Break Apart Her Heart

**Dani’s POV**

Tap. Tap, Tap. Tap. Click. Tap, Tap. Click.

She let out a growl and reached across the table, yanking Frank’s pencil from his hands. He had been tapping it on the table for the past ten minutes in between clicking his teeth on his lip ring. It was driving her absolutely insane. Once the damned thing was in her hands, she tossed it across the kitchen. It hit the far wall with a clatter, then dropped down to the ground, rolling beneath the fridge.

Frank stared at her incredulously. “What the hell was that for?” he exclaimed, throwing his hands up in frustration.

“You were getting on my nerves,” Dani replied shortly, sniffing ever so slightly in irritancy.

He said nothing, merely scowled over at her as his fingers twitched in an urge to do something, to move. They had been sitting there for about two hours, working silently. Awkward was one way to describe it. She preferred ‘hell’. Neither of them could really look at the other. The only time they spoke to one another was to ask a question about the poem, or to point something out. It was business, really. Nothing more. And it was putting an even bigger wedge between the two of them.

Dani let out a heavy sigh, making her black bangs lift in the air before falling gracefully across her right eye. “Did you happen to get the introduction written?” she asked quietly, leaning back in her chair, hoping to relieve some tension in her back. She hadn’t even realized that she had been sitting so stiff for so long.

“Yeah,” he mumbled, pushing his piece of paper over to her.

She picked it up and scanned the writing. Besides the actual introduction, there were drawings all around the edges, along with small phrases that would be better described as lyrics. His introduction was scrawled hastily. Mistakes were crossed out with a several darkened lines of the pencil, making her arch a brow. It’s called an eraser. But that wasn’t what she was staring at. His drawings was what caught her eye. Not only was her name mentioned quite frequently, but every now and then, a small child-like heart was joined with it.

“Frank?”

“What? Is it not good enough?”

Dani shook her head as she put the piece of paper on the table top, sliding it across to him. “It’s good. But that’s not what I’m wondering about. What I’m wondering about is the drawings,” she said, pointing to one of them with her index finger.

The look on his face clearly implied that he had forgotten about that. That he had forgotten about drawing those images before he passed the evidence over to her. Frank’s cheeks went a bright red and he cleared his throat as he looked away from her, not even being discreet about it as he looked over his left shoulder. One of his hands went up to rub at his neck nervously as he fidgeted in his seat, clearly not wanting to really talk about it. However, Dani was more stubborn than he was.

“Well?” she asked, giving him a pointed look even though he couldn’t see it.

“I…um…I’m sorry. I don’t know why I did that. I…I’ll erase them. Sorry,” he muttered, turning back to grab the piece of paper.

Dani snagged his hand, not letting him pull it back. Her eyes were cloudy with confusion as she peered at him, her head tilted to the side, reminding Frank of a small puppy. His fingers were warm compared to hers, almost too warm. They felt extremely hot and her mind warred about what she wanted to about it. There was the first option, which was to pull her hand back and place it in her lap. Then, there was the second option, which was to hang onto it, letting the warmth seep through her cold fingers.

She chose option two.

“No, Frank. I just want to know why you drew them,” she said quietly, bending down slightly so that she could look into his eyes.

Once more, he turned his eyes from her. “I don’t know,” he whispered.

He didn’t know? He didn’t fucking know why he drew on the paper, filling it with hearts and her fucking name?! She seriously wished that she could beat him over the head in that moment. He couldn’t even fucking tell her his feelings. He was such an idiot, and she had no idea why she even thought that she could get it out of him. She had no idea why she even tried, when he was so stupid that he couldn’t even accept his own damn feelings.

Basically, she gave up. Not that she had really tried, because she couldn’t do that. But she had practically threw herself at him in that moment. She had grabbed his hand, for crying out loud. All she asked for was an explanation, an admittance. And she got nothing. So, it really was back to fighting. This was it. There was no turning back now for either of them.

Dani stood abruptly, yanking her hand from his. “Fine. We’re done for the day. You can leave now,” she said, pivoting on her heel and leaving him in the kitchen by himself.

**Time Elapse**

The heavy sound of footsteps brought her out of her thinking stupor. She was sprawled out across her bed, her face buried in her pillow that she clutched around her middle. She had no idea why she felt so damn low, but she did. She hated Frank more than ever. If he wasn’t such a damn male, then she wouldn’t be having this problem. She hated how he was so unable to get a handle on his emotions, how he was so unable to just say them out loud. How fucking hard was it to say ‘I like you’? Though she was sure that she had no room to talk. She couldn’t do it herself, but she had given him the option. She didn’t want to fight with him anymore than he wanted to, but she couldn’t bring herself to cave first.

“Dani? I know you’re awake. What’s up?”

Khorie. Dani sat up on her bed and turned to stare at her sister, who was leaning against the doorjamb. Seeing the look on her sister’s face, Khorie’s eyes softened as she moved to sit next to her on the bed. Her lean arms wrapped around Dani’s shoulders, hugging her sister close.

“What’s wrong, Dani?” she asked softly.

She hadn’t even realized that she had started to cry until she felt one salty drop skim down her cheek, falling on the pillow between them.

“I fucking hate him, Khor. I put myself out there for him, allowed him to make the first move, and he did nothing. I feel like an idiot,” she mumbled, sniffling as she wiped another tear away.

Khorie shook her head as she ran a hand over her sister’s dark locks. “Oh, you’re not an idiot. If anyone is, it’s him for not taking you up on your offer. I have no idea what’s gotten into him lately. I know he likes you. He even admitted to it. I don’t know why he won’t tell you though. Have you thought about telling him how you feel?”

Dani pulled away slightly, shaking her head. “No. I can’t do that. Come on Khor. We both know that I never make the first move. I just can’t,” she said, shrugging.

Her sister sighed heavily and peered at her fingernails as she thought of what to say. Dani could feel the vibes coming off of her, telling her that her sister was thoroughly frustrated. She wished that Khorie wasn’t a part of this, that she could just have her own life instead of being tangled up in the mass webs of her and Frank’s relationship.

“I’m sorry, Khor.”

Khorie looked up, her brows furrowed together. “What for?”

Dani shrugged again. “For making you frustrated. For bringing you in this.”

Her sister chuckled, shaking her head once more as she reached out, grabbing her sister close. “You stupid ass. You don’t have to apologize, for one. And for two, I don’t mind being a part of this. I just want you happy, you know. And I think that if Frank pulls his head out of his ass, he might be the one to do so.”

Dani snorted. “Yeah, as if that’ll happen. Let’s just drop it for now. What happened over at Mikey’s?”

Khorie’s cheeks burned bright red as she let go of Dani. She arched a brow as she waited for her sister to say something, to tell her what had gone wrong.

“Oh, well. The usual. I embarrassed myself. I went over there and Gee was still asleep. Mikey made me go wake him up. And since I’m a genius, I ran into the door to his room. He laughed at me. Then I tried to kill Mikey. He stopped me. He told me I was funny though! That’s good, right?”

Dani reached forward and patted her sister on the head. “Of course it is. So, is there going to be any vampire babies in the future?”

Khorie narrowed her eyes as she grabbed the pillow, whacking her sister across the head with it. This ensued a heated pillow fight, filling the house with laughter, yells, and loud thuds well into the night.