"Best friends forever" is such bullshit because I had a best friend, but he sure as hell isn't forever. Then why is the universe making him my project partner now? And why is he so hot and beautiful... just why?
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"Turn down the music, Noa!"
I hear my mom shout from downstairs. This is our routine; I get home and blast my type of music, which Mom hates! Right now, I'm listening to 'Sunflower' by Post Malone. It's an iconic song, but Mom says it's just a song with words that no one can understand. So... I turn up the volume even more.
It's always been me and Mom against the world. It's not like my dad is not in the picture or anything; it's just that he has to stay out of town most of the time due to his job. So, my mom is like a normal teenager's mom—my best friend when she wants to be and my mom when she has to be 'strict' with me.
"Noa! Let's go!" This was not from Mom. As I go downstairs, I hear Mom saying, "Silas, you're back again without knocking and a key! How have you been?" I don't miss the sarcasm in her voice. Maybe Silas does, or he just ignores it.
"I am fantastic now that I have seen you, Loreen!"
"So we are on a first-name basis, huh?" My mom sighs and gets back to the kitchen.
My mom has a slight issue with Si; she thinks he is careless and has an attitude problem—both true, but he is a great friend, so she has to deal with it.
"Come on, get ready. We are getting late for your tournament." Si gestures towards my skateboard closet—my most prized possession.
My dad taught me how to skate when I was seven. I always thought that skateboarding was cool. I know there's no career in this, but skateboarding gives me an adrenaline rush like no other, and it's one of the few things that Dad and I have in common. The closet consists of our collections of skateboards: a few are Dad's old boards, some are mine, and some are made by me and Dad.
I picked my lucky board; it's blue with red and white polka dots—a little girlish, but I like it.
"Mom! I'm gonna take off! I'll be back by dinner." I close the front door and get in Si's car for the tournament.
The tournament was brutal; I have bruises all over me. I was scored the second best because of my little screw-up in the last spin. But I don't mind; you always learn something when you lose—one of my mom's sayings.
We are sitting at an abandoned and creepy park—we used to come here and play when we were kids, but back then, the park was a nice children's park. But somehow it became our meetup of some sort.
Me, Beau, and Silas are sitting by the bench waiting for Kaiden. We meet at this place daily to get away from reality, and Kaiden has this meetup scheduled too. Asshole!
"You are not a 25-year-old with stress but a 17-year-old. Stop smoking cigarettes, Si!" I swipe some sand towards him.
"It's weed," Silas lights the weed. "Want a puff?"
"I'm good," I wrinkle my nose and look the other way. I see Kaiden coming to the park.
"Do we always have to meet at this creepy place?" Kaiden extends his hand towards Silas and takes the joint from him. These two... Sigh.
"Yes," we all say together.
"How was the tournament, Noa?" Kaiden asks while taking a puff.
And just like that, we start talking about our day. We share every small detail about our day; there is a reason we meet at this place, no one to disturb us, just us and our useless talks.
But today, I left out the talk about the study buddy thing. The guys already give me shit about bitching about Mason. I don't want more shit.
And then I hear my phone go off with a text, and I see a text that I would have never dreamt of.
Mason Hendricks: when do u wanna meet up for the study thing?
