Matchablossom

Hurt

Cherry Blossom stood in a corner, close to the starting line. He eyed his rival and best friend Joe, who was flirting with a group of girls, he seemed to be too preoccupied to think about their race. A friendly beef was good, once in a while, Cherry thought Joe was too egotistical for his own good and needed to be reminded that Cherry was still the skater who beat him at every single race when they were in their teen years. 

"Carla, what's the time?" He asked, pushing himself off the wall he was leaning on. 

"11:55, master." Carla replied as Cherry smiled, adjusting his mask slightly he walked up to meet Joe at the start line. Putting his board down, Cherry felt a small tug at the back of his mind telling him to pull out of the race. He felt something was wrong but couldn't pinpoint what it was. Deciding to ignore it, he looked over at Joe who was smirking. 

"Ready for this Kaoru?" Joe asked, putting his foot down on his board. This caused Cherry to roll his eyes in annoyance. 

"I told you not to call me that here, Joe" He put the emphasis on Joe, hoping it would piss him off slightly.

"You love it when I call you that." Cherry was about to respond but the siren announcing the start of the race sounded, pulling Cherry's attention back to the race. The same fear pulled at him again, but it was too late as the lights started to turn red. 

As soon as the fourth light turned red, the two sped off. Cherry jumped onto his board, closely followed by Joe who soon overtook him. They both turned the first corner, Cherry sped up, narrowly missing a large boulder. 

"Carla, how long until the next corner?" Cherry awaited an answer,  but after waiting, he never got an answer. "Carla." He spoke a bit louder, but still got no answer. He looked down, noticing that Carla had died. Cursing quietly, he tried to clear his head. 

Cherry rethought all of his decisions, especially without Carla to guide his actions. He didn't believe in himself, and skating in S  caused the risk of injuries, especially if Cherry got distracted with something else. Cherry started to pick up unnecessary speed, but his panicking made him pull away from the race slightly, although he was still gaining speed. 

The corner was coming towards him too quickly, which Joe, who was oblivious to Cherry's panicking, quickly disappeared behind. Controlling his emotions, Cherry put his hand out to turn the corner easier. 

When his hand connected with the floor, it picked up a few smaller stones which hit the wheels of his skateboard. This caused Cherry to lose his balance, and fall off his skateboard, sliding across the gravel, the momentum Cherry picked up case him to hit into the boulders lining the course. Cherry was out instantly, curled up and his mask ripped completely. 

Joe who was farther down, close to the old factory had no idea, but found it suspicious that Cherry hadn't caught up with him, and it wasn't like Cherry to give up mid race. Looking around, he was everyone looking at their phones, noticing that they had scared or fearful expressions. Coming to a stop, Reki ran over to him, completely out of breath. 

"Joe- it's Cherry, he's out cold." Reki explained, panic swept over Joe, beating himself up for not noticing sooner. 

"Where?" He asked jumping off his board, shoving it into Reki's chest. It would be quicker for him to run rather than skating uphill. 

"Further down, just before the second corner." With that Joe ran off, panic crushing his chest. A small crowd alerted the location of Cherry to Joe. Pushing his way through the crowd, Joe knelt next to Cherry holding onto his hand tightly. Cherry looked paler under the soft lamp light, a peaceful expression on his face, his eyes half closed, but the part Joe could see, the eyes looked dead.