1 Always the Country music never the Rap music

#1. I prefer the heated fast beat to the soft uptown beat.

I cleaned the dust from my glasses with my sweater. I never sweat but yet here I am. My heart was racing as I heard the sound of the clock ticking from my wrist. I had a close call today.

"Avery Johnson," Cleo shouted my name as she badged into my room.

"I have been calling you for ages," she said in her oversized T-shirt and joggers. Her hair was tied up in a bun. Cleo was different from me. While she enjoyed old country music, such as Kenny Rogers, Don Williams, Johnny Cash, Bill Monroe, and others. I enjoyed Nicki Minaj, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, NF, hip hop, and rap. Also, Cleo was prettier than me. I have been told that since 6th grade, not that it matters since my dad always told me I was beautiful.

I met Cleo at birth, not in the literal sense. My mom fell sick after she gave birth to me. The doctor said that the strain it had on my mother was much, so much so that she was advised not to try having another baby.

Back to the story, Cleo's mother had given birth when my mother was admitted to the hospital again for internal bleeding. My dad and my mom stayed with her dad all through the night. Maybe the helplessness in his eyes made them stay with him instead of going back to their hospital room.

Soon baby Cleo was born, the Logan family became our neighbors, and we became best friends. I first noticed we had different tastes in things when I listened to Drake's Album So Far gone. I fell in love with the song Brand New.

Stay chilled, my mind said. Cleo was never going to know that I was playing NF songs.

"Seriously, I must have missed it when I dreamed of Henry Cavil."

"Ewww, he is old, and he would be arrested for statutory rape."

"probably as of last month, he would have" she rolled her eyes. Cleo always hated that I was older than her by 6 months.

"never mind that" she sits on the bed, and my Mp3 players start to play

"is that" I quickly turn the music off before she suspects anything

"What, No!" she looks at me weirdly

"AJ, you been weird all afternoon, and I don't think I want to tell you anything with you like this"

"Pfh, you know you want to spill all your secret to me."

She turned to me and sighed

"I do"

"I just feel like the world is turning against me," she whined, not before adjusting my leg so she could rest my head on her lap. I massaged her head, and she groaned.

"I love it when you do that."

"so you were saying?"

"Mom and Dad are fighting about the dishwasher," she demonstrated with her hands up in the air.

"A Dishwasher?" questioned herself.

"like as if Liam is helping any matter" I raised my eyebrow.

She continues pouring out her feeling, "he wants us to copulate__copulate AJ__ I told him we should wait till prom" I hold my laughter hearing her use copulate instead of sex. That was Cleo for you, she hates curse words, and any sexually said words.

"What happened to waiting till after marriage. A sacred union between two people."

I wanted to tell her that most people don't do that anymore, but I continued rubbing her head.

"High school is filled with underaged stimulated individuals who are most likely going to get pregnant and ruin their lives."

"you do know that there are condoms, right?" I chipped in,

"condoms are 98% effective. This means that 2 out of 100 people will become pregnant in a year. I could be the 1 out of the 2 people in a 100."

"you checked Google, right?" I asked

she pouted.

"that not the point"

"Just tell him you are not ready," I replied.

"I__ I can't __ I don't want him to find it somewhere else," she said honestly. She closed her eyes and covered her face with her two hands.

"you know you don't have to."

"And can you believe that Asshole is coming back" she changed the conversation. While she removed her hands from her face

I knew who she was calling her Asshole. Axel Logan. The one person Cleo hated in this world. Axel Logan was her older brother, last time I heard about him was that he was in college even though he went to Juvie when he was seventeen.

The reasons she hated him were beyond me, it was something she never confided in me for, but still, I stayed away from him. The one time Cleo saw us in the same room, she cursed him and made me vow to never talk to him. Extreme, but Cleo might look like a sweet angel, but getting on her wrong side was like raining hell on yourself.

"I wish he would stop existing."

"that's a little harsh."

She looked into my eyes "is it? try having him as a brother."

She gets up from my bed,

"thank you, Avery. Nobody listens to me better than you."

She moves to where I keep my CD players; she picks out a piece of old country music and plays it on my CD player.

But, of course, it was always the country music, never the rap music.

She danced around to Daddy Sang Bass by Johnny Cash. I found my love for country music from Cleo, it might not be my rhythm or song, but when she pulled me to dance, I was glad we were friends because time with Cleo was always fun.