“I guess, in part.” He’s clearly amused as he takes a sip of his drink.
“What’s the other part?”
“I told you, I was on my way out here to see you and bring you a drink.”
“A much-needed drink.” I laugh. “Thank you, Danny.”
“You’re welcome. So, I saw on the attendee list that you were living in LA. I wish I would’ve known that. We could have flown in together.”
“Yeah, except I’d be sitting back in coach.”
“Not if you were traveling with me you wouldn’t.” He gives my shoulder a squeeze.
“I’m proud of you, Danny. You always loved to draw, and you not only pursued it, you developed something that people can really relate to.”
Taking another sip of his drink, he looks me in the eyes. “Most everyone has felt like a misfit at some point in their lives, Rose. High school was particularly bad for me.”
“You were so popular. All the girls loved you and all the guys wanted to be you. I was the one who was a misfit, Danny. I didn’t have my first boyfriend until senior year. I had Des and a small group of friends, but I was kind of a geek.”
“A really cute geek,” he mutters. “Rose, you weren’t a misfit. Everyone always knew you’d go to college, do well, make something of yourself.”
We were two ends of a spectrum back then, me and Danny, and yet we both felt like outsiders, both wondering if or where we’d ever fit in.
“Maybe everyone feels like a misfit between the ages of fifteen and eighteen.” I conjecture, suddenly feeling not so different than him.
“And that, my friend, is exactly what Misfits is all about. No one fits in anywhere. We’re a bag of self-doubting, raging hormones doing shit that can kill us and we’re just plain lucky when it doesn’t.” He pauses for a moment. Looking up at the night sky, he asks, “Do you ever watch the show?”
“Not all the time, but I have seen it a few times. It’s wickedly funny.” I’m so glad I’ve seen it, or I would be totally embarrassed right now. A high school classmate has the number one primetime animated TV show, I should be watching every episode. Especially since I knew him and had a secret crush on him.
Looking back down at me, it appears he wants to say something and stops himself.
“What?” I ask. What would he reconsider saying to me?
“You know the character on the show named Lily?”
“The orange-haired one?”
“Yeah, that’s the one. Your hair is kind of orange.”
“ It is not, it’s auburn, not orange.”
“Looks orange to me,” he teases. “Did you ever notice the necklace Lily always wears?”
I shake my head. Usually while watching Misfits I’m laughing too hysterically at the biting dialogue and crazy antics to notice the little details.
“Well, the idea of Lily wearing a necklace with a lily on it, came from here.” Reaching into the front pocket of his black jeans, he pulls out his fisted hand and then takes my hand and delivers something into my palm.
When he takes his hand away, I see an object glinting in the moon’s light, the jolt to my heart is so piercing, I can’t speak.
“It was me, Rose. And I’m sorry. I wasn’t sorry at the time. It was a part of you and that’s what I wanted. It’s just… I had this special thing of yours. The thinking of a sixteen-year-old derelict. It was wrong. Very, very wrong to take it. And I’m sorry.”
Looking up from my hand, my eyes meet his. I’m angry, until I see the look on his face. “You were the one who broke into my locker?”
Nodding, he confesses. “Yeah. It was me.”
“But why, Danny?” I try and search his eyes in the darkness.
“I didn’t go there to steal your necklace, Rose. I just wanted to go through your stuff. See if you had any guys’ names written in your notebooks or anything. I was just going to tease you about it. But when I went in there, your necklace was there. And I saw it on you every day. The minute I touched it, I felt connected to you. So, I just pocketed it.”