Darcy and her father return back to their old stomping grounds of New York City. With her, Darcy brings habits of being reclusive. She is perfectly content spending most of her time within the walls of her father's café and sees nothing wrong with t...
As I hung up, a funky song playing through the stereo came on. I wrinkled my nose and turned to head back to the register to change it when I jumped at the sight ahead of me.
Chris stood outside the locked doors of the café. That damned black hoodie over his head made it hard to see him for a second.
What's he doing here?
Shoulders dropping, I approached the door slowly, stopping when only a few feet and a glass door were between us. I took the edge of our sign on the door, wiggled it for him to see, then tapped my bare wrist. Resilient and undeterred, he shoved his hands in his pockets and merely teetered on his heels, waiting. I rolled my eyes. When I gave in to his pleading looks and unlocked the door, he practically leapt in to escape the freezing air outside. Not dressed for that kind of weather at the moment, I shut the door quickly before turning to him.
"You realize we're closed, right?"
He scratched at his wrist. "Yeah, sorry 'bout that."
I crossed my arms. "If you're here for another free hot chocolate, forget about it. You have to pay this time." There's no way I was going to break Papa's rule a second time.
He shook his head and took out his wallet, waving it for me to see. "Don't worry, I'll pay this time. Thank you for the free one, by the way."
I nodded curtly. "So, one hot chocolate?"
"Please."
We were closed. I didn't have to make him a hot chocolate, but after talking with Ben and Ronnie, I wasn't in the mood to contribute to any negative vibes between us anymore. Still, I couldn't help but feel a little awkward as he watched me make his drink. A long silence stretched between us until I said, "That'll be three dollars and twenty five cents, please," with the hopes of sending him on his way quicker than the casual pace he was setting here.
He nodded slowly and, without breaking his stare, dug into his pocket and placed something into my outstretched hand. It definitely wasn't the money he promised he was going to be paying with, but what sat in the palm of my hand had more significance than a couple dollar bills.
It was a small, red toy top from my childhood. It was introduced to me by a silly blonde boy when I was six years old. I couldn't help but laugh.
He straightened in his stance and crossed his arms triumphantly as he matched my grin. "I would've been seriously disappointed if you didn't recognize your beyblade."
I shook my head, turning the top in my fingers. "You still kept it?" I asked him in disbelief.
"As I was donating toys throughout the years, I kept a few significant ones. You always liked to use the red one, so I always considered it yours. I felt like I couldn't give it away."
"And you're giving it to me now because?" When I peered up at him, I saw that his head had lowered. For a moment, he stayed like that, staring down at the floor in silence as if he were waiting for me to chastise him. When he met my gaze, I saw the apology in his eyes before he even said it.
"I'm sorry, Darcy. I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to sound like such an ass earlier – you caught me at a bad time. A-and that's not an excuse, but I just wanted to come here and say I'm sorry." He blew out through his mouth and ran a hand through his blonde hair, removing the hood from his head. "When ya think about it, it was stupid of us to think we'd be able to maintain a really close friendship after you left. We didn't even have phones. We had email, but I lost the password to mine, like, a week after you left."
Laughter bubbled out of me once again. This. This was the Christopher I knew.
Letting my emotions take hold of my actions, I hopped over the counter to give him the cheesy reunion hug I'd been envisioning all along. He caught me readily in arms, lifting me up until my toes barely reached the ground.
"You're such an idiot, Christopher Radley."
He laughed into my hair and rocked me from side to side. "Let's talk about it over a cup of hot chocolate."
✿❀✿
woohoo! <3 darcy and chris reunion! a bit of a rocky start but it's all good ;) stoday's chapter question is: what do you do to help yourself when you're feeling sad or anxious?
thank you guys so, so much for your love on the last chapter. you all know how hard it's been for me to write so i'm happy that you guys enjoyed it, and thank you for any constructive criticism!
see you soon!
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
