Trapped (egobang trans)

Chapter 22 - Answers

"Why did you... y-y'know?" Arin asked first, nodding to the tree where Suzy had been pinned.

Danny blinked as he heard the stutter in Arin's voice again. His momentary surge of confidence seemed to have left him and he sat down again, awkwardly tucking his hair behind his ear.

"She made you have a panic attack," Danny said simply.

He wasn't sure what other reason there could be. Though to his surprise, Arin blushed slightly at his explanation, looking away.

"I-It wasn't just h-her..."

Danny leaned forward a little, tilting his head in confusion.

"Then what was it?"

"M... M-Me. I-I was the problem. I-It was my mistake, sh-she did nothing wrong."

Arin's voice shook slightly, like this was hard for him to say. Danny didn't quite understand what he was getting at and frowned.

"What do you mean, Arin? What did you do?" he urged.

"I... I...." Arin started, then shaking his head seriously, "No, I'm asking the questions here! I-I understand that you thought she was the problem, b-but why would you... s-strangle her like that?"

Now it was Danny's turn to look away. Everyone knew he had a short fuse, everyone knew how easily he could be riled up by the smallest things. But no one - not even his parents - knew the true extent. They didn't know how violent he could get in one of his rages. Well, now Arin and Suzy did...

Danny sighed, ruffling his hair as he tried to phrase his answer.

"I don't know. It was like the fight with Jon, I just got so angry that I couldn't control myself," he explained shamefully.

Arin just nodded slowly, letting the information sink in. He didn't say anything, though.

An awkward pause, and a thought popped into Danny's mind suddenly. He spun around, eyes darting through the grass until he spotted it. Finally managing to climb to his feet again he walked a few paces to where Suzy had dropped Arin's sketchbook. He picked it up, noticing it had fallen open on a page but trying not to look since, knowing Arin, it was probably private.

He walked back and handed it to Arin.

"Here, Suzy dropped this. Why'd she try to steal it, anyway?" he said as he sat down again.

Arin rested the sketchbook in his lap as he stared at Danny. One side of his mouth twitched up into an amused smile and he gave a giggle. Danny raised an eyebrow, not getting what was funny.

"I-Is that what you thought happened? You thought she stole it?" Arin asked, still smiling.

"Well, yeah. She was holding it and you looked really freaked out. Why, what did happen?" Danny responded.

Arin gave another giggle, struggling to contain himself. Danny was glad that the mood had lightened somewhat but he was still in the dark about the joke.

"W-We hung out at the weekend. I left my sketchbook at the park, and Suzy just came to give it b-back," Arin explained finally, and Danny felt himself go red.

"For real?! Aw man, I'm such an idiot! You should have told me what happened before, then I wouldn't have made such a stupid mistake!" he cried, flopping backwards into the grass.

"M-Maybe I should have..." Arin muttered.

Danny lifted his head to see Arin staring at the ground, looking thoughtful. Sitting up again Danny waved his hand in his face. Arin blinked, jolting as he came back to the real world.

"Hey, no getting lost in that head of yours, young man!" Danny teased.

Arin's lips drew into a line and he was silent for a moment. Then, he took a deep breath, closing his eyes as if he was about to start meditating.

"Okay, I'm just going to tell you before I can change my mind. If I don't, it'll just cause more trouble in the future, so here goes," he said, and Danny noticed the stutter disappear once more.

Arin was in control.

"Oookay? What're you telling me, again?" Danny wondered, a little unclear what was about to happen.

"There's a bit more to the hang out than just the whole sketchbook thing. I'm gonna tell you what happened, since you've been trying to drag it out of me since yesterday anyway. And so that stuff like this doesn't happen again because I keep running away from everything." Arin opened his eyes warily, as if seeing Danny in front of him would cut off his flow of courage.

When it didn't he gave a little smile, and Danny waited patiently for him to continue.

"Okay, here I go. We met up on Saturday at a park near her house. I got there 20 minutes early cause I was freaking out all morning, and I guess I just needed to get out of the house. Anyway, I was alone for 20 minutes. I took a look around and then ended up drawing, in this sketchbook actually." Arin patted the sketchbook that was still sat in his lap,

"When Suzy got there she was acting kind of weird. She was all fidgety and a bit too excited. She asked if we could go sit on the swings. Me, being me, didn't say anything about how she was acting, and just decided to go along with it. Because of how excited she was I didn't get to put my sketchbook away, leaving it on the bench I was sat on. We sat on the swings, and then Suzy told me to close my eyes. I was too afraid to do anything else, so I did. Next thing I know, she... sh-she...."

Danny could see Arin's control wavering, the memory obviously making him anxious. Danny was curious what came next, so he gave Arin a patient smile. Knowing Arin, if he didn't get it out now, it would be a while before he'd be ready to give it a go again. Arin took another deep breath to compose himself.

"S-She... kissed me. I'm not ready to tell you why this was such a big deal, but it really freaked me out. I ran away, no explanation and leaving my sketchbook behind. I accidentally strung Suzy along, Dani. That's why I was the problem; it was my mistake. Today Suzy tried to fix it, but it all just came back to me and I couldn't handle it. That's what caused the panic attack. Not Suzy. Me."

Arin's whole body seemed to give way and he breathed heavily like he'd just been holding his breath. Danny figured that was the end of it and took a moment to mill it over in his head. Now he knew why Arin was so uncomfortable when his mum mentioned Suzy.

He blamed himself heavily for what happened, even though Danny was certain that it was perfectly in his right to reject Suzy. He was about to say as much when the bell went. Arin hurriedly got to his feet, and Danny knew where this was going.

"You wanna go to the cafeteria with me for lunch?" he suggested before Arin could take off like always.

"The c-cafeteria? I-I don't know..." Arin stammered.

"Change of scenery, why not? It's not bad weather, so most people will be outside for lunch anyway. What'd'ya say? Pleeeease?" Danny said with a grin, tilting his head like a begging dog.

Arin let out an unsure laugh, but to Danny's surprise nodded with very little convincing.

"O-Okay."

A/N: they're finally revealing more to each other. Not the bigger secrets yet ;) but at least they're more comfortable around each other now