Memories

skating

As soon as I got there Miles was sitting on the bench we always put our bags on. He smiled at me and waved. He was like that a lot. Very happy.

"Hey AJ, I was almost afraid you weren't coming. Since you are well, two minutes late."

"Sorry, he was late. I meant to get going earlier, but that wasn't possible because I needed him to get home before I could leave Joey."

"Well, let's just skate. We need to practice."

"You need to practice. I've been ready for this for weeks."

"Sure, whatever you say Princess Anastasia."

He skated off because he knew that I would come after him.

"Come back here!"

I skated off into the rink after him, and basically chased him around for a few minutes. Until Lizzie skated up to me. She came out of nowhere so I almost hit her.

"Hey, better watch where you're going, Double."

To you Double probably sounds like the weirdest insult. It doesn't really even make sense to me. And it's me who's being called it. According to her it means that since I have two names, Anastasia and Jolie, I need double the help or something. I just go with it, it doesn't insult me or anything, but she never cares to notice.

In case you're wondering, there is a story as to why my name is Anastasia Jolie. My dad loves Angelina Jolie as an actress, so he wanted to name me that. But, my mom thought that was too weird, and why would our kid be named after an actress, all that stuff. So my dad changed it to Anastasia, and for some reason she was like, oh that's okay. But, I didn't like my name, it sounds too much like a princess, so when I was five I decided to go by AJ, and now pretty much no one calls me by my full name.

"It's your fault you pop out of nowhere like that."

"What? All I could see is that you were chasing that weirdo friend of yours Matthew or whatever. And you ran in front of me. What were you two even doing?"

"Three things. One, It's Miles. Two, Miles isn't a weirdo, you are. And three, we were just playing. Why do you care? You don't seem to have any interest in me, unless you're making fun of literally nothing."

"I was just wondering, and many people are with me on this, are the two of you dating?"

"What, no! We're just friends. We would never date, he's my best friend."

Right at that moment, he skated up to us. He had a confused look on his face, probably because I stopped chasing him and that I was talking to the girl I hate most. Confused, because I had stopped chasing him and since I was talking to the girl that I hate. I think he was trying to figure out if I needed to be held back or if he should just drag me off the rink. I would need to be held back.

"What are you guys talking about?"

"Hi, Miles is it?"

"Yeah. I'm Miles. You sat next to me in math all of last year."

"Right. You had different hair last year."

She's right about that. He had long hair until that summer. According to him, it got too hot with that hair. But I think it might have had to do with the fact he was embarrassed by it. He had the same haircut from kindergarten through sixth grade. He probably wanted to change things up. We are almost teenagers.

"Yeah, well..."

"I was just asking Anastasia Jolie here if you guys were together. What do you think?"

I looked at him thinking he'd obviously say that we weren't. But instead he said something completely out of left field to me.

"Um... well we... It's complicated."

"What?!"

He said that. He really said that it's 'complicated'?" What was he thinking?

"I'll leave you two alone. But not really, we are in a rink. It's public, so don't go all couple fight on us."

I glared at her as she skated away. I hate her so much. 'Go all couple fight'? It makes me upset even now.

"What do you mean that 'it's complicated'?"

"Well, I don't know."

"We're just friends. We never were or will be anything else."

"Well, maybe I..."

"You have to be kidding me. Since when?"

"Last year. I don't know, we've been friends forever, and I guess I just noticed you..."

"God! You couldn't have just kept it from...AH!"

Right while I was in the middle of talking to him, he kissed me. How could he do that? I thought we were friends! He just went and ruined everything good in my life! You probably think I was overreacting. And I was. It's just that stuff was really weird to me. And it still is.

"What the heck!?"

"Sorry, I just thought..."

"You thought what?"

"Well, it seemed like the right thing to do at the time. I don't know."

"How could that ever be the right thing? I thought...I'm going to skate over there."

"AJ...Come on, I'm sorry!"

"I don't care!"

I skated to the other side of the rink and worked on my turns. I am so mad at him. I'm so mad at everyone.