The Truth About Hollywood

We got into the mall, and Danny looked around for a minute before turning back to me and asking, "So where to first?"

"Wherever you want," I replied with a smile. I absolutely hated making decisions. Especially trivial ones. If someone asked me what we should do, or what movie we should watch, it would just elicit a shrug from me. If it was a big decision though, then I could usually manage to answer.

"Oh, thanks," Danny rolled his eyes before scanning the mall. "I don't even know what there is here."

"Adventure!" I exclaimed, stepping in front of him and starting to drag him along. He stumbled for a second, laughing, and finally started walking alongside me.

After a second, I realized that his hand was still entwined with mine. Blushing, I pulled my hand away as discreetly as I could, but he still noticed.

For a second, a bit of color seasoned his cheeks, but it quickly faded. That made me so jealous, since when I blushed, it stayed for a long time.

"Oooo," he mused, walking toward FYE. "There was a CD that I wanted..."

"C'mon then," I told him, starting to walk in front of him. I could feel his eyes on me, which made me blush again. If I kept blushing the whole day, then he was just going to get sick of me and get rid of me, since it would be obvious how I liked him.

Once inside, he went right to the rock section, and I cringed. My view of rock had recently been skewed, since Gia had started to fall in love with music like Disturbed and System of a Down. Now, people could like those bands all they wanted, until their hearts gave out, but it just wasn't my favorite. Actually, it drove me crazy.

"Found it!" Danny exclaimed, and I heard it across the store. Oh, God.

Laughing, I went over to him and saw him holding up Leave This Town, the latest Daughtry CD. Discreetly, I let out a sigh, thankful. I loved Daughtry.

"You're kinda late on that," I informed him. "That came out in 2009."

"So? I still want it." He smiled at me and went up to the counter. I stood near the exit, waiting for him to pay for the CD. At one point, I saw the cashier nod in my direction, and Danny turned around to face me before turning back around, laughing, and taking the bag, seeming to explain something. I really didn't want to know what they were talking about.

"And away we go," Danny started, walking out of the store. "Anything you want to do, in particular?"

"Nope." It was quiet for a second, before curiosity overcame me, and I asked, "What were you talking about with the cashier person?"

He chuckled for a second before answering, "He thought we were going out. I explained that we're just friends."

"Oh, okay." I couldn't help but think that I hoped that would change in the near future, but I couldn't get my hopes up. If I did, I knew they would just be crushed.

"Are you hungry?" he spoke as we started to pass the food court.

I glanced at it quickly before looking down at my stomach, as if expecting it to answer me. "Kinda," I replied after a minute.

Danny gave me a confused look, but shook it off, probably concluding that I was just a crazy person. Eh, it wasn't like it was too far from the truth anyway.

"Where do you want to eat?" he asked. "Wait, let me guess...you don't want to make a decision?"

"You're good," I laughed. "But I don't want to eat. I want a coffee." I started walking toward the Dunkin' Donuts before stopping and turning toward him. "I, um...kind of..."

He got what I meant without me having to say so and followed me. "It's cool. I got it."

"I'll pay you back," I promised.

"Don't worry about it."

"I will pay you back!" I repeated with conviction. He chuckled for a second before we turned toward the person working, who was looking between the two of us with confusion. Ah, the joys of confusing people by being obnoxious.

I ordered an iced coffee regular with caramel flavor, and waited as the teenager prepared it. Danny paid for it as I accepted the cup, thanking the girl.

"I'm going to go get a sub," he informed me quietly before walking away. I grabbed a straw and stuck it in my cup, taking a big sip. Mmmm...coffee...

"You guys are a really cute couple," the girl grinned. "And you're lucky. He's really cute and he seems sweet."

"He is," I confirmed before remembering what she said at the beginning. "But we're not going out. We're just friends."

"Mhm." It was obvious that she was just humoring me by agreeing, so I just walked away. I wasn't about to stand there and argue with a teenager. It wasn't worth it.

I sat down at a table and waited for Danny to find me, since I was too lazy to stand next to him while he waited for his sub.

As I was drinking my coffee, my phone suddenly vibrated as I got a text message. Since it was so sudden, it startled me, and I started choking.

A couple of people turned to look at me, noticing my incessant coughing and my face turning completely red. So when I was done dying, I voiced, "I'm good!" through another small cough.

Finally, I pulled out my cell phone and glanced at it. Gia had texted me. Shocker. "Where are you?" I read aloud to myself. "I've been calling your house all morning, and you haven't picked up." Shaking my head, I answered her in a small voice, "Maybe you shouldn't be calling my house all morning then. My mom's sick...don't you know anything?"

"You alright?" Danny questioned as he pulled out the chair in front of me and sat down. His face was confused and kind of worried, since most sane people don't talk to themselves in public.

"I'm fine," I responded. "Just kind of venting to myself about my friend. She's one of those people that if you don't answer your phone, she calls you a million times, not taking the hint that maybe you just don't want to talk or you're actually, oh my God, busy and she's not involved."

Danny nodded, taking a bite of his steak and cheese sub. "I get that, trust me. Ex-girlfriends..." He shuddered.

Yikes. Talking about ex-girlfriends... I had never had a boyfriend before, so I couldn't share in the knowledge.

"Oh, I know what you mean," I tried to empathize, but Danny caught me in my lie.

"You've never had a boyfriend?!"

Bring on the blushing again. Oh, dear God. "Uhhhh..." The last thing I wanted to do was admit it. I didn't want Danny to think that I was pathetic, which I was pretty sure that he wouldn't.

"Wow. That's surprising." And then the subject was over. That worked out a lot better than I thought it would.

"Just out of curiosity," I pondered, taking another slow sip of my coffee, "how many ex-girlfriends have you had, exactly?"

"Three," he answered without missing a beat. "Not that many."

Way more than I have ex-boyfriends... I sighed softly, making sure that he didn't hear me.

"Alright!" he exclaimed when he finished his food. "Where next?"

"You're asking the wrong person," I reminded him with a smile.

"Right, right...well, I see Skee Ball, which is calling my name." He stood up, threw out his trash, and we started down the escalator toward the game.

"You're good at Skee Ball?" I asked. I was actually horrible at the game. I almost never got the ball into a hole that was not the ten point one. Pretty sad.

"I'm a pro," he bragged, popping his collar. I pushed him teasingly, and he stumbled dramatically. "That hurt."

"Good," I grinned. "Alright, show me how great you are, oh master."

"Don't mind if I do." He put in a quarter and picked up one of the translucent balls that rolled down the chute. Then, he rolled it up the alley, and got it into one of the side holes, marked for a hundred points.

With every ball after that, he did the same thing. When he was done, he rubbed his nails on his shirt jokingly and blew on them. "Told you."

"Show off," I muttered.

"What was that?" he asked, leaning his ear toward me. "Those didn't sound like nice words."

"That's 'cause they weren't," I laughed.

"Why don't you show me just how great you are at this game."

My face heated up. "Oh, no way. I'm horrible at Skee Ball."

"I don't care. Just go."

Biting my lip, I took the quarter that Danny offered me and put it into the machine. As I predicted, I couldn't get the ball into any other pocket than the one that only gave me ten points.

"Um..." He tried to find something nice to say as he cleared his throat. "At least you didn't break anything?"

"Thanks for the encouragement," I giggled. "I told you I was bad."

"And I should have listened." For a second, we just looked at each other, smiling. Eventually, I looked away, blushing again.

For the rest of the day, we played other games in the arcade and Danny showed off a little more, always getting perfect scores at that stupid Skee Ball game. Something told me that it was rigged so that Danny could always get such good scores. It just didn't seem possible.

"That was fun," he passed judgment in the car as we were driving back on the highway, toward my house.

"It was. Way better than having to sit in my house and listen to my mom puke."

"I'm glad I could be a part of that," he joked. "At least I know that I'm better than vomit."

"You're welcome." I smiled at him again.

Finally, with a few misdirections from me, Danny pulled into my driveway. "I'll be here at quarter of nine tomorrow," he informed me. "Be ready."

"I will be," I promised. After taking in his face for another few seconds, I got out of the car and walked up the front way. He stayed in the driveway until I was inside the house, making sure that I was safe.

Immediately, I darted to my room, ignoring the sound of Mom starting to gag again. For a second, I wondered how many times she'd thrown up that day, but it didn't last long.

Shutting my bedroom door, I sank behind it, grinning in content. It had been the best day in a long time.