Discover Me {a Why Don't We fanfiction}

Chapter Nine

The table was pretty quiet after the order was taken.
Ashley was playing with her napkin, and Corbyn was watching her. Ellie and the curly haired boy, (whom Corbyn had told me earlier was Jack), were sneaking glances to each other.  The awkward ones where one person looks up and stares for a bit, and then looks down, and then the other person looks up at them for a bit, and it's a reoccurring cycle. I had never seen Ellie so nervous before- she was usually a very confident, 'theres-no-time-but-now' type of person. Then there was Maria and the other boy, Zach, were looking at each other, staring into each other's eyes. I had never seen Maria so calm and peaceful, because usually she was bouncing off the walls. And then Jonah sat at the end of the table, scrolling through his phone.

"Chicken salad?" Daniels voice breaks me from my reverie.
"Yes, I love salads." I laugh, looking into his eyes. They made my stomach flip a billion times, making my heart pound so fast I was shaking. "And your hamburger?"
"Hey, I'm hungry, okay!" We both laugh and I playfully slap his arm. He looks over at me, and he was smiling wider than I had ever seen anybody smile before. He leaned in, slowly, his mouth to my ear. I tried not to shake as he laced one of his hands into mine under the table "I want to show you something later." He whispers, and I could feel his warm breath on my skin. I look at him and pause, then whispering back.
"Sounds fun." I said, and then he moved his arm furthest from the table around my waist for a moment, and he looked at me. We were so close together and his skin was on mine, his fingertips leaving trails of fire wherever they went. Even when his hand slipped away from my waist, I could still feel the fireworks he had left behind.

He looked over at me, his mouth parted so slightly that a normal person wouldn't notice it. His smile was faint, but it was there.

My phone buzzed, and I had a Snapchat from Ellie that she had posted to the group chat.

It was a picture of Daniel and I, when he was whispering into my ear. It looked like he was doing something different, other than what was actually happening, and I could see Maria had gotten up from her seat and she was showing Ashley the photo.
Ashley put a hand to her heart and looked over at me, when suddenly Maria looked over at me too.

Maria stared laughing a little, her hand covering her mouth as she just looked at me. "Tea!" She says in her 'I-can't-believe-you-right-now!' tone. "Are you okay!?" She starts laughing, and whatever expression I had on my face disappeared and I started laughing too.
I look over at Ellie, and she just looks at me like she knew she was gonna be in deep crap. I quickly screenshot the picture on my phone, and stand up and try to pull a straight face. "Ellie, you can leave. The door is that way." I point over to a random door, which ended up being the kitchen, where a waiter was bringing out plates of food. On one of them was a chicken salad, and on the other a hamburger. I quickly stop pointing and I sit down and cover my mouth with my hand to try and contain my laughter. The stunned waitress places down me and Daniel's meals, and as soon as she leaves, everybody on the table bursts with laughter.

Something about these boys just made everybody so happy.

X

We had all went back to the boys house, and we were sitting on all of the couches in their lounge-room. Ashley, Corbyn and Jonah on the biggest couch, Maria and Zach on the couch towards the wall, Ellie and Jack on the floor and Daniel and I on the couch closest to the kitchen.
Jack finishes off his non-alcoholic pear cider and taps the empty bottle with his finger, when suddenly Ellie looks down at his hands and her face lights up.
"Jonah, turn off the TV!" She says excitedly, and he does so. "We should play spin the bottle!" She suggests, and everyone looks at each other.
There was a chorus of "sure", "yeah" and "sounds fun", and Jack hands the bottle to Ellie.
"Take it away, E." I could see her blush- only her close friends called her E, but it seems that Jack had caught onto the nickname pretty fast. It also seemed that Jack might be Ellie's type- a lucky guy.

We all sit down on the carpet around the bottle, and Ellie puts the bottle down. She spins it, and it lands on Corbyn and Jack. "You both have to spill an embarrassing secret about each other."
"Well, you see, we were filming this episode of this silly and pointless video series,-" Corbyn started, but I was distracted by a nudge on my arm and a hand finding its way into mine. I turn over my shoulder to look at Daniel, who was smiling. When doesn't this boy smile?
"I really wish I could show you that thing now." He says in a low, hushed voice
"What's stopping you?" I reply.
His eyes flicker from my eyes to my lips, and back again.
"I-" He leans his body towards me a little bit more, when suddenly the group startled me.

"Tea!" A few of them say, and I turn towards them, still quite close to Daniel.

"You have to switch clothes with Zach!" Jack laughs, and I stare at him, then at Daniel, then back towards Jack to see Ellie attempting to contain her laughter as my jaw hung open.

"What?" I ask.

Zach stood up and started taking his shirt off, and I look towards Maria, who was looking at Zach, then at me. She was shocked- her jaw hung open in surprise.
'There's no way.' She mouthed to me, her eyes open wide. I just laughed, and took off my crop hoodie easily. I could feel Daniels hand at the small of my back, and I turn around to face him.
"Hey." I smile.
"Hey." He says back. "You're really warm." He says, surprised, and I laugh, tossing Zach my hoodie as he tossed me his shirt. I slipped it on quickly, and looked at Daniel.
"I'm cold blooded, I've gotta stay warm somehow." I laugh as I throw my shoes to Zach too.
"Were you warm last night?" His question takes me off guard, and I look over at his smiling face once again.
I took off my bracelet and threw it over to Zach without taking my eyes off of Daniel.
"Of course." I said, and Daniel's smile grows even wider, and mine did too, when Zach suddenly threw something hard at me. I turn around and was about to jokingly yell at him, when I saw what it was.
It was another dog tag.