Chapter 4
“Ok, you’re not telling me something,” Selina said when she came into my room on Sunday. Amy dropped me back off at my house midday on Saturday and I’d been reading and doing homework since then; trying to keep my mind off of Danny. It wasn’t working as well as I was hoping.
“There is this new thing called knocking. It’s typically what people do before entering bedrooms of other people.” I said and set my book down and sat up on my bed. I was kind of freaked out how she had barely seen me and knew something was askew.
“Ok well you’re not ‘other people’. Jeez, I’m kind of hurt that you don’t think of me as almost a sister. Did your sisters ever knock before coming in?”
“Yeah, actually they did,” I said defiantly, but didn’t tell her that it was only because my door was locked most of the time so they couldn’t just barge right on in. I would hardly say that they knocked; it was more like a type of pounding.
“Sure they did. I know you well enough to see when you’re lying. Whatever, I know they didn’t, but that’s beside the point. So what are you not telling me?” She said stepping into my room and looking around my things as if looking for clues to my secret.
“How do you know I’m not telling you something?”
“Because of the way you just asked that. That was a test, and you just failed, so spill.” She picked up the book I was reading, dog-eared the corner of the page I was on, and set it down on my night stand before sitting on the bed next to me.
“Danny talked to me again.”
“And you didn’t tell me?” she said putting a hand over her heart in a sarcastic gesture.
“I didn’t think it was important. Nothing happened; he’s just an arrogant sonuva-”
“Don’t you dare lie to me, Adalyn Lee Morsen! Something always happens with that boy.”
“It was like Tuesday I think when I went off by myself at lunch-”
“I knew I shouldn’t’ve let you go by yourself!” she said as she jumped around on the bed so she was facing me.
“If you don’t stop interrupting me, I’m not going to tell you what happened!”
“I thought you said that nothing happened,” she said with a smug look but sighed and leaned back against my wall when I just looked at her with my ‘just-shut-up-and-listen’ looks as she liked to call them. I paused and replayed the event in my head before talking again.
“Nothing really did happen. I was thinking about stuff, and he snuck up on me and was all ‘So now you hate me?’ and blah blah blah.”
“And then what?”
“I said sort of and asked him to leave me alone, but of course he’s a stubborn sonuva-” I stopped before saying the swear word because of the glare she shot me, “I got up to leave and then he had to go and say something about how I walk away from everything. Then I got mad and asked him why he thought kissing girls to make them shut up was so much better, and then he had be all ‘when they’re irresistible’ blah blah blah.” After I finished I banged the back of my head of the wall and sighed.
“I love how you imitate his voice.”
“Selina!” I said and looked at her.
“What?”
“That’s all that you got out of everything I just said?”
“Yep,” she said and we both started laughing.

“I think I’m going to sit in my usual seat in history to show him that I don’t care anymore,” I said when I got into Selina’s car: it was her week to drive.
“Where else would you sit?”
“On the other side of the room with the geeks,” I said with an embarrassed smile and she stared at me in shock.
“Adalyn!”
“What? It was only for like three days.”
“Oh my gosh, you are never not talking to me again. I can’t believe you sat on the other side of the room! Does he freak you out that much?”
“I didn’t want to talk to him! It’s not that bad!” I said in defense.
“Well now he knows that he is in control and he thinks he has you right where he wants you.”
“I didn’t know sitting in a different seat said so much,” I muttered as we pulled into the student parking lot. It was pretty intimidating when I looked over to where James normally parked and found both him and Danny staring at me. “He’s like a totally different person.”
“Who? James or Danny?” she said noticing the stares we were getting from both of them.
“Danny. I thought I knew him well, but the Danny I knew wouldn’t act like this.”
“What, flirty? Love changes people.” She said simply and almost made me choke on the water I had just taken a sip of.
“First of all, we’re way past the stage of flirty, and second of all, I’m just a challenge to him, not love.”
“Whatever you say,” she said with a sly smile as we started to walk into school with James and Danny following us.
“Hey, Addie,” James said to me while Selina and I were going through our lockers.
“Hi,” I said uninterested without even glancing at him.
“Are you still mad at me?” he said leaning against the lockers in between Selina and me.
“Mad? No, I’m not mad.” I still hadn’t directly looked at him; just saw him in my peripheral vision.
“Do you want to go to the school play on Wednesday or Thursday?” he asked, and I finally looked up at him not liking how I had to tilt my head up to see his face.
“No,” I said with attitude and walked around him to stand next to Selina.
“You owe me, though.” He said as he followed me.
“I owe you? How do I owe you?”
“You totally dumped your drink all over me in front of half the school,” he said like it was a crime and even pointing to the pink stain on his shoes to prove that I had done it.
“So you’re going to try and guilt me into going on a date with you? You’re going to have try harder than that. Why don’t you go and ask Amanda? I’m sure she would be ecstatic to go with you.” I grabbed Selina’s arm and we walked away from him without a second glance.
“And to think that two weeks earlier I would have said yes with no question about it,” I mumbled to Selina as the bell rang and she patted my hand that was holding on to her arm.
“That just says how much stronger you’ve gotten in just two weeks.” We hugged and then went our separate ways to our classes. I was mad all morning about how James could try to manipulate me into going on a date with him, so I hardly paid any attention in Spanish and Geometry. The thing was, I was mostly angry at was myself. I didn’t know how I was so stupid to fall for his stupid little tricks. What I did know was that it was never going to work again.
I was so sidetrack in my thoughts that I didn’t even think twice about sitting in my usual spot in history and I caught Mrs. Colus’ confused glance just as Danny sat down in front of and internally groaned.
“Hey, babe. Did I get less repulsive over the weekend?” he asked when the final bell rang.
“Don’t call me that,” I said sternly, but didn’t really understand what he meant by being repulsive and I wasn’t going to ask to find out.
“Why not? I’m just stating the truth since you are a babe,” he said with a smile that only widened when he looked at my reaction to his comment. I guess I didn’t conceal my emotions as well as I thought.
“Who are you? I don’t even know who you are anymore; you’ve been hanging out with James too much because the Danny I knew was nice and sweet.” The anger just went a notch higher when he just laughed at me like I had said the funniest thing in the world.
“You never knew the real me because I was trying so hard to get you to like me, but now I’m pursuing you until you become mine.” He said and starting to twirl a piece of my short hair. I sat back in my chair so he couldn’t reach me and glared at him.
“Now that you say that, I’ll never be yours. Nobody owns me, and you can tell that to James too.” His? Who did he think he was? He must not have as much experience as I had originally assumed otherwise he would never say that to a girl and expect them to ever talk to him again. He said something else back, but I didn’t hear what it was because I focused all of my attention on Mrs. Colus.
“What does James have to do with anything?” he asked me in the hallway when I was on my way to the lunch room. I had also forgotten to speed walk to the cafeteria so he wouldn’t catch up to me.
“Don’t act dumb.” He laughed and leisurely put his arm around my shoulders. I elbowed him in the stomach and threw his arm off of me.
“There’s the Addie I know,” he said with a laugh.
“But where’s the Danny I know?” I said as I stopped and looked at him. He didn’t reply and stood there looking into my eyes. His expression was completely unreadable, but I didn’t want to just walk away again because that was all I’d been doing recently. “I miss that Danny that told me everything and the Danny that I felt comfortable around. Yeah you flirted with me from time to time, but it was nothing like this. I never even want to talk to you anymore! You used to be my best friend, but not anymore.”
“Nobody liked the old me,” he said quietly and I walked to the side of the hallway to get out of everyone else’s way.
“I did, Danny. And what are you talking about? You were always going on dates with tons of girls so don’t even say that ‘nobody liked you’. Go cry me a frikin river!” I said and was about to storm away when he grabbed me into his arms and the first tears started to fall down my face as I returned the embrace. The bell rang and soon we were the only ones in the hallway, but I felt at home just having his arms around me. I was still mad at how he had been so jealous, but in this instance it was like the past week had never even happened.
“I’m so sorry, Addie. That was selfish of me to do; I wasn’t thinking,” He kissed the top of my head and just held me there for what seemed like forever, and for the first time in weeks I was finally at peace.
“You should go get some lunch; I don’t want to make you starve to death,” I said after a while and started to pull away, but he just held me in place and chuckled. Why did he always have to laugh at me? I never thought anything was funny.
“Trust me, I can do without one lunch without surviving, but I don’t know about you: you’ve been looking skinny lately.” I twisted around in his arms to give him a look, and he just smiled.
“Why do you always have a need to laugh at me? I’m really not funny, at all.” He laughed again and I tried to push him away again, but he was stronger than me which was very infuriating.
“To me, you are. Alright, let’s go get some lunch before we both starve,” he said with a smile, but didn’t move from his spot. He moved his hands from my shoulders to my hair and looked at my face for a couple of seconds before slowly leaning his head down. He stopped a centimeter from my lips as if asking if it was ok with me, and I brought my lips up to meet his.
This kiss wasn’t as rushed and forceful as the last one, but gentle and soft. The taste of his lips was sweet and I moaned with pleasure as I opened my mouth and gave into him like I had wanted to do so badly in our last kiss. My knees started to give, and I knew he could feel it because I had my hands tangled in his short hair. I started to pull away, but he only deepened the kiss. He dropped his hand to my back and picked me up and I wrapped my legs around him as he backed me up against the wall.
“Someone’s gonna walk out of one of those classrooms and see us,” I said after I pulled away for a breath. I dropped my legs, and he set me on the ground. He sighed and touched my cheek with his thumb.
“Fine, let’s go get some food,” he said trying to sound disappointed, but he couldn’t hide his smile from me. He grabbed my hand and we started to walk towards the cafeteria and everyone kept looking at us once we walked outside the hallway.
“So what now?” I asked when we joined the end of the line to the burger bar. We were still holding hands, and I wondered if Selina had spotted us yet.
“We get food,” he said with a smile, and I ‘playfully’ shoved his shoulder with my free hand.
“Obviously. But, I was talking about us.”
“You agree to let me take you on a date, and then you agree to be my girlfriend so I can kiss you all I want in public,” he said with a confident grin and I just squinted my eyes at him.
“Just like that? What if I said that your kiss didn’t even mean anything to me?”
“I would say that you’re a liar because I saw your reaction to my kiss,” he said smugly and leaned over to whisper in my ear, “And I heard your moan.” I just shoved him again and he laughed but didn’t say anything else since we had reached the front of the line.
I went to go sit down by Selina, and by her shocked face, knew that he had followed me. Adam wasn’t sitting there today, which was probably better so Danny didn’t find some way to get jealous of him. I tried to eat my spicy chicken sandwich, but was irritated by Selina’s stare.
“What?” I said when she didn’t say anything.
“I’m going to go buy a cookie with Addie,” she said to Brad and grabbed my arm and dragged me away from the table; I gave Danny an apologetic smile as we walked away.
“Ok, why is he sitting with us? And why were you guys holding hands in line? And why are you content with this? And why-”
“Ok just listen and stop asking questions.” I said as she dragged me outside the cafeteria.
“But I’m so confused!” she said as we walked into the bathroom. I pushed open all of the stall doors to make sure that nobody else was in the bathroom with us.
“Yeah and you’ll stay confused if you don’t shut up and let me talk!”
“Ok, ok, ok! I won’t interrupt you again, I promise,” she said with her innocent smile. And I told her everything that happened in the past fifteen minutes. Now I would never eat anything for lunch since she would probably keep me in here for the rest of the lunch hour. If Danny hadn’t decided to just come and sit with us then I would’ve been able to eat and talk at the same time because Brad doesn’t really pay attention to what Selina and I always babble about.
“Oh my god! That was a quick change of feeling, don’t ya think? So now he just goes back to being the old Danny and stops taking advice from James or what? Does that kiss just solve everything?”
“I don’t know! We didn’t have time to think about that! And now I think I should just avoid him as much as I can. Well at least until third hour tomorrow,” talking to myself more than her.
“No, you both need to talk about what happens next. It’s called communication!”
“Yeah, but I think I wanna make him suffer a little bit because I’m still mad at him. And, he can’t be thinking that a single kiss will solve all of our fights!”
“Well by the way you told it, it didn’t seem like he just kissed you just to shut you up; you willingly kissed him back.”
“I know! And who does he think he is to just randomly sit with us? Now I’m not going to get to actually eat anything because of him!” she just laughed at me and we walked back to the cafeteria.
“You really can’t blame him for everything or you’re never gonna stay together.”
“We’re not together in the first place!” I said at the volume of a whisper.
“Not for long,” she said quietly when he turned around to stare at us approaching the table. Oh God, please help me.
“I didn’t know they sold cookies outside,” Danny said as I sat down. I almost shot back a sarcastic retort, but took a deep and calming breath before speaking.
“Actually they do, it’s called Jane’s Place. And I don’t appreciate the sarcasm.” He smiled and grabbed the hand I wasn’t using to eat. “Ok, this constantly touching thing isn’t going to work, so it might as well stop now.”
“Or what?” he asked in a flirty voice.
“Or this thing,” I moved my hands back and forth between him and me to indicate us, “isn’t going to last very long because I’m very impatient.” He laughed and dropped my hand.
“You’re not the only one who gets to make the rules, just remember that.”
“Right now I am,” I said stubbornly and turned to talk to Selina. When the bell rang he walked me to my dance class, but I made sure that we made no physical contact because I could only take so much in a day. I didn’t see him again until afterschool when he caught up to me when I was on my way to walk home.
“Ok, I’ve come up with more rules: we’re not official yet, you can only kiss me with my permission, and no holding hands until I say so.” I j-walked (ran) across the street before any cars came before he could respond: I was too lazy to walk all the way down to the crosswalk.
“I think you’re ‘rules’ are stupid. What punishments do I get if I break a few?” he said grabbing hold of my hands and swooping down for a quick kiss. I pulled away before it could turn into anything more and pulled my hand out of his.
“Ok, it has only been about three hours since I even semi-forgave you for being such a douche bag, so I really wouldn’t press your luck since I’m still mad at you.” I said giving him a serious expression and I was impressed when he didn’t have that stupid grin plastered on his face.
“You just called me a douche bag, and you expect me to listen to your stupid little rules like a good little boy?”
“Yeah, pretty much. And I’m not gonna be lenient.”
“Addie you sound like my boss, not my girlfriend,” he said and I could see frustration in his eyes.
“Good because I’m not.” He threw his hands in the air and I walked to the side because we were fighting in the middle of the road. No cars had passed yet, but I didn’t want to get honked at or given any dirty looks.
“What do I have to do to get you to be reasonable?”
“Danny! We kissed! That doesn’t mean that we’re together or anything. I’m still mad at you, and we haven’t even gone on a date! I don’t want to just rush into a relationship just because we had a good kiss. Sorry you kissed the wrong girl if that’s what you wanted to happen.” He ran his hand through his hair and just walked by my side when I started walking towards my house again.
“I didn’t kiss the wrong girl, I just think you should know that,” he said when we reached my house. I reached up on my tip toes to kiss his cheek before going into my house.
I called Selina as soon as I got in the house and was disappointed when I got her voicemail. I had forgotten that she had a doctor’s appointment; that’s why I had to walk home in the first place. I got out the carton of Moose Tracks that I had sneaked from Amy’s and sat down to watch TV until my mom got home.