The next day at lunch, Danielle was quiet and noticeably withdrawn.
She could
not help it, the guy she liked did not like her back. It was
depressing especially because
he showed some interest and then backed off. He did not even give them
a chance and she
wanted to know why.
"¿Que Pasa?" asked Matt trying to break the silence.
For an answer Danielle gave him a look
that said," We are not amused."
"What's your problem?" asked Matt a little indignant.
"I don't have a problem," replied Danielle angrily.
"Why are you being so short?" asked Matt with an increasingly
amount of anger.
"I'm not being short."
"Yes you are!" yelled Matt. "You are acting like a child."
"You are acting like an insensitive jerk,"
Dani yelled back. She was so angry at
him about yesterday. Maybe she should make a clean break. "You know
what? I don´t
even know you anymore and at this point I don't think I want to be
friends."
"Fine," said Matt.
"Fine!" Danielle yelled. Then she took
her chocolate milk and poured it onto his
lap. Matt stood up with a look of disbelief. "How's that for
acting like a child?" Then
Danielle turned around and stormed out of the cafeteria. She
was angry, embarrassed,
and disappointed all at once. She did not find out how he felt,
she lost her temper,
embarrassed herself, and lost her friendship with Matt all in five
minutes. Now she was in
even worse situation.
Matt was stunned at what happened. His friendship with
Dani had just ended and
he actually finalized it. Not to mention he was soaked.
He did not even know what had
gotten into Danielle. He had never seen her this way. He
wondered what had provoked
their fight, it had all started out innocently. He needed to
talk to his friend, Randy, for
advice.
* * *
"Hello."
"Hi, Randy. You busy?" Matt asked into the phone.
"What's up?" asked Randy.
"Dani and I had a fight," said Matt.
"I heard about it," Randy replied. "I heard it was
pretty ugly."
"Yeah we really did have a fight," Matt replied.
"Even the milk was true?" asked Randy.
"Yes."
"Nice touch on her part. She's got style,"
Randy commented.
"I thought you were on my side."
"I am. But I have to give credit where credit
is due," said Randy. "What was the
fight all about?"
"That's just it I don't know," Matt sighed, "all
I did was ask her what was wrong.
Then she gave me a look. I ask her again and she snaps at me.
Then I snap at her and she
snaps back. Then the next thing I know is I have milk all over
me."
"What else happened?"
"She ended our friendship," said Matt sadly.
"Now you two are not even friends. This is
just perfect," mumbled Randy.
"What are you talking about?"
"Don't worry about it. I was just speaking
feverish talk."
"Don't go weird on me now, Randy. I need you."
"Ha. Ha," laughed Randy sarcastically. "Back to
the subject, what happened
before lunch?"
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Maybe something happen before lunch," suggested
Randy.
"Maybe but I can't think of anythi--"
"I have a beep," interrupted Randy. He put
Matt on hold.
While Matt was waiting on the other line, he began
to think over his actions
over the past few days, when it hit him. Yesterday he had told
Danielle that the kiss had
been a mistake. Maybe it had meant something to her. It could
not have, even though it
had meant a lot to him. Whatever the problem was, Matt was determined
to fix it. "Man,
are you still there?" asked Randy.
"Yeah. Thanks for your help," said Matt. "I gotta
go."
"Okay. Glad to help."
"Bye."
"Bye," said Randy. Then he beeped in Renee,
his girlfriend and Dani's friend.
"Renee, you're right they have lost it."
"We have to get them back together. How´s
Matt doing?"
"He's miserable, I can tell," said Randy.
"So is Dani," Renee added.
"What are we going to do?" asked Randy.
"I don't know," answered Renee. " I just don't know."
* * *
After school the next day, Matt was anxiously waiting
for Danielle to come to
her locker. He needed to talk to her and find out what was wrong,
so they could clear it
up.
Meanwhile Danielle was in
the art room working on a poster for Chrome, a
career opportunity club for minorities and women, when Randy walked
in.
"Hey, Dani."
"Hi, Randy," said Dani. "How are you doing?"
"Fine and speaking of casual greetings, what´s
up between you and Matt?"
"It's a long story and I don't want to get into
it," replied Dani in a tone that said
"Don't even go there."
"Okay, at least I tried to help."
"Hey, Randy. Danielle," Matt greeted as he walked
into the art room. Matt
knew that if she could not be found anywhere else try the art room.
"This is where I exit, stage left," said Randy.
Then he left the room like a
mysterious villain with a cape fleeing from the scene of the
crime.
"So..." faltered Matt. He felt uncomfortable
breaking the ice. He hated fighting
with Dani.
"So, 'what?'" asked Dani coldly.
"So what's wrong? What caused our fight?"
"I was just upset about something," replied Danielle
shyly. Now that she had the
opportunity to tell him how she felt, she did not know how to tell
him.
"About what?" asked Matt.
Danielle turned away in embarrassment. Now
that she had thought about it,
Matt could have just been caught up in the moment. He probably
did not realize what he
was doing. It was not his fault and after all it was just a kiss.
They had been friends too
long let something like this come between them. Besides, moving beyond
friendship is a
big step, one that could mess things up forever between like it already
started to. But it
did not change her feelings for him. She would just have to move on,
it was probably
puppy love anyway. It is common for friends of the opposite sex to
have short-lived
feelings for each other.
"Nothing, just...I had just a bad day and I took it out
on you," said Dani.
"Forgive me?"
Matt looked at her carefully. He could tell she was holding
something back, but
he was not going to push her right now. "Sure," said Matt, "friends?"
"Friends."
"I´m glad everything´s back to normal," Matt
sighed. He was relieved.
"Come on let's go," said Dani as she put up her supplies.
The two friends
walked out of the art room when Allison Smith came up.
"Hi, Matt," called Allison," Hi Dani."
"Hi," they both said in unison.
"Matt can I talk to you alone?"
"Well..." faltered Matt as he looked at Danielle.
They had just made up and he
was not willing to take any risks of messing things up.
"It's okay Matt. I was just leaving anyway," said
Dani as headed towards the
bathroom. Matt was not her boyfriend, she did not own him. He
was free to be with
anyone he wanted to be with. Perhaps it was better for him to
get out and be with other
people anyway.
"Bye."
"Bye," said Allison politely as Dani walked away.
Once Dani left and was out
of ear shot, Allison began to carry out her mission. " So Matt, do
you have a date to the
prom?"
"I was thinking of asking Dani, as a friend," replied
Matt. He was not just
thinking of it, that was his plan. That way he could go to the
prom with the person who
made him the happiest and keep her friendship. Over the last two of
days, he thought
about her a lot. He realized his feeling towards her were real and
they were not going to
go away in a couple of days. But he could not afford to damage their
friendship, as he
almost did when he kissed her. "I wonder what it´d be like to..."
"Well how about me? asked Allison, interrupting her thoughts.
She had been
interested in Matt every since she broke up with her boyfriend, last
year.
"Um," Matt said uncomfortably.
"You haven't asked her yet have you?"
"No, but--"
"Then you can go with me. It would be good for you
to get out and be with other
people, than your regular friends," Allison reasoned.
"Okay... I'll pick you up at 8:00 p.m., Saturday,"
Matt agreed.
Matt was too nice to tell her he really wanted to go with
Dani. If he had known
that she was going to ask him to the prom, he would have avoided the
question better.
The prom just would not be the same with Allison on his arm.
He wondered if Dani
would have a date. He hoped not, because if she did, he would
not be able to stand it.
"Perfect. See ya' then," said Allison.
Just then Danielle came out of the side door of
the bathroom, behind Matt and
Allison down the hallway, she heard Allison ask Matt to the prom.
It was one thing for
her to go to the prom without Matt, but another to see him with someone
else. How
would she make it?