My Own Worst Enemy; Chapter 2

Chapter two:

I was grateful school was normal. No one rushed up to me conveying their condolences or asking if I was okay, it was easier to forget. Even the guy who was supposed to be my biology partner wasn't there, he'd skipped class again, everything was perfectly normal. The only thing different was that I saw him at lunch while I was laughing with my friends.

He was sitting alone reading a tattered book with a red cover I couldn't recognize, with only a bottle of Pepsi for his meal. I stared at his face, shadowed by his hair, in a complete trance. He was completely gorgeous. When he was in a room all the girls eyes gravitated towards him, it was pretty pathetic, but I fell victim to his amazing good looks too. While I was watching him he glanced up for a second, directly into my eyes. We held each other's gaze until my friend Melanie interrupted me.

"What are you looking at, Dani?" My eyes flickered back to my friends face, trying to hold her gaze. If either of my best friends knew I was looking at a guy they would make a simple infatuation larger than it ever had to be. Unfortunately, it didn't work. She flipped her red hair over her shoulder so she could see who I was looking at. "Oh him. He's so hot! But he doesn't talk to anyone." she sniffed.

"He talked to me. He helped me get my locker open the day my mom passed." I quietly said.

"Lucky! He's so mysterious." my other friend Jess said. She looked back also but quickly turned towards me when she saw he was looking our way. She giggled and blushed like a little girl.

"I guess so. But enough hot boy talk," I quickly said, "You both have to come see my new room." I knew this would distract them. The only thing they liked more than talking about boys was fashion. They jumped at the offer, just as I expected, and said they were going to come after school. The rest of the day passed quickly with Mel and Jess talking about my dad and his home. When it was finally time to go they were very excited.

During the bus ride home they switched the subject to some guys they liked in our class. Jess was head over heels over a kid named Max and Mel liked this guy named Seth. Seth and Max were best friends so they were already making plans to double date. They tried to hook me in by telling me to go out with the two boys' other friend, Phillip. Phil and I had been really good friends since the first grade, it was weird to think of him as a boyfriend. "Besides," I told them, "I don't like Phil in that way at all."

They were relatively quiet while we walked through the other condos to my father's. When we got there their mouths dropped, they were completely awestruck at the house. My dad's condo wasn't like anything they were used to. It was humongous with fine details.

The living room has a huge entertainment system with surround sound and an amazing stereo. The kitchen has green granite tops and stainless steel appliances with an arch leading to the dining room. This room has a cherry wood table that can fit up to twenty people. The complete house was an indulgence, my father didn't need half the stuff he had in there. While I was showing them the house I realized it was the first time I had gone through each of the rooms. When I was younger my father had an apartment, he just recently bought the condo so Beth and Sammy could live with him. I lead them up the stairs and passed something I hadn't noticed before. Mounted on the wall was a rifle on a wood shelf. I shivered at the sight. Why would my dad need a rifle? He doesn't hunt and this neighborhood was pretty safe. Another indulgence I decided, and kept walking. Then I pulled down the staircase to my room and guided them up. Again, they were awestruck.

"This is your room?" Mel asked.

"Yes, Mel," I laughed.

"It's so big! Jeez, Dani, do you have enough posters?" Jess asked, letting disapproval color her voice. I ignored her and let them explore my room. It didn't take long for them to start playing with my drums and guitar so I went to the window. I gazed outside to the back of the house. There was a large deck surrounded by green grass, with a path leading to a fence. While I was tracing the path I noticed I could open the huge window like a French door. It was chilly outside but I didn't care. The breeze rushed in blowing my loose stands of hair back and I leaned my head out the window. On the edge of the yard there was an area of thick foliage that I assumed lead to some woods, I decided I had to visit them very soon.

"Do you guys want anything to drink?" I asked, feeling bad that I wasn't acting like a proper hostess. They nodded and I went down to the kitchen area. On the counter there was a piece of paper with a note written to me in my father's messy handwriting.

Dani,

Beth, Sammy and I are out shopping for wedding stuff. We'll be back around 7. If you get hungry feel free to order a pizza.

-Dad.

My head exploded with anger. I ran upstairs clutching the note, forgetting the drinks, into my room. They were now reading a magazine Jess brought on my bed.

"How could they be getting married?" I yelled thrusting the note at Mel.

"Dani, fiances usually get married," she calmly explained.

"Does he realize my mother just died?" The tears started coming. "It's too soon." I sobbed. I fell on the bed and they were both soon hugging me. This was the first time I had let them see me cry, I didn't even cry at the funeral.

"Don't cry, Danielle, everything will be fine. Talk to your dad once he gets home, maybe you two can work something out." Mel soothingly said. They tried to distract me with pictures of celebrities in the magazine walking their dogs, having secret romances and sitting with their children. Why would anybody want that type of attention? Why would anybody want every part of their lives displayed on every magazine rack for anyone to see? I remember sitting with my friends thinking about that and now I realize I'm a hypocrite. I was criticizing these people for revealing every detail of their lives but what am I doing right now? I guess I'm not doing this for all people to see, just a couple. Actually, only one, and I hope he finds this. So in case he doesn't I'll address this to whomever it concerns.

They attempted to distract me for an hour then they had to leave. I stayed on my bed hugging my knees to my chest until I heard my dad open the door.

"Hey, Dani," He called up the stairs. I brushed away my tears took a deep breath before answering.

"Dad, can I talk to you?" I yelled back. He instantly came running up the stairs and came to my bed. I waited for his breathing to grow even then I spoke.

"You two are getting married?"

"Well she is my fiance," he answered.

"But she doesn't love you!" I replied. It was a pathetic attempt to change his mind about Beth.

"Yes she does Danielle, and you're going to have to accept that."

"Can't you see it, dad?" I blurted out once a stupid defense came to my mind. "She's twenty six, you're like fifty, there has to be some ulterior motive."

"Stop it, Danielle," he sternly said. "She and I love each other and we're getting married in six months."

"Hey, Dad, did you ever ask me? Did you ever ask if I was okay with this? News flash! Mom just died and I'm not in the market for a new mother." My nose started to get warm and turned red, like it always does when I'm about to cry.

"Your mom left me when you were six, okay? I was heartbroken for years, then I met Beth and she made me feel whole again..." I knew this was a big lie. My dad cheated on my mom when they were together with a lot of women, he got caught with Beth.

"Can we stop the sappy love talk please?" I interrupted.

"Danielle, do you have any facts?" he sighed. I kept quiet. All I had was the age thing and I'd already used that one. "Honey, nothing will be different between us, I promise."- what can be different? We don't even have a relationship- "I'm going to have Beth come and talk to you." Before I could object, he was calling her name.

The life sized Barbie Doll came into my room wearing a shirt (that looked too small for me) and her hair was tied back from her face. In her hand was a shopping bag. My dad explained why she needed to talk to me and left.

"Hey, Danielle," she said in her squeaky voice.

"I like to be called Dani," I coldly replied.

"But why? Danny is a boy's name." She whined.

"Not the way I spell it," I snapped.

"Okay, Dani it is," she mumbled. "I know why your dad had me come speak to you, but let's just talk about girl stuff. Speaking of girl stuff, I bought you this adorable purse!" From the bag she took out a small bright pink purse with designer labels plastered all over it.

"Thanks Beth. But I'm not really the purse kind of girl," I grimaced holding the purse.

"Dani, this is no fun! I was so excited about meeting you because I thought we could have some fun talking about boys and clothes, you know teenage stuff. Now that I've met you you're just like a boy! You don't like purses, you don't own any skirts besides your uniforms. You're such a guy."

"Well, this has been a fun talk," I said getting up from the bed, "Thanks, Beth, for telling me I'm a guy. I hope we can do this again sometime, but if you'll excuse me I must go spend time acting like a boy while I play my guitar." I stalked over to the bar stool next to my electric guitar and sat down. I completely ignored her as I plugged in my blue instrument, turned up the volume all the way and started playing a heavy metal song. I played until she left then broke down crying.

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The next day at school was the beginning of a new semester. I had all the same courses, except for a new art course on painting. I was in the advanced art course along with Mel and Jess, they weren't very artistic though. Mel, Jess and I had nothing in common but we were still best friends. Mel was the athletic, surfer girl type, Jess was the cheerleader, dance-team type, and I was the artsy, perceptive, wallflower.

We sat next to each other at three easels, I was at the end of the row and they were to my left, across from us was an identical row of easels. The rest of our class soon filed into the room. I saw my old friend Philip and Mel and Jess' new crushes, Max and Seth. Max sat across from Jess, Seth across from Mel and Phil sat next to Seth. The rest of the easels were soon occupied by other students in higher grades, all left my seat empty. I sighed and closed my eyes, feeling the overwhelming sense of being unwanted. Then I heard the stool across from me slightly shift.

I opened my eyes and caught sight of a brown leather sleeve.

"Hello, class," the teacher said as she entered the room. " I'm Mrs. Smith, welcome to Advanced Painting. For our first project you must paint a portrait of the person across from you, this will count as your final exam." I groaned. How was I supposed to paint him? It's impossible to capture his features on a canvas. "You are going to take this canvas home and work with your partner outside of school. Let's get to it!"

Mrs. Smith danced over to the radio perched on the radiator and put on some classical music by Mozart. The class started murmuring about their paintings, completely overpowering the music.

"So, we meet again Dani," my partner said in his perfect accent.

"Hey, Ethan," I replied, avoiding his ice blue eyes.

He stared at me for a second then spoke very quickly in a rush of inspiration. "So, for your portrait I was thinking you could take down your hair, sit so I'm seeing the side of you and look at me out of the corner of your eye."

"Do I have to take down my hair?" I asked with a grimace. I hate having my hair down, I've only worn it down a couple times in my lifetime.

"Please?" he asked smiling, I noticed he had one dimple in his left cheek. It was impossible to say no. I groaned and let my curly hair fall around my neck and sat the way he told me to. "Perfect." he breathed.

"Okay, for yours I want you to sit so you're looking at me over your shoulder, and pop your collar." He got a puzzled look on his face but did what I asked. Something wasn't right. I looked at him biting my knuckle and found what was wrong .

I walked over to him and mussed his hair. He started to laugh, showing that irresistible dimple, and my heart raced. I finally positioned his hair perfectly so his eyes were peeking through.

"Don't move." He sat like a statue as I sketched his frame. The bell rang too soon.

"Would you like to get together this weekend at your house to continue?" he asked. I nodded and gave him my address and rushed to my next class with butterflies still lingering in my stomach.