She shakes her head. “They’ll meet us there.”
I nod and put the car into drive, leading us out onto the main road which leads us to the secluded field where the Drive-In is being held. Wren’s doing that freaky thing where she’s humming along to the song I put on while still managing to look and sound angry at the same time. I turn down ‘Freakin’ Out On the interstate’ by Briston Maroney slightly when we get to stop light, turning to her.
“What’s wrong?” I ask while she stares straight ahead.
She turns the song back up. “Nothing.”
I turn it down. “Something’s clearly wrong. We don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”
She turns it up. “I didn’t say I don’t want to go.”
I turn it back down. “Well, you’re acting like it.”
She turns is up again. Louder. “I’m turning it up so you don’t hear how pathetic I sound,” she says over the music. I don’t tell her that I can hear what she’s saying perfectly fine if this makes her more comfortable. “Me and the girls had a fight and we hardly ever fight. It was about you.” Immediately, I smile, turning to her as the traffic starts to move along. “Okay, it wasn’t about you. It was more about us. They don’t think I’m trying hard enough to make this work and the fact that we have a deadline on this thing only makes it worse. And I’m worried that we’re not doing enough for people to actually take an interest in skating again.”
I sigh, my shoulders dropping. “Wren. We just started with this whole thing. You need to be patient because if you keep trying to force something to happen, it’s not going to happen. We’ll take a few pics tonight and the game next week will surely get more people on board.”
She turns to me and I’m trying my best not to crash the car so I can’t even look at her gorgeous face. “You promise?”
“Yes, I promise,” I reply. “Now turn down this fucking music before I burst an eardrum.”
*
As expected, the field is absolutely packed with cars. I’ve only been to a Drive-In once and it was where I had my first kiss in high school. I don’t remember much from that day, other than being so fucking nervous. Thank God I’ve learned a few moves since then. When we get closer to where all the cars have lined up, I park my truck next to Xaiver’s as he and his girlfriend Michelle sit on the hood of the car with a bag of popcorn between them.
I watch Wren scan the surroundings, the same nervousness she showed at the party. “Are you ready to do some extremely painful socialising?” I ask, keeping my tone light as I shut off the car and unclip my seatbelt.
“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,” she murmurs, opening her door. I quickly round the truck, wanting to tug her into my side as we walk towards Xaiver’s car. She lets out a noise between a grunt and a sigh when I put my arm around her shoulders.Well, this is going swimmingly.
“Davis, finally! The movie is about to start,” Xavier says through a mouthful of popcorn when he spots me and Wren. Michelle shakes her head at him. I honestly don’t know how she’s put up with him for so long. He shifts his vision to Wren and his face breaks out into a smile. “And you must be the famous girlfriend.”
Wren laughs and the sound soothes me. “And you must be the famous best friend. It’s really nice to meet you.”
“You too,” he says. He nudges Michelle in the shoulder. “This is Mitch, my girl.”
Michelle laughs. “Literally nobody calls me Mitch other than these two dorks. ‘Michelle’ is also fine.”
Wren joins in on the laughter, shaking her head at me. We started calling her Mitch as a joke in middle school and then it just stuck. “It’s nice to meet you, Michelle.”
“Well, we better set up our camp before the movie actually starts,” I say to them, looking down at Wren. Michelle and Xaiver nod, digging back into their food. I turn us around, leading us both to the car.
I set down the back of my truck, opening up the space for us to get seated comfortably. I could be perfect at this boyfriend shit if this was a real relationship. I brought blankets, cushions and our own snacks because the food here is scarily expensive. Wren seems to be impressed too because when we’re climbing into the truck she doesn’t make any snarky comments. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say I’m earning some brownie points.
We sit at the edge of the truck, our legs dangling off the edge and our snacks on either side of us. When I notice Wren shivering, I push myself closer to her, desperate to give her some of my warmth.
“Are you cold?” I ask.
“I’m fine,” she says. I swear she is the most stubborn person I have ever met.
“You’re shivering,” I say and I place my hand on her thigh as the goosebumps arrive across her skin and she gasps. I lean back into the truck, plucking one of the blankets and draping it over both of our legs. “There,” I murmur, almost to myself as I spread it out over us. The last thing I expect her to do is to latch onto my hand.
I look at our interlocked fingers; her small hand in my big one. She does that thing girls do that drives me fucking insane as she circles her thumb on my hand, pulling both of her hands into her lap. Under the blanket. The thumb thing and the fact that my warm skin is touching her bare thighs is driving me equal parts angry and horny.
Fucking hell.
I need to get laid.
“Are you going to do that all night?” I ask when I’m struggling to even breathe properly.
