"Hey! A dog!" Dan thrusts his finger outward, pointing to a small, chubby German Shepard walking happily with his owner as we wander around town. It seems like a good dog. It doesn't try to pull on its leash, and something about it just gives off the vibe that it's friendly and happy about how his life is turning out.

I wish I could say the same. I envy you, puppo. Happiness is hard to maintain. Hopefully this sadness will pass by soon.

I smile at Dan's attempt to cheer me up. "Aw. It's cute," I say.

   Dan sighs a little with disappointment at my not-so-happy sounding reaction. "Is there anything I can do to cheer you up?" he asks, intertwining his fingers with my own. "I hate seeing you sad."

   That gesture alone makes me smile. "Not really," I say.

   "You sure? Not even petting that dog?" Dan questions, gesturing behind us with his weird thumb at the smol doggie we left behind.

   "Not even petting that dog," I say. "I appreciate how much you care, Danny. But I'm sure this sadness will go away soon."

   Dan sighs softly. "Okay... But if you change your mind, let me know, okay, princess?"

   Him and his pet names. They always make my face turn a bit red. And it does right now as I look away, smiling slightly. "I will."

   Dan sees this and giggles, stroking my hand with his thumb. "Does my princess like that name?"

   More red appears on my face. I'm gonna look like a God damn tomato if Dan keeps this up. "How did you know?" I ask, smiling as I stand on my tiptoes to boop Dan's nose with my free hand.

   "You look like a tomato, (Y/N)," Dan responds, laughing a bit as he lets go of my hand. He then smirks and adds, "Or, should I say, princess?" as he boops my nose in return.

   I roll my eyes and bump my hip against Dan's, making him stumble a bit, a surprised noise escaping him at the force of the bump. I laugh a bit as he regains his balance, straightening his posture and staring straight ahead, as if none of this even happened. His cheeks color. He knows the hell that he's gonna face from me.

   "Aw, babe!" I smile, poking him in the side. He lets out an indignant screech as he swats my hand away. "Did you just get owned?"

   Dan huffs, trying to keep the smile off his face. "No. But you wait until we get back to your place. I've got two hands and they're ready to tickle you."

   "Oh? I'd like to see you try," I taunt, smirking. "With how you nearly fell when I bumped you, I
could hold you off."

   "Mm, is that so?" Dan asks, a similar smirk on his face. "I guess we'll see who the right one is in this situation when we get to your house, then, won't we?"

"We sure will," I say, my smirk unchanging as my eyes scan the street for something that we could do. My eyes then fall on a familiar figure creepily lurking by a restaurant. His hood is up, he has bags under his eyes, and his hands are shoved deep into his black hoodie's pockets. His eyes then meet mine, which makes my muscles tense.

   Dan sees this and says, "Hey, what's wrong?"

   The man then begins to walk toward Dan and I. Hell no. Not happening. I begin to jog away from the man, and Dan has no choice but to follow. "That guy behind us," I say quietly, gesturing behind us at the man that's following us with a jerk of my head, "I know him. His name is Emmett, and he's Theo's brother. He was a real creep back in my high school days. He had this sick obsession with me and always tried to touch me, and God knows I didn't want him to." I shiver, flashbacks attacking me. "He never did anything major. But if Theo wasn't there to bail me out, he damn well might've. I was really bad at defending myself back then."

   I look at Dan, and his eyes darken, the story enraging him. "Oh, this guy is gonna get it." He then turns around and sees that Emmett is still following us. He's about to cuss him out, but I stop moving, making him stop as well and look at me curiously.

"Let's just give him the benefit of the doubt," I say, smiling slightly. "People can change."

"But—" Dan begins, but he's cut off by Emmett.

"(Y/N)?" his deep voice asks from behind us.

I gulp, trying to disguise my fear. I turn around, Dan doing the same.

Oh.

Emmett has a genuine smile on his face, and there isn't a creepy look in his eyes like there always was in high school. Maybe I was right to give him the benefit of the doubt.

However, I'm still nervous, so I still have to force a smile. "H-hey, Emmett. How are you?"

"I'm good, I'm good," he answers, his attention moving from me to Dan. "Who's your friend?"

I hesitate for a second, not really feeling like giving Emmett Dan's name or his status with me. He could still be a freak! He could just be disguising himself well.

But it's not me that tells him. It's Sir Daniel himself. "I'm Dan," he says coldly. Either he's really bad at masking his feelings, or he's simply not trying. "I'm (Y/N)'s boyfriend."

Something flashes across Emmett's face, and, even though I don't know what that something is, I flinch, preparing myself for the worst.

But instead of receiving the worst, I get a "Congratulations!" from Emmett. My nervous levels decrease some, since old Emmett would've pounded Dan's face in.

Me and Dan glance at each other quizzically, not expecting that.

"So, if I may ask," Dan begins, "where do you two know each other?" He already knows. He just wants to see what Emmett's answer will be.

And he has one ready. "Oh, (Y/N) and I were friends in high school. We met through my brother."

That's not how those years went down at all. We were far from friends.

An enraged expression crosses Dan's face, and I can tell that he's about to go ham on this guy. "Are you sure that's what you guys were? How about all the times when you—"

"Um!" I cut Dan off, eyeing him with a look that says "please stop talking", which he does. "Dan and I are uh...gonna go, now, Emmett."

"Wait wait wait, let him finish," Emmett says, looking at Dan with curiosity.

"I'm sorry, but we really do have to go," Dan says, not wanting to give the potentially crazy guy more reason to go crazy. He begins to walk away, and I follow.

But Emmett grabs Dan's shoulder and spins him around. "Say it, Dan. I wanna know."

"What is wrong with you?" Dan asks in disbelief, throwing Emmett's hand off of him while I just watch awkwardly, trying to gain enough courage to pull Dan away from this, or else he could get hurt. "No means no, all right? Just leave us alone. We have to go!" Dan then grabs my hand and begins to walk away from Emmett. I have no choice but to follow.

"Wait," Emmett says from behind us.

Dan sighs, but stops in his tracks nonetheless. He turns around, humoring Emmett one last time. "What?"

"You know what I did to (Y/N), right?" Emmett asks softly.

Dan throws up his eyebrows in surprise. He glances at me, asking for permission to tell the truth. I nod, giving him that permission. So Dan looks back at Emmett and nods a similar nod.

"Well, I'm a different person now," Emmett says. "I would never do that to her anymore. It was wrong of me."

Dan doesn't say anything. He assesses Emmett's face. He must've found insincerity in his eyes or something, because Dan's expression returns to a hard, cold one. "Go to hell," he hisses as he turns on his heel and walks away, gripping my hand tightly.

I follow, a bit nervous at the unknown words that Emmett mumbles to himself.