Half a World Away // Vinnie Hacker

*17*

It was now 10 am on Saturday and Vinnie is on his way over. Today we are going to go to the skatepark for a few hours and then we're going to go to that college party tonight. The whole idea of the next couple of days is to get Vinnie to disconnect and just take it easy, to not worry about work and focus on living his life.

I got dressed in simple blue jeans and a cropped black shirt with my converse. I put on a single necklace and did basic makeup including my signature eyeliner. By the time I was done, Vinnie was knocking on my door. He had a bag in one hand and keys in the other. "You should just leave some stuff here," I suggested. he walked into the apartment and towards my room. "That's why I have this bag," He said, turning and smiling at me. He put his bag down on the floor of my wardrobe and walked back out. I walked up to him and held my hand out. he looked at me confused for a second, and then hesitantly put his hand out as well, causing me to laugh.

"No, give me your phone. You're completely disconnecting today," I said. His cheeks turned a very light shade of pink and he handed me his phone. I put it on the kitchen bench, grabbed my skateboard and Vinnie's hand and pulled him out of the apartment. I locked the door and we made our way down to Vinnie's car. I was really excited for today just because I was getting to spend time with Vinnie and get to know him further. I think we've established that I like Vinnie and with that comes loving hanging out with him, plus he's just a cool person to be around. 

"You seem excited," Vinnie said as he turned a corner, glancing at me for a second with a smile on his face. I turned and looked at him, mimicking the smile he had, "I am, today is going to be so much fun," I clapped causing him to laugh. We pulled up to the skate park minutes later and hopped out. Vinnie dragged his board off the back seat of his car and then we got to skating. I'm more of a street skater so I'm not too good at tricks I just like cruising around but I thought when I got to LA that I would challenge myself and learn a few more tricks. We walked in and immediately Vinnie was in the bowl doing all these tricks that I wouldn't dare to do. Currently, I could do an ollie and a nollie shove it and that was about it. I never really felt the need to learn tricks because all I would do on it was skate around the streets, at night especially, and just play music and live life. tricks didn't matter.

I got on my skateboard and just cruised around the park like I had done every time I had come to a skatepark. I was cruising for a few minutes before Vinnie popped up in front of me, surprising me and causing me to fall on him... again. "Vinnie! Stop just popping up in front of me!" I exclaimed, only resulting in him laughing rather than apologising. "Do you know any tricks?" Vinnie asked, off-topic from our conversation but on point with my thoughts. I shook my head and he pulled my hand, dragging me to a flatter part of the park. "I've seen you do an ollie and a nollie shove so it's not like you can't do any tricks at all, just no cool ones," Vinnie started, earning a roll of the eyes from me. 

He decided to jump straight into teaching me how to kickflip because according to him I've been skating long enough to be able to pick it up quite quickly. Getting the board to get some air was the easiest part of the whole trick and it usually is because it's similar for all tricks, it's just the flipping the board and landing that was hard. 

after an hour I finally got the flip right and now it was just time to land it. The flip was really hard but not as hard as I was expecting. I think I sort of scared myself out of doing tricks before because I don't like being bad at something, if I'm going to do it I'm going to be good at it. After a few tries of landing the kickflip, I was just about to break. my butt was killing me and my and hand wrists were starting to get all scraped up. I sat down next to Vinnie for a moment and just took a moment to feel all the pain all over my body. Vinnie had been trying to learn a new trick near me as well and he looked so cute when he was all serious, trying to get it right. 

"You're almost there," Vinnie said after a moment. I was examining the small cuts all over my hands and I think he could sense how close I was to giving up. I took a moment and drank some water and then got back up and grabbed my board. The second I got into the air and I felt the board flip around, I could feel something was different. It felt like it was right, it didn't feel like the others. I got back down onto my board, landing it this time and not falling on my ass. I jumped off my board and ran over to Vinnie. "Did you see that?! I landed it!" I exclaimed. He let out a laugh and then stood up, "I saw, good job!" he put out his hand for a high five and it sort of hit me that Vinnie was my friend, nothing more. I high five his hand and ran back to get my board. "Do you wanna get something to eat?" Vinnie asked when I got back to him. I immediately nodded and we headed off to get some food. Skating really does make a girl hungry.