You, Me, and the Kid: A Stefanielle Story

Part 28

"How is she?"
"Umm....."
"Well??"
"She's gone. I'm sorry. We did everything we could."

"No. She can't be."
"I'm so sorry Danielle." 

"Danielle?" 
"Danielle?" 

"Danielle get up!!" screamed the 8 year old. Danielle quickly shot up and looked around. She was at home. Not the hospital. Andi was standing right in front of her. Not in the hospital bed. Not hurt. Standing perfectly ok. She had a confused, but thankful look that everything was just a dream. "You were screaming in your sleep." The 8 year old said and walked away back towards the table. Danielle still looked around confused. Trying to make sure this wasn't a dream within a dream. 

"Are you ok?" She asked. 
"What? What are you talking about?" 
"In my nightmare, you got hurt pretty bad and then you died."  
"Oh wow." 
"How long was I sleep for?"
"a hour I think." 

She nodded and then picked her phone up off the table. A bunch of missed calls and texts. No shocker there. "Are you almost finished with your work?" She asked as she made her way to the bar where Andi was working. "Not yet. I'm on my last math worksheet." Danielle put her hand against her head. She had a pretty bad headache now. She reached into the fridge and then grabbed a bottle of water and chugged the whole thing. "Wow you were thirsty. Can we go to the park later on?" Danielle almost choked on her water that she still had in her mouth. "I don't think that's a good idea. Your mom might get mad. But we can go skate around the block or something." 

Andi was a skater girl now. She had 2 skateboards. Well one was a longboard. There was a skate park down the street in the neighbor that she loves to go to. Even though she was usually the only girl there, she didn't care. If anything that just gave her more confidence to show off. "Sure that's fine." And then she got back to work. 

Danielle went upstairs to try and get herself together. 'Why did I have that dream?' She thought to herself. She made it to the sink in their bathroom and then looked into the mirror. 'Not to bad' she thought when she saw herself. No eye bags. No looking like a zombie. She took a handful of water and splashed it against her face. Then there was something that caught her eye. Andi's promise ring. Maybe that's why she had that dream. As a way of telling herself that she broke the promise of keeping her safe. "I need to stop watching movies till 2 in the morning." She said out loud to herself.

"You look rough." 
"Can we not do this today?"
"Do what?"
"Shay I'm not in the mood for you to start stuff again."
"What was I gonna start?"
"You interrupting the story again."
"Your just mad that I can control the story."
"You know what, that's why your friends have a murder planned against you."
"Ok one, that's not fair and two, that's just rude."
"Well two can play this game."
"Ok well Just be prepared for what I have in the future."

Danielle sighed and then went back downstairs. "Who were you talking to?" Andi asked as she finished putting away her papers. "No one." She replied and then went and sat down on the couch, turning on the TV. Andi went and joined her on the couch. She put her on her lap and Dani ran her fingers through her hair.

It was a couple hours later. The both of them ended up falling back asleep while watching a nature show. Danielle had her arms wrapped around Andi and Andi was still laying on her legs. Stefania had just walked through door on her lunch break, and saw the two sitting there on the couch. She chuckled and then snuck her way around to capture a picture of them. Surprisingly, her phone hasn't ran out of storage yet. She had a bunch of pictures of them cuddled up together sleeping. This was just another picture added to her collection. "Le mie ragazze sono troppo carine insieme (My girls are too cute together.)" She whispered to her self. Just then Andi started to wake up a bit. "Mamma cosa stai facendo? (Mamma what are you doing?)" She asked as she stretched.