Guardian Angel

Chapter 6 - Daniel

Daniel had his arms crossed over his chest and he leaned against one of the walls. He had never really seen Melody like this before, not even when she had been around him.

All of a sudden she was almost tripping over her own words, she was constantly blushing and she was inviting a total stranger into her house.

Daniel had to admit that so far this total stranger looked more than okay.

Max seemed polite and nice. He didn't ask the wrong questions and he did ask the right ones. Maybe Max was a little too perfect. Maybe he was that kind of perfect that was annoying for everyone else to watch.

It was at least annoying for Daniel.

With two mugs filled with tea Melody walked back into her living room. Her hands were trembling a little, but carefully she placed both cups on the table. "Do you want sugar?" She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"No, I'm fine, really." Max smiled while he leaned back in his chair, making himself comfortable. A little too comfortable.

"It's not a problem, really. I need the sugar anyway, because I use sugar. A lot of sugar, actually." She twirled around on the ball of her foot.

Daniel would have smiled if Max had not been smiling like an idiot already. "You don't even know her!" Daniel hissed between his teeth and he bit his lip when he realized what he had said. He had never been much of a fan of violence and he had never understood people who used their fist instead of their brain. But all of a sudden it made a lot more sense to him.

Melody came back with the bag of sugar and with a blush on her cheeks she put three spoons of sugar in her tea.

"I have to admit, that's an impressive amount of sugar." Max raised his eyebrows a little and took a sip from his own tea.

"I know it's terribly bad for my teeth and health, but I actually like sugar and need sugar and..." Melody stopped talking and closed her eyes for a short moment. "I'm rambling about sugar and you probably don't even care about my sugar intake."

Max grinned and he shook his head. "Just sit down and talk about whatever you want, okay?" He nodded at the seat next to him and waited until Melody had sat down. "If you wanna tell me about your sugar intake, I'm fine with it."

For the first time in his entire existence, and that meant something considering his age, Daniel wished he could vomit somewhere.

Once again Max managed to say the exact right thing at the exact right moment. He better had some drinking problem. Or a drugs problem. Or any other problem.

"So, your second day as a mailboy." Melody curled her hands around the warm cup and she tried to lower the temperature from the water a little by blowing some air at it.

"Yeah..." Max took another sip from his tea. "I know it's not really an impressive job or something..." Max looked up at Melody and Daniel sighed. That guy was not going to play the pity card, was he?

Melody had already fallen head over heels for him and now it seemed Max was only planning on making it worse. Great.

"Are you now saying sorry to me because you're not a doctor or a lawyer or something?" Melody shook her head and this time it was Max who started to blush. "If I don't need to say sorry for everything, you don't need to do that either."

Daniel rolled his eyes. "You're so much cooler than this. Can you just be yourself, please?" He already knew she couldn't.

For the first time in years a cute guy was showing interest in her and all her wit and self respect had disappeared into nowhere.