THE JOCK JUST WANTS THE NERD [2]

18

||ETHAN||

"Ethan?"

I stare in surprise, "no way!" I beam cheerfully. I give her a hug to which she returned. Reunited, we both giggle happily as I pull back to look at her, "Kyomi! How... why are you here?" I was at a loss for words. I couldn't believe that my childhood best friend is right in front of me!

"Oh my gosh, it's so good to see you!" She replies. Her eyes then wander to my Dad who seemed genuinely happy to see her as well, "you too Mr. Bridge!" She grins.

-

After we ordered the same food stand, we settled together in the same table to catch up. "Are you by yourself?" My dad asks with a tilt of his head.

"Yeah, I'm actually just visiting for a while as a vacation before I move on with my plans," Kyomi nodded as she slurps some noodles from her ramen bowl.

"Oh really?" I say, "what are you doing at the moment?"

"Oh, just mostly traveling actually!" She flashes her pearly whites.

Confused, I repeated, "traveling?" I ask.

"Well, traveling and also doing freelance stuff to earn some cash." I stay silent. "My parents are trying to convince me to go to this college since if have all these pending scholarships from them," she adds.

"So... why don't you?"

"It's just... I don't mean to sound like an un-humble brat, but I want to take a break from school for a while and enjoy life for once, you know?" She gestures with her chopsticks, "I've been working my butt off above my extent with the pressure of my helicopter parents, so I tried arguing that I want to take at least a year to myself before I get back to learning," she nods to herself. I frown but complied. I found her situation a bit, weird. I'm well aware that she's incredibly smart and hardworking, and I was kinda shocked that she's postponing her education just like that. But then again, I am actually aware of how expectant her parents could be from what I remember. I used to go to her house when we were young and I would notice small details like how her parents would constantly ask if she did her homework. It was something that annoyed her, but she would cooperate anyways and get extremely high grades. Gosh, I wish I had lots of recorded achievements such as her. I know I'm really smart too, it's just that, I didn't have enough time or chances to indulge in other activities after school that I could use in my college resumes.

After I shook my head out of my deep thought bubble, our conversation led to other topics, and soon, we finished our meals without even realizing it. While we were chatting, I got a text from Jackson, "hey uhh... are you free today?" He asks.

With a small grin, I messaged back, "from work? Yeah."

"Awesome!" He replied. I stared at my screen for a while if he had anything else to say. Though it seems to be the end of it for now. I look up to see that my Dad was starting to feel a little bit tired as I notice him frequently yawning. "Should we head home now?" I ask him.

"Are you sure? We can continue if you want?" My Dad says.

"You're tired," I pouted.

My dad sighs then shrugs, "if you insist."

"Can I come with?" Kyomi asks.

I turn to her, "Oh? Are you really?"

"I'd like to keep talking, you can show me around, and plus I'll know where you live so I can visit you!"

I  found it to be a great idea and nodded my head in agreement, "oh, sure!" I grinned.

My dad chuckled, "alright then, let's get going," he says. We stand up from our table, picking up our dishes in a tray, and storing it to the other pile of trays on top of a table.

When we finally descended to the parking area, we walk over to my car and got into the driver's seat, "oh cool! Is this your car?" She says to which I nodded proudly. We get in and I start the engine. Buckling up, I began driving us out of the mall. "Oh, I almost forgot," I look over to my dad beside me, "Jackson's asking if I could hang out with him."

"Sure, just be careful okay?" My dad advised.

-

Dad had already gone ahead and got inside our apartment while Kyomi and I are telling our farewells, "I'm so glad we bumped into each other," she says, giving me a hug. I sunk into her arms and felt my heart flutter in our embrace. While my chin was laid on her shoulder, I noticed Jackson watching us from afar by his car on the other side of the street. "Oh, my other friend is here," I say to her, pulling away.

"It was nice seeing you again, we should meet up next time," she smiles. I nod as I wave at her walking away down the sidewalk. I then soon face Jackson and jog over to him. "Hi, Jackson!" I smile at him. He leans over a bit to look over to the direction where Kyomi went, "w-who's that?" He asks.

"Oh, she's a... close friend," I murmured, though I hid my creeping blushing cheeks with my hands. Today had quite the unexpected events.