Under the Surface

Chapter 8: Danielle

"Hey girl!" beamed Danielle as she approached Ava. Boy, was she glad to have her friend here and not have to stand around socialising with adults who would always question her on why she gave up ballet, pity, such a talented young girl, they would say. Her mother almost had a full blown heart attack when Danielle exclaimed she no longer wanted to have ballet lessons. She blamed it on being too overwhelmed with her balancing school work, her social life and then the ballet on top of all this. Her mother couldn't understand this as she thinks you should be able to effectively balance all aspects of your life, well she would say this wouldn't she? Her life is perfect. "OMG, so glad to see you!" said Ava, relieved once she saw her friend. "It totally sucks how we're spending our Saturday here of all places." scoffed Danielle, looking around at the crowd of men in suits and women in day dresses, all chatting and laughing, champagne in hand and maybe a crab cake in the other. She had to admit it, her mother did make good crab cakes. "I know. So annoying. Did you see Bethany put up a Snapchat story? She's with Ty and Nick in the mall, so jealous I'd so rather be there than here" sighed Ava, "we can't even drink here! I asked my mom if I can have a glass of champagne and she just laughed and said nice try. Please, as if an innocent glass of champagne is going to knock me over the edge." she finished, rolling her eyes. "I know right? Hey, you free later tonight?" asked Danielle , whilst fiddling with her dress. "No girl sorry. I'm meeting my man at his bachelor pad again tonight" she explained, with a suggestive smirk on her face. "Ugh!" laughed Danielle in response.

It was 1:30 and desserts had just been served. Everyone looked completely content and stuffed out of their minds over the food they had just consumed. People were no longer sitting down at their assigned tables and instead were all around the garden, socialising to each other, some sitting on the side of the fountain looking deep in conversation. Danielle and Ava were sitting away from the crowds, on the grass talking and on their phones, as teenagers who have been dragged to a 20th wedding anniversary party of people they barely know would do. "Oh, did Beth get into much trouble from her parents cause of her car?" questioned Danielle, leaning back on the grass. "Oh shit yeah. They confiscated her phone, but you know Beth, she has a spare iPhone that they don't know about" laughed Ava in response. "No way! She's such an evil genius" giggled Danielle. 

"Hey girls! What are you up to?" asked Martin as he strolled over to his daughter and her friend. Danielle let out a small sigh when she saw him approaching ..."sorry in advance" she whispered to Ava, rolling her eyes. "Hey. Nothing interesting at all, we're just talking and stuff." she said, looking up at her father, eyes squinting due to the sun blazing down on them. "You're probably  bit bored huh?" he laughed. Kill me, thought Danielle to herself. "Just a tad." she replied sarcastically before continuing "you know my friend Ava right? Her parents are Will and Stephanie Norburn." Ava gave a small wave to Martin and said 'hey!". "Oh yes, hi, how are you?" he replied, smiling before getting interrupted. "Martin!" a deep voice of a tall man shouted to him, whilst appearing closer. Martin turned around, "Robert, hey!" he smiled. "I was looking for you man." said Robert. "Sorry,  I came over to talk to my daughter. You've met Danielle right?" he quizzed, pointing to her before adding, "and this is her friend Ava, her parents are Will and Stephanie Norburn, I assume you're familiar with them yeah?". Robert gave a friendly nod to Danielle, before turning to do the same to Ava, however he did not to the same, once his eyes met her face he just froze. He looked like a ghost and was silent. "You okay man?" laughed Martin confused. Robert coughed and said "Uh, yeah, I just remembered I've to go find my wife and tell her something" he said awkwardly, before turning away and walking off. "That was weird." said Danielle to her dad, looking at Ava, who also looked quite odd. "Yeah...it was. Anyway, wouldn't worry about it, I'll see you girls later." said Martin before he turned and walked away. "What's wrong?" asked Danielle to her suddenly quiet friend. "Oh my god." replied Ava, staring at the grass. "What? What is it?" questioned Danielle again. "Robert. He's....that's my...that's my sugar daddy! The man I've been talking about!" she gasped, now looking at Danielle. "What the actual fuck?" replied Danielle, mouth open in a shocked expression. "I cannot believe that he knows your father and is here at this event! I never thought that besides our meet ups we would cross paths!...Fuck, my parents are here! He probably knows my fucking parents!" she spat. "Don't worry. I mean I can't fucking believe that this is happening, it's so weird, he works with my dad and they're like, really close...but nevertheless more awkward for him than you, he's the adult. Oh wait..ew does he know how old you are? That you're sixteen? He's such a fucking pedo!" said Danielle, shocked. "No! I lied about my age, I said I was nineteen, plus you can't even get on that site until you're eighteen so he doesn't know my real age. Shit, whiter you do DON'T tell your dad" explained Ava. "Oh my god as if I would actually tell my dad that, this is like something that would happen in a CW show" said Danielle, putting her face in her palms to emphasis how shocked she was. "Shit. I'm gonna have to text him or something." replied Ava picking up her phone and texted to him;

"Need to talk. Meet tonight as planned, will explain all."