Pulse

Chapter 9:

“Stop it.” Ivy laughed, playfully punching Daniel on the shoulder and taking a drink of the chocolate milkshake he had bought her.

“No, seriously, where?” He pressed.

“Downtown. And that’s all I’m going to say on that subject.” Ivy had no idea how her relationship with Daniel had progressed this far. Or even past the “Why are you in my life?” stage. “Ok, ok.” She giggled. “My turn. Pretend you’re on a deserted island and a tiger is chasing you. What do you do?”

A few hours had passed since Daniel had picked her up from her house. They were a whirlwind of randomness. They went to the Chinese section of town and tried to convince the people there they were immigrants from India. He took her to the last ten minutes of an awesome indie concert. It had been great. Now they were playing Avoid Answering Me. It was a fun game, and the object was to give a truthful answer to any question, but just not something the asker wanted to hear.

“Stop pretending.” Daniel said, after a few minutes of thought.

“Aargh.” Ivy scowled. “Twenty-seven to thirteen. You are good!” She laughed appreciatively, and then looked at her watch. “Crepes. It’s seven We’ve got to get going!”

“Always on the run, are we?” he teased, calling the waitress for the check.

“Well, promising my mom to have me back after dinner was all you.” She lightly poked him in the arm, already nervous about her mother’s reaction. So lost was she in her personal fears that Daniel had to physically pull her out of the restaurant and into his perfect dark car.

“So,” he began, trying to pull her out of her mind. He put a CD containing her favorite song, Broken Wings, into the CD player. He even had the original version; the one Ivy loved the most. It didn’t hurt that he happened to like Flyleaf, too. “I have something to say, but I don’t know if you want to hear it.” He gave her a nervous glance out of the corner of his eye.

“Shoot.” Ivy allowed.

“Well, I think I know how much you think I think about your music and I think you should know I think it’s really good.” Daniel said, all in one breath. Ivy was beginning to learn that he talked quickly when he was nervous or uncomfortable; a way to force himself to say whatever he was planning, without having a chance to back out of it.
“You… You do?” she asked, slightly taken aback.

“Yeah. I really do.” His voice was no more than a whisper, and Ivy had to strain to catch his words.

Ivy’s favorite part started then on the CD, where Lacey sings ‘Under your stars tonight…’, and she couldn’t help but sing along, trying to imitate exactly Lacey Mosley’s voice.

“Under your stars tonight
We’ll live and breathe this dream

Close your eyes, but don’t dream too deep
And please pass me some memories
And when I fall you’re underneath

A thousand broken hearts
Carried by a thousand broken wings
A thousand broken wings…”

Only after the song ended did Ivy notice that Daniel had stopped the car on the side of the road.

“Wow.” He breathed, after the song stopped and the birds ceased their chirping. “That was…” he paused, searching for the right words to describe the music.

“It wasn’t too horrible, was it?” Ivy asked, cringing.

“No, not at all. It was… unlike anything I’ve ever heard. I would say beautiful. But it doesn’t seem… big… enough to describe it.” He looked at her, trying to convey some secret, hidden meaning with his eyes.

“Daniel.” Ivy whispered. “Either you’re hitting on me, or you really are that gay, I can’t tell.” They both laughed at that. “Take me home, loser.”