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"So what've you got planned, Winston?"
His arm was wrapped tightly around my waist, tip of his finger gentle but callous in touch, played and poked at my side. I squirmed but only ended up emitting an unpurposeful giggle, bumping in closer to his chest as he huffed. He jabbed my waist with two fingers causing me to jerk away.
"Taking a detour."
I furrowed my eyebrows and bounced on my feet, desperate to keep up with his long strides. "Detour to?"
"Don't you know the definition of a surprise?" He scowled, hitching the collar of his leather jacket. I rolled my eyes toward the sky and followed quick on his heel.
"Word for word," I replied in a snarky tone. He snorted and glanced back at me.
"Course you do. Probably memorized the thing front and back." I grinned and nodded my head knowingly.
"Means I know that many more words to call you if you don't tell me where in the sam hill we're going." I crossed my arms over my chest and hitched my chin. Dallas only grinned wider and hesitantly snaked his arm around my waist, forcefully pulling me closer to him. His strides were long and full of life, I stumbled over my feet trying to keep up.
The sun had just begun setting and all the mellow colors were leisurely being replaced by an empty darkness. Gazing up at the wide, cold skies I thought I might have appreciated it more had there been a vast amount of stars, sparkling and blinding yellows and white. I had always liked a fading sunset. Dallas sent another jab to my side and I jerked back, punching his shoulder.
"Quit touchin' me, Winston." Dallas stifled a laugh.
"Why? Afraid of bein' tainted?" He asked, running his tongue across his top lip slowly, eyes flickering down to me. I furrowed my eyebrows and tilted my head.
"Something like that. Yeah." My voice trailed off as I skidded to a stop, Dallas's arm tugging at my side. The sidewalks were vacant with not a single soul roaming the dim streets. The hairs along the length of my arm stood erect, I rubbed them vigorously with my palms.
"It's getting dark," I said quite obviously. Dallas squirmed beside me and pivoted on his heel.
"No shit."
"The streets are dangerous at these hours." I frowned and glanced at Dallas. His features were contorted by the illuminating white light of the corner store. As I glanced up at the sign and peered through the window I realized where we were. Barnes street.
