"Asia."
She flipped her long braids over her shoulder and turned away from him. In just a few more achingly slow minutes, the bus would pull onto Darden Court.
"Asiiiiaaaaa."
She adjusted her book bag on her shoulder, rolling her eyes as she listened intently for the squeaky hot metal sounds of the bus's brakes one street over.
It wasn't like this was a new annoyance. He did this almost every morning that she wasn't able to catch a ride with a friend or Uber to school.
Tires slowly rolled over gravel, as the bright red paint flashed in her peripheral vision. He was becoming so much more persistent as the year was coming to a close. And Asia Wilson was finding it more and more difficult to ignore him.
She turned and looked towards the blonde boy with a messy undercut and the makings of a perfect summer tan hanging out of his Jeep window. The car had been an early graduation present and the catalyst for the daily invitations.
"Fuck off, Logan. I'm not driving anywhere with you."
This only incited a larger grin to spread across her neighbor's face. He pushed a hand through his hair before laying his head on his crossed arms, shooting a pouty look her way. "Please let me give you a ride? It's the last day of school and you have yet to let me drive you anywhere."
"Because I'd actually like to live to see graduation." She punctuated her over dramatic statement with an eye-roll.
Logan chuckled, sitting up and back into his seat. "Suit yourself... but I'm going to get you before the year is over, Asia."
She couldn't help but smile at the way he said her name and the little wink that accompanied it before he drove off. She watched the red Jeep move down the street until it was out of view and the large yellow school bus pulled around the corner.
The smell and unjustified volume of the bus instantly made a pang of regret bounce around her chest, but she swung into a seat near the front. As per her normal routine, she tuned her phone to a favorite playlist and popped in her headphones, drowning out the sound of the rowdy underclassmen behind her.
Sometimes, when she thought about it... Asia didn't understand her relationship with Logan Anderson. They had been neighbors since kindergarten, moms forging a relationship as they were the youngest on the street. Afternoons and weekends throughout their childhood were spent together. And for a very long time, she considered Logan her best and only friend.
But as things go, people get older. And high school brings a whole new set of unfamiliar feelings and emotions. But the weird soft spot Logan had for her since they were kids had never changed.
Despite different groups of friends. And both of them becoming popular in their own right, there would never be a time when she saw Logan in the hallway or at a football game and she wouldn't get his full attention. In their early high school years, it had been annoying when her loud lanky best friend would yell from across the quad, drawing out her name in that irritating way that only he could.
But as they grew older, like some typical Disney movie montage, Logan grew into... what he is now. And study sessions that were once joke-filled and fun, became awkward and tense. Asia would stare a little longer, and notice cringey things. Like how the closer to summer they got, the more freckles would appear on his shoulders. Or how his impossibly long lashes fluttered when he would concentrate on tapping out an equation on his TI-83.
As they pulled into the school's parking lot, she caught a glimpse of Logan and his group crowded around his car. She recognized a few of her friends among the girls who were nearly hanging off of him as he spoke and rolled her eyes.
Her friends would constantly ask her how and why she remained just friends with Logan.
"You spent like every day together the summer before sophomore year... Y'all never hooked up? Like nothing? Not even kiss?"
She would always annoyedly shake her head at the aghast faces of her friends. There were always a few moments that would come to her mind when these questions would come... but nothing that was anyone else's business. And to be honest, before she could even start thinking about it... their study dates had become non-existent, being replaced by practices and meetups of their respective after school activities.
As she stepped off the bus, she moved past the crowd around Logan, only glancing over to see if any of her friends had noticed her arrival. They all still leaned against his car, wrapt in whatever mind-numbing babble they undoubtedly assumed would endear them to Logan.
This day could not end sooner and her last summer before college couldn't start fast enough. It would only be a few more weeks before her internship started in the city and she was more than eager to get out of here. She had turned 18 last fall and was more than ready to explore life outside of her starry-eyed friends and uncomfortable relationships with her friend turned B.M.O.C.
*************
U awake
Asia stared quizzically at the notification that popped up on her phone beside her. She had been spending her first night of freedom from highschool reading a book suggested by her soon to be college English professor; the buzz of her phone had startled her.
She sat up, sitting the book on the bed beside her. The phone buzzed again as she picked it up, signifying again that she had an unread message.
As she swiped it open, Logan's familiar contact photo appeared, displaying their thread. Asia glanced at the time. It was almost midnight.
Im up. what do you want?
She swiped up to review their thread history. Sporadic messages of holiday well-wishes and asking if spare key copies were available was pretty much what their recent textual conversation had been made up of. A random late-night text was odd.
Come outside.
She began typing a snappy response- but was halted when the phone buzzed again.
Please? Don't make me start callin your name.
Asia rolled her eyes, deleting her message. She sighed and stood up from her bed, pulling on some white volleyball shorts and her flip flops with the tank top she already wore before heading downstairs.
As she closed her front door behind her, she saw Logan across the lawn. Arms crossed, leaning against his Jeep.
She walked slowly across her yard to meet him at the curb. "I should have let you yell. My parents would have loved that."
