Untangle Me.

Danielle spent the whole night in her room constantly being bothered by people walking into her room to see if she was okay. It seemed like everyone at the party was concerned about the red head. She only had Amanda to blame; she obviously opened her mouth to the whole party. Danielle couldn’t take it so she took her overnight bag over to her parents. She couldn’t handle seeing John and she couldn’t handle the look of pity on everyone’s face.

“Good morning honey.”

Before Danielle could even walk into the kitchen her Mother was already greeting her. Danielle gave a smile before taking a seat on the kitchen table. She could see her Mom standing there with a coffee mug in her hand as a pink robe was wrapped around her small body.

“Good morning”, she said looking around the familiar kitchen. “Thank you for letting me crash here.”

“Danielle, this is your house no matter what.”

Danielle couldn’t help but to smile as she nodded her head. The house seemed a lot quieter than from what she last remembered. Danielle was the middle child; she had an older brother named Logan and a younger sister named Helena. Logan was the problem child while Helena was always the sweet girl; Danielle was just a mixture of the both. She was never a child problem but she wasn’t always the cheeriest person alone.

Logan Bailey was three years older than Danielle. He was the trouble maker, always breaking the rules. Last summer he laid the news on the family that he decided to be in the marines, put to his parents delight he signed up without even thinking. He left that summer was on some base in the Midwest.

Gregory and Josephine Bailey were great parents, they taught all their children to take responsibility for their own actions. They taught their children to be individuals and they all were.

Helena Bailey was the youngest, the baby and she played that role perfectly. She was only thirteen but she was far more advanced than Logan and Danielle were at that age. She was always with the extracurricular activities and with the school projects. Helena was what Danielle and Logan wish they were.

“Where are Dad and Helena?”

“Your sister has school”, she said with a laugh, Danielle’s mind was shot. She didn’t know the days of the weeks anymore. Everyday seemed like the same, they were all meshed together. But here days seemed longer than they were before. “And your Father’s at work.”

Danielle nodded her head before looking down at her phone to see yet another unread text from god knows. Her phone had been ringing off the hook since she left the apartment.

“I should get going”, she said standing up and picking up the bag that was lying on the floor. “Thank you for everything.”

“Of course honey”, Josephine said as she grabbed her daughter into a hug. “Whenever you want a quiet place to sleep, you can always come back home.”

Danielle smiled as she gave her Mom a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “So I’ll see you tomorrow night?”

Danielle’s head went blank as she looked over at her Mother with that famous blank expression. She watched as her Mother rolled her eyes with an annoyed expression, Danielle was a forgettable person. Something she clearly got from her Father.

“Your sisters recital”, she said with a duh tone of voice. “Remember.”

“Oh right!” Danielle said with a fake expression that told her Mom that she actually remembered.

“At 5 o’clock at her school.”

“Right, 5 o’clock”, she said with a laugh.

Danielle watched as her Mother let out a laugh before shaking her head with that smile on her face. Danielle smiled and yelled out a goodbye before getting in her car and driving back home. She wasn’t looking forward to the talk that was waiting for her back at the apartment but she couldn’t avoid this moment any longer, though she could avoid John longer than Amanda. Danielle got the door pushing it open and to her surprise the apartment was spotless.

“Danielle?”

Amanda walked out of her room to see Danielle standing there. She watched as her best friend fell down on the couch with a sigh. Amanda followed suite taking a seat next to her.

“Where did you go?”

“My parents.”

“And why is that?”

Danielle took a deep breath before looking over at her best friend. “I just couldn’t see him all over that girl. I felt like some slut and just like nothing. I’m an idiot Amanda.”

“John’s an idiot.”

“Why?”

“He had sex with you and then the next night brings a new girl to your apartment, if that doesn’t scream douche, then I don’t know what does.”

“It’s not like we were an item.”

“It’s called respect Danny, John clearly lacks it.”

Danielle just shrugged; she didn’t know what to say. Danielle felt like the biggest idiot on the earth. She had sex with John and John treated it like nothing.

Amanda was exhausted by this subject; she could see that John was tearing at her spirit.
Amanda was staring to hate John. Amanda let out a smile before turning to her friend.

“We’re going out tonight.”

Danielle turned to look at her best friend smiling like a mad woman. She couldn’t help but to laugh before looking down at her phone.

“We’re going dancing”, she said with a grin. “And we’re going to have lots of fun.”

Danielle nodded her head as she stayed on the couch with her friend. The two girls stayed on the couch until the night came. Once that sun was down the girls made it a mission to go out and have fun. That’s what they were doing, drinking and dancing with no care in the world that was until Danielle’s brown eyes found those green ones staring back at her.

“You’re a real asshole, you know that right?”

John looked over at Kennedy before turning his attention to Danielle who was on the dance floor. John knew he was an idiot, he knew any chance he would have with Danielle was out the window. That morning when John woke up to a naked Danielle in his arms he couldn’t help but to get that feeling in his gut, that feeling that he never thought he would get. He held the red head close as he ran his fingers through his hair, something about the way they were laying there made everything seemed perfect. Then something clicked, the girl he was feeling this for was his only girl that was a friend. John was always warned that he could never have a girl that was a friend where they actually stayed a friend and he always thought Danielle would be that friend but John wanted something much more than friendship and that scared him.

“I fucked up.”

“Yeah you did”, Kennedy said as he drank his beer. “Have you talked to her yet?”

“No, I was kind of avoiding her”, he said simply. “Then I figured if I brought Brooke I wouldn’t feel tempted to get with her.”

“Why?”

“She’s my friend man”, John said looking at Kennedy with a sigh before turning his attention to the beautiful girl. “You can’t have a one night stand with a girl like Danielle; I don’t want to hurt her.”

“Don’t you think it’s a little too late?”

John looked back at Danielle and he watched as her brown eyes met his. He gave her a smile and a slight wave and to his surprised she waved back with a smile. Maybe it wasn’t too late.

“I didn’t know John was going to be here”, Amanda said as they stood at the bar waiting for their drinks. “I swear.”

“It’s okay.”

“You’re not mad at him?”

Danielle simply shrugged, there was no way she could be mad at him. “He didn’t do anything wrong.”

Amanda knew not to argue with her friend, she just wished she could see that John wasn’t the guy for her. Time will tell and she was hoping time was going to be here soon. Amanda was about to say something until she watched Danielle’s brown eyes turn to a direction. Amanda followed her friends glance to see John standing there with his hands in his pockets giving that awkward smile.

“Hey ladies”, his raspy voice said as he got closer to Danielle.

“Hey John”, Amanda said with a look of annoyance. “Where’s Brooke?”

Both Danielle and John looked over at Amanda with a look of annoyance. Amanda watched as John scratched the back of his neck with an awkward laugh before answering with a shrug. Amanda couldn’t help but to roll her eyes before staring at her friend who was staring up at John with a smile as though John did nothing to her. Amanda grabbed her drink from the table, she knew she wasn’t wanted.

“I’m going to go say hi to the guys”, she said before walking off.

John bounced on his heels to toes before looking down at Danielle, the two were unsure of what to say. The tension between them was thick; the whole club must have noticed it.

“I’m sorry”, John blurted out, surprising Danielle and even himself.

Danielle was thrown off before nodding her head with a confused look on her face making John seem like a bigger idiot. “For what?”

“Um, not calling you?” he questioned making Danielle laugh.

“It’s cool dude.”

John placed his hands back in his pockets taking a look around the room, this was all too easy. He stared back at Danielle and he couldn’t help but to think she looked amazing. She was gorgeous and he wondered why he never noticed this before.

“Is this a trick?”

Danielle looked up at John confused at what he meant. She cocked her head to the side before letting out a laugh. “What?”

“Well most girls say its fine when it really isn’t, so is this one of those times?”

Danielle couldn’t help but to laugh, she had done this many times before but at this moment it was okay. Danielle didn’t expect much to come out from that night, she knew what it was and she didn’t understand why people were so angry for her when she had no anger in her body. Though the tears she cried that night was mainly because of her own insecurities, for such a beautiful girl she lacked confidence no matter how much she acted like she did.

“John, really its okay”, she said with a laugh touching his shoulder to show that she wasn’t mad. “You know I’m not like many girls.”

John couldn’t help but to smile, he was relieved that their friendship wasn’t over. He was relieved that Danielle wasn’t mad at him but he couldn’t help but to think why she wasn’t? He did have sex with her and then leave, then like the asshole he is brought a girl to her apartment the next night. John couldn’t help but to think that maybe Danielle didn’t feel anything for him. For the boy that could get any girl that was a real bust to their ego. Danielle gave John a smile before patting his shoulder and walking off with a drink in her hand in the direction of their friends leaving John even more confused.