Learning to Breathe (28 page)

I raised my eyebrows.
“Obviously I didn’t.”

Danny grunted in frustration.
“Okay Miss Smartass, what about his warning of doing more damage than good?”

I nodded.
“Yeah, I heard that bit but decided that I didn’t care.”

“Darcie, you could seriously injure yourself! What were you thinking? Coming here all alone – what if something happened to you?” Danny slapped at the water angrily.

I rolled my eyes. “Danny, calm down. I’ve been warming up and doing more exercises to strengthen the muscles in my leg. I didn’t tell you because I knew that you’d have talked me out of it.”

“No I wouldn’t have!” Danny argued furiously.

“Yeah right!” I retorted sarcastically. I wasn’t trying to pick a fight but he was driving me crazy.

Danny’s eyes bored into mine.
“Darcie, I would’ve helped you. I’m your friend for God’s sake. Why did you feel the need to hide this from me?”

I sighed heavily.
“I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do it, that’s all.”

I watched Danny shake his head.
“Well, now that I know, will you let me help you?”

“Why?” I asked, genuinely curious about what he would say.

He gazed at me intently. “Does there need to be a reason?” he asked cryptically.

I
stared back into his hazel eyes. “I guess not.”

“Okay then,” Danny began after a few seconds, putting an end to the
intense moment between us. “Let’s get started.”

Later on, after school, I was glad to be going to work. I was also relieved when Danny had informed that the pool in the leisure centre was closed this afternoon – I really didn’t think I could handle being alone with him again. After my morning swimming session with him, I was in desperate need of a distraction. All day, my mind kept replaying our conversation and I wondered why it had taken me so long to realise how I truly felt about him.

Looking back on the time we spent together,
the signs were all there but ultimately, I had chosen to ignore them and deep down, I think I knew why. After the pain of my father’s death, I didn’t want to get hurt again so I had built up barriers to protect myself. However, with the persistence of one Danny Fletcher, the walls had started to crack and eventually, came crashing down.

I heaved a sigh, I really needed to stop thinking about Danny and focus on the more important issue at hand – dealing
(single-handedly) with the twelve screaming children of the Kid’s Klub.

“Hey!” I yelled to
the hyperactive nine-year olds. “If you all be quiet, I’ll let you guys watch TV. Now, how does that sound?”

There was silence and
Ellie tugged on my t-shirt. I glanced down at her and she beamed up at me.

“Can’t we watch a DVD?” she asked, gazing at me with puppy-dog eyes.

“We don’t have any.” I told her and she shook her head.

“Darren’s got one
in his bag!” Ellie informed me. “It’s a scary one! Can we watch it?”

“What? No!” I protested and they all started shouting again.

“Hey!” I roared. “Settle down! I’d get into trouble if I let you watch something scary. What is it anyway?”

Faye – Harriet’s little sister – decided to pipe up then, “It’s
Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows!”

I bit back a laugh
(I didn’t classify Harry in the scary category) and nodded. “Okay, since I’ll be watching it with you guys, I guess it’s okay.”

They all screamed in excitement as I put the disc on and then there was silence as the opening scene began. I breathed a sigh of relief and tried to focus on one ‘Daniel’ that I wasn’t in love with!

When I arrived home from work, I found that the house was empty. I vaguely remembered my mother telling me something about
going to meet William after she finished work. So, after eating a quick dinner, I had just decided to settle down to watch TV when my phone buzzed.

I glanced at the screen and my stomach did a little flip – Danny had sent me a message:

‘Grab ur suit. B @ urs in 10.’

Slightly taken aback, I did as I was told and waited for Danny to turn up. Ten minutes later and his car pulled up. I quickly scribbled a note to my mother, locked the front door and got into the car.

“So, what’s going on?” I asked, curious as to why he wanted to go swimming at eight o’clock at night.

He grinned at me.
“Well, you still want to do the competition, right?”

I nodded and he continued.
“Well, the pool in the leisure centre may be closed but the school one isn’t!”

I watched as Danny jangled some keys at me.

“How did you manage that one?” I asked, genuinely amazed at how he could charm Ms Greenly into letting him use the pool after school hours.

“My p
owers of persuasion, remember?” He smirked and winked at my stunned expression.

I shook my head.
“How do you do it? Seriously, I want to know!”

Danny laughed.
“If I told you that, I’d have to kill you.”

“Okay, I guess I can live with that.” I told him with a smile.

“Good. Now, we’re only allowed to stay until nine-thirty at the latest so let’s go.” He quickly pulled out into the road and made the short journey to school in record time.

After a quick change, I found Danny already setting up the iPod dock and he smiled over.

“Get warmed up and I’ll pick something to motivate you!” he yelled as he scrolled through his song list.

I did a few stretching exercises until I was sure that I was well warmed up and then jumped into the pool. Swimming over to the edge of the pool, I rested my arms on the wet tiles and waited for Danny to hit ‘play’.

He threw another lopsided smile
at me, pushed the button, and climbed in beside me. Suddenly, ‘Wolf Like Me’ by TV On The Radio burst to life and I found myself officially motivated!

“Okay!” yelled Danny.
“The competition’s less than two weeks away – let’s see what you’ve got!”

An hour later and I was exhausted. I had really pushed myself and Danny was impressed with how fast I was. Even though he warned me to take it easy, I could tell that he was proud of what I had achieved.

“Right Gilmore,” he began as he swam
over to me. “I think that’s enough for tonight.”

I nodded.
“Okay. But Danny, can I ask you something? I want you to answer honestly now.”

Danny’s haze
l eyes looked at me in surprise. “Sure,” he said, “what is it?”

“Do you think –” I paused, unsure of whether I should continue. Eventually, I
heaved a sigh and started again. “Do you think I’ve got a shot at this competition or am I just kidding myself?”

I quickly looked away, ashamed of the fact that I was scared of something so silly. I really wanted to do well and I was afraid that I just wouldn’t be
up to par with the other swimmers.

“Hey,” Danny began, lightly t
urning my head back to face him. “There is no doubt in my mind that you can do it. I know you can do it, so does your mother and even Harriet! We all believe in you Darcie but that doesn’t mean a damn thing if you don’t believe in yourself!”

I nodded.
“I know but I just want to do my father proud.” I admitted sadly.

Danny pulled me into a hug so that the water slopped noisily around us and said, “Darcie, you’ve done him proud already! You overcame your fear of water and I think that’s a far greater achievement than some competition.”

He let go of me and I gazed at him, mesmerised by his ability to say the right thing at exactly the right moment.

“But hey,” he contin
ued while I stared at him. “If the competition’s that important to you, I’ll do everything I can to help you kick every other swimmer’s ass!”

I let out a hearty chuc
kle and smiled at him. “Thanks.”

He
then grinned that adorable uneven grin and said, “No problem. Now, come on, we’ve gotta get outta here before Ms Greenly decides to revoke my after-school pool privileges!”

The rest of the week flew in and I was starting to feel better prepared for the competition. Danny and I had trained continuously over the course of the week and, in the end, I had to tell my mother what I was doing. Of course, she had gone nuts but when I told her that Danny was overseeing my every move, she relaxed a little.

So, with my training
turning out to be the worst kept secret ever, I was starting to feel nervous. The competition was looming closer and I was afraid that I wouldn’t live up to everyone’s expectations, now that they knew that I was definitely taking part.

Now, with one week left to prepare for ‘A Thousand Leagues’, I feared that it wouldn’t be long enough. Also, having to contend with my ever-growing feelings towards Danny didn’t help. I was now spending the majority of my time with him and I was finding it increasingly difficult to hide my attraction to him.

On more than one occasion, I had found myself staring at him longer than necessary. I was careful not to let Danny catch me but I think he must have noticed at some stage, as he would frequently get this smug little smirk on his face. When this happened, I would be reminded of how infuriating he could be and would question why I even liked him in the first place.

However, this week, I was determined to focus on the issue at hand – getting ready for the competition. I wanted to win and I wasn’t going to let a thing like my attraction to Danny stand in my way. I could ignore my feelings
for him for one week – couldn’t I?

Monday morning started off well in regards to my whole ‘ignore my feelings for Danny’ plan. We were half an hour into the lesson and I had managed to ogle him only once!

Yeah! Go me!

“Hey, Gilmore!” came Danny’s voice, interrupting my silent victory. “Are you okay?”

I nodded.
“I’m fine – just thinking about different winning strategies for next week.”

Danny nodded slowly – I don’t think he bought my lie –
but he smiled at me nonetheless.

“Okay, that’s the
spirit! Now, do the backstroke one more time and see if you can beat your previous time.”

I pushed myself through the water with as much force as I could muster and felt the burn in my muscles as I willed myself to go faster. When I finished the laps, I was out of breath
but, judging by the triumphant look on Danny’s face, it was worth it.

“Y
ou did it!” he yelled excitedly. “You beat your last time!”

Grinning, I punched the air victoriously and continued to gaze at Danny until I saw that sly little smirk again.

Ugh, he can be so damn arrogant!

I suddenly felt very annoyed and the next thing I knew, I was shouting at him.

“What the hell is with that?” I roared. “What is with that smartass little smirk?”

Evidently, I caught Danny off guard since he looked extremely shocked. He walked around the edge of the pool until he was looking down
at me. “Darcie, what are you talking about?”

Furious, I pulled myself out of the pool and faced him, “You know what I’m talking about!” I fired back.

I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I wasn’t mad at Danny but somehow I couldn’t stop yelling at him. To be honest, I was probably angry with myself for not having the guts to tell him how I really felt.

Danny
stared at me, utterly perplexed. “Wow, Darcie! What’s going on?”

“
Why do you always have that little knowing smile on your face when you catch me looking at you?” I asked crossly.

Danny sighed and looked thoughtful for a moment; he looked like he debating about what to say. Finally,
his face twisted in frustration.

“Do you ever think about New Year’s?” he suddenly blurted out.

I reeled back at that
and was silent for some time before I managed to speak again. “What?”

“Do you ever think about that kiss?”
he prompted.

I decided not to answer that.
“You never answered my question.” I told him, playing for time.

“You haven’t answered mine!
” he shot back.

“I – what – why are you asking me this now?” I managed to stutter out.

Danny heaved a sigh. “Because I need to know.”

“
Why?” I asked timidly, unnerved by the sudden intensity of the conversation.

“
Look Darcie, let’s stop playing games. Just for one second, let’s be honest with each other. I’ll go first, okay?”

I didn’t know what else to do so I just nodded.