Danielle paid the cab driver, then pulled her house key out of her purse as she slowly made her way inside.
When she walked inside she found Lynn, who looked up from her newspaper when she came in, sitting in the dimly lit livingroom.
"Home so soon?" she asked.
Danielle nodded and collapsed on the couch.
"Is everyone still outside?"
"No. They're still at the party."
"What you doing home then? Did something happen? Are you feeling okay?"
She paused for a moment trying to think of an excuse, but nothing came to her. "It's a long story."
Lynn set the newspaper on the coffee table. "Do you want to talk about it?"
Danielle shrugged. "I'm not sure it's something you can be an objective listener about."
"It's about Justin, isn't it?" she asked.
"Yeah. Him and Joey."
"Ah, so, what happened?"
"Well. . . " Danielle hesitated. Could she tell this whole story to Justin's mother? She decided to just keep it simple. "Justin wants to get back together, and I told him that I would give him an answer tonight. I was going to, but then Joey-"
"Told you he loved you?"
Danielle starred at her. "How did you know?"
"It's so obvious, hun. For as long as I've known you two, Joey has always seemed to have feelings for you. I' surprised he waited so long to say anything."
"Really?"
Lynn nodded.
Danielle sat back in disbelief. "I can't believe how blind I've been. I thought I knew who I wanted to chose, but now I'm just confused again. All these new things are coming to my attention, and. . .I don't know what to do anymore."
Lynn rested her hand reassuringly on Danielle's shoulder. "Just sleep on it. You know in your heart who you want to be with. You just have to overcome the fear of admitting it."
She was silent for a moment. "Your right. I think I'm going to go bed, though, and sort things out. Thank you for watching Noah."
"Your welcome. Goodnight."
"Night." Danielle shuffled down the hall, checked on Noah, got ready for bed, and fell asleep.
Danielle's eyes opened heavily in the darkness. She felt a body climbing into bed next to her. "Hello? What are you doing?"
"It's just me." Joey said.
"Oh," she rolled over, and groaned. "Why'd you wake me up?"
"I wanted to talk to you about tonight."
Suddenly everything that had happened that night flooded back into her brain.
"I know who your going to choose." Joey said.
"You do?"
"Yeah. Your going to pick Justin."
"Why do you think that?"
"Because you want Noah to have a father, and I know how you've always felt about him. I know that when your not with him you feel like apart of you is missing."
"But when your not around a big chunk of me is missing, too. I don't want you to hate me, Joey. I don't know how you knew, but. . . your right. And I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
"I don't hate you. I never will. And I'm ok with you being with Justin. I know you've been worried about that. But, I am ok with it."
"You know me to well."
"It's a gift I have."
Danielle laughed softly, but then turned serious. "It was so hard me to decided. I love you so much. You have to know that."
Joey nodded. "I know."
"I'm glad you did this. I was so scared of telling you, and hurting you."
"I'll be fine. Can we just forget about tonight, and go back to the way things were?"
"Yeah. We can."
"Good."
Danielle scooted closer to him, and rested her head on his chest. "Stay here tonight, OK?"
"Ok." he wrapped his arms around her.
"Your a great friend, ya know? My best friend."
Unfortunately, that's all I'll ever be. "Sweet dreams." he whispered, kissing the top of her head.
"Goodnight, Joey,"
Part Twenty Six
Home
Part Twenty Eight