we sleep at sunset | 18+

23 | Thunder

"Hey," I say around the sucker, steadying myself with a laugh before stepping off to the more flat, deeper part of the river. "Wanna go look at apartments tomorrow?" I ask absently, squealing as something hits my leg.

Oh. Just a stick.

"Hm?" Grey's half here, half not, staring at me. My legs, actually.

"Maybe we can go around and scout some places we you get back from the shop. So you can move out."

"Yeah, maybe," he murmurs, but it's like the wind caught the words.

I brush a wet leaf from my knee. "It will be good, you know? A fresh start. We can get fries and slushies and drive around as the sun sets."

His fingers pluck at the grass beside him, pulling up a blade and twirling it between his fingers.

The thunder rolls again, louder this time, as if it's right overhead, and I shiver.

"You don't have to pull the trigger on anything now," I add, watching him closely.

Grey finally looks up, his eyes meeting mine. "I've been thinking. A lot. I know Pat and Raveena don't like me anymore. That they think I'm bad news, a deviant, midnight lurker, whatever."

My hands go tight on my camera, my heart doing the same. "Grey, that's—"

"It's true, though, isn't it?" He cuts me off, looking back to the water. "I know what they think of me. I'm not good enough for you."

"Stop," I say, ripping the sucker out of my mouth. "That's all stupid, Grey. You're the most important person in my life. You're my best friend, always have been. Always will be."

He tries to smile, but again, it falters. "I wish I could believe that as easily as you do." He's picking at the grass, his eyes distant. "Remember when we built that raft out of old pallets behind your uncle's shed?"

My lips twitch up. "Yeah, and it sank two feet from the shore right here in this river."

His eyes finally meet mine, a flicker of the old Grey, the one who laughed more. "Your uncle was so pissed, but my dad just laughed. He helped us fix it, remember? Taught us how to waterproof the bottom with tar."

He's right. Steven was there, with us, always.

Grey sighs. "I miss those days so much it hurts. Things were simpler. We were kids. We didn't have to worry about all the grown-up stuff."

"Grown-up stuff sucks," I mutter, trying to lighten us both.

The sky opens up then, a downpour that has me scrambling through the river for cover with him by the tree.

I sit down in my shorts next to him, sticking the lollipop back in my mouth. "Knew that was coming," I mumble, pressing my shoulder into his warm one.

As we sit close, watching the rain turn the river into a sheet of white noise,

I set the camera down beside me on the damp earth, freeing my hands to tug my socks, then shoes, onto my damp feet, scowling at the feeling.

Raindrops sneak through the gaps in the tree's canopy, dotting us with cool, quick kisses.

Grey takes the lollipop stick and tugs. I open my mouth. "What—hey!" I exclaim as he tosses it into the grass. "My sucker!"

Then Greyson's hand finds my knee, a slow, almost tentative slide up my thigh.

I freeze. That's...interesting.

"Uh, Grey?"

He pauses, that hand resting under my shorts, warm and heavy. "I've been thinking a lot... about everything."