andrew’s thumb pressed the blue send button and he had to resist the urge to scroll up as his message in a colored bubble appeared, fighting himself. weeks and weeks and months of messages were behind them, and he could keep on looking and reading and reliving memories until the little loading icon no longer rotated under her name. did he really want to do that, though? he told himself no, that the conversations were mindless anyway - hey, panda, are these lyrics right? xx - but as each minute ticked on where he didn’t hear the front door unlatch, he was second guessing himself. thankfully before he could take the plunge into a feud about snoop dogg and kanye west, the clicking of shoes faintly caught his attention and there she was — taking a walk of shame right before his eyes. he released a relieved breath, pressing the lock button on his phone and hearing the familiar noise as he dropped it into the cup holder. he reached over and pulled the inside door handle of the passenger side, pushing the door open as much as he could at that angle instead of getting out entirely and opening it for her that way. “hey,” he croaked once she was an acceptable distance away, watching as she climbed into the seat. it took everything in him not to scan her body for anything out of the ordinary, anything that he should be concerned with that would make him want to give her inconsiderate friends a piece of his mind. settling for another sigh, he snapped his gaze to the dashboard, turning the key and restarting the engine. “you alright?”
there was a smear of lighter blue spreading on the violet horizon, a haze of clouds blooming like smoke on water. sunlight reached across the dashboard to touch andrew’s slanted cheekbones, his soft eyes. grace had always been designed for motion, airplanes breaking clouds or dashing to departure gates with half applied mascara, or sitting in departure lounges with dashing thoughts, heart thudding like a bumper car. but she was still now, clicking in her seat-belt, looking at andrew from his soft edges to his absurd sandals. her heart ached with more fondness than she ever thought she was capable of. grace pressed her cheek into the headrest, reaching forward to tap andrew’s forearm, a little hello. she was getting better at this. every day, it felt like she was stepping further away from him, and into a less infatuated, better version of herself. it’s going to be alright, she allowed herself to think, before answering him, for the third time. “ yeah, i’m okay. ” grace didn’t question the seemingly never-ending stream of ‘ alright ’s coming from the soft, healing boy beside her. she hoped andrew knew it was mutual, that she’d storm the walls of troy for him, too, even if all she had to armor herself with was her yoga pants and his spartans shirt. “ thank you for -- ” this, everything. “ -- coming to get me. you’re my favorite uber, panda. ” she smiled at him, fondly, eyes a little too bleary to be completely teasing. “ i’ll clean the glitter out of your car this afternoon, i promise. ” it was unlikely grace would be awake by the afternoon, but her offer was still genuine, still wholehearted. things between them always were, no matter their distance, or how it grew like delphiniums.
