Bleed me Dry

chapter nineteen

♡

"Mae, listen to me. I know you weren't involved in Yaz being drugged and I'm sorry." he begged, glossy-eyed and messy-haired.

"What are you talking about?" I snapped, crossing my arms after my failed attempts at dodging past him. Danny's desperate tone worried me, though I kept a strong face.

"I was just walking past when I overheard Hanna talking to Nate just now..." he trailed, looking at me with a careful frown. He then paused, as if he was remembering the scene exactly. "Hanna was grilling him about being suspended, then she started saying all this stuff about your friend in the hospital and having enough to worry about without people getting suspicious."

"Just now?" I asked, remembering Nate storming out of the office. Hanna must have been waiting for him around the corner.

"Yeah, I swear, just now." he nodded, looking at me for a response. "Do you have detention tonight?"

"I have it every night." I said bluntly, my mind elsewhere. His face lit up slightly before he shrugged the expression away.

"So, are you coming then?" He asked, gesturing down the almost-empty hall in the direction of the detention room. Lessons were well over by now and the only people milling around were here for extracurricular activities, or detention.

"Yeah, of course." I smiled, reminding me just how long it had been since I had genuinely smiled, given the recent events.

Unfortunately, my reason was because of Danny and my mind didn't want to accept that fact, though I could feel the ice beginning to melt around my heart.

Turning to walk, Danny coughed to gain my attention and swinging round, I found a screwed up paper ball in his hand.

"I also found this, thought you may have needed it." He said, scratching his neck awkwardly.

Stepping forward to take it, I opened the folds and realised that it was my messy blueprints for breaking into Hanna's dorm. My laziness was always going to be my downfall in the end.

Blushing almost immediately, I stuffed it into my deep pockets with wide eyes.

Walking away, I heard Danny following behind. "I think it's pretty cool, by the way."

"Pretty cool?" I choked, turning as I did, the embarrassment only growing inside me as I waited for a response.

He simply nodded with his head tilted, curious and amazed, a faint smirk appearing on his lips. He then stepped forward, arms spread outwards confidently. "And I could always help with those cameras."

And with that, he walked ahead. Left open-mouthed, wordless and slightly bemused, I followed behind - admiring the tightness of Danny's jeans.

♡

Detention was a breeze, and the few seconds of eye contact with Danny throughout made it worth every second.

I didn't know how to feel about everything that had happened in the past few hours. On one hand, I wondered why Nate spoke to me, especially in that way, but then another part of me questioned what this whole thing with Danny was and how, after blanking me for the past few weeks, he could go back to normal and be the guy that cleaned my nose bleed late at night and made me grilled cheese again.

It was an odd situation. Bitter sweet.

I liked the fact that Danny was speaking to me, as much as I hated to admit it, but I was also unsure because, like always, my shield was up and I didn't know whether to let it go or press Danny on why he was so quick to cut me off.