Page 15 of Ghost Note

My hate did nothing to make me speak. All it did was turn me mute.

Danny had no right to stand there looking the way he did, like life had been nothing but good to him while mine had been a constant stream of hard days trying to rebuild the parts of me that he’d destroyed. He had no right to look as though the world had made his dreams come true, while mine had always wondered what dreams we could have built together.

He had no right to say my name without an apology attached to it.

“You shouldn’t be here,” slipped out from my mouth without thought.

Danny didn’t even blanch. With a hand tucked into the pocket of his trousers, he simply narrowed his eyes and brought his almost-finished cigarette to his mouth to take a long drag. It was a stub in his slender fingers, and he held it with precision as he stared back at me, not saying a word. When he lowered it, he blew out a stream of smoke, aiming it towards the sky.

The arrogant weasel.

My words or voice hadn’t affected him, and I wasn’t the kind of woman who threw punches, even though I wanted to. I shouldn’t have come here, that much I knew, so I stood as swiftly as I could and brushed down my tatty old joggers. Then, I wrapped my cardigan around my body, gave him one last parting look of disgust, and I turned to leave.

I made it three steps before his hand curled around my arm, making me freeze in place.

Danny was touching me.

My chest rose, inhaling sharply before I slowly spun around and looked down at his fingers wrapped around me. There were a thousand things I should have said. The curl of my lip was ready to spew some venom at his gritty little face, but instead, my eyes drifted up to his, and I found myself staring into pools of green I’d tried to forget existed. His eyes were my weakness, like the oceans I’d seen that belonged to foreign lands. They’d always drawn me in and held me captive, but now they looked darker with bloodshot strands invading what had once been pure white.

Danny tilted his head to the side. “You look so different.”

“Really?That’swhat you’ve got to say to me?”

“You’ve lost weight.”

I scowled at him. “You’ve lost heart.”

His fingers curled around my arm with ease. “Have you not been looking after yourself?”

“What the hell has that got to do with you?”

“Daisy…”

“Screw you. Let me go, Danny.”

His eyes shot up to mine. “Say that again.”

“What?” I frowned deeper, tugging myself out of his grip and stumbling back on shaky feet, the uneven surface of the sand not helping.

“Say it again. Tell me to let you go.” Danny took a step closer, flicking the end of his cigarette to the sand before pushing both hands into the pockets of his trousers again.

“What the hell are you talking about?” His eyes were glazed, and memories of Jackson telling me he’d had a bottle in his hand earlier flashed through my mind. “Are you drunk?”

“Just say those words, Daisy.”

“Go fuck yourself, Danny.”

A small smirk played on his lips. “How long have you wanted to say that to me?”

“Don’t flatter yourself by thinking I’ve let you into my thoughts enough to care.”

“You’re fierier now, too.”

“Are we really doing this?”

“I have nowhere else to be.” His shoulders bounced.

“Funny,” I huffed out a laugh and shook my head. “I remember you having everywhere to bebuthere.”

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