Joe and Tom had just left their friend's birthday party. A little blunder the two made, they had accidentally stayed a bit overtime. If it wasn't for Joe glancing at the clock then they really would've been done for. Both of their parents wanted the boys home by 12. And right now it was about 11:30 pm. Because of the long distance they needed to cover the wise thing they should've done was at least leave at eleven. But they didn't. Now the walk back they had to take was even darker as it slowly approached midnight.
The two leisurely strolled down the road, dirt and rock crunching underneath their converse, while making idle conversation. Naturally since they were neighbors and because their families had worked together it contributed to them being the best of friends.
"Damn son that party was dope! And did you see Gina?" Joe mock swooned and clutched at his chest, "Fine as wine."
Tom grinned at his friend, enjoying the small fangirling moment he had over Gina. "Eh she was aight I guess. Not much of the girls there were my type anyway," he shrugged.
Joe wiggled his eyebrows, "Wait I forgot. You're still stuck on Amber right?" His elbow jutted out and nudged his friend in his side.
Tom smacked his arm, looking away to hide his red cheeks. Although the shadows that befell them on the street did that pretty well Tom just felt embarrassed at this topic. "Oh hush Joe you know we broke up last week! I don't like her like that anymore..." Now his eyes were fixated onto the ground knowing his outburst revealed the truth already.
Joe snickered, a smug smile crossing his lips, happy to have solved the mystery. "Okay Tom whateeeever you say!"
Tom groaned, already imaging the endless teasing that would ensue after this.
Still caught up in his sulking, Tom was soon brought back to reality when he heard Joe cuss. His eyes looked over to his friend in concern.
"Hey what's up?"
Joe had his phone out but the harsh white illuminated numbers on his IPhone lock screen made it clear what the problem was.
"Holy shit! It's 11:45!! What are we gonna do Tom?! We were walking so slow and stuff we forgot about the time."
Tom too was at a bit of a loss for what to do.
"We can't exactly run home because we still have a long way to go!" Tom pointed out, frowning as he realized this.
Joe was busy typing away on his phone which had Tom annoyed since he wasn't paying attention.
"Joe! This is no time to be texting your friends unless you're asking for a ride!", Tom snapped.
"Aha I got it!", Joe beamed. The lighting of his phone helping to emphasize his proud look.
"What?" Now Tom stared at his friend, dumbstruck. "What are you on about ya loon."
"Look man a shortcut. I searched up our addresses and where we were now. According to Google if we did take this shortcut then we should be home in approximately 15 minutes instead of an hour which is how long we would take if we kept going our normal way."
Huh. This didn't sound like such a bad idea to Tom. "Alright where is this shortc--Hey!"
Joe had already began jogging away from him which spurred Tom to follow or else lose him.
"Bro!" Damn he was quick. Tom thought as Joe was already off in the distance hopping over short fences and disappearing through bushes. After shoving aside the last low hanging branch, to Tom's relief he had finally saw Joe standing still. Placing his hand on his shoulder Tom wheezed, managing to gasp out, "Whe...Where are we going?"
