♥ 𝓓𝓮𝓶𝓸𝓵𝓲𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷 𝓛𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓻𝓼 ♥ ~ A Your Boyfriend Game Fanfic/AU

Chapter 3: Part I - Strangers In The Night

Soundtrack:

Tea Errors by Jack Stauber (Peter)

Blue Moon (lofi) by Izzie Naylor (Lily)

After work, I clock out and put away my apron. TK clocks out with me.

There's a heavy silence between us. Only the sound of rustling fabric and tense breathing. I can tell they want to say something.

"Spit it out," I sigh. I turn to fill a paper cup with coffee from the employee's break room.

TK doesn't hesitate. "Are you sure you'll be alright?" they ask. "These circumstances are weird." They raise an eye at my cup of coffee. "It's 8pm. Are you sure you wanna drink that?"

I roll my eyes and stick my tongue out at them. "I'll text you when I get home."

TK sighs. "That's the best I'm gonna get from you, isn't it?"

I smirk. "You don't like me for my good behavior." I sip my coffee.

TK rolls their eyes with a smile. "Trust me, that's the only thing I like about you."

I chuckle. "Goodnight, TK. I'll see you on Monday."

"Yeah. See ya," TK says. "Don't forget to let me know you're okay." They seem like they want to say more, but they change their mind.

I step out the employee's back door. The cool night air gives me some renewed energy. After work, I'm usually pretty sweaty, and today is no exception. Maybe it's the coffee.

Well, if my personality doesn't scare him off, my smell will. I sigh and walk to the main street, looking around for Peter.

He said he'd be here. My expression falls flat as I imagine he might've thought I was too aggressive and booked it before he had to answer questions about himself.

I chuckle to myself about the idea. Such a tall, intimidating figure, and yet so affected by me and my temper.

"What's so funny?"

I yelp and jump forward. My coffee spills a little, and drips onto my hand.

"Damn it, Peter!" I whip around to face him. "What the fuck are you doing?" His narrow frame towers above me. Someone else might be intimidated by it, but I'm unaffected by his height.

He puts his hands up in submission. "Sorry! I said I'd wait for you—"

"I thought you'd be waiting on the street," I say, rubbing my brow. "You scared the shit out of me."

He hunches in embarrassment. "Sorry." Then he perks up. "Where should we walk to?"

I look him up and down for a moment. Peter's eyes catch the light like a cat's. It's strange, but again, it doesn't bother me.

"I'm...not sure," I say.

"Do you still wanna go to my house?" Peter averts his gaze and rubs the back of his head. If it wasn't so dark, I bet I'd see him blushing.

"Hah. No," I say flatly. "Why don't we go down to the river? It's a bit of a walk. Plenty of time for you to spill your guts about yourself."

Peter has too many expressions cross his face for me to decipher what he's feeling. It's certainly not any one emotion.

"Sure," he says, falling in step behind me.

I can feel his intense gaze on me. You'd think I'd feel strange, having those large, intrusive eyes focused on me. Instead, it feels normal for his eyes to look at me that way...

Though that makes no sense.

If Peter was a wolf, stalking what he thought was a sheep (me), he'll be very surprised to find that he's not hunting anything that can be considered prey.

"What do you do for work?" I ask. My breath leaves a cloud of mist behind me. The air is chilly, and I shrug farther into my hoodie.

I get a sense of deja vu, reminded of the night we met.

I hear Peter inhale, then exhale. "I get sponsorships from reviewing different products, basically. Then I upload the videos."

I laugh. "So you're a youtuber?" Another laugh bursts from my lips. "That is so...unexpected." I wonder what his digital footprint looked like.

Peter picks up the pace so he can see my expression. "Something like that. It puts food on the table."

I snort. "What food? You look like you hardly eat."

Peter chuckles. "Food isn't high on my list of priorities."

I meet his gaze. His eyes shine like a cat's again. "Then what is on your list of priorities?"

Peter's blue eyes seem to get even more intense. He doesn't break eye contact with me, like I expected he would. Instead, he remains silent, just looking at me with those inquisitive eyes.

The space between us seems increasingly small and yet infinitely big at the same time. What would it be like to be inside his head?

A pole smacks me in the face.