Page 15 of Danny's Dance

She pulled up her nose. “For real? On Aspen’s cook day? Are you trying to kill the poorboy?”

“Oi!” Aspen called out, but I could tell from his expression that he didn’t really care. He knew he was a shit cook. All he really cared about was shoveling food in his mouth. Making it? Not somuch.

“Anyway, this is Darren. Darren, these are our friends, Aspen and Ashleigh. Beware, they love tobicker.”

“Do not,” both of them protested, glaring at eachother.

“Don’t steal my words!” Aspen exclaimed, making Ash huffup.

“I said itfirst!”

“Didnot!”

“Didtoo!”

“Guys! This is not the time? And Ash, let Darren go, please? You’re suffocatinghim.”

Ash sheepishly grinned as she released Darren from her chokehold, sheathing her blade in one of her hidden pockets. “Oops, sorry, Darren. I got a bit carried away. Hi, I’m Ash, “ she waved, making Darrennod.

Aspen slapped Darren on the back and shook his hand. “Good to meet you, Daisy! Ooooh, pretty dagger. Where did you get this one?” he quipped, suddenly holding a shiny blade in front of hisface.

“Oi! That’s mine,” Darren yelled, trying to snatch it back fromAspen.

“Pretty,” he admired the lemmet, twirling it around in one hand. Regan grabbed it from Aspen’s greedy hands and threw it back at Darren. “It’s not a toy and don’t pickpocket people,” he threatened, his voice dark and serious. But Aspen didn’t care. He never got intimidated byRegan.

“Yes, yes, I remember... No playing with knives...” he mumbled, looking disappointed. Aspen loved shiny blades andknives.

“Don’t touch my dagger. You never touch another man’s dagger...” Darren frowned, conjuring a handful of shuriken stars from nowhere. “But I have throwing stars? Can we play with those?” he asked, catching Aspen’sattention.

“Ooooh, those are nice. So sharp!” he exclaimed excitedly, inspecting the sharp edges of Darren’sprojectiles.

“A-Are those two strangely a-alike?” JP muttered in my ear. Unconsciously, I nodded. Glad I wasn’t the only one who thought that. I squinted my eyes as I studied Darren and Aspen. They did look verysimilar.

“What are you smiling about?” Ash loudly asked, grinning as she watched me jumpup.

“Nothing!” I denied, my cheeks flushing red. My best friend gave me a knowing smile and smirked. “Sure, whatever you say,Dans.”

“Regan, we can play with the throwing stars, can’t we?” Aspen happily asked, already drawing a bull’s eye on the opposing wall. Darren was neatly placing all his projectiles on the floor, making twopiles.

“Yes. But I’m joining. Got to keep an eye on you two,” Regan hummed, pretending to be the responsible one, but I just knew he wanted to play with the starstoo.

Ash and I looked at each other, shook our heads andsmiled.

“Boys will be boys,” she grinned as we left the men to their new game. She slung her arm over my shoulder and pulled me closer. “Soooo... A new guy, huh? Two guys not enough for you, Danny?” she whispered in my ear, nudging towards Darren. I felt my cheeks heat up at herinsinuation.

“Don’t be ridiculous, he’s too young. I just figured it was nice to have him over for dinner,” I hissed back, making herchuckle.

“Whatever you say, Dans, whatever you say,” my best friend sang, making me chuckle. How we even managed to have healthy friendships in these times was beyondme.

Well... Semi-healthy. I was living in the abandoned ruins of a barn with my two boyfriends, my love-obsessed best friend and her crazy twin. And we just added someone who was trying to kill us to theteam.

Ehh, good enough. It beat living on the streets, stealing food and begging for money. Which I had no doubt I’d be doing if I didn’t have friends. Well, they were more like family, anyway. The only family I hadleft.

Chapter Ten - The Past

“You haven’t toldus why you ran away from home,” I asked Darren again, stirring my brownish looking stew. Why did we let Aspen cookagain?

Our dinner guest suspiciously eyed a slimy looking carrot and politely nipped from his spoon. “Neither have you,” he countered, subtly pushing his plateaway.

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