Earning Her Own Name

Chapter 10

“Danni.” Liam said sternly, sending me a harsh glare.

“What?!” I whined.

“Just write your name on the damn list!” He commanded and pointed to the paper in front of me.

“But, I don’t… want to!” I sighed and stomped my foot, shoving my face into his shoulder. He patted my back.

“Write your name or I’ll do it for you.” He threatened. I groaned loudly and picked up the pen. I let out a long breath before writing Danielle Augustine messily in an open line.

“Done.” I mumbled and hung my head. Liam lifted my chin up so I was looking him in the eye.

“You’ll do fine.” He smiled at me. I shoved him playfully and gave him a sarcastic smirk. He had met me at the school on the first day the sign up list for the next open mic night was out. It had been about a month since I had first played him my songs and we had hung out almost every day after that. He had officially become my best friend and yeah, we were now inseparable. No arguments there though. He actually listens to me and cares and it feels good to know I have him, despite the fact that he gets very annoying with his persistency when it comes to my music.

I turned to walk out of the office of my school, heading towards the entrance. Unfortunately, me being the unobservant, klutz I am, I collided into someone, almost knocking me to the floor, if Liam hadn’t been right behind me to catch me. I gave him a thankful look before turning to see who I had walked into.

My heart almost fell out of my chest.

“Sami?” Sean asked. I bit my lip and shook my head as I steadied myself, jumping out of Liam’s arms. Liam was staring at Sean with a hard glare, clearly not happy that he called me Sami, knowing how much it irritated me when people mistook me for my sister.

“Uh… no, it’s Danni.” I said quietly, fixing my hair. “Hi Sean.” I smiled nervously. I felt Liam tense up even more beside me. I turned to see that he still had the hard facial expression, his jaw now clenched.

“Danni, sorry.” He smiled at me, making me melt. “What are you doing in here?” he said, trying to start a conversation.

“I was umm… signing up for the open mic night next week.” I said awkwardly. As much as this plan was to help me get with him and show off my ‘talent’ as Liam called it, to the rest of the school, I still felt nervous thinking about having Sean hear me play.

“Oh, you sing?” he asked curiously.

“Uh yeah, and play guitar.” I smiled stupidly at him.

“Oh, well maybe I’ll have to hear you play sometime.” He smiled at me, his brown eyes shining from under his dark hair. I bit my lip.

“Yeah. Come next week. I’ll be there.” I giggled. He nodded.

“So I’ve heard. Yeah I guess I’ll come. Never been to one, might as well give it a try right?” he paused. “so I’ll see you then.” He finished. I nodded, a huge grin on my face.

“That you will.” And with that he was gone. I stood there frozen for a bit, just thinking about our small conversation. It seemed so surreal and even though it wasn’t that much, it meant the world to me.

“So that was the famous Sean Mitch?” Liam’s hard voice brought me out of my thoughts.  I blinked a few times, trying to register his question before I answered.

“Yup.” I said simply.

“What’s so good about him?” he asked quickly, not meeting my gaze. I shrugged.

“Did you not see him?! He’s so hot, and is a great athlete and he’s nice and funny.” I said, floating off to dream land.

“Sorry, I didn’t know you wanted my expert opinion on how ‘amazingly hot and muscular’ he is.” Liam said in his generic girl voice. I could tell it was sarcastic, but I couldn’t help but notice the bitterness in his voice. I laughed at him.

“Well I didn’t need yours. I have mine. And I give him a gold star for looks.” I said and winked. Liam laughed half heartedly as we made our way to his car.

The ride back to my house was mostly silent as I thought about a lot of things. I thought about what Sean had said and why Liam was acting a little bit strange. I thought about my mother, who hadn’t really spoken to me much since our big fight. I thought about my sister who was becoming more and more confident that there was something going on with Liam and I when she knew that I liked Sean and Liam was only my best friend.

I immediately grabbed my guitar when Liam and I got up to my room and walked over to my bed, grabbing my book out of the hole in my wall.

“That is the fastest I’ve ever seen you grab your guitar.” Liam chuckled and followed me inside the room, shutting the door gently behind him.

“I have to practice. I know Sean is coming now. I have to be perfect.” I rushed, starting play Good Riddance as a warm up as always.

“Dan, he may not show up. He may forget. Don’t get yourself too excited.” He warned. I glared at him.

“Liam, just let me have this. He said he will come. He’ll keep his word!” I scolded him. “It has to be perfect.” I repeated.

“It always is perfect. Flawless. Always has been. Don’t stress yourself out.” He sighed. I smiled at him but shook my head.

“No time for compliments. I need constructive criticism and fast.” I told him and restarted the song. He just shook his head and stood up.

“Actually, I’m not feeling too well today. I think I’m just going to head home.” He mumbled, not meeting my gaze. I paused and looked up at him, confused and disappointed. He never left my house before I kicked him out. Especially not right after we get here. I bit my lip and looked down, nodding.

“Alright. I’ll talk to you later.” I mumbled.

“Bye.” He said. I waited to feel his arms wrap around me in the familiar goodbye hugs that I had come to love, but it never came, just the clicking of the door as it shut. I felt my heart sink. I didn’t think anything could ruin this day for me after my run in with Sean, but right now I felt surprisingly empty and alone.

I sat there for a second before grabbing my book and opening it to a fresh page. I started to strum some chords on my guitar, feeling the music flowing out of me.

“Hey, can you tell me where you were today? You can say that you were here with me, but I know, it just wasn’t you.” I sang the first line of lyrics that came to my head. I paused quickly and scribbled them down in my book, writing the date quickly in the corner so I could find it easily. I picked my guitar back up and continued.

“’Cause you seemed so far away, you feet may have been on the ground, but your head was in the clouds and your heart, it just wasn’t there.”

I found it surprising how easily the lyrics and notes were coming. The only other time I had this much inspiration was my Dad’s scene that inspired my first song. As I sang the song, the pit in my stomach grew deeper and stronger.

What on earth was up with him today?

So this is a really short chapter. It's more of a filler. Next chapter is where things finally start to get good, and then after that, it'll be very interesting :D so bear with me for now. I have officially decided to update this story every Wednesday. Maybe I'll get another update in here and there, but Wednesday's for sure (most likely) I may miss an update if I'm super busy, but I'll do my best. I mean I even wrote for you all on my birthday!! :D So I hope you enjoy. Sorry again for the short and stupid chapter :(

Again, all of Danni's original song lyrics are written by me that's why they are bad and only like one or two line per song and they are made up on the spot so deal with it. They are meant to tell stories and relate to how she feels about the different people and situations in her life so I am trying to make them very straight forward. I am not a song writer :P