Cloud Walking (Find You in the Dark #1.5)(18)
Author: A. Meredith Walters

“That was some messed up shit, Rach. What are we going to do?” Daniel asked, looking helpless. I sighed and leaned against my locker, crossing my arms over my chest. I knew Danny was looking to me for advice. I always had the answer. A way to smooth things over. But this time, I didn’t know what to do.

“If we push her, it’ll only make it worse. But we need to keep an eye on things. And if we have to…we go to her parents,” I said, feeling sick at the thought of betraying Maggie like that. But I would do it in a heartbeat if things got any crazier.

Daniel leaned into my personal space, looking down at me. We were close. Too close and my breath caught in my throat. His eyes were soft as they caressed my face. I felt that look as though it were his fingers on my skin.

“Love shouldn’t make you feel like that. It should be as natural as breathing. It should happen between two people because it grew there out of something beautiful. And it should never make you feel the way Maggie is feeling right now,” he said, his eyes never leaving me. I could tell he wanted to touch me and his eyes never wavered.

My face grew hot and my heart started to beat fast. The moment that was building became too much and I had to shut it down. We needed to be a strong team for Maggie. And if I started caving to these out of control emotions that only Danny was able to stir up, it would create nothing but problems.

I moved to the side, putting some distance between us. I cracked a smile and let out a fake snort of laughter. “Wow, when did you get so deep?” I joked, hoping like hell to break the tension that was mounting between us.

Daniel blinked a few times and then seemed to snap himself out of whatever spell he had been under. His mouth moved upwards in a half smile, though it didn’t reach his eyes. “That’s me…deep,” he mused, the smile dropping as soon as it appeared. He stared at me for another minute and then rubbed his face with his hand.

“I’d better get to class,” he said. I nodded.

“Yeah, me too.” Danny looked at me again and I thought I’d launch myself at him if he continued to stare at me like that.

“Okay then. I’ll talk to you later,” he said finally and with that, walked away. But for a moment…there had been some serious cloud walking going on.

Chapter Ten

~Daniel~

The evening wasn’t going so great. Sure, we were at this amazing cabin in the middle of nowhere, but Maggie had already jumped down my throat for being a “prick” to Rachel. Which was ridiculous because it wasn’t my fault Rachel was being so moody. She had barely said two words to me since we had gotten there. And it wasn’t getting any better.

But being the jovial fellow that I am, I was trying to make the best of it. Hell, I’d even attempted some bonding with Clay when we went to the store for provisions. When he wasn’t up Maggie’s ass, he was actually a pretty cool guy. A dude I might even be friends with. So that was something.

But then he had to go and start being an ass to Maggie again, which, of course, made her upset. She tried to hide what was going on, but I could see what was brewing. It was the same shit that always went down with them. And it was getting harder and harder not to intervene. I knew Maggie would hate me for it, but this shit was getting out of hand.

And Rachel…God! I wish I could do something, anything that didn’t piss her off. I missed her like crazy. I missed the easy way we were together. The way she always got me, even when I didn’t get myself. I missed hanging out with her while she watched her sister and laughing at some stupid television show.

Fuck me! I wanted her back in my life so badly I thought I’d explode. But things had changed so drastically between us I didn’t think that would ever happen. I had lost one of my best friends because of my own stupidity. Because I was too scared to risk following my heart and perhaps getting something even better in the process.

Because I loved Rachel Marie Bradfield. I realize now that I had loved her for a long time. At one time, I was certain she had felt the same. But now…I wasn’t so sure. She was so angry and bitter. And I felt sure I was the cause.

So, yeah…I was losing one best friend because I was too scared to admit out loud that I loved her. I was too scared of the possible rejection and fall out. And I was losing my other best friend because her love was eating her alive.

Love definitely sucked.

I found myself going a bit overboard to try to make up for the fact that I was miserable inside. I was too drunk. Too loud. My jokes too forced.

Then my phone rang. And it was Kylie. She’d been calling me for days. I had been stupid and let her come over last week. She’d tried to hook up again but I had smacked that possibility firmly into the ground. I thought she would have gotten the hint after the dance but she was anything if not tenacious.

I was sure her attempts at getting me back had more to do with the fact that I wasn’t as easily accessible as I had been in the past. The whole wanting something you can’t have thing. I had been trying to be nice about it, but my patience had grown considerably thin.

So after the shitty day I had had, I was ready to nail this coffin shut. I excused myself from the group to answer the call, prepared to end this once and for all.

“Kylie. Seriously, this is getting old,” I said in way of greeting.

Kylie sighed on the other end. “Please, Danny. I’ve been so stupid. I just want another chance. With everything going on with my parents, it made me realize how great we are together,” she pleaded. She was coming at me with all of her ammo. But I wasn’t having it.

“We’ve been over this already. What you and I had is over. I’ll always care about you, but I’m done. If you need to talk about your parents, I’m here. As friends,” I told her shortly. Having this same conversation over and over again was exhausting. I wanted to get back to my friends. To the good time I had been trying to have.

I could tell Kylie had started to cry and that made me feel like total shit. Until I remembered that Kylie used tears like a weapon. She knew I was a sucker for them, so she was going in for the kill. “Kylie, come on. Stop crying. You’ll be fine. You’ll get through this stuff with your folks. But us…together…that didn’t work so well. So let’s just shoot it and put it out of its misery,” I said, trying for humor to lighten things.

That only made Kylie cry harder. “But I need you, Danny!” she wailed. I rolled my eyes. She was laying it on pretty thick. I blew out a breath and decided enough was enough.

“Give it a rest, Kylie. You know as well as I do that the only reason you’re putting so much effort into getting me back is because for the first time, I’m not running to you with my f**king tail between my legs. You don’t care about me. It’s the fact that I’m not grabbing the carrot you’re dangling that’s the problem. So suck it up and move on.” My voice rose and I could feel the surge of anger.