How To Love | Daniel Seavey AU

19 | bruises

HE TOLD ME TO wait for him in front of the school, where he'd be meeting me and we'll be eating lunch together. It wasn't odd to know that the teachers and everyone else wouldn't really care that he came in, thinking that he was probably a student because I had to admit, he looked like every other boy wearing a snap-back and a pair of Vans.

"Hey," he greeted with a smile. Since lunch had just started, the hallways were quite crowded and the eyes of people were quite obvious as they watched my exchange with Nate. I'm guessing he noticed as well because he chuckled quietly beside me, placing an arm around my shoulder to pull me closer—much to my dismay. Rolling my eyes, I took a large step forward, his arm dropping to his side. "Hey, come on..."

"I'm hungry, hurry up," I grumbled, my brows furrowed in irritation. He only laughed before walking towards me. "I still don't understand why you're here, there's nothing for you to find here, anyway."

"There's you," he smiled down at me. I stared back. "You're one tough cookie." My brows pulled together when he bopped my nose and I cringed. Nate talked the entire walk towards the cafeteria, and during this, I couldn't help but think... wow, this guy talks about himself a lot.

"—So I told Jason, 'dude, don't do that or else you'll ruin my hair'," and proceed with the generic laugh you'd hear being shared by two dads at their afternoon tee.

"Why did you talk to me in the first place?" I asked him, placing my chin on my hand that was propped up onto the table. "If I recall, you talked to me because you thought I was cute, so what now? Why are you still here, when all your interest was towards me was simply my looks?"

His smile fell, and he rolled his eyes, "I honestly thought you were a bit dumb and, I don't know—" he shrugged condescendingly "—you seemed easy." I stared at him, my eyes glaring at the boy in front of me. I scoffed.

"Me? Easy?" I couldn't help but let out a dry laugh. "I'm not the one that spent two hours to drive down here for a reason that didn't seem logical." I rolled my eyes at him, shaking my head. "Why don't we do this: I'm going to stand and walk away from you, and whatever the fuck you thought was going to happen between is clean off your memory, and we go back to being strangers, you go back to wherever you came from and I'll go on with my life."

As I pushed myself up, he struck up and gripped my wrist, it was tight and I felt pain spread around the area, but I kept my face unbothered. "You don't get to walk out—you chose this, you texted me."

"And I'm walking away," I spat, tugging my arm out of his grip. The laid back Nate that I had gotten to know in the beginning of this all had disappeared completely—obliterated by the person who was now staring at me with eyes that could kill. There wasn't a hint of humor in his tone, and the slight redness that was wrapped around my wrist supported the statement.

Regardless, I walked away and headed towards where Daniel was in the garden, pulling the sleeves of my jacket down to hide the redness.

"Logan, I thought you were with Nate," he spoke up.

Don't tell him, he'll tell you that he told you so.

"His parents called and asked him where he was, he lied to them and so he has to drive back," I lied, running my hand through my hair. "Is it too late for me to join?" He shook his head, patting the bench and I sat across from him.

"Is your mom working tonight?" He asked out of the blue. I told him that I wasn't sure, that her schedule has been busy with an upcoming case, and he frowned. "When she's busy, does she come home?" I shook my head. "Do you want to come over to my place for dinner?" Tilting my head to the side, he chuckled. "My mom asked for me to invite you, saying that she wanted to meet the girl that Anna and—" he caught himself, glancing at me to which I looked at him with a raise of my brow "—Anna has been talking about."