Untangle Me.

“Do you know when the guys get here?”

Danielle Bailey was too busy looking through the lenses of her new camera to notice what Amanda Harris, her best friend, had to say. Her beautiful almond shaped brown eyes looking through the small hole, her eyes concentrating on the older couple that sat in front of her. The warm Arizona air blowing through her newly dyed red hair, an experiment went right. The redness of her hair made her Sunkist skin look even more radiant, but she would never admit it.

“Earth to Danny.”

Danielle peered away from her camera to look over at the taller blond. “Hmmm?”

“I just asked if you knew when the guys would get here.”

“Oh”, she said with a smile. She had missed her friends and was excited to see them all again, though she was more than excited to see a certain boy more than the others. “They should be here soon.”

“What are we doing tonight?”

“Well Tanner’s having a party for the guys tonight”, Danielle said as she pushed down on the button staring at the older couple in front of her, not worried on looking like some kind of stalker. “It should be fun.”

“Are you going to finally confess your undying love for John?”

Danielle let out a small laugh as she continued to click away at the camera. “I’m not in love with John, he’s my best friend.”

“I thought I was.”

“I’m allowed to have more than one”, she said with a laugh as she wrapped the camera around her neck turning to her friend. “And I just so happen to have three”, she said as she turned to make her way back to her run down car, which John and her named the red machine.

“You’re a best friend whore.”

She just let out a laugh before pulling back the creaky door. Better than being a real one.

Danielle Bailey wasn’t like many girls in Arizona; better yet Danielle wasn’t like many girls period. In high school most of the girls were boy crazy while Danielle was book crazy. She was always preoccupied with school and the arts. Though, there was one boy. There was one beautiful boy that was constantly on Danielle’s mind; John Cornelius O’Callaghan the fifth.

Danielle met John through her childhood friend Garrett Nickelsen. Garrett’s band was looking for a singer and when Pat’s older brother Tim brought John over to record some Ivory covers they knew John was the singer they had been looking for. The first day her brown eyes met the tall lanky boy, she fell in love. His messy brown hair that was always in his beautiful green eyes made her weak in the knee, and that voice of his made her heart beat fast and slow at the same time. She was a junior in high school while he was a freshman in college; she had no chance with him she thought; so they just became friends.
Over the years their friendship turned into some kind of brother and sister love, Danielle hated it.

“Is that what you’re wearing?”

Danielle looked down at her shorts and the striped shirt that was covered with a leather jacket. “Uh yeah”, she said with a laugh turning to look at her beautiful best friend dressed to impress.

“I don’t get you sometimes”, she began her constant lecturing, lecturing that Danielle chose to ignore time and time again. “You’re so fucking beautiful Danny, I don’t understand why you won’t let me just make you over. I swear you’d look amazing.”

Danielle could care less about her appearance, if a guy didn’t like her for her then what was the point? To love someone, you needed to love them for them and not who they were acting to be like.

The two girls walked through the back side of the apartment complex before walking up the steep steps that were always a death sentence with a couple of drinks. They could hear the loud music being played and the yells from inside the apartment. When they walked into the small one bedroom apartment where about 5 bodies lived, there was absolutely no room to breathe.

Garrett Nickelsen was never the party boy, but he loved to hang out with friends. While his other friends were with a beer in hand he had a soda in his. He was never one to drink, why do you need to drink to act like an idiot; he did it sober.

He scanned the room looking for one face in particular, that’s what he’s been doing since the minute he walked into the crammed room. When his blue eyes met the small red head, he couldn’t help but to smile as he pushed his way through the crowd.

“Danny B!”

“Garry N!”

The small red headed girl grabbed the boy into a tight hug. Her lips pressed against his cheek causing Garrett to turn red.

“I missed you so much.”

“I missed you more”, Garrett said looking down at the girl who’s had his heart for years, the only girl that made him happier than ever. But Danielle only saw Garrett as her best friend and nothing else, something he hated. “You kept the red”, he said reaching to touch her soft hair.

“Too lazy to change it”, she said with a smirk but the truth was she actually liked it. “You kept the red too”, she said reaching over to touch Garrett’s hair.

His hair seeming longer than before, the stubble on his face making him look older than the last time the two have seen each other. Danielle let go of his hair before smiling over at the blue eyed boy.

“You know, too lazy too”, he said completely lying; he kept it because Danielle said it looked good on him.

“Well isn’t it the double mint twins.”

Two pair of eyes looked up to the lanky boy that was staring down at the both of them a smile and a beer in hand. Garrett looked up at his friend and band mate with a look of annoyance as Danielle looked at him with pure lust and admiration in her eyes.

Danielle looked at his tight jeans and plaid shirt that showed off the sexy tattoos on his chest. A Hawaiian print baseball cap placed backwards on his head. To say he looked
gorgeous was an understatement.

Garrett’s eyes averted away from John to Danielle that was standing next to him, staring at John like he was a piece of meat. His heart broke every time he watched the girl he was madly in love with stare at another guy with the same look he gave her.

“JohnO”, Danielle said with a smile before grabbing the tall guy into a tight hug.

John smiled down at the small red headed girl before grabbing her into a tight hug. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too”, he heard her say in the crook on his neck.

John looked down at Danielle, his little sister with a smile before taking a cup of his beer looking around hoping the party brought a new arrangement of girls he could put his charm on. John wrapped his arm around Danielle as they walked through the crowd of people; Danielle was the best wingman John could ask for.

After a couple of drinks the two had separated and Garrett had replaced John’s place with Danielle.

Danielle watched with aggravation as John shamelessly flirted with a couple of trashy looking girls.

“He has such bad taste in girls”, she said taking a drink of her beer looking over at her best friend. “They look like hookers.”

“High class hookers.”

“Not even close”, she said with a laugh. “They look like their infested with diseases.”

“Sounds yummy”, Garrett said making Danielle laugh out loud at how silly he was. “So I was thinking, tomorrow you and I are going to watch movies all day tomorrow.”

“Sounds amazing”, she said smiling over at her best friend with a smile. “I just bought Zombie Strippers”, she said as Garrett started to laugh. “I mean strippers and zombies; it’s a win win situation.”

“Amen sista!”

Danielle lifted her beer before tapping it against Garrett’s with a smile. Garrett continued to make fun of all the girls that John was pushing himself on making Danielle laugh harder after every little comment.

Danielle watched with wide eyes as John’s lips were pressed against another girl, her heart breaking at the sight. She pushed up her glasses with a feeling of defeat. She wished she could switch places with that random girl; she would give up anything to have John for herself.

Garrett stared over at the girl he was in love with, she was gorgeous he thought. The glasses that played on her face made her even more adorable. Garrett Nickelsen would do anything to have Danielle all for himself.

John pulled away from the girl, who he had no idea who her name was. The taste of sticky lip-gloss against his lips made him nauseous but he didn’t show any care what so ever. John wasn’t looking for anyone special, he loved being single. He wanted every girl in this room; he’d do anything to have them all for himself.