Jay x Daniel - You Came With the Spring

Chapter 18: playing with balls (Daniel)

It had started all over again. Months of progress, of being surrounded by studies, and practice, and pretty, pretty boys - it was all for nothing.

Daniel sat by Sian below the shade of a tree, picking at his protein bar as his friend tried, with futility, to start a conversation.

"Dance instructor Ju has to be going through something. I swear with his extra pissy ass mood, he better be. I can hardly keep up with the new steps!" Sian says.

"Yeah."

Sian bites into his bar fiercely. "I've actually really been falling behind on English, I know that you're not too bad, can you maybe help me out?"

"Sure."

"I swear, I could hardly take it anymore. I don't have the energy, and I can't find the time. . .and. . ." Sian's words fall away and a large frown sets in. "Daniel, can you get your head out of the clouds for one minute?"

Daniel clears his throat, and angles his pink face away from the steps, where there sits the mysterious new recruit, Liam. Blonde and beautiful, the boy was hard to miss. He felt a magnetic energy from him, and he knew exactly why. It was that long hair when it fell over his eyes, those lips when they furled into a soft smile, and his lithe body when it curled before performing certain routines. It was when Liam looked like Jay.

"Man, you've really got your eyes on someone," Sian says, rolling his eyes. "You're making me jealous."

Daniel gives Sian a shy smile and says, "Aw, c'mon. You know we're friends." Friends. . . a jolt of excitement zips through him. He loves having friends.

Sian takes another huge chunk out of his bar and mumbles, "Yeah."

The weather was perfect, the swell of summer right on the heels of the gentle spring. The melody of songbirds danced around Daniel and he felt a fuzzy feeling encompass him. "You know, Sian, let's do something fun today."

Sian raises his eyebrows and rubs his eyes under his sunglasses. He then tosses his wrapper aside and into his bag. "Fun? Like what?"

"Well, we could have a picnic, get some ice cream, play some tennis-"

"Daniel, we can't. We've already eaten over half our calorie intake for the day, and we just finished a bunch of lessons. I'm too tired."

Daniel bites his lip, feeling a slight sting at his friend's tone. He peeks over at Sian, laying with his back to the lush grass. His mouth is downturned, and a frown is etched between his eyebrows. His hands move to run over his eyes again and he sighs heavily.

"I'm just too tired for anything today. Maybe tomorrow," Sian says.

Daniel reaches to remove his friend's sunglasses, when a hand falls on his shoulder, and stops him.

"Daniel?" Liam says, "I totally got that right, didn't I?"

His voice sounded different than Daniel had expected, it seemed so normal, so boyish. But still, his heart surged when the blonde smiled down at him, his hair curtained over his eyes.

"Yeah. . ." the brunette draws off, pretending not to know his name.

"Liam."

"What brings you here, Liam?" Sian says, sitting up.

"I just noticed your attention, lately," my staring, Daniel thought with slight embarrassment, "and since it's a half day, I was wondering if you wanted to join my friends and I at the mall. We're heading out right now." He motioned over to his group of friends across the field, that were looking on at the interaction. They waved a hello, at the shift in boy's attention.