I'm Anything You Want Me To Be.

"Doesn't this go there?" Dani asks me as she examines a puzzle piece she's taken from me.

"No, it's a corner piece, obviously it goes in the corner." I mumble and take it back. I put it where I think it should be.

We've been spending the entire night in the attic of our little home. Don't know how we ended up here, but we found these boxes of giant jigsaw puzzles. This was, besides Star Wars, the only thing the entire family bonded over.

And we spend more time on this until we've come up with around a quarter of the picture.

"I used to take Garrett up here all the time." Dani says, pretty much out of nowhere.

"Yeah?" I look up from the disarranged pieces on the wooden floor to Dani.

"Yeah. He loved being up here because it was quiet. I loved it because it was just the two of us."

"And I never noticed?"

"You were always in your room." Dani sits back a bit and uncrosses her legs as we're sitting on the floor.

"What did you two do up here?" I ask without malice.

Thinking of an answer makes her smile to herself. "We tell each other stories."

"Ghost stories?" I tease.

"Yeah!" Dani's eyes light up. "Ghost stories! Garrett was full of them! On our way down, he would always tap me on the shoulder or step on the back of my shoes to scare me after turning out the lights,"

This makes me laugh. "Garrett sounded like a great guy,"

"He was, Iann!" She pouts now as she says what's next. "I wanted you to meet him so bad, but I couldn't ever bring myself to knock on your door.. Besides, what would I even say? You know how you are around boys,"

"Not boys in general," I correct."Just your boys."

"What do you mean?" she asks quietly as she tosses around the puzzle pieces with her fingers.

"I hated your boyfriends," Realizing how offensive that almost sounded, I just continue honestly. "Hated every single one of them."

"Garrett was different, you would've loved him," Dani says as if she knew where I was coming from when I'd said I hated those boys.

But I agree. "I bet I would've.." Then a new, random thought invades my head and I verbalize it. "Why didn't you like John?"

"Why I didn't like John? Understatement. I hated him." she spits.

Suddenly, she's all bitter and I can't help wondering about it. "Why?"

"I don't like talking about it," she mumbles, her mood dropping all of a sudden.

I'm not giving up yet, though. I will get it out of her. But not now. So I ask instead "Did Garrett know? That you hated John?"

"No," She shrugs. "But he noticed John and I never got along.." She raises her eyebrows at me. "But I'm sure he's told you, he's a talkative little asshole, he shouldn't have left that out if he did tell you about me and Garrett."

I'm thoroughly impressed at her attention span and her ability to retain what I'd told Tanner earlier. I reply. "Yeah, he's mentioned you guys got on the wrong foot.. But I didn't think it was that bad--"

"Oh, but it was. He turned into a prissy bitch whenever I came around. I almost tried to confront it once, but all he said was that I wasn't so pleasant to be around anymore."

"Anymore?" I repeat. Then something must've happened.

I'm starting to worry.

For sure, John wouldn't have 'turned into a prissy bitch' whenever Dani came around for no reason.

"What happened?" I frown.

She sighs, thinking maybe there's no way out. That she regrets having to tell me what she's about to. When her mouth opens, and before she even says anything, I just can't help it.

I know it's a stupid hypothesis, but I have to throw it at her. "Did something happen between you two?"

She knows I could've meant a whole lot more, but she denies it immediately. "No. It was nothing like that, Iann. Garrett was my one and only." she repeats Tanner's statement from earlier when I got my suspicions out. "It was nothing like that."

"Then what was it?" I almost impatiently ask.

"It was him being an asshole and making me feel bad!" Dani starts to raise her voice. Then she calms herself down, letting me believe that she knows she has to stay composed. "Do I really need to tell you?"

"Let me know what's wrong with you and John." I almost command. "God damn it, Iann, let me know what's wrong--"

"I got sick." Dani then suddenly says. "Garrett was away on a trip with his family and he found out I was sick, he somehow discovered that you weren't taking care of me, that no one was taking care of me. And he knew I couldn't take care of myself. So he sent John."

"When was this and what--"

She holds her palm up and stops me from cutting her off. She now goes on: "I told Garrett there was no need but he insisted. John and I weren't much enemies before what happened than we were after." She rolls her eyes.

The pause she makes allows me to ask her again. "What did happen?"

"John came over."

I know she's just making me want to badge her with more questions, but I try not to be on-edge.

But she stays silent.

Now, I can't control it, I can't stand anymore. "Tell me what the hell happened--"

"John came over and took care of me! He took care of me even though I knew he wasn't near half happy to be there, he kept me company--"

"Then why are you so mad?!"

Dani swifts herself onto her feet, refusing to answer.

I look at her and for once since we've reunited, I can read her so easily.

She is fucking mad. She is crazy furious. She's more mad now than she's ever been at anyone else, someone who isn't me. "He was a fucking prick to me, Iann, that's it." she scoffs harshly. "But I'm over it."

"Well, you obviously aren't." I point out.

"It was one time, one stupid thing he did." She paces, shaking, maybe trying to dance the anger out of her system. "I'm over it." she repeats.

"You obviously aren't," I just say again. "Look at yourself, you're all red now--"

"I said I don't like talking about it." She plumps back down onto the floor and starts messing with the pieces with her hands again. "John had always been an asshole to me but I didn't think he could do that to you,"

"Do what,"

"What he did."

I bite my lip.

"I thought after years, I'd finally find a reason to forgive him for what he did to me. Then I found out what he did to you and now I know I'm never going to forgive him." Dani crossed her arms.

"You have to forgive him." I say, unable to stop myself any quicker.

"Why the fuck should I?!" She's enraged again.

But what I calmly reply with calms her down. "Because I love him."