reticent

17

     He shrugs his leather jacket off, and I furrow my eyebrows when he hands it to me. "Here."

     "You'll be cold." I say. "It's fine, really."

     "I'll be fine." He holds it out to me again. "Take it."

     I smile again. "Okay. Thanks."

     I take the jacket and put my arms into it, immediately relieved with the warmth. I inhale a small breath, realising that it smells like him.

     Happiness flutters in me.

     "What type of food do they have?" I ask.

     "Everything. Their milkshakes are the best, though. I've been there a few times."

     I grab my phone from the white jacket under his and send a text to my dad.

     ME: I'm going to a diner with Archer.

     His reply is immediate.

     DAD: Okay.

     I put my phone back in my jacket pocket.

     I turn to Archer. "Do you like my dad?"

     He furrows his eyebrows. "I've spoken to him once, when I came to your house a week or two ago for the project. He was nice." He glances at me. "Why?"

     Frankie didn't like him.

     "What about my brothers?"

     "I only talked to one, when he came into the kitchen." He says. "His name was Grayson, right?"

I smile. "Yeah."

"He didn't really talk to me, but he seemed nice as well. Protective."

"Do you think that's a bad thing?" I ask quietly, unsure of why the words even leave my lips.

He frowns. "No." He says. "I'll probably be the same with Ally when she's older. Well, not probably. I will be."

I laugh, an invisible weight feeling like it's been lifted off my shoulders.

His lips tilt up.

We get off the beach and begin to walk toward the car park and past it, talking the whole time. Conversation is easy with him. Everything he says, my words bounce back until we're laughing.

By the time we get to the diner, I'm smiling still. We sit in a booth and look at the menus already there.

When the waiter comes over, we order our food—along with his recommended milkshake.

In the middle to a conversation, my phone starts to ring. I frown as I lift it up, seeing Frankie's name.

"One second." I tell Archer, who nods.

I answer and put the phone up to my ear. "Hey."

"Who did you go with?" He asks.

"Archer."

I hear him inhale a sharp breath. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

I slide out of the booth, hold a finger out to Archer and walk out of the diner. "What do you mean?"

"You went to get food with someone who obviously likes you?" He spits. "Without even asking me first? We're supposed to be here together."

"You went off with one of your friends." I say.