Indigo Skies | A Short Story [COMPLETE]

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For a moment I froze, confused on what he meant by that, but when he ruffled my hair, I knew what he meant. "Wish I could say the same to you," I joked.

He scoffed in mock offense. "Just for that, I'm making you pay for your own food at Mighty's."

"Nah. Even if I did have money, you would still pay. That's just what you do."

He glared at me playfully but didn't refute it.

By the time we actually made it to Mighty's, my stomach was on the brink of eating itself. As we walked in, it growled so loud I was fairly sure it echoed off of the walls of the diner.

"Woah," Jonah said, poking my stomach.

I swatted at his hand before slipping onto a bar stool.

"Hey, guys," a waitress said as she came up in front of us.

Jonah immediately smiled. "Hey, Ella." We had practically gone to Mighty's every day this summer and we basically knew the entire staff at this point. I particularly liked Ella over Wyona because she was about thirty years younger and always got our order right.

"What can I get for you guys? Strawberry milkshakes?" she guessed.

"Of course," Jonah responded. "And something to make Braylin's stomach shut up."

"I think we need something to make you shut up," I grumbled.

Ella and Jonah both laughed, making my scowl dissipate. Besides the milkshakes, Jonah ordered an All-American burger while I ordered a supreme salad. While it was a salad, it probably had more grease than Jonah's burger but I didn't care. It was delicious.

"So..." Jonah started before taking a big gulp of his milkshake.

"So?"

He swiveled in his chair to face me, resting his cheek on his fist. "Your birthday's in a few weeks. What do you want?"

I rolled my eyes. "Nothing, Jonah. You know that."

"There has to be something."

I thought about it for a moment, but the only thing I could think of was an Australian shepherd. I was fairly sure that Jonah didn't have enough money for that. Shrugging after a moment, I said, "Nope. Nothing."

"Hmm," he hummed. His brows crinkled in the middle as he contemplated what I might want even though I had told him I didn't want anything. I bit my lip and looked away, trying hard not to think about how cute he looked when he did that.

"Oh, I know!" he said after a moment. "What about a new phone? You probably hate using my mom's old one."

I raised my brows. "Do you have money you're holding out on me?"

His shoulders slumped. "Oh. Right. Money." He nervously laughed before trying to think of something else.

"Jonah, really. I don't need anything. Just spending the day with you will be perfect."

He glanced over at me with a sheepish smile, his freckled cheeks turning slightly pink. I chuckled with an eye roll, sipping on my milkshake so I wouldn't look embarrassed that I had actually said that.

As we ate, we talked easily, moving from one topic to the next. At one point, Jonah casually mentioned Caleb and his words came flooding back once more. Without thinking about it, my eyes flickered down to Jonah's collar bone, searching for his cross necklace that he always wore and fiddled with. But the charm wasn't there, and when I looked around his neck, neither was the leather chord that held the charm.

"Jonah," I interrupted.

"What?" His eyes trained on me, hearing the slight unease in my voice.

"Your necklace."