HAPPY | ✔

22.0 HIS

🎶ONE AND ONLY - Adele🎶

"So come on and give me the chance
To prove that I am the one who can, walk that mile
Until the end starts."

"I'ma be straight with you man, I don't like you."

The words were said bluntly in clasic Nathan fashion. His inability to employ euphemisms in his delivery was always a flaw my mother adored. In his raging inferno she saw sparks of herself.

"You don't even know me." Daniel replied.

Their dialogue had me stopping short and plastering myself against the wall, poking my head out a bit to peek in through the open door. A passing nurse gave me an odd look, her head tilted to the side with furrowed eyebrows. I blushed hard and she shook her head with a chuckle after witnessing my poor attempt at espionage, as if to say, yup, just another Friday at Saint Joseph's.

"I know enough," Nate continued, "I know Joy is out there tryna convince Detty that she's not responsible for you dropping dead on their kitchen floor."

I bit my lip and stared down at my toes. Odette had been destraught. Borderline hysterical when the big men had come to take Danny away in the glowing red truck.

I heard Daniel release a low, deep breath and could almost picture him closing his eyes in silent remorse.

"The minute I get to see her, I'll make sure she knows that none of this is her fault, so there'll be no reason for any hostility-"

Nate scoffed, his arms folded across the broad expance of his chest. "I don't care. You made my baby girl cry and that's reason enough for me." He shrugged.

Daniel snapped his mouth shut, and for a long time nothing was said.

"I-I understand. That's fair." He conceded.

I watched Nate pause mid pace, evidently stunned at such a swift surrender.

Physically, Nathan was a strong man and though Danny was taller, he carried much more bulk on his stokier frame. From my position I could almost see the cords of muscle tightening in his back as he inhaled.

Daniel was lean, almost like a swimmer. The wide expance of his shoulders meant getting body checked everytime the snack cart rolled by if unfortunate circumstances permitted him to be stuck with an aisle seat on a plane.

Next to Danny, Nate looked like he had chosen wrestling at gym all four years of highschool.

Evidently, he had been gearing up for a fight. With his efforts thwarted by Daniel easy compliance, Nate appeared stumped, and curious.

With his back turned in my direction, I pictured him giving Danny a similar stare to the one the nurse had given me.

"What are you doing here man?" His tone was puzzled, desperate almost, "Why her? Why them?"

"They mean something to me," his voice remained level. It was as though he had come to terms with the fact long ago. "Way more than you will ever know." He was accepting of his fate. Content even.

Nate's muscles jacked up beneath his skin, and in that moment he looked like a bodybuilder more than ever. He looked strung out, wired. I desperately wanted him to turn so I could see his face, and garner the chance to decifer those engimatic emotions for myself.

But he only stared at Daniel, with his body so tense he looked ready to lash out, to spring into action like a tiger after a gazelle.

And then he pivoted on his heel and came barreling out the door.