To Our Pinky Promises

Chapter 4

I walked into the café and searched the room for Ty. The room stank with the smell of cigarette smoke and I had to fight the urge to cough, not wanting to make the other customers who were smoking uncomfortable.

He had texted me a picture of my bookmark. I don't remember how he could've gotten a hold of it but that's probably because I was too drunk to remember.

He had told me to come get it here since he was with his friends.

I finally found him at a booth with his mates, laughing at something his friend said and drawing in another drag of smoke from his cigarette.

4 years ago, the sight would've probably gained a disapproving look from me but after what had happened with Alex, I realized that everyone was allowed to live their lives however they wanted and it wasn't my place to judge their decisions.

I walked towards the group of boys and tapped Ty on the shoulder.

I could feel the other boys' eyes on me but I chose to ignore them, focusing solely on the reason why I'm here. I turned my hand, palm side up, and looked at Ty, silently asking him to give back what was mine.

"Oh, you're here." Ty smiled lazily, scooting further inside the booth and patting the newly made space beside him. "Come sit, shorty."

I rolled my eyes at his nickname for me and stressed my hand by shaking it slightly.

"Oh, what's the rush, just have a sit first and say hi to the boys." He waved me off.

"Give me my bookmark, then I'll sit." I negotiated.

He weighed his options before shrugging and digging his pockets to fish out my bookmark.

The bookmark was a metal miniature shaped like an opened book that was connected to a chain with a glass ball filled with small red petals hanging on the other end of the chain. It was a birthday gift from my sister and I didn't want to lose it.

I slipped it into my pocket so that I wouldn't lose it and was about to sit when, out of nowhere, I felt a hand grab my arm and started tugging me away from the table. I yelped in surprise and whirled around, getting a good look at the person who was manhandling me.

"Alex? What the-" I was cut off when he yanked me harshly and pulled me out of the café. Ty and his friends were booing from the table but, for some reason, they made no move to stop Alex from taking me away.

When we were finally outside, he let go of my arm. I shook it and rubbed at the spot where he grabbed me. It had turned an angry red.

"It's the 21st fucking Century, can't you be more civilized?" I scowled at him as I nursed my arm.

It didn't hurt that much. I was just annoyed at how he treated me. I knew we weren't on speaking terms but we weren't exactly on bad terms either. We had just lost touch and didn't have any reason to revisit our friendship.

There was no reason for him to be so rough with me.

"Stay away from those guys." Alex said, deflecting my annoyance at him.

"What?" I frowned, taken aback by his sudden outburst.

"They aren't good people. If you know what's good for you, keep your distance." He said.