Painful love ~ Dinny

Chapter 6

Danny Noppert's Point of View

1st June 2023

That- oh fuck... that was way too fricking close... my opponent- James Wilson needed 10 for the match. Luckily for me, he accedentily hit double 2 instead of just 2. And then he wanted to hit another 2 to get down on double 2. I know, too many 2's. But then he busted his score by accedentily hitting treble 2 instead. I breathed a sigh of relief as I checked it out and won the match 6-5. My heart was still pounding fast- like uncomfortably fast. I was sat back at the hotel room with Dirk. There was complete silence between us. I sighed, breaking the silence. Dirk turned to look at me. "Now I have to play Nathan..." I said quietly to myself. Dirk sighed and placed a hand on my shoulder. "Danny, you can win it. I know you can." he said in a calming tone. "I doubt that." I said ignoring his glance. He sighed and let go. We didn't speak more that night.

2nd June 2023

I have 135 remaining. I'm trailing 5-3. This is horrible. Okay, I hit 25, which leaved 110, so... treble 20, and bull. Great. Just great. I missed the treble. I threw the last dart at treble 18 to leave double 18, but that really doesn't matter now, does it? He'll get three matchdarts at tops. And he hit the first one. I sighed and shrugged it off. Nathan walked over to me, all smiles. I smiled back, and we hugged. I really hate playing Nathan because of how good he is. But he is one of my closest friends ever. And after shaking hands with the caller and the markers, I walked off stage, just waiting for Dirk to find me.

Nathan Aspinall's Point of View

After my interview, I walked off stage, with just one thing on my mind. Chris is waiting for me back home- at the hotel. Sure, I'm happy to have won this match, but Chris is the only thing on my mind right now. My loving boyfriend. I stopped myself as I heard voices. I'm so curious about things, so I couldn't help but listen. "I told you I'd lose." the voice I recognised to be Danny said. My curiosity couldn't stop listening in on whatever was about to go down. "Maybe you would have won if you believed a bit more in yourself." Dirk's voice said. "Easy for you to say, you're one of the best players at the moment." Danny said sounding irritated that Dirk didn't just let it go. "You're higher up on the rankings than I am though." Dirk said smugly. "Yeah, 'cause I won a major I didn't deserve to win." Danny said. "You did deserve to win that." Dirk said, starting to sound annoyed. "Maybe at that time, but the way I'm playing now is just not worthy of that title at all." Danny spoke quieter. Dirk sighed and spoke up again. "I really wanted to play you later today- in the final if that was possible. It was unfortunate that you didn't get that win." Dirk said sounding genuine. "Yeah right. I know that's a lie. I know you wanted to play Luke in the final. That's all you care about." Danny said, sounding hurt over Dirk's lie. "You keep losing to him, so you want to keep playing him. Don't act like that's not the truth. 'Cause it's all about beating Luke for you! So don't lie to me, telling that you wanna play me when you--" Danny shouted at him, but was stopped. I heard that noise. Loud and clear. My eyes widened in horror as I realised what had just happened. That must have hurt. What I could make out from this situation was that Dirk got so pissed that he hit Danny. There was a deafening silence for a while before Danny spoke up again. "Keep doing that until you're satisfied. It worked for my parents, maybe it'll work for you too." Danny said with a shaky tone. I heard him walking away in silence, and I couldn't move. I knew exactly what those words meant. Danny has been fucking abused at home. I could barely process what had just happened, so I quickly went back to the hotel where Chris was waiting.