Strawberry || Owen Joyner

seventeen

It's Nash's last night before he leaves for his show. I was going over to their apartment and we were hanging out, just the three of us.

Winston is coming early in the morning so he can come to the airport with us. When I walk into the apartment, I could tell the vibes were off.

They were sad. "My two best friends!" I cheer when I walk inside. I didn't see them anywhere.

I go to Nash's room to see him looking through his stuff. "What's up super star?" I grab his attention.

He turns over to me and smiles. "I think I'm overreacting and making sure I have everything." He tells me honestly.

I go and help him. I tell him to make a list on his phone as I list everything he has.

I could see him relax knowing he has everything. I pout as I crawl on his bed next to him.

"I feel like I just got everything back. And you're leaving." I frown. I know it's three months. But I'm still going to miss him.

Whenever I hang out with Kira, Charlie, Owen, and Jeremy it's not going to be the same.

But hopefully it goes by fast. "Don't worry, S. It's just for a couple of months." He assured me.

"Hey, when did you get here?" Kira asked walking in. "About fifteen minutes ago." She comes over to us and sits down.

"Well, let's go have some fun." I tell my friends. It was dark so we were going to the playground.

It's the only time we can go where it doesn't look weird. We play on it for hours. It was pretty fun too.

I felt like a ten year old again. When we get done, we go to in and out to eat.

"I'm going to miss in and out." Nash tells us while putting a fry in his mouth. "Tell us about your character." He smiled.

"His name is Eric. He's a senior in high school and captain on the soccer team." Kira and I both grimaced at each other.

"Soccer?" We laugh at him. "Oh fuck off." He shakes his head while laughing.

Tonight was honestly pretty fun. I didn't want it to end. Because if I go to sleep, then I have to say goodbye to Nash.

I don't wanna get too emotional. But I know I will. This is the farthest and longest he's ever been away.

I'm gonna miss the shit out of him. When we got back to the apartment, we made a fort in the living room.

"Imagine having weed in here. We could hot box this joint." Nash jokes. I looked over at Kira to see her blushing.

"I might have some from Charlie." I know Charlie smokes once in a while. We all look in between each other.

She grabbed it and we started smoking it together. We used to do this a lot in high school.

But since we've grown up a little, we do it about once or twice a year. About twenty minutes after smoking it, I could feel it.

We were all laying here giggling at each other.

"Who closes the door when the bus driver gets off?" Kira asked. We all got quiet to think about it.

We had my light up bonsai tree lit so we had a light. And we did what we wanted, we hot boxed the fort.

We took the smoke detectors off so we wouldn't have to worry about it. "Do they have powers?" I ask as Nash chuckled.

I could tell Nash had a question. "Who taught the first teacher?" He asked as we chuckled.

"Why don't you ask the teacher you date in the show?" I ask while giggling.

Kira was giggling at it. We were like this for a little but we fell asleep.

"Guys!" I bolt up as I look at who it was. Winston was shaking Nash up. Am I still high?

I look around to see the sun shining through. "Why isn't Nash waking up?" Winston asked worriedly.

"He's a deep sleeper when he's high." I explain. Winston wakes up Nash as I wake Kira up.

We all rush out of the apartment to get to LAX. We had an hour and a half to get there.

"Last night was worth this rush, I gotta admit." Nash laughed as he thought about it.

"Yeah, the apartment was smelling like it whenever I went to wake you up." Winston laughed.

I can tell Winston was sad, but he was trying to hide it for Nash's sake. When we get to the airport, we walk with Nash.

Kira hugs him first. When they get done, he looks over at me. He opens his arms up as I walk to him.

I wrapped my arms around him. "Please be careful." I tell one of my best friends. "Speak to yourself." He joked.

I laughed in his chest. I pulled away so I look up to him.

"I love you dude." He tells me he loves me too as we look at Winston. I could see the tears in his eyes.

"We'll let you two talk." Kira and I walked away from them so they can have their moment.

We walk to Winstons car and stood against it. My stomach growled signaling I'm hungry.

"We should get Waffle House. I'm starving." I admit to her. She scrunched her nose towards me.

"IHop is way better." We start arguing with each other about which was better.

We didn't even realize that Winston walked back to us. "You know Waffle House is better." I argue.

"I can't leave you two alone can I?" We instantly got quiet. He sucked in a breath. "I'm going to be okay." He told himself.

We both smiled at him lightly. "Come on, let's go get breakfast." He smiled. We got into his car and he started to drive.

"We need your help. IHop or Waffle House?" Winston made a noise with his mouth as he drove.

"IHop. A hundred percent." Kira laughed in my face as I shook my head.

"Majority rules. We're going to iHop." Kira cheered. She might've won this little battle, but I'm winning the prank war.

We still have a few weeks left. I just need to think about a good prank to get me on top.

Right now, it's Kilton. I'm a few points behind him. I won't deny, Kilton has been killing the prank war.

But I really want that Maui trip. I miss Hawaii. It's so beautiful there.

We get to iHop and sit down at a table. "You excited to move in?" I ask Winston, making conversation.

"Yes and no. It'll be nice to have someone to talk to but it's gonna be weird without Nash." He pouted.

I pout too. I miss him already. But I know this is his dream. So I couldn't be happier for him.

Nash truly deserves it. I can't wait to see it whenever it's done.

Us three eat breakfast together, which was really fun. But sadly I had to leave.

I didn't get much sleep, so I wanted to catch up on it. When I get to my house, it was quiet.

I check the time with it being eight o'clock, on the dot. After the night we had and the emotional morning, I was exhausted.

I went to my room, instantly falling asleep. I feel like I was asleep for years.

But I felt something get in my bed. I shoot up to see what it was.

I relaxed when I saw it was Owen. "I didn't mean to wake you." He apologized.

I shrug towards him. "It's okay. You can make it up to me though." I smirk when I had relaxed.

He looked at me questionably. "What will that be?" He asked with a little cockiness in his voice.

"Cuddle with me." He lightly smiled as he opened his arms up.

I crawled into his arms, laying my head on his chest. His heartbeat calmed my nerves, and slowed my breathing.

And before I knew it, I fell asleep in his arms.