Chapter 28 Grace
Grace
Seventeen Years Old
“It’s too late for me now, the sickness will take me soon. I am plagued. Leave me and save yourself, Gracie.”
He looks perplexed. “I don’t understand, I’m always in peak physical condition. It’s the end of summer. How does a little virus take me down?”
I shake my head, knowing all too well where this is going.
“Unless…it’s not a little virus. Maybe I was bitten by a radioactive insect and I’m turning into Wolverine.”
One thing about Danny is that he turns into a bit of a conspiracy theorist when he gets even mildly sick. Add in a high fever, and he loses his ability to keep his hero origins straight.
If Janie were here, she’d be caring for this delusional boy, but she’s taking pictures of the new music wing at the children’s museum.
She even has to stick around for the evening banquet.
Since Danny’s in no state to babysit, Tessa’s at her friend’s house for a sleepover, and I enthusiastically agreed to check on him.
This past summer with Danny was perfect. While it’s been filled with football camps for him and volunteer work at the shelter for me, we’re intentional about spending most of our free time together. Our friendship has never been stronger.
And Mae continues to be my rock. She trusts me to manage my own life. She’s started spending some time at our local garden center, where she tends to the flowers and hangs out with her beloved bees every day.
I turn off the overhead light in his room, leaving only his desk lamp on, and tug him up from his chair. “Okay, Tobey Maguire. Time for bed, big guy.”
We start senior year in just a couple of weeks, and I wonder how things might change.
I can’t stop thinking about him. The emotions I feel when I’m with Danny are so much bigger than a teenage crush.
I’m just scared to bring up my feelings.
After he emphasized our “friendship” following our ill-fated movie night, I figured he wasn’t interested.
“Think about it, Gracie. It doesn’t check out that I’d get sick. I drink a ton of water. You know how many Flintstones vitamins I take,” he adds, like he’s proving a point.
I roll my eyes. “You’re ridiculous. It actually doesn’t make medical sense how messed up you get when you’re ill. You should be studied for science.”
Danny sighs and lies down in his bed, snuggling under the covers. When he reaches his hand out for mine, I let him lace our fingers together. He shakes our joined hands up and down like we’re acquaintances meeting for the first time.
“Gracie, my Gracie girl. The Graciest Grace Who Ever Was. The peanut butter to my jelly. The shredded cheese to my tortilla chips. The MJ to my Spider-Man.”
Tucking him in with my free hand, I pull the covers tight around his shoulders. He probably won’t remember this in the morning. I smile and seriously consider taking a video to tease him with later. He would absolutely document me for posterity if our roles were reversed.
“Can you get into bed with me? I want you in my bed so bad, Gracie. It’s almost all I think about,” he pouts.
Oh. Okay. I guess I won’t be taking a video after all.
“You really don’t know what you’re saying, Danny Thompson. You’re in a fever dream,” I chide.
He shakes his head, brows furrowed. Looking particularly determined, he announces, “I do know. I know it in my bones. I know that you’re my best friend. And I know I want us to be more. I’ve always known.”
“Always my ass,” I scoff playfully. “Does the name Tori ring a bell, D?”
“I couldn’t love her, Gracie baby. Not like you.”
Ope. I choke on my own spit and start to cough. What is going on? I’ve never heard him call me anything other than Gracie or Gracie girl, and certainly nothing remotely close to “baby.” Did he take some kind of hallucinogenic earlier? I scan his room for odd pill bottles. Nothing.
“And please don’t call me D again.” He shivers, and I don’t think it’s from the fever. “It made me throw up in my mouth a lil bit.”
I giggle and try to pull myself together. “I think you need to sleep off whatever this is. Immediately.”
“You are in denial, my friend. My best friend. My best girl friend. My girlfriend.” He pauses and stares at me solemnly. “Hey, Gracie girl? Do you want to be my real girlfriend? The kind of girlfriend where I kiss you?”
How honest should I be? I thought he didn’t want to be more than friends, but now…maybe he’s changed his mind.
Or maybe he’s deep in delirium.
Either way, I know my answer. He won’t remember this anyway.
“Yes. I want to be your girlfriend, Danny.”
The utter joy in his eyes is palpable, and a huge grin spreads across his face, bringing a touch of color back to his cheeks. “I knew it, Gracie. I knew it all along. I wanted to be right, and I am. I should’ve known. I’m always right…about everything. All the time.” He boops my nose.
“Now, now. That’s a little too far,” I tease and pat the top of his head.
Sometimes my heart feels like it might burst when I’m around him.
Like it’s itching to climb out of my chest. Danny’s presence constantly hums in me, even when we’re not physically together.
He brightens every good experience and softens the bad.
I wonder what he would think, knowing how desperately I want him to be mine in all the ways that matter.
Instead of revealing too much of myself, I whisper, “Go to sleep, Danny,” near his ear.
“I’ll sleep,” he agrees happily. Then he narrows his eyes at me. “But no takesies backsies, Gracie. You’re my girlfriend now, so quit messing around.”
“Mhm, whatever you say.”
“Night night, beautiful girl. My otter.” He smiles and closes his eyes.
I lie next to Danny on top of the covers, still holding his hand. My eyelids get heavier. I close them and fall into a deep sleep, peacefully dreaming of us as something more.
The next morning, I wake up slowly. Yawning, I turn on my side to check on Danny and startle, surprised to find him completely awake.
He’s staring at me with an unreadable expression, so I reach up to touch his forehead with the back of my hand.
It feels cool. And when I lean forward to examine his eyes, they appear clear. He looks healthy and calm.
My heart, on the other hand, is anything but calm. It’s still racing from last night, and waking up next to him definitely doesn’t help matters. I don’t have a fever, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a thermometer said otherwise. The way my body reacts around Danny is getting harder to suppress.
He looks serious as he sits up in bed. “Grace.”
“Morning! Let me take your temperature really fast.” I’ll see if his fever is gone and then head downstairs. Janie should be home by now, and if we’re lucky, she’s making her famous cinnamon rolls. I grab the thermometer and stick it under his tongue before he can say anything else.
After a minute, it beeps, and I check it—97 degrees. “Hey, so great news,” I tease. “It appears you’ve survived the plague. Or a radioactive spider bite.”
He doesn’t return my smile. Instead, he leans closer to my face.
“What are you doing?” I whisper.
He gently nuzzles his forehead against my cheek. “I said no takesies backsies, and I meant it, Gracie baby.”
A barely audible gasp leaves my mouth. He remembers?
Danny stares at me with rapt attention, like I’m the most interesting thing he’s ever seen. His gaze lingers briefly on my right eye before returning to my mouth again. “Do you want this?”
“Yes.”
Then he kisses me. He kisses me like he’s been waiting his whole life for this.
I’ve been waiting, too.
Danny’s lips are warm and soft as they press against mine, and our kiss is comfortable and ingrained, like we were always meant to be doing this.
Finally kissing him sends a fizzy rush through me, and my eyelids ever-so-slightly flutter open as I steal a glance at his face.
He pulls back to look at me, too, and my breath hitches when I see pure contentment settled across his features.
“I’m yours, now.” Danny presses a tender kiss under my chin.
“And you’re mine,” he whispers, before kissing me on the side of my nose.
“I’ve always been yours,” he murmurs, as he kisses me on my temple near my hairline.
“And you’ve always been mine.” He kisses me on the corner of my mouth.
“So quit messing around, Gracie,” he teases.
I touch my fingers to my lips, trying to imprint the sensation deep into my memory. Is this really, finally happening?
“Hey, Gracie?” he asks softly. “Do you want to be my girlfriend? The kind where I kiss you?”
“Yeah,” I breathe.
Danny finds my hand on the bed and laces our pinkies like a promise. Then he leans forward and lightly presses his mouth to mine.
“Okay, then.” A quiet smile plays at his lips.
“I’ve never kissed anyone before,” I whisper.
“Well, now you have,” he replies, reaching up and lightly caressing my cheek. I tilt my face into his palm, relishing the warmth of his hand. A curl falls over my eye, and Danny nudges it off my face with his nose.
Our pinkies stay locked as we silently process becoming different, becoming more.
It doesn’t feel sudden. It feels like an evolution.
“I feel like the luckiest guy in the world right now.” Danny wraps his arm around my shoulder as we walk from his car to Kyle’s large suburban home.
About two weeks after Danny first called me Gracie baby, we’re on our way to Kyle’s house for our first time out together as an official couple…
and my first high school party, period. I’ve always been too terrified to go anywhere except right next door, out of fear my dad would get home early.
The closest I’ve been to a party with friends was me handing Ben a piece of cafeteria cake in the hallway on his birthday.
It was peanut butter flavored. He promptly informed me that he was allergic to peanuts, and I ate the cake myself. It was a very mild time.