Chapters: 3/?
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Characters: Sam Michaels, Jade Rivers, Ari Williams, Austin Fisher, Drew Simons, Caleb Miller, Cleo Martel
Additional Tags: School Uniforms, Boarding School, Post-High School, Adults, POV Male Character, Academy, Academy President, Tailoring, Suggestive Themes, Canon Non-Binary Character, Crossdressing, Tags May Change, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tags Contain Spoilers, Canon Trans Character, Trans Female Character, Trans Male Character, Exhibitionism, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Urination, gym shower, All Gender Restrooms, Girl using Urinal
Series: Part 1 of East-Ridge Antics
Summary:
Samuel Michaels starts his time at East-Ridge Academy, but maybe he wasn't fully prepared for the experiences he's in for.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
I started an original work If you’d like please check it out over on AO3. Only one chapter so far but I’ve already started the draft on the next. I have a good drive for this one going so I hope I can take it as far as I’m wanting.
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Characters: Sam Michaels, Jade Rivers, Ari Williams
Additional Tags: School Uniforms, Boarding School, Post-High School, Adults, POV Male Character, Academy, Academy President, Tailoring, Suggestive Themes, Canon Non-Binary Character, Crossdressing
Series: Part 1 of East-Ridge Antics
Summary:
Samuel Michaels starts his time at East-Ridge Academy, but maybe he wasn’t fully prepared for the experiences he’s in for.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
I started an original work If you'd like please check it out over on AO3. Only one chapter so far but I’ve already started the draft on the next. I have a good drive for this one going so I hope I can take it as far as I’m wanting.
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Characters: Sam Michaels, Jade Rivers, Ari Williams
Additional Tags: School Uniforms, Boarding School, Post-High School, Adults, POV Male Character, Academy, Academy President, Tailoring, Suggestive Themes, Canon Non-Binary Character, Crossdressing
Series: Part 1 of East-Ridge Antics
Summary:
Samuel Michaels starts his time at East-Ridge Academy, but maybe he wasn't fully prepared for the experiences he's in for.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
I wrote a fanfic for @revolutionary-girl-holly‘s webcomic WisteriA. I wont be posting it here, but you can find it over on AO3. You can find a link to the original work below.
Fandom: WisteriA - Holiday
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Momo/Azalea
Characters: Momo, Azalea
Additional Tags: First Kiss, Romantic Fluff, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, Alternate Universe, Alternate Timeline
Summary:
It was only a matter of time before Momo and Azalea got some more alone time. Original work can be found at https://tapas.io/series/WisteriA/info
The music of the movie we'd been watching began to crescendo as the lead man dashed through crowded streets with a look of panic on his face. He reached out and grabbed the wrist of the woman who'd been featured throughout before she could board a train with doors held open. Tears were streaming down his face and his mouth was moving, but the direction let the music take the lead.
Eventually the doors closed and the train departed with the two left standing on the platform, hitching back tears as they embraced. And I could also feel my eyes getting wetter as the scene played out.
---
"I just dont think it makes sense," Jessie complained as we made our way back into the afternoon sun. "There are other way's to get a hold of her. Why not just send her a text and tell her to wait instead of causing trouble for all those people. He wouldn't have to rush to beat the train then."
"I suppose..." I sipped the last bit of my cola before tossing it in a bin we were passing.
"And all those romance movies are full of clesheys too," she continued. "They just start bleeding together... I'll know I watched this one but I wouldn't be able to tell you who the characters were... I can barely remember even now, and we were just watching it ten minutes ago."
We hit an intersection and had to wait for the crosswalk.
"I dunno... Maybe it's just played up for dramatic effect but love can't make you that stuipd."
"Well... People in real life do some crazy things for what they think is love." We stepped off the curb as we were given the signal to cross and I continued. "Heck, my dad traveled halfway across the world to meet my mom. He left everything behind and came here with basically nothing."
"Sure, but that's not normal."
"I suppose, but is there even a 'normal' for love? Everyone experiences it differently..."
"Well then what's love to you, Ms. Love-expert?"
We walked in silence a bit while I thought about what Jessie had asked.
"Honestly... I'm not sure. I don't know if I've felt love yet so it's hard for me to know what it is."
"What do you think it is then?"
"Well probably a mixture of things. I've had crushes before, and the light feeling in my chest from those would probably be a part. Maybe having them come to mind randomly too, if they took up that much of my brain. If being with them made me happy, and I wanted them to be happy too..."
"Aren't you just describing a friend?"
"Woudn't you want the person you love to be your best friend?"
"... On the scale of friend to enemy, a friend would probably be best... Even though enemies-to-lovers is a pretty common trope for romances."
"But those are just stories," I pointed out. "I'd worry about real relationships built like that."
We passed through a set of turnstyles and made our way to a platform.
"I personally think that friends slowly growing to lovers is a much sweeter feeling. Starting off slow and building over the years. Sharing interests and experiences with each other." I continued as I noticed my train pulling into the station and could feel my face groing a little warmer. "Kind of like how we started, but going further..."
Jessie stood there just studying my face for a bit with her own cheeks a little flushed.
The chime to signal the train was about to leave sounded and I started towards it. "Sorry for saying something so weird. I'll see you later."
"Wait, Dawn!" Jessie called and grabbed my wrist. The doors of my train closed and it departed. I turned around to find that the redness in her face had spread. "You can't just go saying things like that and dashing off... Would you... want to hang out a little longer?"
I could feel a lightness in my chest growing as I offered my reply of "Sure!"
Despite being a small little hole in the wall shop, Dustin's was a shop that was quite well visited. People would travel from across the state just to pick up donuts there. I was lucky enough for it to be on my way home.
Of course, being early afternoon, most people who would be stopping in for the day had already come and gone. If you were passing by in the morning you would see a line stretching out the door and people carrying multiple boxes back to their cars, but in the afternoon you would only really find one or two retirees at the tables inside having a coffee while they read the newspaper.
The afternoons were often slow enough that they would only have one person working the counter. On one of my stops, one Thursday afternoon, the girl behind the counter was someone I didn't expect to see.
She was someone I used to see around school previous years but hadn't that year. For some reason she always caught my eye in the hall, but I had never had the chance to say anything because our paths never crossed and we didn't have any classes together.
After stopping in a couple times, I noticed that she was pretty regularly scheduled for the Thursday afternoon shift. According to the nametag she always wore, her name was Alaina. When I first visited I wasn't sure if she recognized me or not, but she didn't make any indication that she did.
For a couple weeks, I would stop in on Thursdays just to see her again, but my nervousness always got the best of me and I couldn't strike up a conversation. I would just go in, order and take my donuts to go. Plus, I didn't want to be a bother while she was working.
However, on one particular Thursday, things were quite different. Despite the usual slow pace, there was another girl positioned behind the counter too. It looked like Alaina was explaining something to her while they looked over a clip board. For some reason my heart sank a little, but I stepped up to the counter just like usual.
It didn't take long, but she eventually noticed me out of the corner of her eye before nudging the other girl with an elbow.
"Oh hey, How about you take this one," Alaina said to the new girl. She stepped aside to let the other girl take her spot at the register.
"G-good afternoon! How can I help you?" she said with a tinge of nervousness in her voice.
I let out a small sigh and robotically went through my usual order while she poked away at the register.
"Alright, anything else?" she said, a little more naturally.
"No, that should be everything."
"Okay... will you be paying with cash or card?"
"Card," I stated, pulling the piece of plastic out of my wallet.
"Okay. Please follow the instructions on the reader and I'll get your order ready!"
"No need." Alaina came up and placed a bag onto the counter right as my payment finished processing. "Your usual, right?"
"Uh... Yeah. Thanks." I could feel my cheeks redden just a little and the rock in my stomach subsided a little.
"Of course," she responded with a smile.
I collected my bag and started heading toward the door.
"Thank you!" The new girl called through the closing door.
I let out a sigh as I pulled one of my donuts from the bag.
"Hey! Morgan! Wait!" I heard a voice call from behind me.
I turned to see Alaina jogging towards me with another bag in her hand. When she got to me she held the bag out without saying anything.
"Um... What's that?"
"I... Um... Forgot one. So..."
"I'm pretty sure they were all here," I said, shaking my own bag...
"... Well, It already left the store so I can't take it back. Just take it. On me!" She said, shoving the other bag into my hands, before turning and jogging back to the store.
I watched her go until I lost her around a corner.
I inspected the second bag I had received. The top was crumpled from where Alaina had been gripping it, but inside was another of my favorite donut. The bag's exterior was also slightly different from the first I had been given. The phone number had been lined through and rewritten.
There was also some hastily scribbled text towards the bottom that read. "See you next Thursday! Or earlier if you want."
I could feel my cheeks reddening again as I stood there staring down at a donut in a bag.
------------------------------
Did a timed creative session with my wife. She drew, I wrote. We agreed on a prompt to keep our ideas similar but beyond that we didn't share much of our ideas until we were done. We did use the same character names (on purpose) so that makes it a fun little connection too.
You can see and read her version over on Twitter at : https://twitter.com/HLophouse/status/1773574609939431547?t=d1dJEwAi190tgzxqdtYl2A&s=19
Big social events weren’t really my thing. They only stressed me out and made me more awkward than I already was.
Prom was something that a lot of girls seemed to be excited about. I was quite the opposite.
From what I understood, there was a lot that went into it. Besides all planning, it also took a good amount of money. The time comment for prom itself was also not insignificant. It could, and likely would, end up occupying a full day of a precious weekend away from school.
Not having a date didn’t help either.
I know I could have gone with a group of friends, and I knew a couple of other girls going that route, but to me something felt just slightly off about it.
All in all, it didn’t feel like missing out was going to be that big of a deal. It was only junior prom so there was always one more year to get the prom experience if I wanted.
Without any plan for the big day, I readied myself to enjoy a night in with some mindless movies and snacks. I could always get all the details of things that happened through Snapchat or Instagram, and if not from that the stories would be flowing on Monday.
With my parents out of the house for the evening too I had free reign of the place. The sun was still relatively high in the sky, but there wasn't any reason to delay my loafing.
I microwaved myself a bag of popcorn before emptying it into a large plastic bowl and making my way to my nest for the evening.
My family did have a nice TV set up on the main floor of the house, but I wasn't a fan of the couch they had there. It was too new and firm. Plus with all the windows around it, the reflections on the screen could get distracting. So Instead I settled for the basement.
My dad had kept all the old equipment from when they updated the main area upstairs and just moved the old setup down a floor. I was much more comfortable on the nice, old, worn in couch.
I placed my popcorn on the well worn coffee table and let myself sink in the couch. I set about trying to pick something to watch on Netflix but nothing really grabbed my interest that I hadn’t already watched.
I sat there scrolling around and browsing the previews for a good while before I was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell ringing.
I wasn't expecting anyone, but I kicked my way out of the blanket I had made myself cozy under and dragged myself up the stairs to the door. I threw the door open without bothering to check who it could have been.
I was greeted by a messy head of electric blue hair blowing past me and into the entryway.
"You know, it's not very polite to barge into someone's house without being invited," I said as I closed the door behind her.
"You're mom said I was welcome to come any time," Noelle huffed. She turned on her heel to look me in the eyes. "And Is that anyway to talk to your friend, Allie? Especially when she's coming to check on you?"
"What for? I was just sitting around."
"Exactly! Prom is tonight and you're here alone," Noelle said, grabbing my shoulders. "I can't have my best friend alone on a night like this."
"It's fine," I said. "It's not that big of a deal. Just another Saturday."
"It's not fine! There's only so many chances to go to prom, and you're at home in an oversized hoodie instead of out there having fun!"
"You're not much better," I scoffed. "Shouldn't you be getting ready by now? But here you are at my house."
"I came to get you."
"Thanks, but I'm good," I said "I've already got plans here."
She let out a hum of disapproval. "Fine, then I'm staying here too." She took my hand and led me back to the basement.
"But what about Prom? Weren't you going?"
"Like you can say anything."
"But you already got a dress and everything."
"I can just use it next year." Noelle dropped herself onto the couch, and stuffed her mouth with a handful of popcorn. She grabbed the remote and began flipping through the menu still on screen. "So what are we watching?"
"Are you really okay with that?" I asked, still standing in front of the couch.
"Yeah, it's not a big deal. I'll text the group and tell them something came up," she responded nonchalantly. "So what's it going to be?"
I let out a sigh before settling into the opposite end of the couch. "Whatever looks good to you," I replied.
Noelle scrolled around a little bit before landing on an older animated movie. It was one I had seen before as a kid so I remembered a lot of it. We sat and watched in relative silence through the whole thing, occasionally taking popcorn from the bowl placed between us.
When the credits rolled Noelle stood from the couch with a big stretch. "All that popcorn made me thirsty. I'm going to go grab something."
"Sure. Okay. Help yourself," I said. "Bring me a soda too."
"Can do," She called, disappearing up the stairs.
I flicked around my phone a bit before Noelle came back with more than I expected. She had two glasses in one hand, three cans in the other with more tucked under her arm, and a mostly full bottle of vodka. She set them all down carefully on the coffee table before shooting me a smug look.
She knocked our glasses together lightly before taking a large swig. I followed suit but couldn't help but shudder as I swallowed. It wasn't bad, but the vodka did change the drink's flavor. It was the first time I had an alcoholic drink. My parents weren't likely to know if the bottle went back into its spot before they returned as their drinks of choice were mostly beers from what I saw.
Noelle poured a bit of vodka into one of the glasses before cracking open a soda and dumping it on top. "Even if we're not going to prom, we can have our own fun," she said, passing the drink to me before making a second.
Noelle found another movie to watch and set it to play. It was more of an action one, with lots of explosions and fast cars and guns. With how loud it all was, there wasn't much talking that could be done over it.
About half way through our second movie, and our drinks, I caught the ring of the doorbell through the noise coming from the TV for a second time that evening. Noelle shot me a questioning look as I stood, paused the movie, and left to answer the door.
My return was greeted with sparkling eyes from her. Likely because she could smell what I had before I even reached the bottom of the stairs.
I placed the pizza box on the coffee table and Noelle shifted over to be right in front of it. I dropped myself right beside her, close enough that we had to fight for elbow space, and started the movie back up before diving into the pizza.
We ate and drank through the rest of the movie. Noelle made us each another drink as the credits rolled.
At that point we weren't invested in what was going on the screen, Noelle just scrolled around at random and selected a movie blindly.
With our stomachs full of pizza and soda, we let ourselves sink further into the couch and each other. It seemed like Noelle had landed us on a generic romance movie. We watched for a little bit, but the slow pace and the corny acting couldn't hold my attention.
It seemed Noelle was in the same boat, because she was the first to break the silence. "So why didn't you go to prom?"
"No date," I said bluntly.
"You know you don't need a date to go to prom, right? I was going to go with a group of friends. You could have joined us."
"I know, but there's something about it that just... feels like it's the palace for it," I said. "Like, if I'm going to go I want to do it 'right', ya' know? Like, if I'm going I want it to be more like a date."
"I think I get it. Did anyone ask you to go, or did you ask anyone?"
"Na... No one asked me, and most everyone I know either already had dates or I know they wouldn't accept," I said. "I'm not anything special anyway."
"That's not true," Noelle said, throwing her head back into my arm. "You're great, and anyone would be lucky to date you."
"If you say so," I responded wistfully. I let my attention drift back to the TV and the corny romance playing out.
It was getting to the point where the blandest guy ever was finally getting the girl. There was a slow build to the point where they kiss, and I couldn't help but let out a sigh.
"What's up?" Noelle asked.
"Nothing," I lied.
"That wasn't a 'nothing' sigh," She said shifting around. "What's wrong?"
"It's just..." I could have kept it to myself, but something wouldn't let me. "Sort of regretting not going now."
"I'm sorry," Noelle responded. "Maybe I should have dragged you to it anyway."
"It's not so much the dance itself but like..." I didn't quite know how to phrase the feelings in my head without it seeming goofy. "Having a special night with someone... Making a whole thing about it..." Another sigh escaped me as the movie on screen continued to play. "Having a first kiss might have been nice too."
Noelle let out a little hum of understanding.
We sat in silence for a bit more as the movie started to roll towards its end.
"Would... You want to try?" Noelle asked.
"Try what?'
"Well, it's not at prom or any place special, but..." Noelle fidgeted with her fingers as she continued. "If you'd want to like... try kissing..."
I didn't really know how to respond to her proposal. "I... I suppose it would be nice to know what it's like," I said after some thought.
Noelle moved around a bit until she was facing me. "It's not like I have any experience myself," she said.
"I... guess it'd be a first for both of us then," I said, straightening myself as much as I could on the couch.
"Are you sure you're okay with me?" she asked, as she shifted to straddling my thighs.
"Y-yeah." I didn't have any reason not to be. She was my best friend, and I trusted her. Maybe the bit of alcohol had something to do with it, but I also couldn't say kissing her hadn't crossed my mind before.
She placed her hands on my shoulders and began closing the already limited space between us.
"Ready?" she whispered as our foreheads touched.
"Yeah." I closed my eyes and moments later I could feel a soft pressure on my lips. It was the softest feeling in the world, and the warmth of it spread through me too.
Noelle pulled back slightly, breaking the contact we had. "Well?" she asked, still close enough that I could feel the question on my lips.
"Maybe another," I responded.
My hands had somehow found their way under Noelle's top and landed on her waist. From there they had pulled her closer so that our bodies connected in tandem with the second meeting of our lips. But with her whole weight pressed into me, I couldn't help but slide down the back of the couch until she was laying fully on top of me.
With no experience beyond what was happening in that moment, I relied on my limited memory of romantic scenes in movies for how to proceed.
Noelle and I kissed back and forth with little moans escaping from us both. At some point I felt her tongue rub against mine and I could feel myself being overwhelmed with the sensation of it all. I was so focused on the softness of her lips and the wrangling of our tongues that I lost track of what the rest of my body was doing.
Luckily, Noelle pulled back for a breath before I got lost in her entirely. She sat above me, looking me over with a fully flushed face and a smug smirk. She reached over and pushed a bit of my hair out of my face. I could feel my own cheeks burning, and a slight bit of drool running from the corner of my mouth. My hands were further up her back, and I finally registered the arches in my fingers as if trying to claw their way through it.
"Well? Did you like it?" She asked, already knowing the answer.
Still too breathless, the only way I could respond was a nod.
Noelle giggled before shifting herself around and laying her head on my chest. "Same," she said, putting her attention back to the TV. She selected a random nature documentary before letting one of her fingers aimlessly trace around my shoulder.
Eventually our breathing slowed as we settled back into watching.
gf @claire321r is writing a story and I felt like drawing this particular exchange!!! been a while since I drew anything comic-like but I was inspired for some reason
I glanced up at the clock at the center of the plaza. There were still seven or so minutes until we were meant to be meeting but the waiting was absolutely killing me.
There was finally a time were out schedules lined up so we could get our first real date in. Sure we’d walked parts of the way home together hand in hand before or stopped off for a coffee or snack after class, but today was the first we could actually spend most of the day together despite us dating for three months.
But even then, I wasn’t quite sure what I should make of the day. We hadn’t made any plans besides the meeting time and spot and we agreed to play the rest by ear. This was all fine by me though. I didn’t have any dating experience at this point, so the best I would ever come up with would probably be some cliche date that wouldn’t actually be any fun for her.
I just hoped I wasn’t too under dressed for anything we might end up doing. I always stuck to jeans for my casual clothes since I was stuck in a skirt all the time at school, and basic graphic t-shirts were the rest of my wardrobe pretty much. I did throw on a button down on top of it all, but I left it unbuttoned to stay a bit more casual. I could always button it up later if needed.
The best I could do at that point was just wait. The others in the park ebbed and flowed on their way to whatever it was they were doing. I decided to burn my time picking out someone as they entered the plaza and following them with my eyes until I lost sight of them. I know it would have been seen as creepy if anyone caught me, but it’s not like it was illegal to do or anything.
I wound up watching a mom drag her kids across the lot as they resisted heavily. There was also a group of girls around my age with sports bags that were talking loudly and laughing as they came by. There was also an older man that wandered in at some point and sat on a bench on the other side of the plaza. I did end up watching him for a while before I decided it was probably safer to pick a new target.
As I found a man in a suit to watch over, I felt a presence beside me that I hadn’t noticed before. I abandoned my people watching to find that the one beside me was actually Umi. She was looking at me with wide eyes and a grin across her face.
“Hey there, Kanae. Been waiting long?” she asked as she pushed herself off the wall we were leaning against. Her wavy hair followed in her wake.
“Not… really…” I stuttered. I always ended up a nervous wreck when we were together. She was my first girlfriend and I really didn’t want to mess anything up.
I averted my eyes, but I couldn’t help but look at her. Her outfit suited her perfectly. A beautiful flowing dress topped with a cardigan and a cute matching shoulder bag. I could already feel the blush in my face rising.
“And, anyway, you’re here early too, Umi-senpai” I said as I finally peeled myself from the wall.
“True, but you were the one already waiting,” she said as she took my hand. We had done this so many times before but like everything about her, it never made my heart race any less than it did that first time.
“It’s not like I had anything better to do today anyway.”
“Just too excited, were you?” She teased as she swung our connected hands.
I could only nod in response and try to hide my blush behind my hair.
She giggled at this. “I was pretty excited too,” She admitted. “It is our first proper date after all.” This time it was her turn to blush, which only made me blush even more.
We stood there hand in hand blushing at each other for a while it seemed, if one of us didn’t do anything we might well have stood there all day.
“So… Uh… Senpai…. Did you have any ideas about what to do today?”
“I had a couple things in mind,” she said. “Unless you had something particular you wanted to do.”
I shook my head. “Not really. I’m still entirely new to this so I didn’t have anything jump out at me.”
“Alright then,” She said with a sparkle in her eyes. “Leave it all to your senpai,” she winked.
She started to lead us across the plaza, I assumed toward our first destination of the day.
“Ah! Umi-senpai, wait!” I said pulling her back before we got too far.
“What am I doing? Didn’t I want it to be more special, sometime when the mood was right, where we could both feel we wanted to? Why was I about to force our first kiss to be here of all places? Everyone could see us here, there was no hiding it. It couldn’t be a special thing just for us. But did that really matter? I’ve been wanting this since day one. We just need the one to open the gates. But is it worth it for my first ever kiss to be like this?”
“What is-” she began to ask before I brought my lips to hers. My mind went blank the moment before it happened and I let my body move on its own.
Our first didn’t last that long. Essentially a peck. So quick I could barely remember that it even happened. Umi seemed more shocked that it happened than I felt.
“Sorry,” I blurted out without thinking. Clearly my brain was running on autopilot and I wished I could just stop it. “I just…”
“You’re fine, Kanae,” She said as her free hand found my shoulder. She lifted herself up slightly and brought her lips to mine again.
Her kiss was so gentle and soft. I could feel this one spreading through my face as she held her lips against mine. Her warmth was so comforting and nice. She dropped herself back down but left her hand on my shoulder.
“You could have given me a little warning though,” she giggled before rising to meet me again.
I could feel my whole face burning red. I know I was the one that started it, but it felt like the whole plaza was watching us.
“Well let’s get going,” Umi sang as she began to pull me along again. “There’s still a whole date ahead of us after all.”
Made some picrews of Umi and Kanae since I kept thinking about them. you can find them below the break with some extra explanation of their characters too.
This is roughly what Umi would look like. She has a fair number of piercings on her ears. Shes shorter than Kanae despite being older (Kanae is about 8cm taller). Her hair is quite a bit more wavy than this but this was as good as I could get without pouring hours into digging through various picrews
This is roughly what Kanae would look like as well. pretty straight hair. Glasses. Paler because she spends a lot of time inside.
These are just best representations I could make with https://picrew.me/image_maker/229486. In my minds eye they do look different than this, but I’m more of a writer than an illustrator so I cant really get them on paper visually without some assistance
I glanced up at the clock at the center of the plaza. There were still seven or so minutes until we were meant to be meeting but the waiting was absolutely killing me.
There was finally a time were out schedules lined up so we could get our first real date in. Sure we'd walked parts of the way home together hand in hand before or stopped off for a coffee or snack after class, but today was the first we could actually spend most of the day together despite us dating for three months.
But even then, I wasn't quite sure what I should make of the day. We hadn't made any plans besides the meeting time and spot and we agreed to play the rest by ear. This was all fine by me though. I didn't have any dating experience at this point, so the best I would ever come up with would probably be some cliche date that wouldn't actually be any fun for her.
I just hoped I wasn't too under dressed for anything we might end up doing. I always stuck to jeans for my casual clothes since I was stuck in a skirt all the time at school, and basic graphic t-shirts were the rest of my wardrobe pretty much. I did throw on a button down on top of it all, but I left it unbuttoned to stay a bit more casual. I could always button it up later if needed.
The best I could do at that point was just wait. The others in the park ebbed and flowed on their way to whatever it was they were doing. I decided to burn my time picking out someone as they entered the plaza and following them with my eyes until I lost sight of them. I know it would have been seen as creepy if anyone caught me, but it's not like it was illegal to do or anything.
I wound up watching a mom drag her kids across the lot as they resisted heavily. There was also a group of girls around my age with sports bags that were talking loudly and laughing as they came by. There was also an older man that wandered in at some point and sat on a bench on the other side of the plaza. I did end up watching him for a while before I decided it was probably safer to pick a new target.
As I found a man in a suit to watch over, I felt a presence beside me that I hadn't noticed before. I abandoned my people watching to find that the one beside me was actually Umi. She was looking at me with wide eyes and a grin across her face.
"Hey there, Kanae. Been waiting long?" she asked as she pushed herself off the wall we were leaning against. Her wavy hair followed in her wake.
"Not... really..." I stuttered. I always ended up a nervous wreck when we were together. She was my first girlfriend and I really didn't want to mess anything up.
I averted my eyes, but I couldn't help but look at her. Her outfit suited her perfectly. A beautiful flowing dress topped with a cardigan and a cute matching shoulder bag. I could already feel the blush in my face rising.
"And, anyway, you're here early too, Umi-senpai" I said as I finally peeled myself from the wall.
"True, but you were the one already waiting," she said as she took my hand. We had done this so many times before but like everything about her, it never made my heart race any less than it did that first time.
"It's not like I had anything better to do today anyway."
"Just too excited, were you?" She teased as she swung our connected hands.
I could only nod in response and try to hide my blush behind my hair.
She giggled at this. "I was pretty excited too," She admitted. "It is our first proper date after all." This time it was her turn to blush, which only made me blush even more.
We stood there hand in hand blushing at each other for a while it seemed, if one of us didn't do anything we might well have stood there all day.
"So... Uh... Senpai.... Did you have any ideas about what to do today?"
"I had a couple things in mind," she said. "Unless you had something particular you wanted to do."
I shook my head. "Not really. I'm still entirely new to this so I didn't have anything jump out at me."
"Alright then," She said with a sparkle in her eyes. "Leave it all to your senpai," she winked.
She started to lead us across the plaza, I assumed toward our first destination of the day.
"Ah! Umi-senpai, wait!" I said pulling her back before we got too far.
"What am I doing? Didn't I want it to be more special, sometime when the mood was right, where we could both feel we wanted to? Why was I about to force our first kiss to be here of all places? Everyone could see us here, there was no hiding it. It couldn't be a special thing just for us. But did that really matter? I've been wanting this since day one. We just need the one to open the gates. But is it worth it for my first ever kiss to be like this?"
"What is-" she began to ask before I brought my lips to hers. My mind went blank the moment before it happened and I let my body move on its own.
Our first didn't last that long. Essentially a peck. So quick I could barely remember that it even happened. Umi seemed more shocked that it happened than I felt.
"Sorry," I blurted out without thinking. Clearly my brain was running on autopilot and I wished I could just stop it. "I just..."
"You're fine, Kanae," She said as her free hand found my shoulder. She lifted herself up slightly and brought her lips to mine again.
Her kiss was so gentle and soft. I could feel this one spreading through my face as she held her lips against mine. Her warmth was so comforting and nice. She dropped herself back down but left her hand on my shoulder.
"You could have given me a little warning though," she giggled before rising to meet me again.
I could feel my whole face burning red. I know I was the one that started it, but it felt like the whole plaza was watching us.
"Well let's get going," Umi sang as she began to pull me along again. "There's still a whole date ahead of us after all."
Getting home Friday afternoon, I wasn't quite sure how I was going to spend the weekend. I hadn't really made plans with anyone, and Yuu said she had a family thing that weekend and would probably be offline for the weekend starting the night before. Amber had been pretty busy the last couple weekends so I didn't really expect her to be free any time soon. And considering those two are about the only people I talk to, they're about the only people I'd really make any plans with.
I tossed my bag to the floor and kicked off my shoes. I didn't even really have plans for any work around my house or anything either so I just flopped down at my desk and started browsing the web. I hadn't heard of any parties or anything from other groups I was a part of either, but I was sorta feeling in the mood to go drink beer and people watch. I tried poking around the local message boards to see if anyone was talking about a more open party I could get to, but in the middle of my searching a ping came through on my phone.
It seemed as if Amber might have actually been free as the message came from her. "Hey, I've got a friend flying in this weekend and I dont have my car right now. Could I ask for a ride to meet them at the airport?"
I figured it would be a good opportunity to hang out with her at least since it had been a while. "Sure, when do we need to be there?"
"Just swing by my place whenever you're free and we can chill until we need to go. We should probably start heading over there around 8:30 if you aren't here by then though."
"Sounds good. I'll be over in a sec if that's okay," I sent back before getting my shoes back on.
"Awesome, see you in a bit," was the last message I saw as I locked my door and made my way to my car.
Amber didn't live all that far away from me so getting over to her place didn't take much time at all. I pulled into her driveway before making my way inside. We didn't really do much of anything besides hang out and talk about how things had been going. We did order some food and ate too but it wasn't anything special. Her other roommates came and went during that time too, but it seemed they were busy. We waited around until it was time to head out and we did.
The local airport wasn't all that far away, so it was a general rule that if you were going to pick someone up, their expected arrival time was a good indicator of when to head over.
Once on the way, we picked up our conversion right where we left off.
"So how are things going with Yuu?" Amber asked, teasingly.
"Fine. We've been talking quite a bit. She had a family thing this weekend so it might be a couple days before we can again."
"You two are too cute, you know that."
"It's not like we're trying to be... I'm not, at least."
"Well you are," she shot back.
"As if you don't like watching it happen."
"Of course I do. I was tired of hearing it from both sides with nothing happening. I'm glad you two are finally dating."
"Same," I responded, feeling my face get a little warmer.
"Anyway, thanks for helping me out, Tori. It's been a while since I've seen this friend and she finally had a free week to hang out."
"Of course. I'm pretty glad we got to hang out too. It had been a little while."
"It really has been," Amber responded before we set into relative silence the rest of the way to the airport, save for the radio and occasional comment.
When we finally arrived. We pulled into the pick-up waiting parking lot and parked. Amber had said she hadn't heard from her friend yet so we probably had a bit of time to hang around. The evening was nice so we decided to wait outside the car instead of being cooped up inside it. After a short while, Aber got a message that her friend had her luggage and was on her way out.
The Airport had a couple different sets of doors for getting in and out of the lobby, so we did our best to sweep across them while we kept our eyes out for her. I went back and forth across the couple sets of doors a few times before I heard Amber's "Oh, there she is." I looked around to see if I could spot her as well.
Before I knew what was happening, I was in a full sprint halfway to the door she came out of. In the next, I had her in my arms.
"Hey, Yuu. Glad you made it safe," Amber called as she approached us.
"Hi, Amber. Hello, Tori," Yuu said from within my arms.
"How long have you two been planning this?" I asked.
"Just a couple weeks," Amber smirked. "I'll let you two say, 'Hello.' I'll be over at the car if you need me." She waved and made her way back to where we left the car.
After watching her leave for a bit, I felt something soft press against my cheek.
"Hello there, Tori," Yuu said, blushing, finally wrapping her arms around me.
"Hey, Yuu," I finally replied. "It's so nice to see you."
"It's nice to see you too..." she replied before I brought our lips together. Feeling her soft resistance and heat was so much nicer than I could have ever imagined. We stood there kissing for some time before we broke apart.
"Uh... maybe we should... get back to Amber..." I stammered... feeling that my face was fully red.
"Maybe we should," Yuu replied, quite red herself as we finally separated.
I grabbed the handle of her luggage and offered my free one, "Shall we then?"
"I suppose so," she responded, and took my hand.
Our fingers interlaced as we made our way to the car. Amber was standing there grinning at the two of us.
Despite it not being more than a couple of hours, it had felt like an eternity. The earlier than normal start didn't help either. But finally being back was such a relief.
I didn't bother to untie my heavy shoes before kicking them off by the door. I took the dirty dish and utensils out of my lunch bag and dropped them in the sink and let them sit under hot water for a while. I decided I'd finish with that later and left them to soak. I shambled to my bedroom and tossed my clothes into the basket with other such discarded things. In place of my work attire, I threw on an oversized graphic t-shirt and some shorts before stumbling back out of my room.
Without thinking much of it, I moved down the hall one door before falling into the room. The room was decently full of furniture but my path was only for the chair directly in front of me. I slumped over the back of it and let my arms fall over the front. I was too tired to do much else.
"How was work?" the body under my arms asked.
"Tool long," I sighed as I pulled myself together.
"Well you're home now, and don't have to worry about work for a couple of days."
"Finally." I leaned in and gave her a peck on the cheek. "Work go okay for you too?"
"Pretty much," She replied. "Someone kept distracting me so I'm still finishing stuff up."
I let out a gasp. "Luna! Did you keep Vi from getting her work done?" I asked the sleeping cat in the corner.
"No... I think it was Gabi." Vi said.
"Sorry. I just get bored at work and talking with you makes the day go so much faster."
"Well if you give me a couple minutes, I am just about done."
"No problem I'll get things ready then." I said sitting down to my own desk.
The room went quiet except for the hum of our computers and the occasional clicking of keyboards. The sounds of birds and bugs outside also made their way in. Vi kept at her work as I caught up on social media. The light coming through the window gradually dimmed until I heard a chair groan behind me. I felt a light hand on top of my head that began brushing my hair.
"I think I'm done for the day. You about ready?" Vi asked, continuing to pet me.
"I think so," I replied just as the doorbell rang. "And it sounds like food is here too."
"Well if you go take care of that, I'll get changed and meet you out there," Vi said leaving the room.
I stretched before getting up and making my way to the front door. I retrieved the boxes from the delivery person and set about getting my share before flopping down on the couch in front of the TV. I grabbed the remote off the coffee table and began navigating my way through the streaming service menu.
"Went for pizza this week, huh?" Vi remarked as she sat down next to me.
"It had been a while. Is that okay?"
"Yeah. How did you know I was craving it?"
"A lucky guess, I guess. Wanna keep going from where we left off?"
"That works for me," Vi said as she bit into her first slice.
I set the series to play from the next one we needed to watch. We sat and ate and chatted through a couple episodes of the show. Eventually it was clear we were both done eating. I took our pates to the kitchen and cleaned them off. I put the leftover pizza in the fridge and grabbed us both some drinks. I returned to the couch and set the drinks on the coffee table in front of us.
I dropped myself down right next to Vi and placed a kiss on her cheek.
"Want to keep on this, or go to something else?" I ask.
"Hmmm... There is a show people have been talking about online a bit and I thought we could check it out at least."
"Sounds good to me. Here." I handed over the remote so she could find it. I grabbed a blanket off the back of the couch and draped it over us both. Vi got the show going and we sat and watched. We would occasionally comment on what was happening and take sips of our drinks, but it was pretty obvious that we weren't getting into it. Our hands did find each other under the blanket at some point pretty quickly after the start. Even before the end of the first episode, I had found myself paying more attention to Vi than the show. She also seemed to be sneaking glances at me, seemingly finding it difficult to focus as well.
I dont really know what drove me, but I placed another kiss on her cheek. I tried to put my focus back on the TV but Vi made that difficult with a kiss of her own to my cheek. Turning to her she was fully focused on me. I leaned into her and she met me halfway there. As our lips pressed together I closed my eyes. Our fingers laced together as we kissed back and forth. The feeling of her lips on mine made my face grow warm. I couldn't help but let out little moans as we pushed back and forth with our kisses. Occasionally one of us would pull away to attack the others cheek or neck, but we seemed to settle back in at each other's lips. Before I knew it I realized a closing theme was playing. Vi must have noticed as well as the pause in our kissing seemed to be mutual. Looking at the TV it appeared that we had been otherwise focused through two whole episodes of the show.
"Well... would you prefer to watch something else?" I asked
"Sure... this doesn't really seem like something for me anyway," Vi said, blushing.
"Same. Want to just put on a relaxed movie instead?"
"That works." Vi backed out to the main menu and found a movie that seemed to be slower paced.
We both slowly settled in to watch it, leaning on each other to stay upright. Our hands were still together with our fingers intertwined as the movie went along. We chatted here and there but over time my eyes began to feel heavy. Before too long I was struggling to keep my eyes open as I was resting my head on Vi's shoulder. If you were to ask me how the movie was, I don’t believe I could answer as I fell asleep some point along the way.
"Stupid time change. Why do we even bother doing it?"
Not that excited, I trudged my way across campus. I forgot to change my alarm clock and now I'm definitely paying for it.
"I could have slept for another 30 minutes, and not given myself a heart attack."
I climbed the stairs to the usual building, worked my way through the halls, and into the assigned room. I dropped my bag by the seat I've taken since my first day of class and collapse into it. I let out a sigh and try to figure out how to burn all the time until lecture starts.
"Are you okay?" A voice called out next to me.
"Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm fine just a little tired"
"Okay. I just don't usually see anyone in here until a bit later."
It was the girl I usually sit next to. More out of habit than anything. We haven't really talked aside from some muffled banter during lectures here and there.
I rubbed the sleep from my eyes. "Yeah, I forgot to change my clock," I explained while rummaging through my bag for an energy drink. "I didn't realize what time it was until I heard a radio announcer say, but I was already pretty much here." I found my can and resealed my bag.
"I see..."
I cracked it open and took a sip before setting it down on my desk.
"I'm Ashley, by the way," She said smiling.
"Jenna. So why are you here so early?" I never really got the chance to talk with her before, and it gave me something to do to pass the time before class started.
"Well, I have a class at 8 so I just come here after that to do some homework," she said, pointing at the textbook and papers in front of her that were clearly not for this class. She quickly got back to writing in them.
"Wouldn't you rather be doing something else between your classes?" I asked taking another sip of my drink.
"Not really," She said not stopping her work. "Only having an hour between classes doesn't give me much time to do much of anything... Plus this lets me get some work out of the way, so I don't have to do as much later."
"Hmm..." I mumbled into my can.
From that point the conversation died. Ashley kept focused on whatever she was working on, while I occupied myself with my phone and drink. Over after a while, others slowly started to filter into the room and to seeming random seats. Soon a small din picked up and Ashley sighed before closing her book, organizing her papers and replacing them with the note bock she used for this class.
"How'd the homework go?" I ask following suit.
"Fine," she responded. "I think I'm almost done with that one. It's not due until Friday so I might go ask my professor about it later."
"I haven't ever been to talk with a professor." It was the truth. I got good enough grades without it that it felt almost unnecessary.
"I like to go and ask if my work is right before I turn it in."
"You can do that?"
"Yes. It has helped out a few times letting me catch some errors before fully turning it in."
"Huh."
And with that, the professor entered and got the lecture started. From then on, nothing was said between us. Class was quiet and at the end I simply got up to go. Even across the next couple days we didn't speak to each other. I was back on my usual schedule so there wasn't really time to anyway.
Ashley did keep up on her work. We didn't really talk but she was always working on something when I came into class.
Even the next couple weeks didn't change. I would get into class just before it started. Ashley would be working on something. Most of the time nothing was said, but maybe once a week a small greeting was shared but nothing really beyond that. That was until the project was assigned.
Of course it was small groups for the project. The professor decided to just form groups by how we were sitting, so of course Ashley and I got grouped up together. To be honest, I probably would have tried to be grouped with her anyway since I didn't know anyone else in the class.
The rest of class passed by as usual. Standard lecture. Like normal, I got up to go and went for the door.
"Hey, Jenna! Wait up." Ashley was frantically stuffing things into her bag while chasing after me. I didn't bother to stop for her, but I slowed enough to let her catch up.
"What's up?"
"Well, I was wondering when you wanted to work on the project?" She asked, still adjusting her belongings.
"When were you thinking?"
"I'm mostly free in the evenings so I thought I'd just ask you." We joined the flow down and of the building.
"Well... being so short notice I'm not sure." I said, running through my mostly free schedule in my head. "If you're usually free, would Friday afternoon work for you?"
"Sure!" She pulled out her phone and began tapping away at the screen, probably putting it in her calendar.
"Well, this is my building. See you tomorrow in class." I peeled away to get to my next class. I thought I heard Ashley calling after me, but I wasn't sure.
The next day, class seemed to go pretty normal, until a paper slid under my notebook.
"So, Friday works, but where?"
I guess that is an important detail we didn't really talk about it.
"How about my place?" I pass it back.
"I guess that works. Could I get your address then?"
"Uhhh... I still don't have it memorized, but here's my number..."
"What am I supposed to do with this?"
"Well, you could text me and let me know its you. Then maybe I could send you my address later?"
After my last message I don't see anything for the rest of class. There wasn't much space left of the scrap of paper, but it also seemed like Ashley was pretty intent on following the lecture as well. I don't know if she even noticed me slide it back to her.
The professor must have breezed through this lecture because we ended about 10 minutes before usual. This meant that I couldn't beat the rush out of the room. I'd usually stuff my bag a couple minutes before so I could make a quick escape, but not today I guess. As I was zipping up my bag I heard a little noise next to me. I guess Ashley finally found the note.
On my way out of the room, I feel a little buzz from my pocket.
"Ashley"
That is all the text said. After having our note passing cut short, I felt like having a little fun.
"Sorry this is jenna. I do know an ashley though."
Moments after hitting send I hear a little chime from behind me. I turn my head and sure enough she's right there. After looking at her phone a bit she looks up and notices me looking back at her.
"No one's called me 'Ash' before." Her face was a little red.
"Huh?"
I look back at my phone and sure enough it decided to change "ashley" to "ash" before it was sent. I guess it is partially my fault for not bothering to capitalize it.
"Oh... Sorry. If that's not okay I can stick to 'Ashley.'"
"No, no. It's fine. Just, no one has really done it before."
"If you say so. Ash it is then," I said smiling and bolting down the stairs.
"Jenna!"
Her call only makes me giggle.
Over the next two days we texted just enough to plan out our Friday. I got her my address and we worked out a time that would best suit our schedules. My last class of the day ended at noon, but she had them go until three, so we settled on meeting around four. My roommates tended to be quite busy so I never really saw them around much. One had parents close by so I think they usually went home for the weekends. Pretty much right at four the apartment buzzer went off.
"Hey, Ash. Come on in." I said through the intercom and let her into the building.
A short time later there was a knock at the door.
"Thanks for having me." She smiled.
"No problem!" I said leading her in.
We settle into the living room and spread our stuff across the coffee table. I get her the password for my internet and we quietly set to work. Every now and then we pass ideas back and forth, share something from our computer screens, or get up to stretch. The work wasn't difficult, but it took so much time. After a little while, Ash seemed to have nodded off. I didn't want to wake her, but I was starting to get hungry. I left her on the couch,and I made my way to the kitchen. With Ash still here, I thought I should just make enough for her too. If she didn't want to eat anything I could just save it for later.
About half way through cooking I felt something press into my back.
"Finally awake?" I didn't stop my cooking.
"Mmmm..." Just a quiet mumble.
"Ash~" I cooed. "Are you actually awake?"
"Mmhmm"
"Well... We've been working quite a bit, so I thought of making some food if you'd like some."
I felt her arms wrap around me.
"Thank you..." the sound of her voice just loud enough to reach my ears. It made my heart skip a beat.
"It's... It's not a big deal. I was going to make food anyway."
Her grip tightened.
"No... For everything... Thanks..."
"I haven't really done anything."
"That's not true. Ever since the first day of class, you sat next to me. I thought you were really cool and pretty but was always too nervous to try and talk to you. If you hadn't come in early that one day, I don't think I ever would have tried."
I just listened.
"I'm so happy we've kept talking."
I turned the stove off and wriggled Ash's arms off of me. I moved to face her. Her head was down and her shoulders were shaking. Only one thing came to mind.
I wrapped her up. Despite her doing the same just moments before, she was taken by surprise.
"Wha-? Jenna?"
"I could say the same. You just always seemed so focused I didn't want to bother you. When you called out to me that morning... it made me happy."
We just stood there in the kitchen for a bit. My arms around Ash until she finally tapped me on the back.
"Jenna... are... weren't you making food?"
I let go of her, "Right! Like I said, if you want to have some, feel free."
"Thanks!" She smiled up at me.
"And if you're up to it, we can keep going on our project after."
"Sure." Ash gave me a quick hug again before we got set to eat.
__________________________________________
Another “write as I go” entry for Jenna and Ash. It was mentioned before but they met back in college, so I decided to try and play on that. Figure out how to make them meet in a pseudo-organic way. When I end up writing this way I feel like I end up rambling but I hope you still like it.
By the time she was beginning to stir, most of the typical morning commotion had died down. The clock by her bed had already past well beyond the time it would usually buzz at her as well. With a slight groan, she rolled the covers back and dropped her feet to the floor. She shuffled her way out of the room and down the hall into another. The counter offered her an empty mug covered in animal print and a half pot of coffee. She took a deep whiff, and smiled. She filled her mug and began making her way back to her room, but stopped when she noticed a small paper on the fridge.
"Ash, I made some coffee. Work shouldn't go too long today, so I'll be back before too long. See you tonight."
She sipped her coffee as she read over the note. She smiled, set her cup down and left the little kitchen. a short time later she returned. She had yet to change, but now wore a pair of glasses and a bag stuffed with papers. She sat herself at the small table in the kitchen and pulled a large stack of papers from within the bag.
Ash set to work organizing the stack into two piles, one for those with red ink and one for those without. She began scanning the sheets before her, occasionally making marks on the pages and shifting them from one pile to the next. It was not a hard process but it was time consuming. She managed to finish off the remainder of the coffee in the pot before all was said and done.
After a long yawn and stretch, Ash stuffed the, now one, pile of papers back into her bag. She stood, deposited her mug into the sink, and then left the room, taking the bag with her.
Some time later, she returned again to the kitchen. This time Ash was wearing a different set of clothes, no glasses, and damp hair. She moved the discarded mug from the sink into the dishwasher and set it to run. With this done she made her way to the front door, left and locked the apartment, and made her way to the sidewalk.
By this point in the day Ash's shadow was nearly entirely underfoot. The weather was nice so doing some walking around would be rather pleasant.
There were a fair number of other people out. Some walking pets, some exercising, others out running errands, and others simply enjoying the weather. Ash was one with a clear destination in mind. She entered with little hesitation.
"Well, Hello Ash," The man behind the counter greeted her cheerfully. "Have a seat wherever you like. Gonna go with the usual?"
Ash nodded, and found herself an empty booth. A short time passed before a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, toast and jelly, and a cup of coffee were there with her. She began picking away at the food when the cook spoke to her again.
"Don't usually see you in here on weekdays, and alone no less."
"School has an off day today, but Jenna still has to work," Ash responded while still nibbling away.
"Ah... That makes sense," the cook said in thought. "I'll let you get back to your meal. I hope I made it good today." He smiled at Ash and then went back to work.
Ash continued until most of her plate was empty. All that remained were small pieces of egg and bits of hash brown here and there. She pulled out her wallet and left money on the table enough to cover the meal and tip. As she left she was thanked by the staff and she made her way back to the sidewalk.
Another short walk brought her to a little shopping complex. Ash had a destination in sight. When she entered she approached the case just inside the door and dropped her hand inside.
The balls of fluff contained within hopped to and fro as Ash pet them. There were six bunnies in total, all of various colors. Ash enjoyed the softness of the bunnies for only a short while. She soon moved to the back of the shop to look at the limited variety of puppies and kittens kenneled there. Continuing from there she found her way to a wall of tanks.
"Ma'am, is there anything I can help you with?" a clerk asked from the end of the aisle.
"I'm just looking, thank you." Ash responded, not taking her eyes of the tanks.
She observed each one carefully. Each contained a small assortment of fish, but all different from any other tank. Some of the fish were rather plain but others were quite bright. Ash quietly observed their motions and dynamics. Where they liked to hide, and how social they were. The only thing that broke her concentration was a small buzz from her phone. Noticing the time, she sighed and turned to leave the pet store.
She had to make one final stop at another store in the shopping center. She was quicky in and out with her purchase and then on her way home. The walk back was slightly warmer than on the way there, but before all too long she was back home.
Ash stopped by the fridge to deposit her purchase before venturing to her room. Within moments she had returned to the front area of the apartment and dropped herself on the couch with a book.
She managed to work through a couple pages before she heard someone messing with the door. She marked her place and set down her book.
As the door opened, she pounced on the intruder, throwing her arms around there neck.
"Whoa! Hey, Ash." Jenna said catching herself with the unexpected new weight.
"Welcome back," Ash beamed, still clinging to Jenna. "How was work?"
"It was fine, can I come in now?"
Ash blushed and released Jenna from her clutches. Jenna entered and closed the door behind her. She deposited her things on the floor and took notice of the book sitting on the couch.
"I guess you didn't get up to much today," Jenna teased.
"I did!" Ash pouted. "I graded some papers and even went to get some things for dinner tonight."
"I was just joking," Jenna said poking Ash. "I didn't really eat much for lunch so I'm already a little hungry. Would you want to do dinner a bit early today?"
"That sounds fine, but would you mind helping me?" Ash responded with her own question.
"Works for me." Jenna said as the two made their way to the kitchen.
__________________________________________
I guess I did another entry into the tales of Ash and Jenna. The way I did this one was a little different than the other two. Just started with a base idea and just went as ideas came to me instead of having a rough idea of how I wanted everything first. This time we get to see a bit more of Ash though. I hope that exploring her can help me get a better idea of who she is too.
The building was quite open, but that's to be expected for an establishment such as this. The situation was known, but we still had not prepared for it.
Ash got scheduled for bus and detention duty today. She was going to be home late, yet we had planned poorly. A rare occurrence, but it had happened. And so we ended up there.
There was a sports bar a couple blocks from us that we made do. The food was alright, it felt kind of dingy inside, but it was inexpensive and we had been before. A couple times, actually. It seemed to be our "last minute, and I don't care" choice for food.
"I feel like we come here way too often," Ash said, looking around the place as we waited for a table to open up.
"Yeah... I know," I sigh as we get waived over by one of the waitstaff. "Would you rather go somewhere else?"
"Well, not necessarily."
We got shown our table and we ordered our drinks.
"I don't dislike this place, but there are probably other things to try around us, right?" Ash said.
"Probably, but here is easy. I'd be down to try out other stuff, but when its kind of late, and we just need something, I feel like here works."
"For sure," Ash said, smiling.
Our waitress returned with two tall beers and took our orders. The menus left our table without being opened.
"Detention go okay today?" I asked.
Ash sighed and slouched slightly. "I guess. Just one kid. And all because they had their phone 'out'."
"I always hated the idea of giving someone detention over a phone, or a game, or whatever."
"They weren't even using it either. It was just in their bag, sticking out ever so slightly and old, grumpy pants decided to give them a detention." Ash was fuming.
"That seems a bit excessive."
"I know, right! If it weren't for her I would have been home so much earlier."
I reached across the table and took Ash's hand in mine.
"It doesn't bother me you had to work a little later. I still got to see you today," I said. "And that's better than some of the days I was held at work until after you had already gone to bed."
"Yeah... I know." Ash relaxed a little and smiled at me. "Thanks, Jenna."
Soon our order arrived. For me, my usual burger and fries, and a plate of boneless wings was set in front of Ash. Another round of drinks was brought as well.
As we dove into our dinner we continued to chat idly through the din of the restaurant, watching various sports on the TVs strewn about the walls, and occasionally stealing nibbles at each other's plates. Various people came and left as we were enjoying our. We had a final round of drinks before we paid and lingered slightly longer.
As the entrance started to crowd with a later rush of diners we decided it time to walk back to our apartment.
"Ms. Emerson."
A smaller voice cut through the noise as we were at the door and stopped us in our tracks. Someone slightly smaller came pushing through the crowd toward us. As they approached, they stopped in front of Ash. I assumed it was one of her students based on their size.
"Hello, Sage." Ash addressed the kid before her. Seems like I was right. "Are you to eat as well?"
"I am," Sage responded. "My siblings like coming here so my parents bring us pretty often. Who's this?"
"This is Jenna. She's a friend of mine from college."
"Hi, Sage. Nice to meet you," I say offering a little wave.
"Nice to meet you to," they respond. "I'm sorry for getting detention today, Ms. Emerson."
"Oh, you're fine, Sage. Mrs. Foster is just grumpy and mean sometimes," Ash replied. "I just hope your parents weren't too upset about it."
"No. Not really. They thought the reason for it was pretty dumb though," Sage explained.
"You must have some pretty understanding parents," I say.
"They are," Sage said smiling.
"Sage! Table!" A deeper voice called over the crowd.
"Sounds like you should go," Ash said. "It was nice seeing you."
"Yeah. It was nice getting to meet you Ms. Jenna." Sage said, starting to making their way back through the crowd. "And I was glad you were running detention today Ms. Emerson."
Sage disappeared back into the restaurant and we stepped out into the evening air.
"That was nice," I said. I nudged Ash softly with my elbow.
"Mmhmm..." Ash hummed.
"Feeling a little better about detention duty today?"
"Yeah..."
Ash took my hand in hers and put her head on my shoulder. We quietly made our way back to our apartment.
Author’s Note: Dunno why I kept with Ash and Jenna for this one... Don’t really expect me to keep doing that. Again, just a random idea I had and went from there. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy it.
The door closes behind me as the bag I threw lands on the couch in front of me. I shamble into the kitchen and right up to the fridge. The white box opens lethargically as I take in the minimal assortment inside. I settle on grabbing two silver cans and closing it back up before shuffling to a door not too far off the one I entered through.
"Ugh..." I groan stepping back out into the heat. At least here its shaded.
"Hm?" The girl sitting on a reclining chair inquires, looking up from the book she's reading. "Oh, hey. Welcome back, Jenna."
"Yup, yup. I'm home." I say sitting myself in the other free chair and setting the cans on the small table between them.
"Thanks."
"You get up to anything today, Ash? Or just sit around and junk?" I ask, opening my can.
"I graded some papers." she folds a corner of the page she's on. "And I swept up a bit."
"I told you I'd get to it, if you'd let me." I tease. "It's not fair how much time you teachers get off anyway. It's finally nice again, and I'm stuck all cooped up in an office going to meetings all day."
I take a sip from my can.
"I can't deny that all the free time is nice, but I do have to bring work home with me." Ash open's her can and takes a sip as well.
"I know," I grumble. "I just wish work would give us off for some of the same holidays that you get."
"Yeah..." Ash sighs, as she looks over the little cityscape before of us. "Anything interesting happen at work today?"
"Not really. Just a bunch of the same. Project is still behind, which is keeping us in late, but no one will step up and take responsibility." I explain. I pull out my phone and begin swiping through things.
"I'm sorry."
"It's fine. I just wish we could figure this out, or get something new."
"I know you will. You're a smart girl, Jenna," Ash says. She thumbs to her saved spot and goes back to reading as I continue to swipe through my phone.
We sit in silence. Each focusing on our respective things. The distant sounds of traffic slow transition to the chatter of insects as the air begins to slowly cool around us. It isn't yet quite the season for full heat, but the days are warm and make way for cooler nights.
We continue to sit idly by. Occasionally one of us sets our things down to replace our old cans with another set. Every so often I lean across the table to show Ash something funny or interesting I fund, and in turn she will catch me up on what is happening in her book.
Time slowly continues. Shadows slowly stretch and lights begin illuminating.
I sigh as I heave myself out of the chair. I stuff my phone in my pocket and grab the empty cans left of the table.
"I should probably start on dinner," I say passing around Ash as she continues reading.
I open the door but hesitate before going back inside. I brush Ash's bangs aside and gently kiss her forehead before setting back off toward the kitchen.
Before I can get fully inside though, a hand wraps itself around my wrist. I turn back to see Ash pouting.
I giggle and return to her. She tilts her head up to me. I lean back down and give her a kiss. It's delicate and light but I can still feel her smiling beneath it. We part and she follows with a quick peck before I can fully get away.
"Let me know when it's ready," Ash coos after me.
"You know I will," I say, blushing as I am finally able to get back inside.
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