SUCKERS ;; DANIEL ATLAS (NYSM)

[07] DO YOU LOVE HER?

The Perspective of Jack Wilder

I could tell he was growing sick of the parties that we threw every night. By the way he stood by the wall and never spoke, by the way he moved. Over the time we had been working together I had learned Danny well. I knew him like a best friend, anyway. And I could clearly see that he wasn't acting right. So as I heard him loudly sigh after a whole thirty minutes of ignoring what was going on around us, I stood next to him. It was just us in the room, everybody else was in the kitchen while we stood in the living room. I looked to him.

"Hey, you alright buddy?"

"No." he spoke quickly, almost interrupting me. I was slightly taken aback by learning that I was right. Yet I nodded and kept talking.

"W-why? Why? What's wrong?" he shook his head and looked down.

"It's a secret."

"I can keep secrets."

"How can I trust you?" as he looked at me, I smirked.

"You seem to forget that I'm a magician. Magicians never reveal their secrets..." he nodded and put his cup down.

"You really want to know what's wrong?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Why?"

"Because...You're my bro."

"No I'm not."

"...You're my friend."

"No I'm not."

"...We talk to each other on a day to day basis--"

"No, we don't." he folded his arms. "You talk to Lula and Merritt on a day to day basis, you don't talk to me."

"That's because whenever I speak most of the time you don't respond."

"Get to the point, kid." I rolled my eyes. I really hated it when Danny treated me as if he were my dad, but I decided to ignore it anyways.

"Look. Even if you're not my friend, I'm your friend. I want to make sure you're good. Okay? You can talk to me." he rolled his eyes.

"Oh. Yeah. Because clearly what I need is a loving support group who'll tell me that everything's okay while they lie and talk about me behind my back."

"What?" he sighed again, stuffing his hands in his pockets. I rolled my eyes again. "Look, Danny, I just want to help you. I know you'd do the same thing for me."

"No. No that, I definitely wouldn't."

"Danny can you just tell me what's wrong?" he looked at the ground and then looked to me again.

"You know what? Fine." he cleared his throat and turned his whole body towards me. "I'm in love with Angel." my eyes widened. He went to walk past me yet I stepped into his way.

 "Whoa whoa whoa, you can't just say that then walk away!"

"Oh really? Watch me." he went to walk away again yet I stopped him.