The Truth About Hollywood

"Okay," Danny deemed an hour later. "I have no idea where the hell we are."

Sighing, I looked out the window to tell him where we were and how to direct him back to where we'd come. "Um...I don't either."

"Oh, this is good," he laughed. "I guess we'll just pull over here..." He drove up to the side of the road and drove up on the edge of the grass of a big open field. The sun was still bright in the sky, since it was only around two in the afternoon.

There was a little drop before the rest of the field spanned out, and I ran to it like a kid. "Don't even tell me..." Danny trailed off.

I looked back and grinned at him before crossed my arms in front of my chest and lying down on the ground. Then, with a shove, I let myself roll down the hill, squealing like a child. I could feel the pieces of dead grass sticking into my face with every turn.

At the bottom, I sat up and held a hand to my head, suddenly feeling dizzy. Danny was running behind me, and he pulled to a stop next to me.

"I remember that being a lot more fun," I expressed as I stood up slowly and brushed the dead grass and couple of leaves off my clothes.

"Hold on." I paused in place as Danny came closer to me and started running his hand through my hair. When he retrieved his hand, there were a few pieces of grass in it.

"Thanks," I smiled, starting to walk away.

"Wait!" he laughed, following me. "There's still more."

I rolled my eyes dramatically and plopped to the ground. He sat behind me and started picking all the various pieces of grass out of my hair. In the back of my mind, I realized that we looked like two monkeys, like he was picking the bugs out of my hair. Gross.

"There ya go," he dismissed, pulling himself so he was sitting next to me.

"Thanks." I ran my hand through my hair, noticing that it was now all knotted. "I really should have tied my hair back before doing that..."

"That would have been the smart thing to do," Danny replied, inferring that I was not one to do something smart.

I stuck my tongue out at him and nudged him with my knee. "Jerk."

He grinned at me, but didn't say anything else. We stayed in silence for a little while before I interrupted it, since silence kind of freaks me out a little bit.

"So...you going to ask out Stella?" I questioned, bringing up a subject that I hadn't gotten my answer to earlier. I just wanted to know if he was or not. Deep in my heart, I knew that it was going to kill me if he went out with Stella. Something in my brain told me that I wouldn't care as much (key words: as much) if he went out with anyone but Stella.

Danny was quiet for a second, which made my heart start racing. He was going to say yes, I knew it. I was tense, and I knew it.

Suddenly, he turned to me and made a twisted face. "Why the hell would I do something like that? She's totally full of herself. That's not my kind of girl."

I couldn't contain myself as I sat back, leaned on my arms, and grinned as widely as I could.

"God, I wonder if you could make it a little less obvious that you're thrilled," he teased.

"Can't help it," I replied. "I really thought that you guys were going to go out, and..." I bit my lip, not wanting to go on.

"Make you feel awkward?" he finished for me anyway, copying my sitting position. "I'm not that cruel."

"Oh, not that cruel. That's good to know." My voice was light and playful.

Danny took a deep breath, and I knew that he was going to say something important, so I snapped to attention. "Look...Claire...the other day in the park..."

My entire torso froze and every inch of my body went rigid. I didn't want to know what he had to say. It was going to make everything awkward, and I was just going to end up blushing and telling him to take me home... Oh, God, let him not ruin this whole situation. We were getting along so well.

"I'm really sorry about that. You told me how you've been feeling, and I just ignored that, pretending that it hadn't been said. I should have told you what was really going on." He stopped and ran a hand through his hair before continuing, "I have a girlfriend."

"You...have a girlfriend..." I confirmed in a breath. Why the hell had I told him that I liked him when he'd never be able to be with me anyway? I was such an idiot.

"Yeah... She's back in New York, and her name's Stephanie. I really like her a lot, and I just...I didn't want that to ruin what we had between each other. Now, I feel like I should tell you the truth because I think that no matter what happens, we're going to be cool."

I laughed. "Yeah, right. That's true." Smiling at him to show that I was fine, I continued, "So what does she look like?"

He went into this rant about how she was beautiful with curly red hair and eyes the color of the sky. Her body was "hot", and he made every guy at his old school jealous because he had her, and that meant no one else could.

"She's going to drive out here soon," he went on. "I can't wait for you to meet her. You guys'll get along great."

"Oh, I'm sure we will," I responded, not sounding like I meant it at all. He had a girlfriend, and she was infinitely more gorgeous than I could ever be. It just made my spirits drop, like they would never rise to their former glory again. At least now I had an excuse to hurry up and get over Danny.

He was too wrapped up in thinking about Stephanie to realize that I didn't mean what I said. God, he was so in love with her, I could tell. It made me feel so much worse that I liked him.

But part of me couldn't wait to meet her because I hoped with all my being that she was a bitch so Danny would break up with her soon.

I hated myself for thinking that way...but it was out of my control.