. You know, I just thought."

I smiled at her in a friendly way as if encouraging her to say something but she didn't. I looked back to Dan, seeing him now walking forwards to us holding a tray of drinks.

"I better be going anyway, I don't want to get in both of your way." She sighed as she stood up quickly.

"But...you can st-"

"Violet, he brought you here, not me." She smiled, walking away without saying another word.

I stared at the gate which she left through, trying to understand what she meant before I felt a pair of hands on my shoulders making me turn around.

"What was all that about?" Dan asked, grabbing a cold drink off of the tray and handing it to me. I smiled and took it out of his hands before taking a small sip and letting the cool juice fill my throat.

"Nothing..Laura said she had to leave."

"Oh, strange." He replied, sitting down on the bench opposite me.

"...she left harley." I muttered quietly, looking down at the small dog as he sniffed around at the plants on the floor.

"Yeah, he kinda just lives here. He's part of this place." Dan replied, his eyes widening as he saw Harley beginning to eat the strawberry plants. He laughed along with me as we carried on drinking our cold drinks and enjoying the hot summers day.

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