Learning to Breathe (6 page)

She turned t
o me expectantly and I shrugged.

“Where is it?”

“Well a whole load of us are going to the spring. It’s kind of a tradition … every year, the first Friday in September we have a party there.” She explained while I debated about whether I should go or not.

I eventually nodded my head.
“Sure, why not?”

One little party wasn’t going to hurt and I really didn’t want to be stuck indoors with my mother and her worried glances. Besides, she was always telling me to get out more – here was my chance.

I arrived home after having lunch in town with Harriet and some of her friends. After agreeing to leave around 7pm later that evening, I made my way into the empty house and flopped down on the sofa to watch some TV.

Halfway through a re-run of ‘Chuck’, my phone bleeped. I rummaged around in my bag and took it out to find that I had a text message from one Danny Fletcher:

‘
U goin 2 party 2nite?’

To be honest, I was quite shocked to hear from him – I hadn’t talked to him at all from our first encounter at the pool and I was
intrigued as to why he was texting me now. I decided to give in to my curiosity and typed a reply:

‘
Yep. Why?’

A minute later and my phone bleeped again:

‘I want 2 tlk n u cnt avoid me 4evr!’

I sighed heavily and wondered what he wanted to talk about. I really wasn’t sure
I wanted to speak to him at all. However, I found myself reluctantly replying back:

‘Fine
. C u 2nite.’

My phone bleeped yet again and I had to laugh when I read his reply:

‘Ooh dnt snd so xcitd! I luk 4wrd 2 it ;)’

I rolled my eyes and sent back:

‘Whatever. C u l8r.’

When Danny didn’t reply again, I decided to look for something to wear later that night. I
wasn’t really sure what would be appropriate for the party as I didn’t want to look too casual or dressed up. I sighed as I scanned the rail for something that appealed to me.

Twenty minutes later and I picked out a denim skirt and a dressy top, I then added
a cardigan in case it got cold later. Finally happy with my outfit choice, I decided to start cooking dinner since I would be leaving for the party quite early.

My mother arrived home just after 5.30pm and was pleasantly surprised to discover that I had chicken curry waiting for her.

“Thanks honey, you’re a star.” s
he told me, taking a forkful and savouring the taste.

I smiled at her and she
addressed me again. “So, how was school?”

“Very unevent
ful – they let us leave about two hours after we arrived. Some stuff was delayed so they told us to go home at about ten-thirty.” I shrugged, watching for her reaction.

My mother chuckled.
“I’m sure you didn’t mind. I did think it was rather odd going back on a Friday – then again, it’s probably because it’s technically the start of September. Anyway, do you have plans for tonight?”

I nodde
d. “There’s a party at the spring. I said I’d go … you don’t mind, do you?”

She shook her head.
“No honey, it’ll be good for you to get out. Just be careful, okay?”

“I always am.” I reassured her.

She nodded. “Okay, well I’m going to crash in front of the TV. What time are you headed out at?”

“In about an hour so I need to get ready.” I told her as I began to wash up the dishes.

She started to leave the room but then paused in the doorway. “Have fun tonight. Oh, and try not to be too late back … or do anything that I wouldn’t do.”

I nodded obediently and breathed a sigh of relief when she then left the room
without any further cryptic comments. My mother wasn’t naïve enough to believe that there wouldn’t be any alcohol at the party tonight but she trusted me enough to know that I wouldn’t drink too much – if at all. With the thought that it would probably be the latter, I hurriedly finished off washing up and then made my way upstairs to get ready.

I decided to l
eave my hair in my natural waves but I did put on a little bit of make up. I then put on my skirt and top along with my Converse sneakers and looked in the mirror – all in all, I didn’t look too bad.

I glanced at my watch and found that I was ten minutes early. I grabbed my phone
, cardigan and bag and made my way downstairs. I didn’t want to sit and wait with my mother so I peeked my head around the living room door and told her I was leaving. She waved me off and I went outside to call for Harriet.

Harriet was ready five minutes later and looked great in a summery dress with flip-flops. We got into her car and drove to th
e spring, listening to Katy Perry’s ‘Firework’ on the way.

We arrived at the party and I instantly felt suffocated. There were too many people around and the music was deafening. I looked around and seriously debated about going home again – I couldn’t remember why I had agreed to come in the first place. I didn’t want to be a buzz kill but it wasn’t really my scene and I felt uncomfortable – even more so when I noticed most of the people appeared to be intoxicated.

I sucked in a deep breath and told myself to grin and bear it – after all, Harriet was my lift home and she didn’t appear to be willing to leave in a hurry.
I watched as she scoped out the crowd, searching for someone.

“Hey!” she yelled in my ear, over the loud music, “Let’s see if we can find Samuel and the rest of the guys. Is that o
kay?”

I nodded and let her drag me through the various closely packed bodies while she looked out for any sign of Samuel. Eventually we found him near the water’s edge, handing out
bottles of beer to a queue of people. Harriet bounded over to him and he offered her a bottle.

She took it but I noticed that she glanced at me before asking, “You don’t mind, do you? We can get someone to leave us home later.”

I shrugged at her, who was I to argue? I couldn’t stop her from having a good time but now it looked like that I would be stuck here for a while – I certainly didn’t want to chance driving her car home. I sighed and Samuel offered me a beer too but I kindly declined his offer. Harriet threw me a questioning look but didn’t say anything, instead, she turned to Samuel and planted a kiss on his cheek.

After five minutes, I decided to leave them to it and tried to find a quiet spot to sit. I had just managed to sit down in a secluded area when a figure approached me – Danny – I ought to have known that he would be the one who would find my hiding spot.

I s
ighed as he sat down next to me.

“Shouldn’t you be over there hitting on several girls?” I asked with a smirk. “Or do you save that for working in the book shop?”

He grinned. “Ouch. You think so little of me? I’ll have you know that I was only helping out the owner that day. I don’t work in the bookshop.”

I threw him a sceptical look. “So why give me your number then?”

He shrugged. “You intrigued me.”

I rolled my eyes. “Uh huh.”

He smirked and then turned serious. “So, I take it parties aren’t your thing?”

I shrugged
. “I don’t like big crowds.”

He nodded.

“Right,” he drawled out
. “You don’t like to socialise much, do you?”

I shrugged again
. “I’ve never been into the whole party scene.”

H
e looked at me curiously but he didn’t question my answer at which I was relieved. Instead, he tactfully changed the subject.

“So, why ha
ve you been avoiding me?”

I glanced at him and noticed that his hazel eyes were looking at me intently.

I sighed. “I haven’t. I just …” I trailed off, wondering how to explain to him that I was probably the biggest loner he’d ever had the misfortune of meeting.

Danny frowned at me.
“You just what?”

“I’m just not used to
people wanting to hang out with me.” I told him, rushing the words out rather quickly.

He looked very con
fused. “Why?”

“I don’t find
it easy to talk to people – and I don’t like anyone knowing everything about me.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed.
” he commented but he smiled at me nonetheless.

I didn’t want to say anything else on the subject so I waited for him to speak again.

“Well, I hope you’re willing to change that and start talking because I wanna get to know you.” Danny half-smiled at me and I found myself cautious.

W
as I ready to open up and actually let someone into my life? I had already freaked out on him several times when he’d tried to pry into my life but I couldn’t keep that up forever. I had a funny feeling that he wasn’t going to leave me alone.

I could tell that he wasn’t going to give up too easily and I would have no choice but to deal with it. As my mother had said – moving here was a chance to start over
– I would be a fool to let this opportunity to pass me by. It couldn’t be that hard letting Danny be my friend, could it?

After I eventually decided to give Danny a chance at getting to know me – within reason, of course – he took it upon himself to ask me the most random questions. He didn’t ask about anything too personal – it ranged from what my favourite colour was to my favourite band – and I was happy to answer them.

Despite my initial
promise that I would not reveal anything to Danny, I quickly found myself charmed by him and keeping my word was soon becoming very difficult. He had barely scratched the surface with his interrogation but I knew that I could easily forget myself and slip up – I was determined not to let that happen.

“So,” I began – keen to take
the heat off me for a moment, “What about you? What’s your story?”

Danny chuckled.
“Nice deflection! Okay, I’ll humour you. What do you wanna know?”

“As much as you wanna
tell me.” I told him with a half smile.

Danny then proceeded to tell me his life story – well the abridged version anyway – and I found myself intrigued. He was quite open with details about his life in Dover Springs and I was curious as to how he could be so comfortable sharing it all with me. Then again, maybe it was normal for people here to tell you everything about themselves and I was just the exception to the rule.

Suddenly
, Danny interrupted my thoughts.

“Hey, you okay? You seemed like you were miles away.” He frowned at me in concern.

I shook my head. “Sorry, I
was
listening – I promise.” I threw him a small smile and he grinned at me.

“
Yeah right, why do I feel like there’s more to you than meets the eye? What’s the big secret that you’re so desperate to hide? Who are you Darcie Gilmore?” He looked at me thoughtfully and I told myself not to get all defensive again.

Instead, I smiled slyly at him.
“Wouldn’t
you
like to know? Ever considered that it’s all in your head and that I’m just your average girl?”

He shook h
is head and laughed. “There’s nothing average about you Darcie – trust me on that!”

I laughed off his flirty comment and decided
to change the subject to one I had been curious about all night.

“So, how come you’re not getting wasted with your buddies over there?”

Danny shrugged. “Someone needs to be the sober one.”

I studied his face carefully and couldn’t help but think that he was holding something back – then again, was it so crazy to believe that he was just one of the rare teenagers who didn’t drink?

I decided not to dwell on it and nodded. “Yeah, I know what you mean – Harriet was meant to be my ride home but she was very easily persuaded to have a drink!”

I laughed and gestured over to where she was now standing next to Simon, chugging back another beer.

Danny chuckled. “Yeah, never rely on a lift from Harri – she likes to party too much.”

“Yeah, well I’m not much of a hardcore partier – I hope she doesn’t hold that against me!” I forced a laugh and Danny looked at me curiously.

“Not a big drinker then?”

“Not really. I just have the odd one now and then – why?”

He shrugged. “No reason – it just means that you’ll probably have to help me round them all up later to make sure they get home okay.” He winked at me and I laughed.

“Great – well, what’s in it for me?” I raised my eyebrow expectantly.

I watched as he looked deep in thought for a second. “A lift home – I think that’s pretty fair.”

“Okay, deal.” I chuckled as we shook hands in agreement.