Janey and Dannyboy

Part 8

Part 8
Daniel's POV
As the sun finally nestled behind the mountains and the sky began to darken further I felt Jane tap my shoulder. I slowly turned to her and a hint of concern was written over her tanned face.

"Everything alright Dannyboy?" I shook my head and fixed my hair, meeting her eyes again with a bright smile covering my lips, blinking in hopes that my eyes would brighten a bit to match.

"Yeah of course, now come on we gotta go meet the guys" I swung my arm over her shoulder and she laughed a little, nodding in agreement.

" I just gotta grab a-" I cut her off by shaking my head and removed my arm from her shoulder before slipping off my flannel and tossing it at her. She clutched it close and looked at me surprised.

"I want you to bring it with you this summer"

"Danny this is your favorite flannel" she began to put it on and wrapped it around her slender but strong frame.

"Eh, it looks much better on you anyway." She threw her head back in a laugh before gripping onto my side as we made our way towards the door and over to my old blue pickup truck. The backseat was full of blankets, snacks, and firewood.

We drove out to the clearing where all of our best friends were waiting, singing along to whatever was on the radio as we drove along the familiar rural roads. I loved Janey's voice, not to say it was the best but it certainly wasn't the worst. It was plain, a little rough no embellishments, but still beautiful. It was simple in a way that made it perfect, matching her personality as well.

We drove up to the clearing to see two cars already there, Clarissa perched on the hood of Tristan's car as he leaned up against the hood next to her. As the headlights of my truck beamed on the happy couple, Clarissa turned from Tristan and waved, hopping off the car and running over to Lucy's side as soon as I parked. Lucy hopped down from her raised seat and hugged Clarissa as I made my way out of the car and bro-hugged Tristan.

Brandon, Jack, Nic and Derek emerged from the other car, all giving Janey hugs before we headed towards our usual campfire spot on the water. This part of the lake was private, a clearing and bay you could only get to through a path Jane and I had found years ago on one of our many outdoor summer adventures. Since we were 12 we've been clearing the path little by little, leaving supplies behind like stockpiled firewood, a chest full of extra blankets and a stereo and anything else we might need. The shore to the water was rocky, so we built the fire along there, all of us sitting on a mix of fallen logs and collected, mismatched lawn chairs of varying degrees of fading from the sun.

Brandon and Tristan built the fire while Derek and Jane passed beer cans around the circle from a cooler Derek had brought. Jack started unpacking the Pillsbury dough rolls and I helped him by skewering them on sticks and melting butter over the slowly growing fire. Clarissa held onto the bag of cinnamon sugar we would dip the cooked dough in after the butter and soon we were all licking our fingers from the butter and sugar after devouring 3 cans of dough.

"Don't know how any French pastry is gonna beat that" Janey mused as she finished off the final roll of the night and our friends laughed, moving into a sarcastic conversation about how shitty Europe would be.

"You know I heard that you have to pay to use public restrooms?" Derek voiced

"And that wine is cheaper than water at restaurants, I mean, cheap alcohol, who wants that?" Tristan said between chuckles and sips of his beer.

"Yeah it's really gonna suck to be able to legally drink in Europe" Brandon said sarcastically before draping his arm over Jane's shoulder as they both laughed.

As the group continued voicing their sarcastic comments about the perils of a European summer, an awful selfish part of myself hoped that she might actually hate it and want to come back. Though I stamped that out immediately because I knew how excited she was, not just to see Europe, but to see her mom. She was a piece missing from Janey's life that she needed and deserved to fill so every time I began to get that sinking feeling in my stomach, I pulled myself back to that idea. This is what Janey needs, what she wants, what she deserves.