Rise of Rain - Sequel to Tower Falling

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

~Andie~

"What were you talking to Dylan about for so long?"

I exhaled heavily through my nose, narrowing my eyes at the back of Danny's head as he walked up the stairs ahead of me. "It kills you, doesn't it? Not being included in every little thing."

He hardly flinched. He didn't speak again until we were up the stairs and through the door to our apartment. We'd parted ways with the others immediately after the meeting, with Dylan promising to send us details on where to meet soon. We'd been silent the entire way home. But now it was as though the floodgates had opened up in Danny's lungs.

"You told him about this morning, didn't you?" he snapped, rounding on me as soon as he got the front door slammed shut. Was that real anger on his face? It'd been a while since he'd been truly angry with me; unlike every other time, though, this was unwarranted.

I threw my jacket down on the arm of the couch, which still had Lula's body shell flopped on top of the cushions. She couldn't even be bothered to collect her things when she ran off? "No, Danny, I didn't," I said tersely, moving toward the kitchen to see what I could throw together for dinner. Confrontation made me hungry.

Danny followed after me, the heels of his shoes tapping against the wood floor. I made a mental note to put him in charge of the floors next time we cleaned. "I don't believe you," he said. "Why wouldn't you tell him?"

"Why would I?" He scoffed; I rolled my eyes. The fridge was nearly empty; we'd have to go grocery shopping in the next couple of days. There was a frozen pizza in the freezer, though, and I supposed that would suffice. I set the oven to the correct temperature and turned around, leaning my hips against the counter with my arms folded across my chest. "I didn't tell him, Danny."

He stood across the kitchen table from me, fingers clenched around the top of one of our chairs. His blue eyes were dark; his ears were red. "What else could you have been talking about for so long? Unless you're conspiring some way to make me just shut up and listen like you and the others?"

"Clearly you need to be taught how to shut up and listen, because you're not doing it right now," I said, pushing aside the sting of his words. Danny took a step back, seemingly startled, as I turned away and slid the frozen pizza into the oven. "Forgive me for preferring to keep our disagreements private," I said. I shut the oven door - a little rougher than necessary, I will admit - and looked back at Danny, who was only staring at me. "It wasn't Dylan's business. I didn't tell him. Got it?"

For a moment, no one spoke. Danny and I maintained intense eye contact, each sizing the other person up, until Danny finally blinked and looked away from me. "Got it," he said quietly. He removed his hands from the back of the chair, shook them out, and tucked them into the pockets of his jeans. "So, uh..." He cleared his throat and gave me a small, sheepish smile. "What did Dylan want, then?"

If I had wanted an apology, I likely wasn't going to get one. Not from him. But that was alright; I'd been putting up with his bullshit for a couple of years at that point, and was well prepared to deal with anything concerning J. Daniel Atlas. So I merely smiled in return and leaned against the counter again. "He wanted to check in with me about my nightmares."

"And?"

"I told him they've gotten a lot better," I said. 

One of Danny's eyebrows went up. "And you weren't lying, right?"

My smile broadened into a grin. "Right. You didn't notice things have improved?"

He walked away from the table and crossed the kitchen to stand in front of me, arms outstretched. I leaned into his chest automatically, resting my head on his collarbone as he held me. "I noticed you weren't waking me up during the night anymore," he said. A chuckle vibrated through his chest. "I know you don't like when I bother you about how you're doing; I figured you'd let me know if something was wrong again."