When All is Null and Void

Chapter Forty-Three

Even if it was for a good cause, and it was supposed to be her choice. Was it really her choice at all?

A tiny voice at the back of his mind said: A good friend would tell her the truth of it all.

The thought carried him to Danielle's front door. Her parents must have been there, because both cars were in the driveway. Starbuck was barking at him before he could even click play on the speaker he'd brought with him. He'd spent hours in his room listening to the Broadway Cast Album of Newsiestrying to decide which song he ought to play. There weren't any forgiveness songs in it, nor any about begging for forgiveness. There were a few love songs sprinkled in, but he wouldn't play those.

After the third time listening through the album, Caleb concluded the only viable option was the second song on the album. Santa Fe. Which was super lame, but he was sure it would at least soften her heart a little bit. He clicked play from Alexander's smart phone and set the speaker on the ground. He held the flowers up at chest level and knocked on the door.

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Danielle hadn't been able to explain why she went home early from the festival. Her mom had sat in her room with her while she cried about the entire ordeal, and yet she couldn't explain what had happened. She felt crazy when she sat on her bed late into the night and into the next morning. She'd barely slept, afraid she'd wake back in 1893 in the Morgan household, with a woman who claimed to be Danielle.

She felt completely justified and righteous in her anger toward Alexander and Caleb. She might be able to forgive them, but it would be difficult.

Oddly enough, she was floating through her house, a mere ghost, thinking once again how much she'd enjoy strangling Caleb for putting her through this entire ordeal—in a secret, quiet place of her heart, she wanted to Hop again, a thought that made her simultaneously want to vomit—when she heard Starbuck barking and scratching at the front door. He was usually well-behaved and left everyone outside of his little world be, but then she heard music coming from outside the door. And a tiny tap, tap, tap.

"Do you hear that?" her mom poked her head around corner from the kitchen. Since the festival was over, she was far less uptight. She was even making Christmas cookies and humming to the carols coming from the television.

"Yeah," Danielle said. She knew it was Caleb, and the song was from Newsies, though she couldn't dare to imagine why he was playing the prologue version of Santa Fe. Before she opened the door, though, she felt her heart thaw. Even as she told it to freeze over harder, it didn't. As much as she knew it was idiotic and insane to forgive him so easily, she stared at him without wanting to stab him.

He was holding a bouquet of the worst flowers she'd ever seen. They were slightly droopy, and the pink ones were a plain sort of mauve, and there were a few bright blue ones with the dismal look as if they'd been half doused in food coloring. Really, the fact he'd gotten her flowers, of all things, was enough to make her forgive him instantly for the sheer embarrassment of it all.

He flinched when she hugged him, the flowers forgotten and crushed beneath their weight. "I promise I'm not going to hurt you," she said as she pulled back. The music was three clicks too loud.

"You're not even going to let me say my speech? I had pros and cons. I had graphs." Caleb let the drooping flowers fall to his side.

Danielle stepped back. "Go ahead."

Caleb smiled sheepishly. "I forgot it all."

Danielle laughed. "Of course you did."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Defiance colored his tone.