"Hello?" Joey asked, answering his phone at around four the next afternoon.
"Help!" Danielle cried.
Joey chuckled. "Did you zip your underwear up in your pants again?"
"No wise ass, I can't get Noah a baby-sitter for tonight."
"To bad. . .I guess you can't go to the party, then, can you?" he teased.
"Joey. . ." Danielle whined. "I've called everybody, and they all have plans. Help me!"
"Well. .. my mom can't do it. She's driving to Tampa tonight. You should call Lynn." he suggested.
"Lynn?" she gulped. "But I haven't spoken to her in over a year."
"So? Do you have any other ideas?"
Danielle sighed. "No. Could you call her for me?"
"Danielle. . . you have to face her sometime. After all, she is your sons grandmother."
"I know, but. . . "
"Just go call her ok? I'll see you at six when we come and pick you up ok?"
"All right, all right. Bye."
"Good luck."
"Gee, thanks."
"Bye."
Danielle clicked the power button twice, took a deep breath, and dialed Justin's number, which she still knew by heart.
"Hello?"
"Um, Lynn, hi. This is Danielle."
"Danielle, uh, hi." she sounded more nervous then Danielle was. "Did you want to speak to Justin?"
"Actually, I was calling to talk to you."
"Oh, really? What about?" she sounded stiff.
"Well. . .I know Justin told you everything that happened, and-"
"Yes, can I apologize for what an idiot my son is?" Lynn asked. "I can't believe he would do something like that. If I had known. . . "
"It's ok. Justin and I have talked about it a lot. We're pretty much worked everything out."
"Good. I really am sorry."
"I thought you would be mad at me."
"Lord, no! I was mad at Justin, but never you."
Danielle smiled, relieved. "The reason I called was to ask you a huge favor."
"What's that?"
"I know I probably shouldn't be asking this, but, I have no other options. There's a Trans Con party tonight Justin invited me too, but I only found out last night, so it didn't really give me enough time to find a baby-sitter, and I would pay you and-"
"Of course I'll watch him. And you wouldn't have to pay me. Noah is my grandson!"
"Thank you sooo much."
"Not a problem. I'll catch a ride with Justin when he goes to pick you up. Is it ok if I bring Jonathan?"
"Sure. Anything you want. I should go get ready now though."
"All right. I'll see you later then."
"Yes. Thanks again. Bye bye."
"Bye."
Danielle hung up the phone.
"Now that that obstacle has been overcome. . . "
Promptly at six the doorbell rang.
"It's open!" Brittny yelled.
Justin, JC, Joey, Lance and Chris all entered the house wearing sharp suites, along with Lynn and Jonathan, Justin's little brother.
Brittny was the quickest to meet them at the door. She was wearing a lavender stray dress that came to about mid-calf, and had purple embroided butterfly's in a diagonal pattern across it. She wore strappy black L.E.I. shoes that had a butterfly pattern across the first strap, and she had a crown of glittery butterfly clips around her head, pulling her shoulder-length black hair out of her face.
"Hey everyone!" she cried.
"Hi!" they chorused.
Lance greeted her with a shirt kiss. "Hey, baby."
Brittny grinned. "Do you know how incredible you look in a tux?"
"Oh, spare us the details." Chris spat.
Brittny glared at him. "Do you ever mind your own business?"
He pretended to think for a moment. "Nope."
Brittny rolled her eyes.
Katie chose that moment to make her grand entrance. She was wearing a knee length pale, pale blue spaghetti strapped dress. It was a square kneck dress, and had a scalloped hem with barely noticeable daisy's lining the skit position. She was wearing white slides, and her hair was pulled back into a stylishe twist.
She smiled shyly at JC. "Hey."
"Hi, Katie." he grinned at her.
Her smiled brightened, but then she turned to Lynn. "Mrs. Harless?" she asked.
"Yes? Call me Lynn dear."
"All right, Lynn, Danielle's running a little late, and she wanted me to show you around Noah's room. He's in his play pen right now."
"I'll go too. I'd like to see Noah." Justin said.
"I'll go, too." JC offered, just to be with Katie.
"All right, follow me." Katie led them down the hall, clasping JC's hand, and pulling him along with her.
Chris flopped down on the couch, and flipped on the TV. "We're tiny. .. we're tuney. . . we're all a little loony .. " he sang along with the cartoon's theme song.
Joey shook his head,laughing. "Where's Danielle?"
"In her bedroom, getting ready." Brittny replied.
"Ok, I'll just go on back." he said.
"Be my guest."
Joey headed down the hallway. He slowly cracked the door open without knocking, and poked his head in.
Danielle was standing in front of a full-length mirror.
Her long golden brown hair fell loosely around her shoulders in wavy tendrils. She wore an ankle length, sleeveless black velvet dress that hugged her body from the waist up, and fell loosely from the hips down. Her feet were still bare.
Joey starred at Danielle, as she criticized her image in the mirror. It was at that moment he decided to tell her his true feelings that night.
He stepped fully inside.
She grinned when she saw Joey's reflection creep up behind her.
"Hey, babe." she said.
"Hey there, beautiful."
She curtsied, playfully. "Your too kind, my dear."
"Whatcha doin?" he asked.
"Trying to decide which shoes to wear." she help up two pairs. "The black platform wedges or the black velvet platforms."
Joey studied them for a moment. "The velvet ones." he decided. "The dress is velvet, so, you should wear the velvet shoes."
"Thanks." she gave him a kiss on the cheek. "What would I do without you?"
"Wear wedgies with a velvet dress."
Danielle burst out laughing. "Wedges, hun, not wedgies."
"Wedgies, wedges, I see no difference" he shrugged.
Danielle sat on the edge of her bed, strapping the shoes to her feet." "I'll tell you the difference. One goes on your feet, and one goes up your ass."
Joey chuckled, as Danielle stood up.
She whirled around. "How do I look?"
"Great." he replied.
"Thank you very much."
"Your welcome very much."
"Is there going to be dancing at this party?" Danielle asked.
"Yes, of course."
"OK, come here."
"Why?"
"Just come here."
Joey took a step closer to Danielle. She put her arms around his neck.
"Put your arms around me like we're dancing." she ordered.
Starring at her strangely, he obeyed.
"How does my dress feel against your body?"
The question sent chills up his spine, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. That wasn't the only thing. "Hard." he gulped.
"Hard?!"
"Oh! No, I meant soft."
"Good, I wanted to make sure it didn't feel funny in case I dance with somebody."
"Oh." Joey left his arms wrapped around her waist.
"Joe," she giggled. "You can let go now."
"Oh, yeah." he dropped his hands to his side.
Danielle turned away, and grabbed her bag off of her bed.
"Danielle?"
"Hmm?"
"There's something I want to talk to you about."
"Sure. What's up?"
"I wanted to tell you that. .. well, lately I've been feeling-"
There was a knock at Danielle's door.
Chris's head popped in. "You two ready?"
"Sure." Danielle said.
Chris's head popped in. "You two ready?"
"Sure." Danielle said.
Chris left.
"What were you saying?" she asked.
"Nothing. I's not important."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah."
Danielle smiled, grabbed his hand. "Ok, come on, let's go."
Joey sighed, and let her lead him at of the room.
Part Twenty Three
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Part Twenty Five