Skating By My Side (Renga Angst)

Chapter 4: Why So Soon..?

(Continuing in Langa's POV)

      I ran. I couldn't be in there, not as I watched the doctors fail to bring him back again.. and again...

      I had to get out of there. I was in denial. Reki was dead and I refused to believe it. Not after all that we had been through.. The person who taught me how to skate, the one who witnessed my first ollie. The one who I fought with over the smallest things, and the one who I cried with over the bigger things.

He was gone. He wasn't coming back.

      I continued to run, I don't even think his own mom knew that he had died yet. She and his family only visit on the weekends and it was currently a Thursday. I didn't even know where I was going, I couldn't think, I couldn't see, I felt dizzy and I wanted to throw up. I crashed into the nearest trash can, threw up in there, and then collapsed onto the ground in tears. I lay down and ended up falling asleep for a few hours.

I woke up about three hours later, it took me a second to realize where I was.

The skate park.. where Reki taught me how to skate, where I did my first ollie. Where we.. spent all of our time together...

I started crying again.

"This isn't real. It's just a dream, Langa." I say to myself, I was still in denial.

I stood up, feeling extremely dizzy. The dizziness faded and I just stared at the skate park.

      All of the memories that we made at this park, the videos that we took, the talks that we had. They were all.. gone? No. This can't be real, Reki can't be gone. He isn't gone.

"C'mon, this way!!" I heard a faded voice yell.

I recognized the voice instantly, it was Reki's...

I see a silhouette of him on his board skating down to the skate shop.

"REKI!!!" I ran after him as soon as I saw him.

"REKI!! WAIT!!!" I shouted, hoping that he would look back, but he just kept skating...

I was outside the skate shop now, I watched as the silhouette of Reki faded as it got off the board. He was never there, it was all fake.

Manager Oka then opened the door.

"You okay, kid? I heard you yelling somethin' from all the way in here!" He says normally, he hadn't heard yet because he sounded cheery and normal.

"No.. Reki.. h-he....." I sobbed, I couldn't contain it anymore.

"Woah Woah, what happened to Reki?" He says, now sounding concerned.

"H-he... he.. he's gone." I cried out, falling down and beginning to hyperventilate.

"What? He's.. gone..?" It took him a second to figure out what I was talking about.

"Oh my god.." He says as he runs back into the store.

15 minutes passed and he still hadn't come back out, so I picked myself up and began walking home.

I didn't want to go home because I had to pass Reki's house on the way to it but I figured that I had to go home at some point.

Once I got to the corner of Reki's house, I ran. I kept my head down and ran as fast as I could because I couldn't bear looking at the house that he once lived in.

Once I get to my house, I run to my room without greeting my mother. I crashed onto my bed and sobbed before falling asleep.

"Reki.. I can't believe you're actually gone.. what about skating together infinitely..?"