David turns to me. “Hey,” he says with a small smile.
I slow my pace as I near David. There’s still an atmosphere between us with how our conversation ended the last time he was here. “Why are you here?” I ask.
He shrugs. “Just thought I’d come see you. You alone?”
“If you’re asking if Logan is here, then the answer is no, he’s not. He’s working today.”
He nods slowly. “Ames, you can do better.”
“I’m not going to fight with you over this again, David, so you better drop it or you can leave.”
He holds up his hands in surrender. “I’m sorry. I won’t mention it again. I swear.”
I heave a deep sigh. “Good. So you want to come inside?” He nods, and follows behind me through the house and into the living room. I offer him a drink but he declines, and I drop onto the couch beside him.
“Sorry for just dropping by, but I found some old photos around the house, and I figured you might like to see them.” He hands me a handful of photographs, and I immediately recognise the first one.
“I remember this! This was the year we all went to Florida.”
“You remember when the seagull swooped in and stole your ice cream? You cried for ages.”
“Oh my gosh! I forgot about that.” I laugh, flicking through the rest of the photos as memories that I thought I’d forgotten, resurface. Photos of all of us together. Happy. “Our water fight!” I exclaim as I come to a photo of David and I with our arms around each other, soaked to the bone in my back yard when I was about seven. David chuckles softly beside me. “Oh my God! And there’s you helping my dad fix my bike.”
Seeing my dad’s smiling face has an unusual feeling settling in my stomach, one of nostalgia, a sadness at remembering happier times, wishing I could go back.
David goes quiet beside me and I glance over at him to see that his face has paled slightly, the smile he wore just a minute ago has vanished.
“You okay?” I ask, and he doesn’t answer, like he hasn’t heard me. “David?” This time he looks up at me. “Are you okay?” I ask again.
There’s a long pause between us, the tension thickening the air as I wait for him to answer.
“Amy,” he begins, swallowing hard. “I… I need to tell you something.” He fidgets with his hands in his lap. He goes to speak but he stops himself, shaking his head like he can’t find the words, and the expression on his face has me worried.
“What is it?” I ask.
He leans forward with his forearms on his knees. “Amy… I um…”
I wait for him to continue, but as the silence between us stretches on, he grows more and more unsettled. He blows out a long, exaggerated breath, and a thin sheen of sweat coats his forehead and upper lip and the sofa shakes as his leg bounces restlessly.
“David? What is it?” I go to reach for his hands that are clasped in front of him but just as my fingers graze his skin he jerks away, rising to his feet, pinching the bridge of his nose and squeezing his eyes shut.
“David,” I press, growing impatient, and for the first time he got here he looks me in the eye.
“I-It’s nothing,” he finally says, running a hand through his hair. “Forget I even said anything, it was s-stupid anyway, just me being an idiot.” His words come out rushed as he stumbles and trips over them.
“David, you obviously wanted to tell me something important, so what is it?”
He puts up a hand to cut me off, shaking his head again. “Honestly, it’s nothing. Look, I uh... I gotta go. Keep the photos, your mom might like to see them. I’ll um... I’ll see you around, yeah?” And with that, he’s crossing the hallway and out the front door before I can say anything else, leaving me sat in the living room, staring after him wondering what the hell all that was about.
Something is going on with him, I only wish I knew what it was.
I’m torn from my thoughts when my phone begins to buzz beside me. “Hey!” Quinn says when I answer.
“Hi,” I force out.
“Are you okay? You sound weird.”
“I’m fine. What’s up?”
