Unspoken Rules (Rules 2)

“Just drop it. You already said yes anyway.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“You don’t get it, Winter.”

“Then explain it to me.” I stare at him.

“It’s complicated.”

I scoff. “It always is.”

I put the last of the groceries away and move over to the living room to get away from him. He can’t be upset with me and not want to tell me why. This whole “closed book” thing is really starting to get on my nerves.

A few minutes later, he joins me. He’s holding the bag he had walking in the store earlier after his mysterious departure. He tells me to scoot over and sits next to me.

“Remember what we talked about today?” He grins like we weren’t arguing barely a minute ago. He seems so excited I don’t question his sudden demeanour change. “About you not having a phone?”

“Yeah?”

“I thought it was time we did something about that.” He gets a box out of the bag, opens it, and takes my ability to speak away from me.

In the box… is a brand-new phone.

“Haze, you didn’t.”

How the heck am I supposed to be annoyed with him when he does things like that?

My eyes fly over the phone for a few seconds. It’s very recent—like this year’s recent.

>

“Are you insane? I can’t accept this.”

“You kind of threw yours in the toilet because of me. I figured I owed you one. Plus, having you walk around with a dinosaur kind of defeats the purpose of keeping you safe, don’t you think?” He grabs my phone on the table next to the couch and analyzes it. “What can you even do with that piece of crap anyway?”

“I mean… I can text and call.”

“Can you even take pictures on that thing?”

“Of course. As long as you don’t mind them looking like they were taken with a potato.”

“Do you have any?” he asks.

“No, it’s kind of useless.”

“What about apps?”

“Server doesn’t allow it.” I shrug.

“So, basically, you don’t have anything that matters on there.” He raises an eyebrow.

“Pretty much,” I give in. “But it’s not that bad. It survived a lot more than the new phones do.” I refer to the whole kidnapping hell.

He smirks and glances at my prehistoric phone in his hand.

“Let’s see if it survives this.” He gets up and starts running.

Dang it, Winter. How could you not see that one coming?