Page 2 of His Sunshine Baby

“Do we have time for breakfast?” I ask while grabbing the clothes in my bag.

“Let’s drop by George’s. I can text him our order. What do you want?”

While we argue about what to eat, I put on my baggy jeans, a gray tank top, and a large hoodie. Danny makes an annoyed face.

“What’s with the boyish clothes? Why don’t you ever show off those curves and abs?”

I ignore him. We have this same argument every day, but no matter how much my best friend hates my style, I ignore it. I like comfy street clothes! And I hate showing off my body. I don’t need other people to look at me. The more invisible I am, the better. Daniel keeps complaining until I cut him off.

“Danny, shut up. You’ll get to dress me up when we go out, okay? Can we go now?”

He pouts, but at least he is not complaining. Instead of drying my hair, I just put it up with a pin. We are in June anyway; it will dry in no time. We leave the clan’s gym and get into Danny’s car. It’s an old Toyota. He bought it two years ago from one of the old guys from the pack. It was a rubbish car, but Danny managed to make it decent by covering the cigarette burns, adding new tires and a radio, and painting the rusty parts.

I turn on the radio as soon as we are inside. Of course, it’s an old Madonna song, Daniel loves her music. He starts humming along with “Holiday” as soon as we depart. I normally don’t drive, but I love riding in Danny’s car. I stare at the scenery outside. Living in the Arts District is like getting a free art museum tour every day. New waves of graffiti on every wall, weird pipe sculptures from time to time, and colorful houses. An old car was even emptied and transformed into an urban garden, flowers sprouting randomly all over it. I open the window to enjoy the morning breeze and sunshine. Danny is now happily singing “Like a Virgin.”

“Okay, let’s go out tonight, babe. I feel like dancing.”

“What about your exams?” I ask.

Danny is a nerd 80% of the time and a party animal for the rest of it. He is always the one to insist we go out, but also the first one to complain about his headaches before going to work. He is a biology student, but I bet none of his lab partners know that the lab rat loves going to nightclubs.

“They’re still a week away.”

I nod. Daniel is a straight-A student anyway, he will probably ace them like he always does whether we go out or not. I peek at my best friend while we are stuck in traffic. Daniel is the skinny type despite his efforts to build some muscle at the gym. But with his blonde hair and gorgeous blue eyes, he is quite popular. I hate when he grows that stupid goatee of his, though. He’s too lazy to shave during the week, so he leaves it to grow wild and puts his hair back. He only dresses up for the weekend; otherwise, he picks whatever weird, patterned shirt he can find. Who said gay guys were stylish? Daniel is only good at complaining about my style.

“What is it, mesmerized by this handsome blondie?” he asks when he catches me staring.

“I was wondering when you are going to shave. You look like a caveman.”

“And you look like a boy. My sister gave you some actual women’s clothing. You know, the kind that is your size and doesn’t make you look like you live in a garage.”

I roll my eyes. Daniel hates my boyish clothes. I used to be much more feminine, and he misses that part of me. But that part of me is bound by some painful memories I don’t want to deal with.

“Okay, you get to dress me up tonight, if you shave off this beard.”

He makes a victory sign in the air.

“Moon Goddess, yes! My girl is going to be so hot with her heels, skirt, and makeup! The poor men of Silver City better get ready, I am taking ananatomicbomb to the dance floor tonight! We need to show off those killer legs! Come on, Madonna, I need to sing it. Where is that song again?”

I laugh when he starts making ridiculous dance moves to match ‘Vogue’ ’s beat. I love Danny exactly for this. No matter what, my best friend has no sense of shame. He does whatever he wants and doesn’t care what other people think, even when he’s dancing to some pop music while singing loudly with the car windows down. I keep laughing and start singing my heart out with him.

We act like teenagers until we reach George’s restaurant. I can’t stop laughing at Danny’s singing as we walk in. From behind the counter, George smiles.

“Into the groove so early in the morning? You two are in high spirits!”

“It’s Friday, and I am taking this lady dancing tonight,” says Daniel.

“Really? You should go to Pepe’s club then. It’s Pride-themed all month, and he misses you guys.”

“Sounds good. And Daniel loves Latinos.”

I wink at my best friend, who nods with a sneaky smile. Daniel’s favorite type of man is easy to remember. If they are tall, Latino, and muscular, he falls in love within minutes. George takes out two boxes with our order and clicks his tongue.

“Come on, Danny, you should find one for Elena first.”

“No, no, George. Dancing is fine, but no guys. I can enjoy myself just fine on my own,” I reply.

“Oh, come on, girl. You should give it a try sometime! A guy asked for your number again this week.”

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