Chapter Nine

Over the next week or so Casper spent practically every waking moment with his head down and his thumbs typing rapidly into his phone sending messages back and fourth to Daniel, trying to learn everything he could of the skater.

So far he’d learnt Daniel was a child of three; he was the oldest, then there was his little brother, and then his little sister. The conversation about Daniel’s Labrador came up again and this time Casper didn’t miss it.

Just after a few days Daniel shared that his mother had raised him all on her own before she met her husband and father to his younger siblings, who he now looked at as his own dad but had a rocky start, and Daniel had a great respect for his mum because of this because he knew it must’ve been hard as she was very young at the time when his real Dad just took off. Casper was very honoured to be trusted with this information, glad to know that even though they had only knew each other for a short period of time he was being trusted. He felt he could be open with Daniel too and were telling each other about their deepest secrets and fears that Casper had only ever told Darla and Daisy and soon Daniel had became a precious friend to him.

What struck him the most was how nice the guy was- seriously, who could be that nice? Casper wasn’t the only one that Daniel had become somewhat precious to. After meeting Casper and knowing Casper was friends with Darla, the next time Daniel was in school he went out of his way to greet her and share a small conversation before moving onto his next class and then continued to do so every time he saw her and even ended up sitting next to her at lunch. Darla, the one girl everyone avoided.

Casper knew how hard Darla got it in school. How most people didn’t get her, mistaken her appearance and the way she came too strong as something else entirely. Sure she got around, and even Casper had more than once called her a slut himself –always in a joking manner and lace with affection, of course- but everyone there acted as if she was going to jump them plus their gran, and so avoided her at all cost while throwing abuse over their shoulder. Girls didn’t like her because they thought she was tainted and without morals, coming on to everyone that passed her by and the boys would be up for it but after that have nothing to do with her because of her reputation. Casper even remembered the incident a year back when she got caught in a fight with some of her girl classmates as one of them thought she was sleeping with her boyfriend, which she probably was but violence didn’t help anything and Darla had to walk about with scratch marks and a black eye for weeks.

The teachers were even worse, treating her like shit. Sneering at her and picking on her, treating her as if she was stupid and didn’t help her properly. It broke Casper’s heart every time Darla came home from school, waiting on his doorstep waiting to cry on his shoulder. He couldn’t imagine what it did to hers.

Darla’s parents also wouldn’t let her move school as they thought that Casper’s school wouldn’t provide accurate or unlimited religious education as Casper’s school was a Catholic school. Her parents were pretty big on culture and other religions so they were very strong about the matter. Though the fact that Darla hadn’t told them about the treatment she got in the school was also a problem in that department.

But even so, for some odd reason, Darla loved school. Love to learn. And even when her classmates and teachers treated her like vermin that never stopped her from learning what she could, Darla was really smart and that could probably another reason why everyone hated her. Why is it that a fucking slut like her gets good grades? Probably fucking the teacher or something. No it’s because she is a fucking genius and has nerves made of steel.  

So excuse Casper if talking to one of his best friends finally was being seen and spoken to as if she was another human being other than some trash or something you could poke at until it broke made him a little convinced that Daniel was probably was the greatest guy he had ever met. You couldn’t blame Casper for being a little platonically infatuated by the guy.

He’d spent so much time being happy and texting that even the guys at the table had noticed.

“Who are you texting Cas?” Daisy finally asked after watching him smile into his phone for some time but kind of scared to ask because she’d realised she hadn’t being spending much time with him in the past few weeks.

Casper barely looked up at her when he answered.”Just some guy I met at the Fishbowl.”

“Doesn’t seem like just some guy.” Daisy pushed, now leaning away from Hedgehog and over the table to Casper.

Casper just tapped away at his phone for some time before finally saying,” His name is Daniel.”

He wasn’t really mad at them, just kind of giving them a taste of their own medicine without him realising what he was doing himself.

Daisy pouted, slightly nudging her girlfriend to try and get something out of him.

Hedgehog  gave her a look, she was too tired for this shit in the morning, especially a morning spent in the godforsaken hell they called school- actually hell might even be a little more eventful. But for Daisy she’d do anything.

Which is why Hedgehog came out with,” He must be nice then, eh? What’s he like.” Daisy frowned at her uninterested tone in her voice but it seemed Casper didn’t noticed as he finally looked up at them, his eyes shining and a huge smile on his face.

“He’s awesome,” he gushed.”He’s not like the typical lot you meet down at the Bowl, you know?”

Hedgehog piped up with a “I resent that” but Casper was long gone in describing and detailing everything about Daniel to Daisy as Hedgehog had zoned out as soon as he started talking about Daniel’s dog or some shit. Like she was interested. Daisy certainly was as she hung on to every word Casper spouted; her face nearly has shiny as his. Damn, she looked stunning from this angle.

As the three friends became mesmerised in different focus topics Logan and James had made their way over. Casper was just explaining how Daniel was really into keeping fit but how he seemed to never gain any muscle when Logan cut it.

“Practice was rough, “he sighed fanning himself with his big monsters of what were hands.”What we talking about over here.”

“Casper’s got himself a boyfriend.” Hedgehog smirked lifting her head from the table. She pointedly looked from Casper to James.

“No he’s not!” Casper squeaked, his face slightly red, not noticing the frown that had appeared on James’ face.

“You could’ve fooled me,” Hedgehog said, flicking her eyes from Casper’s phone and back.”You’ve been smiling into that damn phone as if you’re watching puppies open their little eyes for the first time.

Casper tried to protest but Logan was already on it

“Hey that’s not exactly true.” Logan said. “if he really did see that he would definitely cry.”

Everyone was silent for a moment before bursting out laughing, the whole lunch hall to hear. Everyone turned to look at them before rolling their eyes and leaving ‘that weird group’ to their usual antics.

“Do you- Do you remember when he saw that documentary on the animals at that zoo-” Hedgehog struggled to speak through her laughs but luckily Logan knew exactly what she was heading towards.

“And the giraffe gave birth and Casper started crying?” Logan guffawed.”How could I forget?”

Everyone laughed again, nothing was better at group bonding than teasing the shit out of Casper. Poor guy didn’t stand a chance.

“Daisy cried too!” Casper cried, which made them laugh even more.

“Yeah only for a minute or so,” James joined in.”You cried up to ten minutes after the show ended.”

As the table wheezed Casper glared, mostly at James.

“I hate you all.”

“Love you really man.” Logan said, still chuckling slightly.”So apart from being your boyfriend, who is this guy?”

Casper sighed, as if he’d let him leave it. “His name is Daniel and I met him at the Fishbowl. He’s a cool guy.” Casper said vaguely, not as enthusiastic about sharing things about Daniel. He glanced over at a angry face with bright red hair. Not with James here. But why shouldn’t he be? Why did he feel like he had to keep quiet about him in front of James?

 He felt like he was violating some rule. Something that made him sick to his stomach whenever he looked up at James’ frowning appearance, the line between his brows getting deeper every time Casper was forced by the table to share other information. But why was he angry? He didn’t even know Daniel.

~*~

At the end of lunch, the group were entirely immersed by the idea of meeting Daniel by how fondly Casper spoke of him and Casper was completely fine with that.

He’s never been one to hog things to himself. Usually he was the one to share things straight away, like a new song he would hear or a awesome movie or something. It’s just that he had wanted Daniel for himself a little because Daniel was sort of special, right from the beginning because he was the first friend he had found all on his own without help, without being introduced through another one of his friends.

But he had had his time with Daniel and he was more than happy to introduce him to all his friends. If only all of them were as enthusiastic as the rest. Not that James ever counted as a friend but he was always there whether he liked it or not... usually not- scratch that, always not.

Ever since Daisy ,or Logan, or whoever brought up the idea of getting to meet Daniel in person James had been in a foul mood and it just got even worse when Casper confirmed that Daniel would love to meet them all after texting him.

“If you don’t want to come just say it,” Casper hissed one day in library when he and James had a free period as their music teacher had failed to show up. It was sort of a habit to put as much venom into his voice as possible whenever he was forced to make conversation with James. He honestly didn’t mean to do it, it just... did. Plus his nerves were whacked; lately they always seemed to be spazzing out every time he was near him.

James gave him a side glance before going back to some math homework.”Go where?”

Casper narrowed his eyes.”You know goddamn where.”

“Well, who said I didn’t want to go?”

“You and your eyebrows,” said before he could stop himself.

James stopped what he was doing altogether and probably for the first time in ages, at Casper anyway, let out a huff and a small smile.”My eyebrows, eh?”

All hope of having control of the situation was lost with that one smile.

“Well...um..yeah,” Casper stuttered, turning red as the old familiar smirk of James Davidson that hated returned. “With their...uh...furrowing and yeah... altogether grumpiness.”

“Seems like you’ve been watching me.” James eyes flicked up to Casper’s eyes, something he hadn’t done since that night and Casper was suddenly struck with something he’d never noticed before: at just how green James’ eyes were and he stared right into them in a sudden awe until they moved from his eyes to his lips and-

Casper just couldn’t deal.

“Right, come if you bloody want. I don’t care, never will.” And with that Casper was so out of there.

Not so much that he couldn’t hear James’ response following him out of the library.

“Keep telling yourself that, Princess.”

Oh how he hated him.

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I had actually hoped to get to the whole James meeting Daniel part in this chapter but it seemed like a pretty good place to stop it there and move onto the next chapter - which I'll hopefully bring out faster than this one becase this was supposed to be out last wednesday and I am so sorry. It's just that on holiday I had a really sucky first few days, I got burnt and my camera got stolen and I was in a real crappy mood and then I guess I needed the comfort of my friends when I got back because my camera was my baby.And then I guess I got caught up in the whole sunny days and summer spirit and was hardly home from being outside (gasp! outside?)but alas, here it is. And I told you there would be more James!

This chapter had a lot of Darla but then so did the last two... I HAVE A SOFT SPOT FOR HER OKAY!?

I got a few awesome reaction comments to Daniel last chapter and that honestly made me so happy, thanks guys!! Would be awesome if I could get more of them to see what y'all are thinking of the direction of the story? But honestly you don't have to, I'm ecstatic enough that you have took your time to read it, thanks :)

Also I was just checking there, over 200 votes and 9000 reads!? WHAT!? That's huge guys. Thanks so much I love you all <3

If there is anything that you think doesn't make sense or doesn't seem right, or just that something is misspelled please don't be afraid to tell me, it is much appreaciated actually.

Again, thanks for reading, hope you come back next chapter !! xx