Daniel was relieved when three out of four of his friends needed to go, leaving him alone with Carl. Daniel felt different kinds of things when Dani suddenly escaped from him and their friends. He was mostly annoyed because she decided she wanted to yet again spend more time with her new and better friends. But was it all annoyance? Or was there a bit of jealousy as Daniel suddenly wasn't Dani's number one guy anymore. If that one stupid mistake that was more of a misunderstanding never happened, he would still have been Dani's number one.
'They always keep screwing things up with Dani and me,' Daniel sighed frustrated as he moved back with his back against the backrest of the couch.
'You talking about Gavin, Sarah and Corrie?' Carl asked confused as he moved to the seat where Dani sat at the beginning. Daniel nodded while his head was resting on his hand at the table. 'Well, don't get this the wrong way, but you kind of let them.' Carl looked at the raised eyebrows that his friend gave him by his comment.
'I don't let them. They just come in and ruin it, no offence to you. You're fine.' Daniel said, disagreeing with Carl's comment. He just doesn't see what Dani sees, was what Carl was thinking in his head.
'You do. If it bothers you why don't you tell them to fuck off,' Carl tried again. He saw his friends glance change into a confused one as he frowned.
'Dani didn't do it either,' Carl couldn't help but roll his eyes to his friend as the guy obviously hadn't pay attention back when they all went to the same school.
'Dani kind of gave up with the three of them when we all were still a group in school. The fact that Sarah is still that jealous bitchy girl that is in love with you, probably makes Dani realise that she is too old for that childish shit. And then it obviously doesn't help that our Gavin is still in love with Sarah and our Corrie is-'
'Is in love with you, but you're too stupid to not see that,' finished Daniel Carl's sentence with a big wink. What a group they are...
'Anyway. Maybe it's time to tell Sarah to fuck off so that you can actually try with Dani. That is of course if you're still madly in love with her, but I think that's quite obvious.' Carl got a slapped for that last comment of his.
'I am not telling Sarah to fuck off okay?' Daniel said back moving back again to the couch's backrest.
'You have to, in a nicer way of course. It kind of sucks if you lead her on all this time. But don't be too nice, because knowing you. You will make it seem like she needs to try even harder for some reason.'
'Are we done here?' Daniel said. Now it was his time to roll his eyes to his friend. For some reason, Daniel was getting more and more annoyed with the lesson Carl tried to learn him.
'Sure,' Carl said while Daniel was already up to pay for Dani's and his drink. It didn't take long for them to be walking outside again.
'Where are you planning to go now?' Carl asked as he wasn't really sure what his friend's plan was.
'I am going to find out if these two replacements of Dani's are really worth her time,' Daniel said. Carl decided to just let it go. Mostly because Dani was someone special to Daniel. Hell, she was more than special to him. The fact that he had given up racing, something that was his passion since he was a child, just because it felt so different without his Dani screamed how much she meant to Daniel. And now that Daniel seemed to have Dani back into his life, he felt attacked by those two boys who she seemed so close with. He didn't want to lose her again because of those two strangers. No, he wouldn't let that happen. Mistakes were something that happened a few times in Daniel's life, whether it was about racing, or about his personal life. But he never made the same mistake twice, and that applies also for the relationship he once had with Dani. It will come back, it has to.
~0~
It didn't take long for Daniel to find Dani when he walked on the beach with Carl next to him. He had stopped in his trail immediately as he watched them from afar. Carl had at first looked at him weird because he suddenly just stopped walking, but then he found out what his friend was looking at. He didn't say anything and let Daniel just watch from the place they were standing. If it was a smart idea to let him torture himself like that was debatable. But Carl also knew that Daniel wouldn't listen to him, so he kept wisely his mouth shut and watched the same scenario as his friend did.
Dani's smile was something that even from afar seemed contagious. It only sucked for Daniel that the smile Dani had on her face was created by the man sitting next to her. He wanted to create that smile on her face like he always used to do. But it wasn't until that other friend of Dani's came walking back at them and had in no time Dani in his arms to walk into the sea when Daniel made a fist from his hand. So many mixed feelings were flying around Daniel's body as he couldn't look away from the two. He shook his head and decided to walk over to the place where they have all of their stuff lying around and where Dani's other friend was sitting. At first, Carl looked confused at him as he walked away from him without any warning, but when he realised where he was walking over to, he decided to walk with him as he had a nervous look on his face. Carl hoped Daniel wasn't going to do anything stupid because he knew Daniel would regret it.
'Hey,' Daniel said to Dani's friend. He looked up at the two boys and raised his eyebrows. Daniel had a dark look in his eyes, which Carl knew that that exact look wouldn't bring anything good.
'Hi, I'm Carl. I'm an old friend of Dani,' Carl interrupted the intense stare from Daniel and introduced himself to the person sitting in front of them.
'I'm Finn, a current friend of Dani's,' Finn said back to Carl with a big grin that, of course, didn't sit well with Daniel.
'Oh, and this is Daniel, you might know him-'
'I know him,' Finn interrupted Carl with a smile as he glanced at Daniel. Daniel rolled his eyes and looked back at the two people in the sea, while he heard Carl make small talk with Finn. Daniel saw how Dani made her way back to the beach with her friend walking next to her. Daniel got surprised when Dani pulled her shirt off, making everyone being able to look at her in her bra. Daniel couldn't help but stare at her as his thoughts went back to prom night when they were finally alone in a hotel. She was so shy back then and now, now she looked so confident. It was right at that moment when he locked eyes with her.
'Daniel, stop staring,' Carl grinned as he saw the unbelieve on his friend's face. Daniel removed his eyes from Dani and gave Carl a stomp. Did he really have to joke around while Finn was here?
'Daniel? What are you doing here?' Daniel heard the soft voice from behind him. Even if he wouldn't hear that voice for a thousand year, he would still recognize it, because he loved hearing her talk. He turned around and looked back at Dani who was now trying to cover herself up by holding her wet shirt in front of her. Oliver gave Daniel a glance before sitting back on his towel. Daniel could hear Carl also introducing himself to Oliver, but he didn't have any time to give them a glance as he was too busy looking at Dani. She had her eyebrows raised up as she was waiting for an answer, making Daniel suddenly realise that he had to answer that question.
'Oh uhm... Well, Carl and I decided to go to the beach and well, we saw you and maybe thought it would be a great idea to join you guys instead of sitting by our selves,' Daniel said as his lie came easily out of his mouth. He had always his way to come up with stuff last minute, whether it was an excuse he needed or an idea. Although his lie didn't seem like a lie that he made up by the others, Dani did gave him a weird look.
'Okay,' She finally said, not really convinced, before walking past him and sat down next to Finn where she was sitting before Oliver dragged her to the sea. Daniel felt a bit disappointed with just an okay as a reaction. He turned around, seeing that the whole group already had sat down, even Carl had sat himself down next to Oliver and actually was in a conversation with him.
'My shirt better dries up fastly,' Dani said as she had put her shirt in the sun to dry while eying Oliver as a hint that it was all his fault.
'Here. Take mine,' Finn suddenly said and gave her his shirt, making Daniel raise his eyebrows up. Dani looked at him and smiled while taking his shirt and putting it on. Daniel saw how Finn started to grin as he gave me a short look, making him even more confused about the situation. Or maybe it was jealousy. Whatever it was, Daniel didn't like it and decided to take action as he sat down between Finn and Dani, where just about was space for him. Finn moved a bit back as Daniel was almost sitting on his lap to his opinion. Dani gave an unsure smile at his old best friend that sat down close next to her.
'So. Finn, right?' Daniel started as he tried to make a conversation with the guy next to him. Finn gave him a nod, letting him know that he was right with the name and that he was listening to whatever he was gonna ask him. 'What do you do for a living?'
'I'm still studying,' he said back with a laugh like it wasn't obvious.
'What?' Daniel asked further in a tone that sounded aggressive, which Dani wasn't used to hearing. Daniel never had been an aggressive guy, not counting when he was in racing mode. Did he change in the years that they lost contact? She hoped not.
'Art, like Dani.' Finn said with his raised eyebrows, making it sound like Daniel was asking a stupid question. Dani didn't like the way this conversation was going and even nudged Daniel with her shoulder, making him look shortly at her.
'What are you doing?' she whispered before Daniel looked back at Finn again, giving Dani no answer. She gave both Oliver and Carl a look who also seem to listen to the two guys.
'I'm a Formula One driver,' Daniel said with a smug smile.
'No, I thought I heard you stopped, so that means you were a Formula One driver. Surely you're not too old to retire from the job yet. Or did no team want you?' Finn dared to say back, making Dani look at him with a warning. How could she get these two to stop... having this stupid conversation? Dani looked up at Daniel when he started to laugh.
'You would've really liked if that was the reason, hmm? Sorry to crush your dreams, but I actually had a few different team options. How about you? Do you know where you're going after your study or is it straight back to mommy's basement?'
'Okay, Daniel stop.' Dani decided to come in between the two guys before Finn was going to answer him. She knew Finn would've liked to punch him and it wouldn't have taken long anymore until it would've actually happened. She also knew that Daniel would easily fight him back and then they were going to be further away from home...
'We need to talk, in private.' Dani finally said to Daniel as she decided to stand up from the sand and wrapped her hands around Daniel's biceps to make him stand up too. He thankfully did and let her drag him with her.