Boots

"My father is going to kill me,"

I groaned, head in my palms as I sulked in the middle of the restaurant I'm currently in.

"He's not," my friend said from across the table point-blank, raising a brow at me as she fiddled with the ziplock in her hands.

"What would you know?" I snapped, raising my head and glaring at her from my seat as she furrowed her brows at my sudden reaction.

Realizing what I said, I bit my lip and clasped my hands together, resting my forehead against them with a sigh.

"I'm sorry, I- I'm just scared,"

"Yeah, I get it," she said nonchalantly, placing the plastic ziplock down finally with a sigh of her own.

"So what now?"

I raised a brow at her as she leaned back on her chair, hand guiding her drink to her lips as she leasurely drank. God I wish I can go back 15 minutes ago where I can be like that.

"What do you mean what now?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows at her.

She paused, her brows knitting together as she leaned back against the table, placing her drink down.

"What do you mean 'what do I mean?' I mean what now. What do we do now- what do you do now? Do you think raising a baby is easy? You can't even bear the thought of telling your father!"

"Ugh! I know!" I raised my voice, slamming my hands against the table, enough for the convo to stop- but not enough to cause a scene.

Silence fell between us after that. The atmosphere was suffocating, awkward, and I just- ugh.

"More than that, what are you gonna tell him?" I internally screamed when Stephanie started up again, but instead, I just grabbed my own cup of coffee and drank.

"My father? Still thinking about it,"

"No, you idiot. I'm talking about Archie,"

At her words I physically recoiled- causing my drink to come back up, ultimately leading me to choke.

I coughed violently and waved my hands as I watched Steph immediately stand up from my peripheral.

"You really are an idiot. Drink," she annoyedly said, handing me a glass of water as she rushed by my side.

I immediately took the glass and downed it, in hopes of it calming down my throat. Luckily it did, so I finished it in one gulp.

"The check, please," I took a deep breath and placed the now empty glass of water down on the table in front of me, leaning back as I watched the waiter Steph called over leave the table.

"What's going on with you? Is there a problem between you and Archie?" Stephanie immediately asked as soon as I calmed down.

I wanted to shake my head, I really do, but I can't keep lying to myself.

Instead of answering, I averted my eyes to the side and picked my cup up again, drinking- now carefully.

"Damn. What happened?" I sighed, bringing my cup down from my lips and gripping it with both hands, fingers tapping on the sides as I thought of a response.

"He's just been... Busy, these past few days. There's nothing going on, really, he just..." I trailed off, eyes glancing out the window boredly.

Until something caught my eye, and I paused-ooking back at the couple that just passed by a few meters away from the restaurant.

"He's just been...?"

The girl asked, staring at her friend from across the table who was intently looking outside the window of the restaurant they're in, as if she's looking for something.

"Penny!" She called out, tapping the table in the middle of them harshly, causing the girl to snap out of it and turn back to her, at last.

The beautiful dark-skinned, at this point absolutely done, girl sighed at her friend again, scratching the back of her ear.

"You are out of it," she shook her head at her friend who just sheepishly smiled at her, lightly tugging on her ears.

"Here you go, ladies," just in time, the winter finally came back with their check; placing the metal tray with a leather bound booklet ontop of it at the side of the table.

Stephanie wasted no time and immediately took her wallet out of her purse and slapped a 500 dollar bill down, snatching the ziplock bag on top of the table and stuffing it inside her Berlin bag as her friend, Penny, watched her.

"Come on, let's continue the talk in the car," she said, standing up and grabbing her friend from across the table, tugging the tinier girl up to her feet.

Penny wasted no time and immediately stood up after her friend and took her purse from the chair she previously sat on, snatching her unfinished coffee in the process.

They continued the walk towards the front of the restaurant, with Stephanie dragging her poor friend around as Penny tried to catch up. But, she walked without objection, so it's presumably alright.

"I think I saw Archie earlier," as soon as they step foot outside of the restaurant, the tinier girl said- looking back at the area she presumably saw her boyfriend at.

Her taller friend looked down at her as she searched her purse for her keys, asking: "What's Archie gonna do in a place like this?"

"I think he was with a girl,"

To be continued