Ahh, all these people surrounded him on the boat meant less than nothing to Daniel now. Well… in retrospect, they meant less than nothing to him before, but hey, now they’re even lower on the list. It was crazy what 10 years could do, wasn’t it? In any case; there would always be a handful of people that Dan did care about. The non-Dorian DeLoughrey’s on his list. And honestly, it wasn’t difficult to guess who was on this list. Sitting at the very top was his family. Valerie Parker, who Dan currently had his hands around, kissing the girl on the cheek. Jessica Pierce, Jezebel Parker. His list was consistent because the family would forever be consistent. Soon, alongside his daughter would be another Parker currently growing inside of his beautiful wife.
“Yeah yeah… Lucas Parker? I don’t know…” Dan sighed as they made their way deeper into the filled boat with students who… honestly, half of these people probably couldn’t even afford being on a boat. In any case, his ears perked up as Val suggested yet another name in their ongoing list of a million and 3 boy names. Daniel the second was quickly vetoed by Val, sigh, oh well. “Hmm… Peter. You know, I don’t hate that one. Put it in the maybe pile,” Dan grinned, looking back over towards her. Over the years, Daniel had learned the art of reading Val. And not just his reading of other people - though he was usually good at knowing what others were feeling around him. Perhaps Daniel wasn’t the best at reacting to emotions, but he wasn’t half bad at reading them. But with Val, he knew her better than he knew himself sometimes. He nodded with the girl’s addition of it feeling strange that they were back in “high school,”. “Yeah true… but look where you are now love. You’re not the same Valerie that these idiots knew… or thought they knew in high school,” Dan added, walking towards the bar and smiling at her. “I’ll take a scotch and the lady will take a ginger ale even though she really wants something stronger,” Dan stated, before turning back over at her.
“Alright love, let’s play a game. What happened to these bozos after high school,” Dan smiled, pointing towards a random student. “He looks like the type to have gone to college and changed his major about 4 times so he graduated with something random like accounting at the end even though he doesn’t like it, did a few years of soul searching but is now stuck at a 9 to 5 job as a banker and hates his existence,” Dan stated.