stevie hopkins
- november 20, 2017 -

WIND SWEPT THROUGH THE SKATE park just across from the campus dorms. Simple three story, brick buildings with paint chipping from most the wood framed windows and doors. The dorms were barely big enough to turn around in and most of them smelled like a lure box. Kind of like my dad's old pick-up truck back home.

However, a pretty girl who played soccer lived there. Met her at a party once. The one and only college party I'd ever been to and will probably ever go to.

Chelsea and I watched Luna carefully from one of the iron benches littering the skate park. She dropped down into the bowl and zoomed around. I sat on the edge of the seat. Monica was one of the very few people I knew that skateboarded. Her and Luna made it look so fun.

She seemed to almost fly out of the bowl and land on her two feet. She smiled as she walked over.

"Where did you learn to do that?"

She plopped down beside Chelsea, "Lot's of practice and a lot of falling."

I eyed the board. Luna's gaze followed mine and she barely spared a glance in Chelsea's direction, "Would you like to try it?"

I leaned away from her and shook my head hard, "Me? On a skateboard. No. That's ridiculous... I don't know the first thing about skateboarding."

Luna smiled, "Neither did I when I first started and look at me now. All it takes is a little patience-"

"Ouch!" She flinched back as Chelsea slapped her against the arm, "What was that for?"

They shared a look and I caught Luna glancing at my foot. Even my gaze moved down my foot wrapped in my walking boot. Within seconds, I was ripping the Velcro open. At the sound, Chelsea turned to watch me work.

I tost the boot aside and smiled at her, "Yes?"

She rubbed her forearm, "It's just... Is it okay for you to be active on your foot? Shouldn't you be letting it heal? I don't know much about these things, but it seems dangerous to skate on an injured foot."

I shrugged my shoulders, "It probably is, but I really don't care. I've never been reckless before and there is no time like the present."

"I'm just worried that it'll cause more damage and will take longer to recover, won't it?"

"I should be fine." I refused to look at her. I didn't know what it would do to my foot being so active on it, but I wasn't about to tell her that. Not with the look she was giving me, "There's nothing to worry about Chelsea."

She shouldn't be worrying the way she was. I mean, we'd practically just met... But, that's not how it felt. It felt like I'd known her for years; decades even. As if she could make me rattle off my darkest secrets just by batting her eyelashes.

Her face fell and in that moment, I wanted to back down and comfort her. Why was my first instinct was to hold her and reassure her? I had to actively bite back the urge. I didn't understand that feeling. That feeling of wanting to hold someone and comfort them. It was like there was this sense of doom in the pit of my stomach.

Something in her shoulders deflated. A little bit of her light disappeared. She was so full of light that the smallest change was incredibly noticeable.

Luna grabbed her board and turned away. It was like she knew something was about to come.

"I don't actually like being called by my full name," she rubbed the tips of her shoes together and refused to look in my direction at all.

My brows knitted together and I cleared my throat. I knew there was no way I could have known, but somehow I still managed to feel somewhat embarrassed; as if I should have known, "Oh, of course. Yeah. You're right. That's my bad... Sorry."

Her hands rested on my forearm and I looked at her. She had this soft smile on her lips and this gentleness in her eyes. It was like she could calm every bad feeling in the entire world just with her touch and her smile, "No. It's okay, you didn't know. I just wanted to mention it. For the future and all. It just makes me nervous."

"The future?" I found the courage to actually say, moving my gaze to the concrete. It probably meant something else for her, but it caused another rush of emotions to surge through me.

A future with an us... I liked the sound of that. The sound of an us. This was all new for me. I was all math; I was all logic. But, lately all I could grasp was emotion this and emotion that and they confused me. Every since that stupid accident.

"Of course," she pulled my eyes towards her with just the sound of her voice, "I hope we're still friends after you're all healed up and everything."

"Yeah," I took in a breath, trying to pretend the word 'friend' didn't hurt me as much as it did, "me too."

"Good." She nudged my shoulder, "Cause, you kind of stuck with us now. The club, they don't really do well with outsiders and when they decided to bring someone in... They, as in the club, have a hard time letting go."

I barely glanced at Luna who chatted away on her phone at the end of the bench, "I mean if they, as in the club, have such a hard time letting go... I'll just have to stick around for a while I guess.

"I'm sure they would appreciate that." She tucked some hair behind her ear and I watched her hands through the entire motion, "I'll let you get to it then."

Biting her nail, she waved Luna over, pointing at her board. Her eyes caught mine when she grabbed hold of the board. She leaned it against my leg and winked, "Best of luck."

I grabbed the board and stepped over to the bowl. I inched to look over the edge. It didn't look too bad, "Wait!"

Luna jogged over and thrust those safety pads into my hands, "Wear these."

"Right," nodding, I sat on the edge of the bowl and slipped on the safety pads. Luna sat next to me, her legs dangling. She explains how to get into the bowl on the skateboard and how to fall correctly. Who knew there was a correct way to fall.

With all safety pads strapped on, I stood at the edge and put my dominant foot on the board, ready to "drop" in.

"Oh, hell no." That voice, I knew it anywhere. I peered over my shoulder to find an irritated Ethan heading our way with a pair of skates in his hands. This is what I had expected when I'd first told him about the injury. His jaw locked and he shook his head, brunette hair flopping around his ears.

"I know this looks bad."

"Looks? It is bad, Stevie. Why are you on your bad foot? Let alone, on a skateboard?"

I put my hands up in surrender, "I just wanted to try it. Luna made it look so fun."

"Who?"

"Luna," I pointed at the gothic looking girl.

He turned to look at her, his serious expression faltering for a second, "You put her up to this?"

She crossed her arms over her chest, "I didn't put her up to anything. She asked if she could try it. Who am I to deny her. I'm not her mother."

He shook his head, a wry smile lingering on his lips, "I'm sorry, who are you?" Turning to me on the edge of dropping into the bowl, Ethan pointed at her, "Who is she?"

I stepped back, trying to get away from the conversation. A yelp raced through my throat as I went backwards down the side of the bowl. I guess there was a reason for knowing how to fall correctly.

I sat at the bottom, the skateboard rolling to a stop next to me. The three of them peeked over the side and Ethan was the first to bust up laughing with Luna following close behind. With a smile, Chelsea slid down the side of the bowl and joined me at the bottom.

"Are you okay?" She asked, jogging over to me. She offered me her hand and I gladly took it. Pulling me to my feet, she laughed. It was a laugh to make fun, but more like the one you make when trying to break the tension.

"Yeah, I'm good." I dusted off the back of my pants, but still beamed over at her.

She wrapped her arm around mine, helping me. Get out of the bowl, "He seems like a cool guy."

I blinked at her a couple of times, "Who? Ethan? Yeah, he's pretty cool. We've been friends since I can remember. My mom homeschooled us together."

Laughing, I shook my head, "Actually she homeschooled most of the town."

Chelsea dropped my hand for a second before scrambling to grab it again so I didn't fall back down the bowl, "Your mom homeschool an entire town?"

I could feel my smile turn lopsided, "What can I say? She's a very talented woman. Plus, what's a few more when you already have like sixteen people in a house."

"I'm sorry," Chelsea laughed. "Did you say sixteen?"

"Fourteen kids and two parents," I nodded.

Chelsea smiled to herself more than anyone else, "It sounds nice."

"Nice?" I laughed, "More like full on chaos."

We turned to get my boot and leave when we caught sight of Luna and Ethan talking on the bench. Heads leaned towards each other with smiles on their faces. Weren't they about to scream at each other minutes before?

Glancing at each other, we laughed. She grabbed my shoulder for support and my breathing caught for only a second before settling back into its normal rhythm. I don't think we knew how beautiful she was when she laughed.

She was the kind of girl that made grown men go weak at the knees. Women too. That just wasn't something you found everyday. She wasn't without flaws, but they added so much to her appearance and personality. At that point were they even flaws anymore?