Trapped (egobang trans)

Chapter 27 - Real Name

< Danny's POV >

The next day Danny walked into school feeling like it was his first day all over again. He felt like he was an entirely new person - ironic considering that he was actually just being himself finally. Arin was the only person he'd told and yet it seemed like everyone else somehow knew too. Thinking about it he knew he was just being paranoid, but he still felt too exposed as he walked inside.

He spotted Brian down the corridor getting something from his locker and smiled, seeing a familiar face calming him down. He walked over, trying to be as quiet as possible. He stood behind Brian, thankful that he didn't have anything reflective in his locker that would give him away.

"Boo!" he cried suddenly, making Brian jump and drop a book.

The shorter guy spun around, blue eyes wide as he looked up at Danny. When he saw who it was, however, he glared, sighing as he bent down to pick up the book on the floor.

"What was that for, Dani?" he asked.

"Just getting you back for all those times you've ninja-spooked me," Danny grinned, leaning back on the locker beside Brian's and not caring whose it was.

"For someone so tall, you really nailed the sneaking," Brian admitted as he stood back up.

"I'm just that good."

Brian chuckled, his annoyed glare dropping as he finally got what he needed and closing his locker. What he didn't know was that Meouch was standing just behind the door. Now it wasn't just Brian who jumped, but Danny as well.

"God, what is going on with you people this morning?!" cried Brian when he recovered from the scare.

"I saw Dani scare ya and thought I'd join in! Can't let her have all the fun, can I?" the lion explained happily.

His hand shot out suddenly, almost hitting Brian in the face as he reached across to the other side of him where Danny was stood, palm out for a high five. Danny rolled his eyes, returning it to humour him. He saw the other three of his masked friends approaching from behind Meouch and smiled at them. Brian and Meouch followed his gaze and greeted them, Brian looking relieved to not get jumped from behind again.

In the corner of his eye Danny spotted a familiar pink sweater and turned his head. Arin had just walked in, though he didn't seem to have noticed them yet. Danny felt a stab of fear thinking about last night and the fact that Arin knew, but he pushed it away and raised a hand to get his attention. His brown eyes darted up from their usual locked position of looking at the floor and a smile split on his face.

The expression wasn't any different to what Danny was used to seeing which comforted him. Still, what would conversations be like now? He took a deep breath; he could handle this!

He couldn't.

As soon as Arin reached him Danny's mouth refused to open. He gave an awkward smile as greeting, feeling himself start to sweat.

"Hey... Danny."

Danny's heart went into overdrive. Spoken, there was no difference in the word, but Danny just knew. And that wasn't a feeling he had felt before. No one had ever said his name before.

"H-H-Hi, A-Arin," he stammered in reply.

To everyone else he probably just looked cold, a slight shiver causing his voice to waver. But in fact it was the insane amount of adrenaline coursing through his veins that caused everything to shake. It was similar to excitement, and in a way he was excited. Excited to the point of a panic attack.

Well, not quite. He somehow managed to prevent it from going that far - maybe it was the thought of a corridor full of school kids witnessing that.

"Are you okay?" Arin asked, confused, though his eyes widened a second later as he seemed to connect the dots and realise what had caused this reaction. "Oh, I'm s-sorry, I d-didn't mean to!"

For whatever reason hearing Arin stutter brought Danny back down to earth. His shaking lessened and he even huffed a laugh to reassure Arin that he'd done nothing wrong. He was reminded of their earlier friendship when Arin had stuttered almost constantly, and that in itself helped to put everything in perspective. Nothing had really changed.

Calming down all the way Danny gave Arin a thumbs up and muttered an "I'm okay" before turning his attention back to his other friends. Luckily Meouch had been occupying all of them in conversation so none of them noticed Danny's temporary freak out.

"Oh, that reminds me!" Sung exclaimed suddenly, catching everyone's attention.

Though Danny hadn't heard the rest of the conversation he still listened to what Sung had to say.

"There's this new movie on at the cinema this weekend, and I was wondering if you guys wanted to get tickets and go with me?" the cone continued.

"What's it about?" Brian asked.

"Hold on." Sung pulled out his phone, "Here, look."

The group all shuffled around to look at the phone screen. Danny's eyes widened with interest at the teaser pictures and he quickly scanned over the synopsis at the bottom. The plot seemed interesting enough and he even recognised a few actors in the cast list.

"Dude, Arin, come look at this!" he said, looking up at Arin who hadn't moved.

He looked unsure, probably not wanting to be so crammed by the group since they were all crowding the phone, but he complied as Danny waved him over. Danny moved aside slightly so he could see and smiled when he saw Arin clearly intrigued as well.

"So, ya guys wanna go?" Sung asked as he put his phone away again.

"Hell yeah! Dunno 'bout you guys but I'm psyched!" Meouch cried, making them all laugh.

Danny even caught Arin smiling off to the side, which made him happier. In the beginning Arin had been reluctant to involve himself with TWRP and Brian, but in the last few weeks he'd really come out of his shell it seemed. Danny almost felt like a proud parent, seeing how far he'd come.

"Cool, I'll send you all the link so you can get tickets," Sung finished with a smile.

Meouch clapped excitedly as the bell for first lesson went.

"See you guys at break?" Brian say, glancing at Danny mostly since he sometimes hung out with Arin.

Danny looked over at Arin quickly before looking back at Brian.

"Text me where you are, and I'll see," he shrugged.

Brian nodded with a smile before turning away to head to his lesson. Danny had first lesson with Arin, so he jogged the opposite way to catch up with him as he'd already started walking.

"You gonna come with us?" he asked casually, coming up beside him.

"Oh, I-I dunno..." Arin muttered, blushing slightly.

"Hey, you don't have to dude, if it'll be too much. But it'd be more fun if you were there," Danny assured.

He saw Arin give a bashful smile hearing that as he looked up at Danny slightly.

"Really?"

"Of course, man! I love hanging out with you," Danny insisted, ruffling Arin's hair and making him giggle.

"Thanks Danny. Okay, I'll come."

A/N: some nice friendly conversation since they've had a lotta heavy emotional stuff, and ooooh movie :D gonna move away from the school environment a bit