The Song Remains the Same

Chapter 4: Lockets and Secrets

Chapter 4: Lockets and Secrets

August 28th, 2003

"Danielle would you please sit still?" Mrs. Benson grumbled to her daughter as she bounced around in the chair.

"But mommy I can't wait any longer!" Danielle whined, pulling at her mother's sleeve. "Are they here yet?"

Mrs. Benson sighed, for her daughter had asked her the same question nearly four times before, and each time she gave her answer it was always the same. "No sweetie their flight is landing in a few minutes, just a little bit longer." She still peered around the airport for good measure, the crowd absent of the Thomas family like she had figured.

Danielle huffed, crossing her arms over her chest and bringing her legs up to sit criss-cross-applesauce on the padded airport seats that were all too familiar to her. She'd been waiting for her best friend to get home for almost four months, and after all that time without speaking to him it was clawing at her, the need to see him and just talk to him. It'd been lonely at school and during the summer without him, but she knew he'd be back. He'd always come back for her.

She watched the clock tick by, each movement of the black hand meant another second less that she wouldn't be without her best friend. As her mother flipped her magazine pages with her silk gloved hands, Danielle just tapped her hands away on her legs to the rhythm of the music playing softly across the airport.

She'd watched the clock tick by a full five minutes, and when her mother didn't say anything she watched another five minutes pass by. It made her a little worried- it'd never taken this long before. Startled thoughts started to click into the young girls mind- had something gone wrong, had something happened to him?

Danielle was on the verge of hyperventilating, the anticipation proving to almost be too much for her as she waited and waited and waited for her friend to show up. Except just when she was about to lose it, she heard a booming voice calling out "Danielle! Sharon!"

She looked up, as did her mother, to see Mr. Thomas with his hands cupped around his mouth to let his voice carry through the crowded building, with his wife and son walking close next to him. Suddenly Danielle jumped off of the chair, and started to run over to the little boy a little ways ahead of her despite her mother's stern protests. "Natey!" She squealed as she captured her best friend in a tight hug, probably wrinkling the brown satin shirt his mother probably forced onto him.

"Dani!" He said back, an equally excited tone laced through his voice as he hugged her back tighter than ever, using his nickname for her that only he got to use. Soon Danielle had pull away, a smile spreading from ear to ear illuminating her face as she looked back at her best friend holding the exact same look.

"I missed you so much!" She gasped, so excited that she'd finally gotten her best friend back.

Before Nate could reply his parents told the two of them that they should get out of the airport, and then after they could catch up with each other. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas and Mrs. Benson led the two children out of the airport, bags in Nate's parents hands and in Nate's hand there was only Dani's.

They were ushered into Mrs. Benson's Escalade since she'd be taking them all home, and as they began the long journey back to Port Angeles, everyone began conversing- the adults all talking with one another and the two children talking to each other. Danielle and Nate sat in the very back of the SUV, playing an extremely intense game of thumb wars.

After nearly an hour of driving, their thumbs numb from all the warring, Danielle and Nate finally had a chance to catch up with each other as they sat in Nate's living room. His parents had told him to unpack, but he ignored them and just took Danielle into the living room unused for months, the cushions of the designer couch crispy as they sat down on them. The two sat close to each other, Danielle nearly on Nate's lap, except meaning nothing to them due to their juvenile minds. They were just two friends, being close to each other after being so far apart for so long.