Barely Breathing { IM5/Dana Fanfiction }

Chapter Eight

I stood alone at the front steps, cool wind blasting in my face, shivering while pressing the doorbell faintly. I admired the arrangement of fallen leaves on the ground as they crunched under my feet with every step. It was probably one of my favorite things about fall.

As much as I tried to distract myself from it, my thoughts kept drifting back to Dana. For an immature asshole, for a few seconds, he seemed like a normal person, with legitimate feelings. It still puzzled me how he had barely told me anything else about his life, but he decided to open up about that.

I smiled as the front door swung open, the smell of pumpkin spice hitting me right in the face. "Hey Dalton." I chimed sweetly, taking a step inside.

"Harlem, where the hell have you been?" Dalton hissed violently at me as I made my way inside.

"I was with Dana, you'll never guess what happened." I sighed, sitting myself down on the couch, exhausted.

"I have been calling you all day. I thought you were dead, or worse!" Dalton hollered, dramatizing the situation like always.

"What's worse than being dead?" I asked, completely ignoring the point of the conversation.

"When I walked up the recenter steps and turned around, you were gone!" Dalton ran his fingers through his spiked blond hair, concern swelled on his face.

"Dalton, chill. Dana was kicked out of the recenter so I-"

"Kicked out? Why?"

"Beats me." I kicked up my legs on to the side of the couch, laying my back against the seats. "All I know is that he's not allowed back there for a while."

Dalton seemed to process what I was saying, staring at me with his crystal blue eyes. "How did you even get here?"

"Dana drove me." I responded casually, kicking my legs up and down on the arm rest as I switched through TV channels.

"You got in a car with him? Are you insane? He could have kidnapped you, or killed you!"

"But he didn't. Why so paranoid all of a sudden?" I muttered in annoyance.

"Paranoid? It's called logic."

"Oh, so you're calling me stupid?" I chuckled, watching a old re-run of Spongebob on Nick.

"You're acting like it. You don't even know this guy and you're driving around with him. What happened to being careful?" Dalton lectured.

"Look Dalton, I get the fact that you're my friend, and you want to protect me, but I'm not a child. Just loosen up a little." I spat coldly at him.

"Harlem, you don't know this guy. You can't just be parading around an unknown city, living in this fantasy world. Remember what Mr.Nelson said, he's a troublemaker. He's not like us."

"Well, maybe that's a good thing Dalton!" I sat up straight from my seat, startling Dalton.

"Maybe I don't want to meet someone who's like us. Have you seen Harlem? It's nothing compared to Manhattan, but it's thrilling. Everything is so, diverse. The people, they're different. They don't live off of old money, they fight for it. It's a constant game of cat and mouse, running from left to right. They struggle while we sit here in our almost million dollar houses, complaining about what we have in our fridge, while they can't even find food to eat. It's risk taking. It's overwhelming. Don't tell me I don't know about the town, I almost died there, I was shot at for god sake's!"

My breathing was uneasy, trying to calm myself down. I blinked a few times, looking up at Dalton, who's jaw had practically hit the floor.

"What do you mean shot at?" I had completely forgotten I never mentioned to him my trip to Harlem at all.