Argent Eye III

4

We're all going out tonight, you fancy it?

I got this text from Kate the next day. I felt a little stiff, my muscles aching, and knew my knees were bruised from falling over last night.

Where you going? I replied.

Probably for food, then maybe cocktails.

Sounds good, what time?

7pm. Meet outside tube station?

I replied with the thumbs up emoji. By Kate's first text, I wondered who she meant by everyone. We rarely had events where everyone would turn up- I don't think we even had one last year. In the first year, we'd all met up and gone bowling.

I spent the day finishing uni work, before going into uni for my lecture and then returning back home to get ready for tonight. I had some new olive-green cargo trousers that I really wanted to wear, along with a black T-shirt and my leather jacket.

I walked through the tunnel to meet Kate and whoever else was coming outside the tube station.

"Hey." I said to Kate, who was already there.

"Hey, Mills." She said. "You okay?"

I nodded. "Yeah, you?"

"Good." She said.

"Who's coming, then?"

"Sunny and Ryan." Kate said. "Ryan said he's bringing another friend who's just moved to the area."

"Oh, nice." I said. I looked over Kate's shoulder to see Ryan's brown head of hair come this way, with Sunny walking on one side and another guy walking the other.

"Hey, guys." Ryan said. "This is Adam. He's staying in the area for a while."

"Hi." Both Kate and I said in unison. Adam smiled politely, and held his hand out to me. I took it, and then he held it to Kate who did likewise. He seemed nice- he had very dark hair, practically black, and had it swept back with the sides shaved. His eyes were a bright blue, and only stood out more against his dark hair and pale skin.

"So, where are we eating?" Sunny asked, as we walked into the station.

"I know a place." Adam said. "If you guys don't mind?"

We all shrugged. Picking where to eat was always a difficult decision in our group, so it was actually a relief.

"Sounds good." I said, and the others nodded in agreement.

"So, Adam." Kate began. "What you doing in the area?"

"I'm just staying with my uncle for a bit." He said.

"Do you go to uni?" I asked.

"Nah." He said, and then chuckled. "I dropped education as soon as I could."

"Oh." I said. "So what do you do?"

"Ah, you know, jobs here and there." He said. "I'm still not quite on the career ladder."

I was good at telling when people were lying. I was pretty sure Adam wasn't lying as such, but was withholding something. Still, I'd only just met him. I guess I shouldn't be expecting him to spill his life out to us just yet.

"Fair enough." I said. "You'll find your thing at some point."

He smiled, just as the train arrived. We hopped on.

"Where are we going, Adam?" Ryan asked.

"Thought we could head to central." He said. "My uncle owns a restaurant there. It's darn good."