Page 34 of Almost Ours

I give a light chuckle. The cold has sobered me up fast, and now that the swan drama is over, I’m realising how late it’s gotten. I pull my phone from my pocket to check the time and my eyebrows shoot up. "Bloody hell."

Josh glances over. "What?"

"It's nearly three in the morning." I lock my phone again, making a mental note to text Oscar back if his six unread messages are anything to go by. "I should probably leave you to it."

"Leave me to what?"

"Get home." I gesture vaguely behind him. "Sleep. So you can get to the shop in the morning to buy yourself some new trainers."

The corner of his mouth lifts. "They're beyond saving, are they?"

"I think you need to accept their fate, to be honest."

He looks down at them one last time before lifting his eyes back to me. "Which halls are you in again?"

"Hussey."

He dips his chin. "Come on then."

I frown. "Come on where?"

"I'll walk you back."

Oh. Handsome, kind and chivalrous? "Josh, honestly, you don't have to. You've done enough tonight."

"I'd like to, though."

"You've already gone out of your way once." I gesture back towards Jess's halls. "You could've walked straight past her outside the toilets, but you didn't. It's only a couple of minutes. I'll be fine."

"I’m sure you will."

“Then you know you don’t have to go out of your way?”

He shrugs, looking a bit awkward. “I’d just rather know you got back alright.”

I open my mouth to argue again, then close it. Fine. Maybe I don’t actually want to win this one. “Okay,” I say, failing to hide my smile. “If you must.”

He turns towards the path, and I fall into step beside him, pulling my jacket tighter around myself. "Do you think she'll be alright?"

"Yeah," Josh replies. "She was just drunk. I reckon she'll wake up tomorrow wondering why her shoes smell like sick and why she's got an irrational fear of swans."

"I don't think her fear's irrational anymore." I let out a low chuckle. “You know, if someone had told me this morning, I’d meet you and then watch you try and fight a bird—"

“I wasn’t trying to fight it. I was defending myself.”

I laugh. “You were very valiant. I applaud you.”

Josh snorts. “Why is the uni keeping a psychopathic bird anyway?”

“Keep us on our toes.”

“Yeah, fucking literally. It would’ve gnawed one off if it’d gotten the chance.”

“Don’t be so dramatic.”

“You weren’t the one in the firing line.”

“I was right beside you.”