A Summer Fling (Aris x Reader AU)

5) Diner

I tried to ask where we were going. I really did, but every time they would look at each other with what can only be described as childlike glee.

I got the message and stopped asking. I just accepted that I was being led through a forest I hadn't been in in years with people I hadn't seen in years.

They knew the way better, and it showed. Teresa and Thomas were further up ahead, stepping past thorns and branches. Y/N could have been up ahead too but instead chose to stay back with me.

“This is the last of the secrets, right? Nothing more is gonna be thrown at me?”

“Probably. We’ll just have to see how the summer goes,”She shrugged, stepping over a log. I followed her footsteps before just staying beside her, my hands in my pockets as I looked at her. “Tomorrow, you get to do actual work. You ready for that?”

“Including getting up early?”

“Yes. If you want to eat breakfast. You could always starve though. Up to you.”

“Is it really? Because it does not sound like it.”

“That's ‘cause you’ve gotten too comfy in your suburbs. You’ll grow used to it in a week.”

“It takes up to a month to develop a new habit actually.”

“Well, tell it to hurry up then.”

I rolled my eyes at her a little while still following her, now uphill. Figuring I would be fine as long as I did everything she did, I kept trudging along.

Her steps were effortless, her not even flinching at the vines on her legs. The same vines that kind of made me want to tear my skin off. Just a little.

“I swear it's worth it,”She spoke, not even looking back as she came to the top of the hill, her hands still at her sides.

“I’ll take your word for it,”I promised.

“I’m sure you will.”

“Any slower and we’ll be there by sundown!”Thomas shouted from ahead.

“Hold your horses! You're why there's no lake today!”She shouted back.

“Hey, that phrase gets to be literal now,”I realized, finally standing beside her.

“Yep. Welcome back, Aris. Welcome back,”She sighed, patting my shoulder before trudging along. Again.

☆ ☆ ⁠☆

It felt strange to walk out of a forest. Almost like being thrust from one universe to the next in the span of half an hour. It was like having whiplash in real time.

It was just road. An empty road.

“Wrong direction,”Teresa spoke. I turned to ask what she meant when I realized where I was actually supposed to be looking.

It wasn't here when I left. Nothing was here when I left actually. It was just more woods. There definitely wasn't a small diner with maybe six cars parked outside. Unless I’ve just developed amnesia every time I’ve gone past this point, though I’m not sure that's a huge possibility.

“Come on. I’m hungry,”Thomas urged, already making his way there.

“You're always hungry,”Y/N sighed, rolling her eyes before taking my hand, dragging me along with them as if my face wasn't bright red at the contact. Not that she would notice as she kept facing forward.

Deciding to focus on literally anything else, I looked at the sign just above my head that just read Diner. Straight to the point. Why waste time on name’s when you could just do that instead? It's like naming a baby Person. It's not technically wrong. Maybe immoral though.