THE NOW
2013 - present
It took Danny a long time to get over the death of one of his closest friends, Emmett. He spent the first few months of his return home moping around his house. He couldn't understand why the good people always seemed to die, always seemed to leave when the bad people survived. Danny spent a lot of time Iris Messaging camp in order to talk to his girlfriend Ellie, wanting her reassurance that she was okay and that things were going to be fine. Which she gladly gave, even if it wasn’t the truth.
After six months of moping around the house Lisa told Danny to get his act together, that yes he had lost a friend, but life wasn’t going to stop. He had to live. So he left the house and began looking at where had the best music production course in his area. He settled on Manchester University and started the next September. While waiting for his course to start he got a job at the local supermarket to earn some extra cash, got in contact with some old friends and starting living again.
Communication with Ellie became rarer as his schedule became busier. It wasn’t that she was demanding, but she did want to talk to him at least once a day, and when timezones started to get in the way, when his life started to get in the way, it started to become more and more obvious that they weren’t going to work out. Despite her flying out to visit in over the Christmas holidays.
However, it wasn’t until the February of 2014 that their relationship ended. Danny had seen examples of a bad relationships all his life and he was starting to finally be able to tell the key signs of one; and despite all his intentions he knew he was in one. Distance was one thing, but when all conversations seemed to end in an argument and passive aggressive comments he knew it was time to get out before things got worse. Flying back to Camp wasn’t an options with his second semester well underway and a job to hold on too, so Danny and Ellie’s relationship ended via an Iris Message on February 20th with tears sliding down cheeks and hurtful words being thrown. He has not seen or heard from her since.
As his first year drew to a close Danny felt a sense of peace that had been missing from his life for the last year. He was content with his family, his friends, his work, his schooling, his band. Things were good. And things only got better when he met Dehlaila Shaw.
She was a transfer student from America, she had moved into campus accommodation for the summer and Danny saw her everywhere he went all summer. Every club he went too with his friends, he would see her from the corner of his eye. Walking down the street and he would spot her on the bus. Scanning people items at work and she would be in someone else's line. It was like fate was laughing at him. Giving them brief moments of eye contact before one of them had to rush off without a word spoken.
They finally got the chance to talk during Freshers week of second year. It was fate, Danny decided, that they should both he in the smoking area at the same time, both waiting for their friends to finish conversations with other people. They started with small talk, with the basics, the introductions and comments on seeing each other around. And then they were laughing with each other, telling stories about bad public transport experience, sharing anecdotes about America. They exchanged numbers and agreed to meet up for coffee the next day. Danny didn’t think it would actually happen, but a text came through the next morning and a time was set.
For the first term they talked and hung out, they were friends that wanted more but neither knew how to go about it. It was a during a drunken night out that it finally happened. They woke up the next morning to their friends banging on her door with a ‘congrats! can’t believe it took you two so long to fuck’ and that was that.
She went home for Christmas but was back after New Years with new stories to tell and Danny was happy. Happier than he had been in a long time.
The Recall came during his third year of university. He had the rumours of course, seen the youtube videos and talked to his friends still at Camp. But none of them thought it would reach this level, none of them thought the President would declare what he did, and none of them thought Zeus would decree what he did. He argued with his mother about it for a long time, insisting that staying at home would be fine, that he would be safe here, everything was happening in America, not England. But Lisa said the same thing she had said all those years ago; ‘I promised myself I would do whatever it took to keep you safe Daniel, and sending you to that Camp, sending you back to that Camp right now, that is the safest place for you.’ So he agreed.
Another plane ticket was booked. He said goodbye to his friends; told them he’d gotten a music opportunity back at his old Boarding School, that he was deferring for a year but would be back soon. When he tried to find Dehlaila to say goodbye to her, she was nowhere to be found. No one knew where she was. He had to leave, despite everything inside him shouting to stay and find her. What if she was hurt? What if she needed help? He couldn’t just leave!
But he did. Another tearful goodbye was had in an airport foyer. He watched the ground grow smaller as the weight of guilt grew heavier in his chest.
