Hello! Thanks to my reviewers!

I can tell you right now…Danny’s not emo. He’s just…oh, you’ll see. I think it’s funny that besides the people I’ve told, most of you haven’t gotten it yet. But really, I’m not that obvious sometimes, ha ha. Then again, maybe…just maybe you’ll start to get it after this chapter…No music until chapter six, but you’ll like my little cliffhanger…

And oh…I have too much fun with this story.

the boy at the rock show

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4

Maybe I had asked for it, getting involved in the first place. But the way I felt around him…it was something I’d never felt before. Ever. It was a true freedom. He had released the cage and suddenly I was the person I’d always wanted to be.

I didn’t want to lecture him on life. I wasn’t some therapist. But I was in too deep already to just stand by and watch…So I decided to take the chance…

And save his life. Because there were a lot darker things than I could have ever imagined going on.

Things I knew he wished never would have happened…

He pulled away sharply and I gasped in his sudden movement. “You…” I couldn’t bring myself to say the words, suddenly unable to believe it.

“It’s not something I proud of. But I didn’t really know how right people are when they say it takes pain away for a while,” he said. His voice was so quiet that I just barely heard him and he was looking at the ground again, avoiding my eyes.

“You shouldn’t do that. There are other ways,” I said sincerely. Why was I lecturing him when I’d thought about doing a few times myself before?

“I stopped…so you don’t have to worry anymore, do you?”

“Oh, really?” I saw right through that and grabbed his hand again, shoving it into his face. “Those look pretty fresh to me.”

“Who are you to judge me?” he suddenly shouted. “I can do whatever I want.” Looking closer—I saw something in his eyes. But it turned out…they had completely changed color.

But instead of defending myself like I usually did, I let it go. “You know…you’re right, I’m sorry. What you do is none of my business. If you want to kill yourself, go for it.”

“I’m not going to kill myself,” he snapped. “I told you…I don’t even know why I do it. I just…” He sighed, running his hands through his black hair.

“Want to talk about it?” I asked, just to see his reaction.

He looked up. “No, no I don’t.” He blinked several times and I could have sworn his eyes snapped back from a glow to their usual shade of blue.

“Apparently you do have a conscience then,” I said. “Ever try therapy?”

“You sound like my sister,” he blurted.

I stared. “You have a sister?”

He looked away. “No…I mean, yes,” he stammered.

“Why did you stop?”

“Stop what?” I pointed to my own wrist. “If you’re telling the truth that is.”

“I…I don’t know, it was about a few days ago,” he said. He finally looked back at me and something else flickered in his baby blue eyes. “Why do you even care?”

“Because,” I said, unable to come up with a real answer. Why did I care? I didn’t know him, I didn’t know anything about him. As far as I knew, he could just be some creepy emo trying to get a fix.

“Because why?”

“I just don’t want you to hurt yourself, okay?” I snapped. “Whatever is worth cutting yourself for is obviously bad, but there are other ways to…help.”

“I’m not going to therapy,” he said.

“Fine then, I didn’t say you had to. I was just offering up other suggestions,” I said, shrugging. He was silent for a moment and before I’d even realized what I had thought, the word was flooding from my mouth. “You could tell me for one. Get stuff off your chest. I’m not going to tell anyone.”

He rubbed his neck. “I don’t want to.”

I laughed. “Let me take a guess, you’re some murderer?”

He didn’t reply and suddenly walked past me, his head bent down. I wished I could keep my big mouth shut sometimes and turned, placing my hand on his shoulder before he got too far.

“Danny, wait.”

“What?” he asked.

It took me three seconds to figure out what I’d just said and I gasped. A look of surprise flashed on his face before it quickly disappeared. “Your…your name is Danny…”

“Wise choice,” he whispered.

“Danny what?”

“I would tell you my real last name, but I really don’t deserve to have that name anymore,” he suddenly said.

“What do you mean?” I wondered.

“You wouldn’t understand,” he said.

“That’s because you’re leaving me with barely any information,” I said. “I can’t decide if you want me to know or not, but you can’t just keep dropping clues because I’m not some crime investigator.” My words seemed to hurt and I wished I could take them back.

“If you try and figure me out, you’ll only find what you don’t want to know. I don’t need sympathy, and I don’t need empathy. If you knew…what I did, you wouldn’t even begin to try and understand because you’re not like that…”

“You’re trying to push me away yet you were so eager to meet me. Why?” I swallowed.

Danny opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it and his eyes fluttered shut for a moment. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Try me.”

“No. I can’t.”

“You can’t what?”

“Tell you anything…” He looked away. “I should go.”

“Will you stay with me?” I blurted. “Please…Danny?” The name felt so familiar on my tongue…and I’d somehow come up with his name out of the blue only a minute before.

He thought for a moment and then nodded. “Yeah…I will.”

“You did do something back there, didn’t you?” I stared at him as we started walking again, both of us unsure of how to really make any conversation, but I had tried. “You saved me…”

“I wasn’t going to let you get hurt,” he told me, looking up at me with those big blue eyes. They were so full of something hidden that I wished I hadn’t said anything at all about him cutting himself…whatever I’d brought up…the playful Danny had disappeared somehow.

“Well, thank you,” I said. “If you are a superhero…” I laughed. “You’ve got some pretty good fighting skills if you took all those guys by yourself.”

He was silent for a moment and I wasn’t certain what to say—even if I should say anything at all. We were only a minute away from my own home and I glanced over to make sure if there were any lights on. My parents’ shadows crossed the front window. I’d have to make my way back in very carefully.

“Do you believe in ghosts…Sam?”

The question brought me back from my head’s attempt for an escape route into the house that would be safest. I turned to him.

“Ghosts? Like…what do you mean?”

“Most of them don’t say boo…most of them just want to try to take over humanity, or the world or something like that. Not like Casper or anything,” he ranted.

I raised an eyebrow. “Sure.”

“I’m serious,” he muttered.

“I guess so. I’ve never seen one before,” I replied, giving in. “Why do you ask?”

He stopped and looked at my house. “I was just wondering.”

“Thanks for walking me home,” I told him honestly. “Where are you going? Do you need a ride?”

“No, really, I live right over there,” he said. This time, it hadn’t sounded like a joke. I followed his gaze again and saw the towering mansion in the distance, only about five minutes away.

“Well…goodnight,” I said. “Take care of yourself Danny. Although I have the feeling we’ll be seeing each other a lot more.” I laughed, wondering why I said it at the same time.

He finally smiled. “Yeah, cause you know I’m just the phantom stalker.” He grinned. “Goodnight Sam.”

“’Night,” I said. I felt his eyes upon me as I started up the steps to my house, but when I turned around, he was gone. Blinking several times, I stared around, but there wasn’t any sight of him anywhere.

“How does he do that?” I asked myself, shaking my head. There was no way he could have run that fast. I decided to leave it alone for the billionth time. His weirdness was something…you just couldn’t try to explain. I started climbing up the rose trellis underneath my window and he was still on my thoughts.

What could he have possibly gone through that was so horrible enough to make someone so clearly not…like that…cut himself? He was right about the pain thing, I wasn’t going to deny that. But…this mystery had only deepened.

So…why did I care?

As I opened the window and crept inside my room and then closed it quietly behind me, I wondered what was really going on in my head. I stopped closing the window and left it open partly, listening for any movement from my parents downstairs. I sighed in relief when I heard no noise rushing towards me. Another night gone good…sort of…

I stared into the mirror on the wall across from me and felt the strangest sensation go through me. It was a cold sense…like something was there. I looked at my reflection—when I saw it. Turning around, I jumped, gasping, but nothing was there. Turning back, I didn’t see anything else in the mirror either.

But I’d seen something. Something green. Something had been there. But…I didn’t fear it. In fact…I didn’t feel anything at all out of the ordinary. As if I knew what it was, my mind was just messing with me. Really, I knew exactly what it was.

On the other hand? I didn’t.

I walked over towards the window and opened the window farther, staring out into the cold but starry night. I closed my eyes and leaned my head up against the wooden frame.

“Touch the stars…with me, and dread the wait for…stupid calls returning us to life,” I sang, remembering the song I’d walked home to. “We say to those who are in love…it can’t be true…cause we’re too young…”

I stopped, thinking. What was love? Too young to love? I didn’t think that. I think that you could love anyone you chose…I closed the window, sighing.

I wasn’t exactly sure who I loved because I didn’t have anyone to love me back.

I hate mornings. That day I walked sluggishly downstairs, craving the need to go back to sleep even though it was already noon. Ah, the summer. I loved it a lot.

No school, no teachers, no one telling you what to do. Complete freedom. Except…from my parents.

“Sammiekins!” said an all-too-chipper-for-this-early-in-the-morning voice. I groaned and turned around to see my mother walk towards me and hug me tightly.

“Hi,” I said awkwardly.

“Sam, we’ve got such a good day planned out. How would you like to go out to dinner tonight?”

Let me check my schedule. Did I have anything to do? Stay away from the parentals was usually top priority. Dinner would be a two hour hell on earth. So yes, of course I had a lot to do. Avoidance.

“Umm…”

“Your father and I will be at a meeting with our employer and a new secretaries from the statistics centre,” she said. “So…if you’d like, you can sit at a completely different table while we have our meeting.”

I blinked, more out of shock than anything else. “Really?”

“Of course,” my father added.

Heck, why not? Enjoy eating some food and yet still be away from my parents. I was good for that. “Sure,” I agreed.

“Will you do me one…tiny little favor, Sam dear?”

I already knew what she was going to ask.

“As long as it’s not pink…I’ll wear it,” I said before she continued. I wasn’t awake yet to argue much and I figured as long as I made them happy, they’d leave me alone.

My mother squealed. “It’s this pretty dress we bought you and it’s not even pink at all. I think you’ll like it.”

They thought I’d like it? They didn’t know half of the things I’d like. “What…does it look like?” I dared to ask.

“Here, I’ll show you,” Mom offered, grabbing my arm and pulling me towards the living room. I trudged along, thinking, why did I even ask?

She opened the closet door and I wondered when I would ever learn when to shut my mouth, still thinking, save me from wearing that dumb dress my parents bought me…Please don’t let it be pink, please don’t let it be pink…

It wasn’t at all like I’d thought. It was exactly—what I’d dreamed.

The dress was a mixture of violet and lilac at the bottom and stretched all the way up until the waistline where black cloth formed a small triangle and rose up over the chest like a corset, lilac lining the strings that crisscrossed upon it. The sleeves were fishnet and black, cutting off at the elbow and turning into long, solid black sleeves that stretched into the middle of the hand. It was even low cut at the chest line. I stared, transfixed.

No way.

No way had my parents bought this for me? They…the ones that were so against Goth stuff and anything black or sexy looking? This dress…although a bit fancy for a simple dinner (I assumed it was now a big, big dinner party) was beautiful…And oddly…something I wanted…

“Oh my gosh…” I gasped.

“Do you like it?”

I thought this was a very odd question. OF COURSE I LIKED IT! And my parents…they’d bought it for me.

“I figured I would stop bothering you about the pink for a while. Mix it up with the wardrobe,” she said. “Although your father argued you looked better in floral prints. I decided to just let you have something you would like. Saves the time of…getting aggravated with each other, doesn’t it?”

I suddenly felt guilty. Any other time they’d bought clothes for me, I’d thrown a fit. Now…mom was letting me off the leash and I wasn’t going to ruin this moment.

“Thank you, really,” I said sincerely, smiling at her. “I love it.”

“It’ll look even lovelier on you.”

“When’s this dinner party?” I wondered, feeling myself blush.

“Starts at seven.”

Seven it was.

A few hours later, I didn’t regret my choice—yet. I dressed up as much as I could, starting to really enjoy myself. The dress fit perfectly. I had even done such a girly thing (alone and out of sight) and twirled around a few times just to try it out. The dress’s length seemed to swish with every movement and I loved it.

What surprised me the most was that Danny was always on my mind. Always. I caught myself thinking about how nice it would be if Danny were to be dancing with me and quickly snapped out of it, thinking…where in the heck had that come from?

Someone opened the door of our large car as we pulled up to the side of a building and I got out, feeling almost royal. I knew we were rich, but this was so weird…still…after fourteen years. Of course, it was rare that I ever got out to an actual dinner party like this, so that might have been the reason it felt awkward as someone also held the door open for us.

I walked behind my parents into a grand dining room restaurant with black marble tables and dim lights with candles everywhere. A slim bar was set out at the far end of the room and there was also a dance floor in the center. It explained the whole “dress” thing at least.

I stood there, feeling slightly uncomfortable. This…wasn’t exactly my style. The black marble had a nice touch, but everything there was too…rich princess, king and queen royalty…themed. I felt like a peasant among the rich. Yet here I was…with them.

“Samantha dear,” my mother called, setting a gentle hand on my back. “I’d like you to meet someone.”

I followed her over to a small family of three—your average joes of rich folk. The burly, brown haired, black suited father, the peacock feathered, blue dress mother (both of which…I’d guess around forty years old) and then…

Oh, my…

I’ve never really gone ga-ga over guys, but this seemed to be a very different situation. He had swishy white hair and was wearing a white jacket over a black shirt with matching white pants and dark sunglasses were covering his eyes.

“Sam, this is Derik Reneos and his wife, Charlene,” mom told me while I found myself examining the new guy. “And their son, Gregor.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you,” Gregor said, smiling. He took my hand in his and kissed it. I prayed I wasn’t blushing, but unfortunately felt my cheeks heat up.

“I think you two will get along great.”

The words reverberated within my head and I snapped back from lovey-dovey world and suddenly got it. This might have been a meeting—but I wouldn’t be eating alone.

My mother had set me up on a blind date.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Hee hee, I told you I was having way too much fun with this story. Oh, don’t worry, Danny will be back. And so will Gregor. And you’ll get a lot of fun and some new songs coming in two chapters!

Please R&R! Here’s your sneak peek!

Chapter Five: Déjà Vu

I couldn’t believe this.

Getting out of there had been my best and worst plan ever. It was totally worth ditching that jerk over, but I had probably just tipped the scale from good girl to bad girl once again.

Story of my life.

Lateraina Wolf