This Time

Ch. 8

I made my way to Danny's house for the last time to drop off his homework for the day. He was sitting up in bed, watching Grey's Anatomy on his TV. 

"Oh hey. I was feeling a bit lonely."

He smiled as he saw me walk in through the door. I gave him his homework and spat out a "feel better" and turned around to leave.

"Wait."

Danny said. I stopped in my tracks. 

"Can you stay a little longer? I've been doing this all day. It would be nice if I had someone to talk to, you know? Please?"

I faced him. 

"I have homework to do."

I told him, gesturing to my bulging backpack. 

"All I'm asking for is like 20 minutes. Pleaseeeeee?"

He gave me this disgustingly accurate puppy face with those big dark brown eyes of his, and I couldn't do anything except sit down. After all, I wasn't THAT mean. 

"I meant to ask you this for a long time...but why do you shut out everyone around you?"

Danny asked me. I flinched, not wanting to answer. 

"I know girls like you. If you really were cold, you wouldn't be bringing me homework everyday. On top of that, you wouldn't have stayed when I asked you to. So what is it? What happened? You can tell me, you know."

A place in my heart warmed up, just a slight bit. Something in my head told me to tell him. Without even giving it a second thought, I did. I told him everything. From detail to detail, I told him why I became so cold hearted. He listened to me through all of it. 

"So yeah."

I finished, inhaling.

"I can't believe I even told you all of that..."

I added, looking away.

"Must've been hard for you...But hey, why not start new? After all, you're at a new school now and there are new people. Don't let that one person get to you, you know what I mean?"

Danny said. I nodded.

"I'll try..."

I muttered. He smiled.

"Let's start with homework. Can you help me with math? I don't get anything that's been going on."

Danny said, opening his math textbook as a bunch of papers flew out. I smiled.

"Hey Aunt Ambi...I was thinking about going out this weekend. With...friends."

I told Aunt Ambi who was cooking dinner. She stopped chopping midway and looked at me.

"R-Really Jen?"

"Yeah. To the mall or something. Um. With Danny. And a few others. If that assures you in any way.."

Aunt Ambi ran to me and gave me a huge hug.

"Jen, you're making friends! Oh, I'm so happy for you! I knew it was still in you!"

She cooked the rest of the night while singing, which was definitely not Aunt Ambi-like. Did I also mention that she baked blueberry muffins? My favorite? Even though she hated them? Um, yeah.

"I'm going to help you pick out new clothes to wear. The hoodie and shorts can't stay forever, you know? Gotta act like a girl!!"