Reid and the awkward girl | S.R.

18

Danny wakes with a start in another unfamiliar location. Instead of waking in her own bed, or Spencer's, Danny wakes in the front seat of Harold. Her lower back cramping from her twisting and turning in such a tight space.

Pulling her chair up, Danny looks around at the school and notices it's just the early morning classes starting. Good, she can get a shower in and freshen up. Reaching into the back, she grabs her clothes and toiletry bags and walks into the building that contains the gym and sports areas. Thankfully, practice isn't right now, so Danny has the whole room to herself.

She shakily takes off her clothes, feeling exposed in the stall, and turns on the water. Showering in a school is not on one of Danny's bucket lists. But it is what has to be done.

After the shower, she leaves her hair wet to air dry and changes into suitable clothes. Back out to Harold to drop some things off, Danny almost runs into someone in the hallway.

"Sorry," she mutters not in the mood.

"Wait," the familiar voice sounds around the hallway. Danny hangs her head in annoyance. Can't she have one day where Trish doesn't have something to say to her? Can't Danny just live her shitty life in peace? She liked it better when Trish didn't know she existed.

"What?" Danny grits out.

"You don't do sports? Why are you in the locker room?" Trish tilts her head in confusion. Shorts and a tank top on her figure. A high pony tail on her head, signifying Trish actually did do some kind of sport.

"None of your business," Danny tries to turn away.

"Are you homeless or something?"

Danny feels the rage boiling inside her, but at the moment she can't seem to care. It's as if all her emotions drained out of her for the morning in that shower.

"Spencer doesn't like homeless girls. Just saying," she quips with a smirk. Not knowing when to stop.

"Have Spencer for all I care! Do what you want. He's his own person, and quite frankly the least of my worries," Danny walks away. Why does it feel like she is in a bad teenage movie? With all the shit going on at the moment, Spencer really is the least of her problems. Trish just seems to want to make something out of nothing.

Back at the car, Danny sits in the drivers seat staring at the wheel. It's not a hard decision. But Danny knows she can't live in that apartment anymore.

Instead of going to classes like she planned, she heads back to what once was her home. Planning to pack everything and move out. She doesn't want to pay for that place any longer.

Many people have slept in their cars before, Danny says to herself. It can't be that hard.

•••

After having a word with the landlord, donating the rest of her stuff that wouldn't fit in the car, Danny has a weight lifted off her chest.

Yes living life as a "homeless" person, like Trish had so kindly put it, was not ideal. But it made Danny feel better. She no longer had to live in that awful neighborhood. She didn't have to live her nightmare every time she stepped into that hallway.

Once she found a new apartment everything would be okay.

Her phone buzzed somewhere in the car and Danny struggled to find it. Finally after looking under the seat, she pulled the vibrating device out.

"Spence" flashed across the screen in bold letters and before she could slide to answer it, it turned off.

In its absence she could see the 6 missed calls from Spencer and 17 texts. Instead of reading that all, she called him back.