Page 2 of Danny's Dance
She grinned, her lips curling up. She knew she had hit my weak spot. Damn it. Having your best friend turn on you was definitely notfun.
“Uh-oh, did I upset you, Danny dear?” she sang, feigning sympathy. I bit the inside of my cheek, trying to hold back the venom on my tongue. I wasn’t going to let her get to me. Icouldn’t.
“Hair is fine,” I said confidently, pretending I didn’t care about my redlocks.
“Fabulous! Let’s start,” she cheerfully said, hiding her hand behind her back. I groaned. Why hadn’t I picked another game? One where I could out strategise her? And not rely on the luck of thedraw.
“Rock, paper, scissors!” we both chanted, revealing our hands. Relief flooded my system as my paper beat herrock.
“Aww, what a shame. Oh well, guess I’m losing some hair,” she shrugged, not caring about her hair in the slightest. Without any hesitation, she cut of a big chunk and threw it in front of me. “Let’s goagain!”
I swallowed nervously. “How many rounds are weplaying?”
“Until we’re bored,” she innocently smiled. “Or until one of us runs out of hair,” she added, her smile turning into an evilsmirk.
It took her three more rounds before she finally managed a win. Her eyes lit up like Christmas lights as she followed my trembling hand reach for the blade. The handle was cold in my palm and for a moment, I thought about attacking my ex-bestfriend.
My wolf softly growled in my chest, letting me know she was ready to take over at any moment, but I couldn’t risk it. I still wasn’t in control of my shift and I didn’t want to be in my wolf form if JP found me. When he found me. There was no way that Regan wouldn’t bring JPalong.
Just the thought of my two men relit a flicker of warmth in my body. They would always come for me. Yes, punintended.
I softly nudged my wolf again, telling her to go find her mate in Regan’s chest and to direct them back to me. She tilted her head, silently asking if I didn’t need her here. But I knew that was not a good idea. As much as my wolf cared for me and Regan, she wasn’t too fond of JP. Not that I could blame her. He was human and not one of my fated mates. She definitely didn’t approve of me loving someone that wasn’t one our soulmates, but over the years, she had come to tolerate JP. Not like, but tolerate him enough to not kill him. Even so, it wouldn’t be the first time that bite marks appeared on JP’s body that he refused to talkabout.
I gave her a nudge and reluctantly, she went to find Regan, leaving me alone with my crazy childhood friend. I briefly wondered if she had always been this deranged and I just never noticed or if it started after shedied.
Either way, attacking her without my wolf seemed even more stupid and I certainly didn’t want to set her off in another one of her fits. She was already mad enough, I really didn’t want to throw more oil on the fire and really trigger acraze.
We both knew I wouldn’t be able to winanyway.
I clenched my jaw as I grabbed a lock of my red hair. With tears threatening to spill out of my eyes, I placed the sharp blade against the strands. I knew it was silly to put so much value in my hair, but this was my thing. This was me. I gritted my teeth, ready to slice off a part of who Iwas.
“Wait!” Chesca interrupted, freezing my hand mid-air. Had she changed hermind?
“I have a much betteridea!”
Ohno...
“Why don’tIcut it foryou?”
“That was not the deal...” I mumbled, my grip tightening on the knife. If it came down to a choice, I’d rather be the one cutting off my hair. Handing Chesca that blade was like handing her a noose. Mynoose.
“But it’s more fun this way, no? Or are you afraid I’ll mess itup?”
“Of course not,” I bluffed, my voice sounding much more confident than I felt. The thought of having Chesca cut my hair was terrifying me. I had seen her play barbershop when she was little. Hell, I had played barbershop with her. After Chesca cut the another girl’s hair, she chased us into the creek with rocks and sticks. Not really a surprise though. Chesca was very fond of asymmetric cuts and had absolutely butchered that poor girl’s haircut. In hindsight, that was probably why we had no mirrors in our pretend barbershop. And that definitely answered my question from before. She had always been batshitcrazy.
“Awww, are you being a scaredy cat again, Danny? Don’t you trust your bestest friend?” she asked, her voice suspiciously sweet and childlike. She tipped her head to the side and gave me a curious look. The same look she used on me when we still were kids and everything was still good. Back in better times. Before the war. The warshestarted.
With anger clouding my judgment, I threw the knife at her feet. “Have at it,” I challenged, daring her to do her worst. Probably not the best decision, but then again, she was pissing me off. If it weren’t for her and her crazy antics, I wouldn’t have seen my home go up in flames. I wouldn’t be on the run with a marching army of infantry on my tail, destroying every house, every town, every thing Itouched.
Chesca stroked my head, almost tenderly, before she grabbed a handful of red. With a snicker, she slit the knife straight through my hair. A cruel grin appeared around her lips as she let the strands fall down in front of myeyes.
“Such a shame... Your hair is so pretty and red. Look how beautiful it is against the ground. It almost looks like blood,” she whispered, the top of the knife stroking my skull. I froze as I felt the blade dart over my skin, unsure of what Chesca’s was playingat.
She could’ve killed me easily, but that didn’t seem to be her goal. If she wanted me bald, I was at her mercy. Yet she had only taken off a small chunk of hair. If she wanted to cut me, there wasn’t anything I could do to defend myself. Then why was she playing? Why was she stalling? I knew why I was, I was waiting for my men to appear and... Wait... Could itbe?
“So you’ve finally figured it out, Danny dear?” Chesca hissed in my ear as she twirled a strand of my hair around herfinger.
“You...” I breathed, too stunned to string together a fullsentence.
