How To Love | Daniel Seavey AU

24 | saviour

A WET, ROUGH THING lapped around my nose, causing me to cringe and my eyes to flutter open, the bright light above me caused my eyes to squint as I lift my arm to block it. My vision was hazy, but slowly clearing up and from the looks of it, I was in my room and Ellie's big eyes stared down at me as she cocked her head to the side.

I reached for my phone that was supposed to be in my pocket, but found the device beside my head and checked the time. 2:19 AM. "I brought you home after the party, when people weren't crowding around the parking lot." I snapped my head to find Daniel seated on the window seat, his eyes casted down to the floor.

I felt like thanking him, for not letting me end up sleeping there. Instead, I was angry. "This wouldn't have happened if you had not gone to the party."

"I didn't need you to pick me up because of the party, Logan." For the first time, Daniel's tone wasn't soft or polite, his tone was clipped and annoyed, and it took me by surprise. "If... I wouldn't have needed you to pick me up if I knew Nate would be coming..." He took a deep breath, and from the distance I could see him close his eyes briefly before he stood up, and faced me. "If I knew he'd see me and punch me."

My breath was caught in my throat when I saw the condition he was in. The area around his eyes was red, but some of it had begun to bruise up and his eye was squinted, swollen around it. "Daniel..." I couldn't help but breathe out.

"It doesn't hurt... that much, but I needed you to come pick me up because of it," he explained, sitting by my side. "Luckily, some of the people there didn't encourage the fight, and held him back."

"Did he just punch you?" He looked away, his cheeks reddening.

"Yeah, he came up behind me and punched me, I wasn't able to react quick enough," he admits. After a few seconds he faced me and quickly took my hand, worry written all over his face, "I'm sorry that you ran into them, I'm sorry that I didn't come out when you called me—my phone died, and I was trying to find something to help lessen the swollen."

Slowly, I pulled my hand away from him, "Daniel, I accept your apologies but just don't go to any parties, since so far, it has done nothing good for you."

"I know, and I should've known that but I guess... I guess I was clouded with the popularity that I felt like I had to attend the party," he responded, a visible crease forming between his eyebrows.

"Well that feeling was stupid," I muttered, "and your stupidity got you a shiner." I stared at the purple beginning to form. "And your stupidity is gonna receive a bag of frozen peas." With that said, I stood up and headed to my kitchen and opened the freezer. I didn't have peas, but for some reason—probably my mom—there was a silver spoon, clouding with ice. I grabbed that instead, made sure it wouldn't attach itself to his skin before handing it to him. He winced when he placed it where most of the bruising was prominent, an obvious tear in his skin that still had small dots of dried blood.

"And I'll get you a damn band-aid," I grumbled, searching for it within my small first aid kits. I tend to gain paper cuts when studying, some deeper than most so band-aids were useful. "Let me clean it up, did you just rinse it when you got it?" He nodded, removing the spoon from his eye. Rolling my eyes, I lightly smacked the back of his head.

"Hey!"

"I promised myself I'd do that to you last night," I told him, "it seemed better timing because you are an idiot."

"Alright, I'm an idiot."

"Glad to know you're aware," I drawled out in sarcasm. I soaked a piece of cotton in hot water before gently pressing it to his skin. His hand immediately grabbed my wrist, wincing as it stung his wound. "Oh boo-hoo."