Never I Thought

Chapter 16 - This Is Nice

Dusk was settling into night and I had my jacket pulled tightly over my shoulders.

My clothes were damp and felt like ice against my skin, all I wanted was to curl up in a warm blanket to stop my shivering bones.

Robin and I were walking up the street in silence, his clothes still drenched as he left small puddles behind him.

Mila and Nikki had already been picked up by their mum, right near the entrance to the wooden bridge. She had offered us a lift but we both declined, thinking it shouldn't be that long of a walk.

And usually it wasn't, until you added a numbing coldness and legs aching from how much we had been walking.

Then, yeah, it was going to take twice as long.

"We're we off to next?" Robin asked.

I looked up at the sky as I thought about it, "I feel like we've been to plenty of places."

"Maybe enough for the report but..." he trailed off.

"What?"

He glanced down at me with an amused smile, "I dunno, going places, hanging out the four of us. It's nice."

It's nice, I repeated in my head.

I suppose in a way it was. Before this, every afternoon was either working on school or doing something with Penny and Mabel.

After a while it got repetitive, as much as I loved the routine I knew that for a while I had been craving spontaneous.

I had never been so free to feel emotions I had suppressed for a long time, my cravings like an addiction that I had been fighting against for so long.

And I had finally given in and it was nice.

"Well, if you're enjoying this so much. I do have a list of backup options," I shrugged.

"Of course you do."

I lightly slapped his arm and he chuckled.

"Ouch, Mcurth, so violent."

"You definitely deserved it."

A sparkle flashed across his eyes, "you're breakin' my heart."

I turned to look down the street and turned back to Robin, "I'll see you next week, then."

He quickly stepped in front of me so I couldn't walk away. I raised my eyebrows and he raised his in challenge.

"I can't let you walk home alone soaking wet in the dark. What good of a friend would that make me?" He placed a hand on his chest to emphasise his fake sincerity.

"We're not friends, so you don't have to worry about being a bad one," I battered my eyelashes.

He shoulders slumped but he still wore his charming smile, "my house is right around the corner. Let me drive you home."

I looked past Robin and down the street. It was true, we were so much more closer to his than mine and I was so desperate to get out of the cold.

"Fine," I gave in and the smile that appeared on his face made it seem like I had just told him unicorns were real.

So we began to walk, around the corner and the houses started to look too familiar. Like I could've closed my eyes and guessed where each belonged.

With Penny only having one sibling and the biggest bedroom, sleepovers were always at her house. Back then we use to run up and down the street, making up games to play that could entertain us for hours.