After Midnight

chapter nine.

9 - SCARLETT

As soon as I sit across from him, I can sense something is wrong. His eyes are dull, the usual glimmer missing for the first time since I met him.

"Hi," I say, offering the most comforting smile I can give. "How are you?"

He doesn't say anything for a moment. He stares at me. I can't tell if he is sad or simply numb. The emptiness behind the slight raise of his lips is enough to make me frown.

He stands up, and I am fully prepared for him to walk out of the cafe and into the darkness. Instead, he walks to me and pulls me up from my seat, his hands grabbing mine. He lingers, his eyes roaming my face before he pulls me into a hug.

"Hi," he finally responds, squeezing me tighter. His arms are strong around my waist, and I freeze for a second before securing mine around his neck. He smells like amber and vanilla mixed with the smell of the outdoors. 

When we separate, he looks deeply into my eyes for a moment and musters a smile, a weak and sad smile. "Are you okay?"

He shakes his head and sits back down. "Not really. I don't want to talk about it."

I get that. I don't want to talk about a lot of things, and I'm definitely not the type to push someone to talk about something. Jordyn? That's a different story.

"Do you want to do something on the list? Or, um- I don't know, do you want to be alone?" I hope he doesn't want to be alone. I don't want to leave him alone. I want to see his smile. His real smile.

"No, I want to be with you. Which one do you want to do?" He answers, making my heart swell.

I pull out my leather journal, biting my lip to avoid smiling. I hand him the journal, and he flips through the pages until he comes across our list.

He glares at the list for a moment before looking up at me, a playful smirk on his lips. Oh, boy.

"Skinnydip in the ocean?" He says, his eyebrows raised suggestively.

I think he expects me to be surprised or embarrassed, but he forgets that I was the one who wrote that one. "Sure," I say, seeming unfazed.

His eyes widen as if he doesn't believe me. "What?"

"What?" I repeat.

"You want to go skinny-dipping? Right now?" He asks again, looking at me like I'm not really there.

I let out a small laugh, nodding. "I wrote that one down, remember?"

He sits up straight, situating himself. "Right, yeah. I remember. So, tonight?"

"Sure, but we should wait until the beach closes."

"How will we get in?" He asks. Oh, Zayn, I thought I was the innocent one.

I pause for a second, thinking through my response. He is a lawyer, after all. "We sneak in. I know a way to get in."

His brows raise the shock back on his face. "'Shy and sweet' Scarlett sneaks into the beach to skinnydip after hours? Interesting."

I can't help but laugh at that. If only he knew my friends and all the trouble they rope me into. "College Scarlett picked up a few tips,"

We have about an hour until the beach closes, leaving us sitting in 25 Hours chatting about anything we can think of to pass the time. I avoid asking him anything too personal. I don't want to trigger any memories that he doesn't want to relive.

He seems okay now, though. I've yet to see a genuine smile, but sometimes real happiness isn't possible, and that's okay.

"So, any siblings?" He asks.