String of Fate

Chapter Seventy Seven

"Oh, hey, Jonah. How's it going?" He asked, slipping a bookmark into his book before closing it. He gave me a little smile as his arms dropped to his side, the book held tightly in one hand.

"It's going good. Sorry if I disturbed your book. I just saw you walking and thought I'd accompany you for a little bit." I answered, falling into step beside him as we headed towards the gate. "Actually, I was wondering if you had any plans for tomorrow."

"Not that I know of. What did you want to do?" He wondered as we headed through the gate and both turned towards town.

"Do you want to come over mine and watch a couple of movies or play some games?" I offered as we headed into the town centre.

"That sounds like fun." He replied. "I have to warn you that I don't like horror movies."

"I don't, either, so you don't need to worry about that. We'll watch a comic book movie or something." I suggested. "So, do you want to meet in town and grab some snacks before heading back to mine? It'll be easier than you trying to find my address."

"Good plan. What time do you want to meet?" He queried.

We organised a meet up plan for Saturday, swapped numbers and Flynn headed home, stuffing his nose back in his book as he walked off. I headed into one of the shops to grab a drink before heading home.

"Welcome home, honey." My mum called as I walked through the front door. I noticed that she was in the kitchen and kicked off my shoes before heading out there. The suitcase was open on the dining table and she was packing it with both her and my dad's clothes. "I'm so sorry that we're going to miss your sixteenth birthday."

"It's fine, mum. The business is important and if you need to go on this business trip, I can handle a birthday without you." I told her, giving her a smile. "We agreed that we'd celebrate on Monday after school instead of Sunday, anyway. I'm just going to relax in the house, maybe eat a bit of cake, and enjoy some peace. Mark and Ryan said that they might come over to watch some movies, anyway. You have nothing to worry about."

"I'm so glad that you're so understanding. We will celebrate properly when your father and I get back." She replied, adding a small pile of clothes to the case. "I've prepared some food in the fridge that just needs to be heated up but there's also some money if you wanted to get a take-out."

"Awesome. Thank you." I said, heading to the fridge and opening the door to find that it was full of various healthy snacks, chocolate bars, containers of food all stacked neatly, a full four pints of milk, and four big bottles of cola. I just turned to look at her. "Mum, how much do you think I actually eat?"

"Well, I didn't know what you wanted." She pointed out, pairing socks from the underwear basket. I grabbed a bag of carrot sticks and a bag of apple slices before closing the fridge. "Right, we'll be leaving as soon as your dad gets back from work."

"All right. I'll come down and see you both off." I spoke as I headed out of the kitchen. "I'm going to go and get some homework done. I'll see you both in a bit."

The next morning, I woke, grabbed cereal for breakfast and then showered. Since the house was empty, I decided to play music while I got ready. It didn't take me too long to get ready but by the time I had, it started raining. I groaned before grabbing a hoodie. I also grabbed the umbrella for good measure before heading into town.

Flynn was hiding under a shop canopy when I spotted him, his tall frame hunched over to try and make himself look small enough though he was barely staying dry. I headed over to him, giving him a smile as I stopped just outside of the canopy. "Afternoon, Flynn. No book today?"

"I thought it was a bit too wet to read while I walked." He replied, giving me a little smile, too. I pulled my hood up and held the umbrella out to him. His shoulders were a little wet but I couldn't tell if he had just got there or if he had been ridiculously early – in which case, I wished that I hadn't kept him waiting. He stepped under the umbrella next to me. "So, were are we going?"

Over an hour later, Flynn and I stepped through my front door out of the rain. I'd expected the rain to stop after the short while but it had just gotten worse after we had gone into the shop. We'd huddled under the umbrella all the way back and Flynn probably hated how slow we had to walk because of my shorter legs. I shut the door behind us and turned on the light. "I'll get you something to change into."

"It's fine. It just got to my coat." Flynn replied. I headed out the kitchen anyway, putting the shopping back on the counter and grabby a towel from the pile that I was meant to put away in the bathroom. He followed me out and took the towel that I held out to him. "Thanks. Are both your parents at work?"

"Technically, yes. Mum's had to go away for the weekend for a business trip and day went with her. It just means that we don't have to worry about disturbing anyone." I told him, opening the fridge and pulling out one of the bottles of cola, reaching into the cupboard for the glasses. "Want a drink?"

For the next couple of hours, Flynn and I watched a few movies and played a lot of games. We lost track of time – and then his phone had rung and we'd realised that it was almost midnight. It was a good thing that it was the weekend. "Why don't you just stay over?"

"Are you sure?" Flynn wondered, holding his phone away from his ear so he could focus on me. I nodded and he moved his attention back to his phone. "Dad, Jonah says that it's alright with them if I want to."

He finished the conversation on the phone and picked his controller back up, turning to me. "Do you want to see how long it takes us to complete this game?"

"I didn't think that you'd be such a gamer." I laughed, also picking up my controller. We got comfy again and I un-paused the game.

The next morning, it was strange to wake up face to face with someone – but Flynn's sleeping face was so peaceful. At some point during the night, his arm had reached out and draped over my waist but it wasn't uncomfortable. I didn't want to disturb him and the bed was really warm, so, I started shuffling down a little, further under the blanket with as little disturbance to Flynn as I could. I knew I hadn't succeeded when I heard him yawn, followed by a little husky voice. "Good morning. Don't you want to get up yet?"

"No way. Now, get back to sleep before you wake up too much." I told him, getting comfy and closing my eyes. "Come on. There's no reason to get up yet. It's my birthday, so, I think we're allowed a lie-in."

"It's your birthday?!" He exclaimed, sitting up quickly and taking the blanket with him. He turned to look at me and I sat up, too, fully awake now. "Why didn't you tell-"

I'd ran my hand through my hair and had been surprised when he'd stopped mid-sentence. I just looked at him, wondering how he could be so energetic in the morning. "Why did you stop?"

"Check your hand." He suggested. I did so, seeing the string there. Flynn held up his hand to show the other end of the string that was attached to his hand. I leaned back against the pillows, wondering what would happen now. Flynn moved himself so his tall frame was above me, his forearms resting either side of my head. "Happy birthday, Jonah."

I reached up and pushed his hair out of his face so I could see it better, searching his eyes to find out what he thought about me. He leaned down to close the gap between our lips, answering the unasked question with a kiss.