Seventeen
Atlas
What started as a slipof my tongue turned into something special. Tegan was my girlfriend, and while I was absolutely giddy, there was a part of me that was already worried I was going to fuck this up.
I held her hand over the center console, fingers twined with hers as I drove us back into town.
Her phone vibrated and she slipped her hand away from mine.
“Hmm,” she said, staring down at the screen.
“Everything okay?”
“Do you have anything planned after this?” she asked, ignoring my question.
“If you count playing video games and doing laundry, then yes.”
“Are you hungry?”
“Have you seen me?” I asked, making her laugh.
“You’re right. That’s a silly question.” She paused for a second, tapping her fingers against her thigh. “Would you want to have dinner with me and my friends? I know we literally just started dating, but they really want to meet you.”
Dinner was easy enough, and if they were important to Tegan, they were important to me.
“I’d love to meet your friends,” I said, surprising myself a little bit. “Where are we going?”
“The diner on Main Street.”
“I’ve been meaning to stop in there.” I passed by it every day on my way to the gym, saw the glow of the neon sign late at night and smelled the freshly cooked bacon wafting out of the place in the morning. The thought made my mouth water.
“My friend Declan is the owner. The food is really good.”
“Is that who we’re meeting?”
“Mhm. Him and Selene. She works with me at the bakery.”
“Ah. The one who was supposed to help with the cake?”
She laughed. “Yeah. That’s her.”
“I’ll have to thank her.”
I pulled my truck into one of the parking spaces in front of the shiny silver diner. It must have been the dinner rush, because the place was packed.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Tegan asked as I reached for my door handle. “It’s been a long day—”
“What? You don’t want me to meet your friends?” I asked with a smile, cocking my head.
“No!” she blurted. She was cute when she was flustered. “It’s not that at all. Selene is great, but Declan can sort of be a lot.”
It made me laugh, because I was all too familiar with best friends who could be a lot.
“Wait until you meet Fallon.” I tightened my grip on her hand, hoping to steady her nerves with my touch. “Everything’s going to be fine.”
Chatter and ’80s pop music filtered out when I opened the door for Tegan. With her leading the way, we stepped inside, andI swear it was like all the air was sucked out of the room. Every conversation stopped and every set of eyes in the place was on us.
“Hey!” Tegan said awkwardly, giving a little wave to all the people staring at us.
