Chapter 13 - Here We Go Again
"Err, sis? Are you okay?" Dave said as he slowly opened the door to my room.
I replied with a muffled groan and a lazy wave of my hand. I was lying face down on my bed, partially because I was trying to forget everything that just happened and hopefully, my position would, I dunno.. suffocate me or something.
"Well, mom says you need to lower the volume 'coz she has this big meeting tomorrow and has to wake up really early.." He finished slowly, not sure what to do. I don't blame him, I'm a wreck and I know it.
I managed to say 'ok', though still muffled, as I hear the door close. I turned myself over but kept my eyes closed. I'm sure he heard every word of that phone call and thought I was some sissy little sister fighting over a lollipop or something. I'm embarrassed, yet I don't regret a thing I said. She needed to hear the truth, especially from her best friend.
Ex-best friend, no less.
Now that I look back on it, our friendship has slowly been deteriorating since I left. Sure it was going pretty well the first few weeks, but that's always the way it is.. While you're full of hope and faith that you'll get through it, that opportunity starts slipping away from your grasp, slowly.
It used to be easy,
Talking to you.
It used to be Heaven,
falling for you.
I managed to sigh heavily as I lazily pull myself up, adjusting my brown Wonder Woman shirt that had rode up my back while I had been lying down as I walked over to my radio. The Sweeps were currently playing Story of Us, a song I pretty much knew by heart.
Creepy as it is, I never found out who gave me the cd, but I sure as hell am greatful they thought I had good taste in music. Haha. I had actually disregarded it for a couple of days, but then I guess I thought, what the hell, I'll see what they're about. To my surprise, they've become on of my favorite bands. It's weird though, I have no other clue about this band whatsoever.
I lower the volume and set it to sleep, 30 minutes seeing as I wasn't fit for anything tonight aside from sleep. If I tried to dissect the 'incident' one more time, I think I'd explode from all this confused tension bottled up. It's weird how a problem can be as physically draining as it is mentally and emotionally.
I lumber to my bathroom and change into my 'sleeping' clothes, consisting of an oversized t-shirt and boxer shorts. Comfort clothes, I think as I collapse on my soft, soft bed..
Everything just gets blurry from there, though I do hear the faint sound of music...
Why don't you tell me,
What went wrong, tell me
Why'd you change?
Unfamiliar, you've become strange...
Damn him.
Damn him for torturing us like this.
Really, what makes him think ANYONE is interested in the "Positive and Negative points of Sinicization in Vietnam", "Indianization in Thailand" and fuckin' Islamicization in damned Indonesia?!
This is so goddamn boring.
As if it was a gift from God, a scrap of paper flies onto my table. I was pretty spaced out, so I just saw it appear there, not really knowing where it came from. I open the note,
Hey Jenna, are you doin anything after school?
I'd ask u later but I had to do SOMETHING
in this class before I officially pass out.
I looked around, more awake and looked for who could've passed the note to me. I was starting to get creeped out at not knowing who send me the note, I am suddenly greeted by Andy's expectant face.. err,
Right beside me.
Uh, yeah, of course it was her. Duh, who else?
Ahem.
I quickly scribbled a 'no, why?' and passed it back to her when Mr. White turned around to expose his shiny bald head with a ring of black and gray hair around it. Sick.
To my relief, the paper was passed back to me.
You know Jack skateboards right?
Well, he's goin to the skate park later
to practice for an upcoming competition,
wanna come with? Jean and Mona are comin' too.
Aha, something for me to do instead of waiting for Dave in detention. I've been to the skate park a couple of times, thanks to Marcus and Dave over the summer, so it should be fun. I replied with a 'Sounds great!' and tossed it back to her, and slumped my head on mudesk, in hope of drowning out Mr. White's heinous voice.
Thankfully, I didn't have to do that because a couple of seconds later the bell rang, and everyone hurriedly packed their things faster than you could say Sinici-....
Sin-...
Sinci-...
oh, WHATEVER word that was he kept mentioning.
Creep.
* * *
"Uhm.. so you're sure you know how to ride a skateboard?" He asks, worry carved all over his face.
I firmly put my first foot, covered in my black and green pair of Etnies Callicuts, on the center of the board and replied coolly, "Trust me Jack.. I know my way around these things.." I smiled with obvious confidence.
NOT.
Boy, was I wrong.
How was I to know it would completely backfire?
Of all times for a skateboard to fail me. I mean I admit I'm barely a beginner, but today it just HAD to fail me.. and worse, right in front of Jack.
Man did that concrete hurt my ass.
It's not funny considering I had my keys in the back pocket.
No, really. It's not funny.
Stop laughing. No, stop.
"OH MY FUCKING GOD!! MY ASS IS BLEEDING!!" I leaned on my side, still collapsed on the floor, gracefully...
Well... grabbing my ass.
Is groping a better word?
"Fuck!! Fuck, fuck, fuck!!!" I screamed in pain. DAMN those keys!!!
Damn them!!
When Jack was able to regain his composure (argh!) he bent over and looked at me, humor still written all over his face.
"Holy shit!! Jen, that was hilarious!! The way you sorta flew into the air for a second-" Noticing how red I was getting, not out of pain (not really at least) but out of rage, he stopped himself. "Well, I mean... are you okay?"
"Oh shut up Jack." I sat up slightly, propped up on my elbows. He sat down beside me, doing the same.
I turned sharply to the side and narrow my eyes at Jack, for he was chucking again.
At me.
Gee, I should start thinkin' about making it in the entertainment industry.
Hahahaha.
Not.
"So.." He begins, staring off into the sky. We were alone in this area of the skate park, a secluded area on a sort of hill. The heat of the sun blocked by the wall of the building beside the park, we were so much higher that we could see all the other verts below us.
I remember when Marcus and Dave brought me here over the summer I instantly fell in love with this area. Aside from the small ramp and handrails it was just a big wall covered in graffiti, mostly of confessions, regrets, beliefs and beautiful, unnoticed artwork. It gave me a sense of belonging because it was a comfort to know that other people had problems too, that life wasn't all it was perked up to be.
I voiced this out to Jack as he surveyed the view that lay in front of him, the big concrete depressions and verts, all the while listening to me. I looked ahead as well, admiring the view. There were lots of skaters, flying high into the air, doing their respective tricks, while a bunch of skater groupies squealed and clapped.
By skater groupies I mean a bunch of trashy-dressed girls who want nothing more than to get a "cool" skater boyfriend, not realizing that the skaters are only looking for a good time. They pretend that they understand how much skateboarding is to skaters, oooh-ing and aaah-ing every time they see something even remotely trick-like. Kinda pathetic, I know.
Jean, Andy, Mona and Matt went off to look for food and I volunteered to stay with Jack. He was practicing for this amateur skating competition coming up this November, to be frank, I really didn't think he needed it. He was so fucking awesome.
"Yeah, I come up here all the time.. I started joining skate comps in my freshman year. This place, it's like... I dunno Jen, it's like some sort of sanctuary for people like me you know?" He replied, his blue eyes were twinkling. It was obvious he has had a passion for skateboarding for quite some time now.
"Hmm, what do you mean, 'people like you'?" I asked.
"Well, you know, the whole misunderstood-looked-down-on-and-persecuted-for-my-beliefs thing." He says flashing me a lopsided smile. "This skatepark is a place for me to.. well, not be so afraid to be myself."
"Yeah," I said with a laugh. "I get it Jack.. don't worry." I said with a sincere smile. An applause coupled with loud cheers came from one of the verts on the far left, apparently this guy just pulled off this really hard trick. Not that I knew what it was though. I looked back at Jack, he looked so peaceful and serene while I was full to the brim with worry and stress.
"I just had a really big fight with my best friend.." I blurted out before I could control myself. "From Washington I mean..." I sat up straighter, leaning my arms on my knees. I saw a scrap of hard plastic and started playing with it, keeping my head down.
"What happened? If you don't mind me asking I mean.." He was looking straight at me now, I could feel his gaze, but I forced myself to keep looking down, focused at the piece of plastic in my hands.
"When I left, she started hanging out with this guy, who we really didn't like before, and well, so they started dating and all. I just kept my mouth shut and tried to be all happy for them, but she started changing you know? She started to think bands we used to love were "lame and redundant." I looked at him when I said this, lifting my hands to do the quotation marks for more emphasis, "She was altering her personality for the guy, and we talked less and less as the weeks flew by, and well, when I brought it up she totally took it the wrong way and there.." I abandoned the piece of plastic for the laces of my shoe, too afraid to look at Jack.
He must think I'm stupid.
"I understand Jen, really I do." He gently put a hand on my arm. "I hate it when things like that happen.. Though if you really value your friendship, I don't think you should just leave it in the past. I mean, just because you have a lot of new friends here," To which I snorted rather masculinely, "Don't pretend you don't Jenna. You've become pretty popular here, for a new kid." He took this opportunity to ruffle my greenish black hair.
"Anyway, as I was saying, just because you have a lot of new friends here doesn't mean you should let go of the old ones ya know?"
"Yeah of course Jack.. I would never do something like that.."
"Good." He said looking at me with another lopsided smile. God it looked so nice, I couldn't help smiling too, temporarily forgetting about my problems.
I wish I never had to remember.