Love Is Only an Illusion

A few weeks later, the Horseman were working silently in their newly furnished apartment. Sutton had took it upon herself to make the disgusting housing area as homey as she could, decorating it and placing air fresheners throughout the rooms.

“Why isn’t there any food?” Jack complained from the kitchen. He looked over at Danny and Sutton, the only company he had for the time being while Merritt and Henley were out shopping for new clothes.

“Probably because you ate it all,” Danny replied without looking up from his laptop screen.

“Sutton?” Jack whined, making his way to his best friend.

Sutton didn’t take her eyes off her book, as she was deeply involved in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for the umpteenth time in her life.

“Sutton,” Danny called. Receiving no answer, he shook her foot.

Sutton swung her leg, nearly missing Jack as he sat beside her. “Who’s the jackass who touched my foot?”

Jack pointed to Danny, suppressing a laugh.

“I-I just wanted to get your attention,” Danny stuttered, throwing his hands up.

She narrowed her eyes at the illusionist. “You should know better by now.”

“Yeah, Danny,” Jack added. “I mean, if you’re gonna touch her feet, you gotta do it like this!” he yelled, quickly moving his fingers over Sutton’s bare feet. When she started to swing her legs, Jack went for her torso.

“Stop it!” Sutton squealed, her face turning red with laughter. “You jerk!”

Jack quickly stuck his hands under her grey Pokémon shirt. Sutton squealed louder at the touch of his cold hands.

Danny mumbled under his breath, annoyed with the sudden noise. The laughter of the couple was becoming quite annoying fairly quickly. “Will you two stop it?”

The two friends froze, both panting heavily. They looked at one another which only made them laugh again.

“Damn, Sutton,” Jack finally said. “You got abs!”

“I do not, Wilder!” Sutton defended as she stood, hitting her stomach lightly. “I have a belly.”

“Oh, please!” Jack yelled, flipping her shirt up. “Danny, are these not abs?”

Danny’s eyes flicked up at the sound of his name. Before Sutton had a chance to push her shirt down, Danny saw the outline of something black across the girl’s torso sticking out from under her sports bra. He swallowed, imagining it being a tattoo. Jack was right, though; Sutton’s pale stomach could be mistaken for abs.

“Aren’t they?” Jack asked again, fighting Sutton for her shirt once more.

Danny cleared his throat as he watched Sutton’s red face slowly begin to fade. “Um, no, Jack, but one could easily make that mistake.” He scratched the back of his neck in hopes of suppressing any redness on his own face.

Sutton shyly hid her smile as she turned toward her bedroom. Danny chuckled lightly to himself, thinking about what hid beneath the rest of Sutton’s clothing. He smiled as he imagined how beautiful her body just may be.

“Uh-hum,” Jack’s throat sounded, causing Danny to jump.

“God, Jack. Was that necessary?”

Jack snickered. “Dude, were you checking Sutton out?”

Danny rolled his eyes. “Seriously? No.” Jack laughed again and made his way back to the kitchen while Danny let out a sigh of relief.

~~

“Let’s go out for a change,” Henley said to the others after returning home with Merritt from their shopping trip. “I’m sure Sutton is tired of cooking for us.”

“Not really,” Sutton mumbled, receiving a death glare from her cousin.

“I say we have Chinese!” Merritt piped up.

“I’m not in the mood for that,” Danny responded as he played with his card deck.

“Sushi?” Jack tried.

Sutton faked a gag. “Do you want to kill me?”

“Do you want a burger, Sutton?” Henley asked, rolling her eyes.

Danny huffed. “Again? No.”

“Fine!” Henley gave in, picking up her black handbag. “You two are staying here.”

“What?” Danny and Sutton yelled, quickly standing from the couch.

Jack and Merritt chuckled as Henley lectured. “I’ve had it with you two! Sutton never wants to go out, and Danny never wants what the rest of us want. It’s annoying.”

“What are we supposed to do for food?” Danny asked, suddenly frantic.

“Sutton will make sure you don’t starve.” With that, the escape artist, the mentalist, and the pickpocket were gone.

“Well, this is just fan-freaking-tastic!” Danny yelled to whomever chose to listen.

“You do realize you can leave the apartment with no problem, right?” Sutton told him, settling back into the indent on the couch.

“Shut up,” Danny responded, already annoyed with her. “Why would I want to go with them after they clearly just ditched me?”

“Beats me.” Sutton kicked her legs up to lay down on the couch. She absentmindedly scrolled through her Twitter feed. “Let me know if you want food.”

Danny rolled his eyes. “I can make food, Sutton. I’ve been living on my own since I was 18. I think I’m perfectly capable of it.”

“I was just trying to be nice, Danny,” Sutton stated. “Why don’t you just sit down and relax until they come home then? You’ve been stressed out enough with reading those plans over and over again.”

“That’s because we soon need to rob the bank,” Danny reminded her as he sat in the armchair.

Sutton huffed. “I know. Please don’t remind me. It’s not like it was my dream to become a criminal.”

“Oh, and you think it was mine?”

“Well, you are one.” Danny tilted his head at her in confusion. “I mean, metaphorically speaking. You know, you steal girls’ hearts for a night then break them the next morning.”

Danny rolled his eyes at her once more. “Why do you always bring that up? Is that how you see me? A guy who craves a female’s sexual side and nothing more?”

Sutton opened her mouth but decided against allowing words to flow. Did she really judge a book by its cover? “I-I’m sorry, Danny. I guess I never really thought about it much.”

Danny’s eyes grew wide, shocked by the word “sorry” leaving anyone’s mouth to apologize to him.

Sutton continued, “I guess over the years Henley didn’t really describe you as much more than that. You know, a ‘player.’ She always told me that she was glad she never fell for your tricks.”

Danny thought for a minute, processing her words. “I guess I can’t really blame her for that,” he admitted. “I mean, I did have a lot of one-night stands in the past. I actually haven’t had one since the night I found the Lover card, if that counts.”

Sutton chuckled. “How ironic.”

“I didn’t have sex that night, though,” Danny admitted again. He smiled at his words. Admitting these things to Sutton felt good.

Before Sutton could throw a comment his way, Danny’s phone buzzed on the coffee table. “Hey, Merritt.” Sutton bit her lip to hide a smile. He never answered a phone call from any of them without the first word being ‘what.’ “Wait, why will it take you so long to get home? The whole inner city? Alright. No, we’re fine right now. Just call one of us when it comes back on.”

“What was that about?” Sutton asked after Danny hit the red button on his phone’s screen.

“Apparently inner city New York is shut down for the time being. There was an accident that caused a fuse box to go out. I guess we are far enough away from it that we weren’t affected.”

“At least I still got wi-fi,” Sutton smirked, taking out her phone to play a game.

Danny chuckled. “Hey, do you want a beer?” he asked, making his way to the kitchen.

“I don’t drink beer, Danny,” Sutton responded. “I’ll take one of the wine coolers from the fridge, though. Pina colada, please.”

Danny smiled to himself as he opened the fridge. He enjoyed learning these small facts about a girl, as he never cared much to get to know his one-night stands. “Here,” he said as he held out the cold beverage for Sutton to take.

Sutton smiled, placing her hand around the can. Just as their skin came into contact, darkness surrounded them.