Our Red and Blue Dynamic

Langa

"If you don't take care of your board, you're going to end up wiping out," he said, fiddling with the trucks on my skateboard. I didn't understand how all of that stuff works, and my board was a custom build, so a quick search online wouldn't help.

"Well, that's what I have you for, right? Taking care of me," I tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear, "I mean my board!"

He smiled. "Yeah, I can't let my best friend get hurt. I mean, his board." He said. My ears grew warm while the other guys laughed.

"Ah c'mon, Reki, don't you care about him, too?" Joe elbowed his shoulder, one eyebrow raised. Reki's eyes finally left his work to scowl at Joe.

"Of course I do! I was just teasing." Reki said, returning to his task.

"Shouldn't you be taking care of your own board? I mean, you're the one that rides it," Cherry said, looking over his electronic-hybrid skateboard, which he called Carla.

"I don't really know how," I shrugged, picking at a blade of grass.

"I've tried to show him, but actually skating seems to be the only thing he's interested in," Reki said.

"You're one to talk!" Miya said, receiving a feigned hurt expression from Reki and agreement from Cherry, Joe, and Shadow.

"If it isn't attached to a skateboard, you don't even notice it exists," Shadow taunted.

They continued to bicker, and I half listened, but I was mostly trying to subdue the blush creeping along my cheeks.

Would he even notice me without skateboarding?

The question had been playing through my mind for a few days. At first, it was just a passing thought, nothing more than a moment of consideration, and it was gone. Now, it had grown to be a constant echo, and I could no longer ignore the thought that, without skateboarding, I wouldn't be anything to him.

I chewed my lip, my eyes falling to Reki's skateboard at my feet. I pushed it from side to side, feeling the divots and bumps of the concrete through the wheels. Snowboarding didn't quite have the same feeling. I loved how I felt when I was snowboarding, but it was a more solo sport. Since Reki taught me how to skate, it had filled in the gap I'd been missing from snowboarding, and had given me a group of people to connect with.

Without Reki, where would I be?

I distantly felt something touch my shoulder.

"Langa? Langa, you okay?" Reki said, snapping me out of my trance. I looked to his hand just as he retracted it.

"Huh? Oh, yeah," I mumbled, "just thinking."

"Some pretty intense thinking, what's on your mind?"

I looked around to see all eyes were on me. I gripped the hem of my jacket.

"Uh, nothing much," I said, feeling self-conscious, "just school stuff." Reki raised an eyebrow at me, but didn't press.

"You were spaced for like, five minutes, what kinda school stuff?" Shadow did not get the memo.

"N-no it's nothing," I stammered. My face started heating up again, making me more embarrassed, which in turn made my blush worsen.

"Oh I know that face all too well, you were thinking about someone, not something," Joe said, "who's the lucky mystery person that has caught lil Snow's eye?"

"Not everyone is constantly thinking about chicks like you, Joe." Reki said.

"I'm not constantly thinking about them! I think about other things too."