Danielle

I saw him when I turned around. I don’t know why I did, but save for a sudden feeling that I needed to. I was in a conversation with someone and there was something that told me to turn around. Mack was in the back of the room and he was there, standing alone in a suit that looked like he had changed far more than I had.

Our eyes locked for a moment before I pulled my own away. I couldn’t look at him for long when he looked at me as he had so long ago. It was hard to hold my composure. It had been too long for me to feel this way now. It wasn’t natural and for once I was at a loss of words.

I should have known that he would single me out. He always did and that was one of the reasons that I’d gotten together with him in the first place. He approached me and for once I was unable to say no to a guy. At the time I’d wanted to stay single and just worry about school. It didn’t come all that naturally to me and I had to put in a lot of work to get marks that were above passable.

Mack had changed all that with one dance at one party that Mariss had dragged me to. Back then we were best friends like now and once again she’d dragged me out and Mack was here. I felt the same way now as I did then and that bothered me immensely. It had been ten years. We couldn’t play this same game one more time.

As he approached I excused myself from an old friend from school and I turned to meet him face to face. 

“Wow, you look great Danny.”

I missed my name on his lips and the way his eyes lit up when he looked down to me.

“As you do, though you know that. You never have been the humble type Mack.”

Mack smiled and there was a flutter in my chest. I wanted him badly, right now, so suddenly that it took my breath away. I wanted to tell him that I was still his, craved his touch, but I got a grip on myself and pulled back. I knew that I was going to feel something, but not this. I wasn’t a teenager in love anymore. I was a grown woman and someone needed to remind my body of that fact.

“Do you want to get out of here?”

His grin was contagious, but his words pulled me out of the spell. That’s what he had said to me so long ago, after our dance that started it all. He’d said those exact words to me and the next year wrote itself because we were inseparable from that point on.

“No, I just got here Mack. It looks like you haven’t been here that long either.”

“Not really, but I’m just here to see you.”

I wanted to believe that was true, that he’d thought about me through the years as I had him, but I didn’t. It was too much like what I wanted to hear and Mack always did have a silvered tongue.

“Here to see me huh?”

He nodded his head that it was the case, but I’d spied a woman that was looking our way. I wasn’t a master of body language, but I had a feeling that she was here with him and was not particularly happy that he was talking to me. I glanced down at his hands to see if there was a wedding ring and though I will hate to admit it, I felt relieved that there wasn’t a metal ring there. It meant that he was still unwed, but by the looks of the woman coming towards us, I didn’t think that he was necessarily single either. There was something going on.

“Yes Danny. It’s been a long time and I’ve always wondered what happened to you, how you got on. I thought you might come to this, so I wanted to see for myself. I heard through the grapevine that you became a teacher. It’s what you always wanted to do and I’m happy for you.”

I was surprised that he remembered that about me, but flattered as well. It at least meant that it hadn’t been all one sided back then. I hadn’t thought it was, but the reminder was always nice. I don’t know how I would have felt if he hadn’t remembered me. I would have been crushed most likely.

“Mack.”

The woman that was behind him was now close and she called out his name. Mack’s face changed a little and I could tell he had forgotten about his friend for a minute because he made this expression that I knew well. He’d been busted and now he was scrambling to figure out how to get out of it. Mack’s mind was always working.

“Denise, I would like to introduce you to an old friend of mine Danny.”

“Danielle, nice to meet you.”

The woman didn’t take my hand that was offered and after a moment I pulled mine back. I was right to think that she wasn’t happy that I was talking to Mack, but he seemed unbothered by her anger. They couldn’t have been that serious if he was being so flagrant about it.

“This is my new friend Denise.”

I smiled at her, but it was short lived because she was sending nothing but daggers back. Denise obviously claimed Mack, whether he agreed or not.

“Friends? That’s not what you were saying on the way over here Mack.”

Mack’s face got red and I was starting to get annoyed. I didn’t know what was going on with the two of them, but that didn’t mean that I wanted to be involved in it.

“Well it was good to see you Mack and Denise. I’m going to get back to my friends.”

I started to walk off as quickly as I could. That was a nightmare and it was one that I didn’t get to wake up from. All I had to do was walk away and that seemed like the best option at the moment.

I heard my name called behind me and I knew it was Mack. What I didn’t know was what he wanted and at the moment I didn’t care.