It's A Good Day So Far: Chapter thirty One: Dead Honeysuckle

Chapter Thirty One

‘I suppose you want this, then?’ Danny grinned at me and picked up the birthday bag.

‘Yes, please,’ I said, and my eyes were all wide and happy. I didn’t care what he’d got me, it could have been anything and I’d love it because it came from him. In fact, knowing Danny, it was probably just a joke present, but I couldn’t wait to see it.

He opened the bag on his knee and pulled out a wilted piece of plant. ‘Oh, damn, it’s died a bit,’ he said, with a sad look on his face, ‘Oh well, it still smells nice. I was going to get you a rose, but have you seen how much those things cost….No…Joking…I was joking, ow. I was going to get you a rose, but you don’t remind me of one, it’s not right for you, not yet. I’d buy Nicole Scherzinger a rose.’

‘In your dreams.’

‘Well, yeah, maybe, but shut up, I’m trying to be romantic here.’

‘Nicole Scherzinger gets a rose and I get a dead twig? Yes, that’s romantic. I can see your plan coming together.’

‘Shush, listen,’ He looked a bit hurt, so I stopped teasing him. ‘Scherzinger’s a rose, but you’re sweeter than that. You know I’ve fancied you for, like, forever, right?’ He grabbed my hand and looked into my eyes. ‘You’re dead fit but that’s not what’s important, what makes me fancy you is that you’re so nice to everybody. You smile at people and when they’re talking to you, you look them in the eye and really listen to them.’ I opened my mouth to speak but he put his finger over my lips to stop me. ‘Let me say this, Kate, please, I’ve been practising it all night.’

I laughed. I bet he had, too.

‘This is—,’ he pulled a face, ‘This was—honeysuckle. I don’t know many plants, but I know this because I planted it with my Mum when I was a kid and it’s grown right up past my bedroom window. When I lie in bed, with the window open, I can smell it coming in, even over the smell of my sweaty football socks. I lie in bed and think of you and all the time I can smell this stuff. It reminds me of you. It still smells a bit so at least you can see what I mean.’

He handed me the floppy stick with bits of saggy flowers and I smelled it, it did smell nice.
‘…So I bought you this.’ He reached into the bag and handed me a little square box. I ripped the paper off and inside was a bottle of perfume, it was called Honeysuckle…You. I opened the bottle and squirted some on the back of my hand, avoiding the Beyonce perfume that I was already wearing. It was sweet and warm and the fragrance rose from my hand and formed a scented bridge between us. I crossed it and kissed him.

‘It’s beautiful, and you put so much thought into it, that’s what makes it extra special. Thank you.’ I kissed him again.

‘Stop it, or I’ll never finish giving you your presents. I couldn’t sleep last night; I was so excited about giving them to you. And worried.’

‘What were you worried about?’

‘That you wouldn’t like them.’

‘I love them.’

‘Even the dead plant?’

‘Especially the dead plant.’

He pulled out another package, it was all odd angles and creased paper, whatever it was it was very badly wrapped. In one place the paper had ripped and he’d stuck a big purple bow over it to try and hide the tear. I took the bow off and stuck it to his head. At least this one was easy to get into and didn’t have three-million-tons of cellotape wrapped around and around it. Inside was a Thornton’s box and inside that was a chocolate in the shape of two people standing up and cuddling each other. Underneath was a chocolate square and he’d had a message put in it that said I’m Here For You…Always. Love Danny xxx

‘Oh Danny, it’s—’ I didn’t know what to say.

‘I mean it Kate, even if we, you know, like, break up and stuff. I’ll always be your friend.’ I felt a big lump coming in my throat. I knew that the message was about the Mum stuff. When I looked at him he had tears in his eyes too.

I was going to start bawling so I made a joke.‘You do know that you’ve just tortured me, don’t you? How could you do that to me?’

‘What? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—’

‘How can you buy me chocolate that I’m never going to be able to eat? It’s so beautiful that I want to keep it always,’ we both laughed.
‘Ah, well, I thought about that, too, see, and that’s why I bought you—this.’

I unwrapped another present, but I knew what it was, I could tell by the shape. It was a box of Celebrations. I opened them and we fought over the Malteser one in my hand and Danny cheated because he tickled me until I gave it to him.

‘And no Birthday is complete without one of these,’ he said, around a mouthful of chocolate. This present was a stuffed monkey. ‘There was this really cute bear but I thought that a monkey would probably remind you more of me.’

I cuddled the toy to me. ‘Thank you. He’s gorgeous; I’ll have to hide him from Mum. I’ll call him Little Danny and sleep with him every night.’

‘Well, some monkeys get all the luck.’ He winked and it was, like, sexy talk and I got embarrassed. Neither of us could think of anything to say after that so Danny rummaged in the bottom of the bag and pulled out another box. ‘This is your main present. I hope you like it.’ And now he was all serious. He was watching me closely, checking out my reaction.

I opened the box and inside was a real Pandora bracelet. It was the most beautiful thing that I’d ever seen. It came with a certificate to say that it wasn’t a copy and everything. It had three charms on it. I gasped and asked him to put it on me. I couldn’t speak.

‘I wanted one with just one charm, but I couldn’t find one anywhere. I wanted you to have just a heart and then I could buy you more charms every time something special came along but I had to choose three. The heart is for love. The monkey is to remind you of me and the shaking hands are for you to know that, no matter what, I will be your friend forever.’

‘Danny, it must have cost you a fortune.’

‘Yep, I was saving up for an X-box but I spent every penny on you.’ He smiled a proud smile, as though he’d just won the sack race on sports day. He wanted me to know how much he’d given up for me. And he was a kid again. Sometimes lately he’s seemed so grown up and then, other times, he’s just Danny again. He’s Danny the class clown, my Danny.

‘But what about your X-Box?’

‘What X-box?’

‘Duh, the one you want’

‘Want—ed. Haven’t you seen The Bad Boyfriend Club? Have you seen how many relationships break up because the lads spend all day on their consoles and ignore their girlfriends? What do I want one of those for?’

Before I could answer there was a tap at the door which was great, really appreciated it, but, instead of waiting for me to say come in, Aunty Helen just tapped and then walked in anyway. ‘Don’t mind me, carry on. Just pretend I’m not here. I’ve only come in for the coffee cups.’ And it was so funny because she had her hand over her eyes and was peeping through her fingers in a really exaggerated way. She picked up the tray of empties and said,’ Right, I’ll leave you two lovebirds to it. And we both laughed because it was really corny and embarrassing. She’d only come in to see what we were doing. I mean lovebirds? Really?