A/N Dedicated to @K2J_two for the amazing banner on the side!!
"Hey, get out of there."
Dannie didn't reply but simply waited, sitting against the door of her room.
"I know you're in there."
"Don't make me break down the door."
"Come on, it's been a whole day, you're supposed to be having fun."
"Dannie open the damn door!"
Lucas had been pleading-- no begging, for the past hour, but to no avail. There was simply no way that Dannie was going to leave the safety of her room to venture out and maybe encounter Seth. The Memory Book he had given her still lay at feet, untouched.
"I've got all day," he tried again.
She felt bad, really bad, that she had to ruin her best friend's vacation with her acrimonious mood but she couldn't help it. There were no words he could say and nothing he could do that would change her mind.
"Alright Dannie, you've brought this upon yourself. I'm going to get Seth."
After hearing the sounds of fading footsteps and of a door slamming, the words finally sank into Dannie's brain. He was going to go get Seth! The whole reason for her being locked up was to avoid him!
"Wait! Lucas! I'm coming out," she yelled, clumsily jiggling the door handle. Bursting into the living room, she sprinted to the front door.
"Gotcha!" Strong hands wrapped around her waist and she was hoisted into the air and onto somebody's shoulder.
"Lucas!" Dannie whined, disbelief colored across her face that she had fallen for his little trick.
"It's been a day since your little date with Seth and all you've done is sit in that blasted room of yours. We've stopped at Saint Kitts and everybody is already off the ship. Let's go," he said, slipping out the door easily despite Dannie's constant wriggling and squirming.
"Just tell them I'm not feeling well," Dannie said. It was half true. She didn't feel well and her stomach was starting to make weird noises, but that was probably just because of her nervousness from meeting Seth.
"Sorry but no can do. It's my job as your best friend to make you the happiest you can be," Lucas said.
"That was really deep for somebody with an IQ lower than squirrel roadkill," Dannie muttered under her breath.
"I heard that!"
"You were supposed to!"
Finally reaching the stairs of the ship that led to the island, Lucas set Dannie down but kept a firm grip on her shoulders, as if she were going to make a run for it.
"Can I trust you to walk down the steps?" he asked her, saying it slowly as if she were a child.
Dannie stuck out her tongue at him and stomped down the steps to where Kate, Oliver, and Seth were stood. Butterflies-- or rather rampaging dinosaurs-- blossomed in her stomach. Just the sight of Seth made her heart flutter.
Wait, her heart fluttered? Since when did Dannie's heart flutter?
And flutter? That was such a girly word!
"Are you going to move anytime soon?" Lucas asked into her ear. Dannie shook her head, momentarily stooped. She hadn't realized that she had stopped moving and was staring dumbly at Seth.
Not to mention that Kate was shooting her murderous glares every five seconds.
Dannie walked the rest of the way at a leisurely pace, trying to calm down the beating of her heart. It felt like helicopter wings were taking off inside her chest. It was going to spontaneously combust one of these days.
"Hey Dannie!" Oliver said, giving her his trademark grin and rushing to give her a hug.
"Oliver!" Dannie said joyously. The boy was truly something else, always happy and never minding the tension in the atmosphere. When Lucas arrived beside Dannie and Oliver, the latter whom had finally closed his mouth after jabbering Dannie's ear off, the awkwardness in the air was piercing.
Nobody said anything and only the sound of the shallow waves could be heard.
"Well, let's get climbing!" Lucas said finally, pointing to the nearby mountains covered in a luscious jade color. As Dannie later found out, the others had already started and were near the top of the mountain.
Dannie basically glued herself to Lucas as the group made their way to the bottom of the mountain trail. But, much to her apprehension, Kate stitched herself to Seth.
"How is it that one day everything with Seth is good and the next you guys aren't talking?" Lucas whispers next to her, obviously frustrated.
Dannie herself didn't know. She was too busy watching Kate's hand creeping up Seth's arm, resembling a large and hairy tarantula. Well, except that her hand wasn't hairy but it most was definitely large.
"I just kind of got...scared," Dannie muttered mostly to herself.
"Scared of what?" Lucas prompted.
"You know, the whole liking Seth thing. He could be gone any moment and I'll be the one mending a broken heart," Dannie explained.
"Dannie, you fool. You can't think about it like that. If you like somebody, you have to go after them. If it turns out to be something stronger, fate will bring the two of you together," Lucas explained, looking into the distance with a sparkle in his eye.
Dannie smiled at him as she knew they were reminiscing the same memory together.
Before Lucas and Cece had become a couple, the three of them had been the closest of friends. When Lucas had asked Cece out, she had rejected him repeatedly-- for a whole two years to be exact.
Cece didn't want to ruin their friendship but after seeing Lucas with another girl, she finally relented and admitted her feelings for him.
"I don't exactly have two years to pine after Seth," Dannie said, still smiling fondly at the memory, her fascination with Seth momentarily forgotten.
"Then you better get to work fast," Lucas said gesturing to wear Kate stood next to Seth. She looked like she was raping his arm.
"I can't just go up to them!" Dannie said. Kate was obviously going to attack her again or worse.
"Sure you can, just watch."
Lucas cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, "Kate! Can you come here for a moment, I need you!" The blonde looked back at him and gave him a sickly sweet smile.
"Sure Lucas," she said, grinning at him creepily like the Cheshire cat.
"Now's your chance," Lucas said giving Dannie a nudge.
While Kate ran towards Lucas, Dannie made her way stiffly to Seth. She knew she owed him an apology for ditching him yesterday but she wasn't sure it would come out of her mouth.
"Hi."
Dannie mentally slapped herself for coming up with such a boring greeting. Could she not have done any better?
"Dannie," Seth said looking at her a bit surprised, but there was also a tinge of happiness, or maybe she just imagined it.
Dannie glanced back over her shoulder to make sure nobody would hear her. To her satisfaction, Lucas was laughing his head off as Oliver chatted Kate's ear off. She looked like she wanted to shove her fist in his mouth.
"I-I'm...sorry about leaving you yesterday," Dannie said slowly, trying to make sure the words came out right. "It was just a bit overwhelming."
Seth's face scrunched in an act of nervousness. "It was the book wasn't it? It was pretty terrible, huh? I mean, Lucas said you would like it but I didn't know if I went to far, trying to you know..."
He rambled on as he had yesterday and Dannie almost didn't stop him, he was just too cute. After a good ten seconds of ogling, she came to her senses.
"No! No, it wasn't that. I was just..." How did she tell him that she ran away because she like him? Right now was not the time to say something like that. "I really love the book, Seth. Honestly. Thank you." Changing the subject was her best hope.
Seth tried to act nonchalant, but his eyes were beaming at her. "Anything for you, my dear," he said giving her a little bow.
"Stop it," Dannie chuckled, laughing at his odd behavior.
By now, they were making their way up the mountain. Despite the roots and ditches, Dannie got along pretty easily. She was clumsy but hiking was easy for her after years of athletic activity.
Jumping over the stones on a river, she looked back to see Seth nearly topple into the water as he misjudged the distance between two rocks.
"Need help Parker?" Dannie taunted from the other side. He looked up to give her a brief scowl before going back to concentrating on the rocks.
"At least I'm faster than them," he said jabbing a finger to point to the trio, still stuck at the bank of the river.
Kate was squealing that her shoes had gotten wet, which in her head made it seem logical to cling to Lucas, who was trying to balance on the rocks with the blonde model on his back. Oliver, being Oliver, was no help at all and splashing water on the other two.
'Help' Lucas mouthed to Dannie and she just shook her head in response, laughing at him.
"Let's ditch them, eh?" Seth said once he had crossed the river. Dannie turned her head to respond and came face to face with his eyes, glistening an even brighter shade of gold in the sunlight.
"I- uh, yeah, let's go," Dannie said, momentarily losing her wits.
Together, they climbed their way up steep hill. Occasionally, Dannie would stop to laugh when Seth had trouble with a particular obstacle and couldn't quite get the position of his hands right to hoist himself up.
"You've never been mountain climbing before have you?" Dannie asked Seth when he stopped climbing completely to stare at the ledge Dannie stood on. It was narrow she would admit, and perhaps she was only on it to impress him, but is was worth it.
"I may not have been climbing before but I'm pretty sure that's not safe," Seth pointed out.
"You're such a girl," Dannie said rolling her eyes before turning her back and half running, half skipping around the edge.
"You! Wait!" She heard Seth calling back for her and a smile graced her face.
"Yes?" She called back, peeking around the stone edge to see Seth skittering nervously along the small ledge.
"This isn't part of the trail, you totally lied to me," he accused. Dannie gave him meek grin and shrugged her shoulders. After ditching the other three, she had taken him on a different, more dangerous path. It met up with the safety trail so she didn't see the harm.
"Isn't it more fun?"
Seth gave her a grin and moved closer to her. "Yeah, and I especially like it that we're all alone." His flirtatious smile was enough to make her melt but she kept her composure-- somewhat.
Dannie's body urged her to move closer to him, to allow the magnetic forces pulling them together to win, but her brain knew better.
They were walking precariously on a small pathway and it would be dangerous if Seth said something provocative to cause her heart to beat it's way out of her chest.
"Catch me if you can! I'm the gingerbread woman!" Dannie chirped to change the subject. She darted back to wear the regular path was and she heard Seth calling her from behind.
Dannie eagerly turned around, waiting to see if Seth had caught up yet. When he came within a couple feet of her, a mischievous smile on his face, Kate, Oliver, and Lucas came into sight.
Turning to greet them, a flash of pink tips was all Dannie saw before a sharp shoulder jabbed into her side. Stumbling on her feet from the blow, she saw Kate's malicious grin on her face before she fell. Looking up for help, she saw a horror stricken Seth lunge to grab her hand but he was too late.
Tumbling over the edge, Dannie's skin brushed up against twigs and thorns, making cuts as she tried to protect her face. She realized she was falling down the mountain trail, but her brain couldn't comprehend much except for sharp pains. As the mountain's slope grew sharper, she could feel herself rolling faster and faster, getting dizzier and dizzier.
Only vaguely aware of her surroundings, she heard yelling and shouting from a distance but she couldn't make out anything. Her senses had gone AWOL.
Suddenly, everything came to an abrupt halt just as an excruciating pain creeped from her ankle up to her leg. She tried to reach the pain but couldn't find it in herself to sit up.
Blearily blinking open her eyes, she saw a vine had wrapped itself around her ankle and part of her calf. It was a bittersweet sight. It had stopped her from rolling any father and falling onto who knows what, but it also had probably had given her a twisted, if not sprained, ankle.
"Dannie!" she heard various shouts of her name but couldn't bring herself to respond. The world was still looking slightly tipsy.
"Dannie! Are you alright? Dannie!" Hands were wrapped around her waist, pulling her into a sitting position as her head was laid onto somebodies chest. Their heart was pounding in a fast rhythmic beat.
His voice sounded familiar and Dannie smiled as they continued to talk to her. "Dannie? Answer me! Dannie!" The person's anguished cry brought her out of her senses and she tried to open her eyes.
"Seth?"
"And Lucas," a new voice said.
Dannie opened her eyes and looked up to see Seth gazing down at her worriedly. His face looked so vulnerable, so concerned; it made her want to cry.
"We have to get this vine off her leg," Lucas muttered darkly, glancing up the slope to wear Kate still stood with a worried Oliver by her side.
Carefully prying the thick material from her ankle, Dannie bit down on her tongue to keep from crying out. However, a slight whimper escaped her mouth when Lucas' hands brushed a particularly sensitive part of her foot.
"I'm going to kill her."
Dannie wasn't sure which boy said it because of the throbbing pain in her foot. She buried her face in the crook of Seth's neck, trying to avoid the sight of her injury.
"Do you think you can walk?" Lucas asked once he had gotten the vine off of her foot.
"Do you see her ankle? There's no way!" Seth exclaimed. Dannie made the mistake of looking at her foot when Seth gestured to it; to put it nicely, it looked gruesome. There was a ring of purple where the vine had constricted her foot and it already looked to be swelling.
"Put her shoe on, it'll stop the swelling a little bit," Seth instructed as Lucas grabbed the Dannie's shoe from where it had fallen off.
"Hold on to me," Seth tells Dannie, attempting to pick her up. With scarlet flooding her face, Dannie struggles in his arms.
"Put me down, I can walk fine!" she insists. Seth gives her a look and only tightens his hold around her but Dannie continues to squirm and wriggle until Seth finally complies.
Gently, he lowers her legs onto the ground and lets Dannie take a single step. A single step is all it takes for a hiss of pain to shoot out of her mouth and for her legs to collapse under the pain. Before she can fall though, Seth grabs her once more and carries her bridal style, hugging her close to his chest.
"This is so embarrassing," Dannie mutters leaning her head on his chest.
"Don't lie; you like it," Seth teases as he carries her back up the path.
"Stop flirting Seth and get her up here!" Lucas called from higher up the pathway.
Once they reunite with Kate and Oliver, nobody says a thing. Not even Kate, who Dannie thought should have at least apologized. Lucas and Seth shooting Kate glances that alternated between deathly leers and wary glances appeased her slightly though.
On the inside, Dannie was dying to get her hands on Kate. She would show her how much it hurt to be pushed off a cliff.
As they continued up the mountain, not even Oliver uttered a peep. Usually, he was the one who was constantly happy and full of energy.
Seth had shifted Dannie and now she was riding on his back, arms wrapped tightly around his neck. The tension in the air was still palpable but it felt as if Dannie was in her own bubble with Seth. It seemed as if they were walking along in their own little world.
A couple of hours later, along with an excruciating silence, the group arrived near the top of the mountain where a large plain of grass was located. The area seemed larger than the size of three football fields and only a couple of families were scattered around here and there.
"There's the rest of our gang!" Oliver shouted, pointing to where the Hales and Parkers were sat. He took off sprinting to where they sat, relieved to escape from the tension.
The night sky was now making an appearance and the sun was swiftly setting.
Without letting Dannie down from his back, Seth carefully grabbed a blanket and two sandwiches from his parents, setting up a picnic a good way off from everybody else. More importantly, a good length away from Kate.
He set Dannie down after placing the thick plaid blanket on the ground, laying her carefully so that her foot wouldn't get hurt.
"Thanks for caring me all day, I know I'm no lightweight," Dannie said sheepishly, two cherries blossoming over her cheeks.
"The pleasure was all mine," Seth winked handing her an unwrapped sandwich from the local vendor.
Dannie tried to think of a witty comeback. Perhaps something that would make him blush or cringe. Her genius reply was, "Shut up."
Seth chuckled and took a bite from his sandwich. Dannie mimicked his actions and inched slightly closer to him, her body just gravitating toward him, toward his touch. Although being pushed down the hill today was definitely something she'd rather not do again, she was content with how her day was spent.
Being that close to Seth for hours was just fine with her if all it took was a sprained ankle. Rethinking her thoughts, Dannie realized she sounded slightly like a lunatic.
"What are you thinking about?" Seth asked, staring intently at her face. On the inside, Dannie was melting with his intense look but kept her calm demeanor on the outside.
"Oh nothing," Dannie said idly, staring at where the rest of their families sat. Kate was still giving Dannie a jealous look even though she wasn't the one with a bruised ankle. Sat next to her was Oliver, looking slightly uncomfortable when he noticed Kate's nasty glare.
On the other side, sitting as far away as possible from Kate, Dannie was surprised to see that Quinn was sitting quietly next to Van. He seemed to be talking to her but his trademark scowl was not present.
Dannie chuckled when she saw the last two siblings. Seth followed her gaze and laughed with her, unconsciously leaning closer.
Katy and Dexter seemed to be causing mischief again, with piles of junk food in their arms. However, the food wasn't theirs and both sets of parents were talking rapidly to the people whom the duo had stolen the food from. Nobody looked too happy except for Katy, who was looking at Dexter, elated that he went along with her plan.
"The fireworks are going to start soon," Seth said into Dannie's ear. She shivered as his breath tickled her ear and she laid down on the blanket, desperate to find anyway to calm down her heartbeat.
With him beside her, Dannie smiled and said, "I can't wait."
As the minutes slowly passed before the firework show, Seth's fingers twitched and grasped Dannie's. Her whole body stilled and she took in the one action.
Okay Dannie, don't over think, just go with the flow, she told herself. She still couldn't manage to breathe or move, but at least she hadn't jerked away.
Slowly, his hold hand eclipsed hers in a firm grasp and a small smile made its way onto her face. His hand was calloused yet warm. It was rough, yet comforting.
"You're holding my hand," Dannie blurted out.
"Uh- I- I was just," Seth stutters as he begins to pull his hand away. Dannie frowns at the sky and tightens her grip on his hand. She doesn't want him to let go.
"I like it," Dannie says in a rare occurrence of bravery.
"Oh. I like it too," Seth says glancing over at her, somewhat starry eyed.
Holding his hand and sitting under the stars just as the fireworks begin, Dannie can't think of a better time to confess her feelings. She wouldn't say anything to overwhelming, just admit a little crush or something.
How should she do this? What should she say? What if he rejected her?
Just go with the flow.
With that one thought in mind, she blurted the first thing that came to mind.
"Oh and I kind of like you too. A lot." Dannie wanted to swallow her words and sink into the ground as soon as the words left her mouth. She should have stopped at 'too'! Why did she have to add on to it? Her and her big fat mouth!
Seth however didn't notice or ignored her hyperventilating. Instead, he gave her hand a reassuring squeeze and shot her his best smile.
"I wanted to be the one to say that to you first, but just for the record, I like you a lot too."
____________________
A/N Hello readers! I just wanted to say thank you for reading my book this long, I mean, I probably had a heart attack the other day when I came home from camp to see over 500K reads! So...THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
Anyways, I was just wondering...who is your favorite character in this story? Tell me in your comments below!
Vote if you love fireworks, comment if you peanut butter crackerss!!