oh, anna [-hs]

used to be lonely

"You? Never," I shake my head. My fingers dance across Cherry's camera strap, feeling the rough texture. "So," I purse my lips. "Where are we going?"

He drums his fingers against his knee, a tick I've identified in him. He does that when he feels shy or nervous. "Well, remember when we were in New York and you and Emma took me to all of your spots?" He starts slowly. I nod. "And you took me to that thrift store, and we found those yellow pants," he continues to build. I wait for the punchline. "I wanted to do that again, but here."

"Go thrifting?" I laugh. He nods quickly.

"I'm not going to buy anything because that feels pretentious or whatever but I want to go to some of the places around here I think that would be cool," he drops off a little at the end of his sentence. "And Mitch and Sarah kinda wanted to come too."

"Why does that feel pretentious?" I push. He shrugs.

"I don't know. I can afford to not shop secondhand. Some people can't. I don't want to take away the cute clothes."

"You know there are like, second hand vintage and consignment shops that specialize in like, curating vintage clothes at a more expensive price?" I try to explain. He blinks.

"What?"

"There are places that sell more expensive, vintage clothes," I laugh. "So you can have the adventure of discovering the stuff, and pay the more expensive price."

"Well fuck let's do that," he stands up off the couch and grabs his phone from the cushion, sticking it into his back pocket, getting ready to go.

"And I would love to see Mitch and Sarah again," I circle back to the comment he made earlier. He nods.

"They'd love to see you," he turns and smiles warmly at me.

We head out the front door and hop back into the car. He twists the keys in the ignition and turns to back out, his eyes tracing over me.

"I mean, wow," he marvels again at my appearance. I chuckle.

"Eyes on the road, Styles."

"Fair enough." He grabs his phone from next to him and hands it to me. "Will you text Mitch and Sarah and tell them that we're on our way?" I take the phone from his outstretched hand.

"You know I have Mitch's number too, right?" I ask. He shrugs. I tap open his phone and blink.

His screensaver is the photo he took of me. In the park. When we went on that double date with Kate and Emma.

"You think you're slick, huh," I laugh. His mouth twitches and I see his cheeks grow a little rosy.

"Well pose for me, Anna," he demands softly.

"Oh, ah," he glances over and quickly looks back at the road. His hand reaches up to scratch the back of his neck. He squints at the street before us. I can see the back of his neck warming up. It makes my heart flutter a little at both the gesture of making me his screensaver and him getting flustered about me finding out.

"What's your password," I offer.

He reaches out and taps his thumb against the home button, unlocking the phone for me. I find his message app, and I'm about to tap on it, but suddenly his hand reaches out and snatches the phone away from me.

I flinch and turn to stare at him. He slips the phone into his pocket, his eyes never leaving the road, his lips pressed together in a thin white line. My hands are still held out in the air, void of the object I was holding moments ago. "What was that?" I stare at him, expecting an explanation.