Toto and the Boys III: Dannie

Chapter 3

A piece of the past…

Dannie entered the classroom with her head bent, her long black hair covering both sides of her face like a curtain. Jackie and George were not yet around and she sighed with relief. She briskly walked to her assigned seat and pretended to look for something in her bag.

“You know, you look like this girl in a Japanese movie I watched over the weekend. Have you heard of the movie The Ring?” Troy Brady’s familiar voice said beside her. She knew he was talking to her but she ignored him, rummaging her bag for nothing in particular. “Hey, Danica, did you hear me?”

Dannie started to feel irritated. It had only been a week since he joined their class and he had already changed a lot. He made a lot of friends, especially with Lee and Miguel. And he always made sure that he would irritate her at least once a day. She regretted being infatuated with him from the start. He was turning out to be like every other teenage guy around school.

“I am busy,” she muttered under her breath as she took out a book, swung in her chair to face the front and read.

“You don’t usually leave your hair untied,” Troy said. “What’s wrong? Are you hiding swollen eyes? Did you cry yourself to sleep last night?”

“Leave me alone, Troy,” she warned.

He fell silent and she thought he went away to find Lee and Miguel. But his next words surprised her. “Is that a bruise on your hand?” he asked.

“I bumped into something. Can you quit it? I need to study.”

“Were you hurt?” he asked.

“Quit it, Brady.”

“Fine,” he said, holding up his hands.

As he walked away, Troy looked over at Dannie’s bent head with a frown. He saw not just one bruise, but two more on her upper arm. He shrugged. If she was not talking, he’d better find other reliable sources. He smiled when he saw one of them enter the door. “Jackie!” he called out with a smile.

PRESENT DAY

Dannie stepped out of her room, expecting it to be empty. She knew Jackie and George went out for work and had the whole day on her own to do some errands she volunteered to do for the wedding. She ended up disappointed.

“What are you still doing here?” she asked Troy who was busy cooking something in the kitchen.

He looked over his shoulder and said, “Danica! I almost forgot you’re here,” he said with a laugh. “Don’t worry, we’ll not bother you for long. We’ll just eat and then we’re gone.”

Dannie frowned. “We?”

“Yeah. Me and…” he finally turned away from the stove and frowned, his eyes looking up in concentration.

Dannie looked at him dryly. “You can’t remember her name, can you?”

“Of course, I can. I just need something to eat to refresh my mind.”

She arched an eyebrow and shook her head. “Where is she?”

“In the bath,” he answered in a whisper.

“This is not your place. You know that, right?”

“Why are you being difficult, Danica?” he asked. “You just came back for a short stay and you’re wasting your time fighting.”

“Because you are still the same. You bring women here all the time because you know they will never dare come back to our place. And you can’t always remember their names. You let them shower in our bathroom like it is your place. You cook and eat like you live here. I just came back and I have things to do for the wedding and I can’t babysit you or that woman whose name we both don’t know and I am sure we will never meet again after this,” she said breathlessly.