Trapped (egobang trans)

Chapter 10 - Friend?

< Danny's POV >

Leaving class to go to lunch, Danny walked down the corridor without much attention to his surroundings. The abundance of students blurred into a mass of nameless faces, walking past him swiftly and not looking up at him. After only one day he'd somehow started to gain a reputation.

News travelled quickly through teenage gossip, and his arm only acted as more evidence of what went down yesterday with Jon. It didn't overly bother Danny; this reputation seemed to crop up at every school he went to some way or another. Though this was a new record.

Second day, and I'm already being avoided, he thought, smiling almost proudly at the fact.

Not everyone avoided him. The general crowd, those miscellaneous kids that made up the foundations of the classes but we're nothing special - they avoided him. But there were a select few who didn't give him such peace. Namely Brian, who was beginning to become a nuisance at this point.

"Hey, slow down!"

Speak of the devil.

Danny stopped, turning to look over his shoulder. Sure enough he saw the shorter guy, jogging to catch up to him and his abnormally long legs, and therefore strides. Danny smirked, amused, as he stopped beside him.

"I was calling your name," Brian said with an icy blue frown.

"Sorry, man. Blanked out, I guess," Danny shrugged.

Brian glared jokingly up at him, and Danny found himself smiling in return. He may have been a nuisance, but he was a tolerable one.

"Do you want to have lunch together? Like yesterday?" Brian asked, dropping the glare finally.

"Sure," Danny accepted, adding with a grin, "But just try to keep up, grandpa."

Brian frowned in confusion, but his questions were answered when Danny took off down the corridor, making his strides extra large just to tease Brian. He gave the finger over his shoulder before looking back and winking, wide grin still plastered on his face.

"Hey!" Brian cried, breaking into a run to follow.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The two sat near the back of the cafeteria. Danny wasn't especially fond of the idea, but it proved a quieter environment than he expected. Since it was nice weather most students took their food outside, anyway. And those that stayed in the cafeteria were surprisingly mellow, having hushed conversations among their groups. Of course there were exceptions, but Danny didn't have to shout to talk to Brian so he counted it as a victory.

As he took a bite of his food Danny saw Brian jotting something down on a piece of paper. They were sat across from each other and Danny leaned over the table curiously.

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't put your sling in my lunch," Brian said, only half joking as he saw what Danny was doing.

Danny moved back, giving a chuckled apology.

"Whoops. Anyway, whatcha doing there?" he asked.

"Just some notes for band practice," Brian explained nonchalantly.

"Band? What do you play?"

Danny had a passion for music, though beyond singing to himself in his bedroom sometimes he did little. Still, anything about the musical world intrigued him.

Brian looked up from his paper, the focused look in his eyes wavering as he obviously didn't expect Danny to be so interested.

"Piano, mostly."

"Mostly?" Danny raised an eyebrow, smiling strangely.

"Um, I can play guitar... Lots of stuff really. Do you play anything?"

Danny's smile faltered, replaced quickly by an increased heart rate and awkward feeling in his stomach. He wasn't used to sharing anything, even just a little detail like the fact he liked to sing. Sharing made him feel uneasy.

"Yeah, well no- I sing," he said.

Brian looked surprised. Of course, who would expect the weird new kid to actually be interesting...

"Are you any good?" Brian asked.

Danny laughed, the uneasy feeling passing quickly as he relaxed again.

"Come on, man, how can I answer that question? One way I'm a terrible singer, the other I'm a pretentious asshole who is probably a terrible singer anyway!"

Brian laughed along, putting the piece of paper back in his pocket where it came from.

"Fair point," he said, taking a bite of his own lunch finally.

Danny assumed that was the end of the conversation and went in for his second mouthful, but as Brian swallowed his he spoke again. What he said almost made Danny choke in surprise.

"I have practice after school today, if you want to come?"

A few people turned their heads as Danny coughed, attempting to keep the food from being inhaled instead of actually eaten. He finally swallowed, clearing his throat before giving a nervous laugh.

"Gotta warn me before you drop a bomb like that on me," he exclaimed.

Brian tilted his head.

"It's not that big of a deal, is it?" he wondered.

Danny sighed; of course Brian wouldn't understand. He was normal, and didn't get uneasy about stupid things like meeting new people. Danny wasn't an introvert, far from it actually. He just had bad experiences with opening up, and even then it only seemed to cause him trouble. He was unbelievably touchy about a lot of things and got offended easily, hence the sling. Meeting Brian's band mates didn't sound like the casual activity that Brian was making it out to be.

"I'm not a people person, as you've probably sussed at this point," he said almost ashamedly, though he attempted to crack a bit of a joke.

Brian's eyes glinted as he gave an unusually warm smile. Danny found himself feeling suspicious of that look and almost narrowed his eyes.

"Well, whether you decide to or not, I'd love to hear some of your singing at some point," Brian said.

"I'm no rockstar, that's for sure."

"Then what's holding you back?"

"Excuse me?" Danny frowned.

"If you're not a rockstar, then you don't need to be good. Just saying, nothing's riding on your ability to sing, so what's the harm in letting a friend listen? I'm not going to deny you a record deal or anything," Brian shrugged.

"Careful, I might get too inspired," Danny joked.

Though he didn't mention it, Danny felt a light feeling in his stomach at hearing those words. Particularly the word "friend". Did Brian really consider him as a friend already?

A/N: first some Suzy/Arin bonding, now some Brian/Danny bonding time! I love writing conversations between characters and exploring their chemistry (also cause I suck at dialogue and want to improve lol)