faded.

TWELVE

ONIKA

I walked to my car holding a little gift I baked for Bey and stopped to text her and stopped in the middle of my driveway to text her back.

It had been a couple weeks since we kissed and while things were the same for the most part, they were also very different.

She responded to my goodmorning text and asked me if I wanted an açaí bowl. How does she even know what that is?

I texted her to call me and then got in my car so I could connect to the carplay.

I was tossing my bag in my backseat when my car alarm started playing mr home ringing. I turned around and answered the phone with a smile. "Hi Bey."

"Hey, did you tell me to call you because you don't know what an açaí bowl is? I didn't either but it seemed like something you would like." She sounded tired.

I giggled, she was so unintentionally adorable. "No, I was just confused why you were asking me if I wanted one. Where are you?"

"I'm at this smoothie place. I went for a walk because I had munchies and stumbled across it."

"How are you getting to school? Do you need a ride?"

"I've been enjoying just walking around, but sure. You act like somebody's going to snatch me up or something."

I laughed to myself again thinking about our strange conversation about who would get sex trafficked. "You never know. But send me the address first where you are, I'm already in my car."

"Okay, and I'm going to get you the bowl since you didn't answer. See you."

"Thank you for thinking of me. See you." I hung up the phone and then squealed. She's so considerate.

I never knew how much fun having a crush was. This is the best type of anxiety.

When she sent me the address, I put it in my gps and started driving. It was only about seven minutes away from me which made me wonder how far Bey walked because I knew we lived in two different areas.

I parked and went inside when I got there. Thankfully, I usually go to school early so we had time before school started.

Bey was at a table by herself with a smoothie and an açaí bowl across the table from her. she waved when she noticed me walking over and I sat down at the table. "Hey Bey."

"Hey, Ms.Onika." She smiled at me and her eyes squinted closed. She was high but at least it was just from weed. "You look good."

I went from cute to good. I couldn't tell if that was an upgrade or downgrade.

I knew I was smiling like a fool. "Really? Thank you. I didn't know if I was showing too much with the right clothes." I was wearing a black short sleeve shirt that clung to my body and black leggings with socks that were kind of pushed to the bottom and Ugg Tasmans.

"No, I really like it." She wasn't even hiding the fact that she was checking me out.

"I like your outfit too." I wasn't even just saying that because she gave me a compliment, she actually looked really good. She was wearing jeans and a hoodie with a navy Carhartt jacket over it. Her natural curls tamer than usual.

"I tried. I've been up 1am so I had a lot of time to plan." No wonder she was up and out so early.

"What? Why? Aren't you going to be tired?"

She checked the time on her phone. "The people in my brain were working an overnight. But I have to talk to Ms.Bassett before school starts, can we go?"