7

(Chapter 15)

“Really?” he asked, his eyes suddenly filling with pure happiness. Daniel believed my words. He suddenly looked like a happy, sweet kid. I smiled at him though my tears, because I wasn’t able not to. He smiled back at me, his eyelids drooping.

“Thank you,” he muttered, before he was asleep.

I cried much longer.

***

╣Daniel╠

I woke up, and for the first time, the day after I visited my brother, I was fine.

Something tugged at my hand, and fell. Eric. He’d slept beside me the whole night, holding my hand.

He was a good person.

***

♫Erica♫

What time was it…?

One PM.

How long had I slept?

I was lying in my bed. For a second, I was slightly disorientated. I’m sure that wasn’t where I’d fallen sleep.

I slid my feet out of my bed, and my back hurt. It always hurt after I slept in my stupid dorm bed, because it was so hard, but somehow it hurt more. Like I’d slept on the floor or something…

Then I remembered.

I ran to the mirror, just to make sure it wasn’t a dream or anything. I’ve never been happier to see my eyes were all swollen from crying. It wasn’t my imagination. Yesterday, I’d really talked to Daniel. We’d gotten closer. My cheeks flushed pink.

Then I froze. One PM? Frick! I’d called Scott yesterday, on the taxi home, and said I’ll meet up with him in Starbucks at one thirty.

I gave up with the whole dress thing – there was no time – and I just picked out an old nerdy Shrek t-shirt, hoodie, a pair of jeans, and my converses. I pulled them on quickly, shoving some sunglasses onto my face, to cover up the fact I’d been crying.

***

“Mocha Latte, please,” I said, pulling out my wallet from my bag, carefully so the wig wouldn’t peek out. Last thing I needed was some other guy, in on the secret. I looked at Scott. “What do you want? I stood you up yesterday, so it’ll be on me.”

“Just a regular coffee,” he said, smiling. “I’ll buy the muffins, okay?”

I nodded, deciding not to tell him I was on a diet. That might make me seem to stupidly girly, and that was probably not the best image I wanted to give up on the first date.

Scott was nice. He was not an actor, which was a good thing. Actors had way, way too much drama going on (actor, drama, get it? HAHA! No? Whatever. Stop it, Erica. Stop talking to yourself). I suffered through Ben’s crap for years, and I needed a normal guy, not an actor like Daniel.

I picked out a chocolate chip, and bit into it. Wow. WOW. The first bit of chocolate I’ve had in years. It melts so beautifully, and the flavours dance over my tongue –

“How’s your career going?” Scott asked, more out of politeness than anything. Whatever. I still hated him for interrupting my mouth orgasm. And “career”? That’s a nice way of putting “slutty model”.

I could tell he didn’t really care. Suddenly, I couldn’t help but compare him to Daniel. At least Daniel was honest. He never asked about anything he didn’t care about. He was stupidly honest.

Stop looking into it, Erica. He’s just being a nice guy. He has people skills. Better than Daniel.

“Erica?”