~Chapter Two~
Danielle and MIke say next to each other on her fron porch. She sighed and looked up and down her street. Mrs. Daisey's house just across the street, home to the most beautiful roses in the neighbor hood. Then there was the church with the house-shed-looking thing in the back yard. The house to the right of hers lived her nieghbors Mr. Andrew and Ms. Lisa. They had two little boys, Sean and Eric. Her and her family didn't really like the neighbors they had to their left. They never mowed their lawn and that drove her and her parents up the wall.
Danielle sighed and leaned on Mike's shoulder. He immediately recieved her and wrapped his arm around her. A friend embrace, exactly what she needed. He always knew what she needed, even when she didn't.
"Where did I go wrong?" She asked him.
"You did nothing wrong, Ellie," she reassured her, using her old nickname, "He's the idiot."
"Then why do I feel like crap?" She asked him, her green eyes looking into his blue ones.
"Because you, unlike him, have a heart and these thing called feelings," Mike explained to her matter-of-factly.
She smiled a little and leaned into Mike more. She loved the familiarity of his embrace. She could always count on it exactly when she needed it most. Her heart started aching again. She had a thought...
"Mike... I can't face him tomorrow at school..." She whispered, tearing up again.
Mike turned and wrapped both of his arms around Danielle as she started to cry into his shirt. He rubbed her back and spoke soothingly to her. "Don't be afraid, small one, I'll be right there with you and if he tries to come near you, I'll punch him in the face.
Danielle managed a laugh through her sobbing. Why wahe so good to her? "Mike, I can't do it. I'm too weak. If I see him... I don't want him to see me like this..."
"Then don't," he said. "Look, tomorrow we have all our classes together. If you see him at all, just grip my hand as tight as you can, and don't let go until you feel alright again."
She sighed and agreed. "I hope it works..." she told him. She got up and leaned against one of the decorative pillars near her. Mike stood up to his full height at 6'2". He shook his longish dark-brown hair out of his face and looked at her sadly. If only there were something he could do to ease her pain.
He clenched his fist. 'Everytime,' he thought, 'Everytime I don't tell her, she always dates some loser, and this happens.' He just blurted it out then.
"Ellie, I love you."
