Internet Love

Chapter Six

After Shyla sent the message to Nash, all she could think about was him. How maybe they could become friends. How maybe, just maybe, they could become more that. But her thoughts were getting too far ahead of herself.
She needed time.
And who knows, maybe he writes back to a lot of people; he's that type of guy...right?
It was now 3:00pm. It was a fairly cool July day in Minnesota, about 75 degrees. Shyla decided to right her ride her penny board and just think about things. In times of stress, she likes to do this.
Today was one of those days.
She went outside and grabbed the white board that was lying on the cement driveway. Shyla went to her music list on her phone and hit shuffle. She placed her left, white Converse sneaker on the board, and pushed off with her left. She glided down to the bottom of her short driveway, and reached the empty roadway. Ever so smoothly, she placed her right foot behind her left one. Shaking her long, brown hair out of her face, she smiled.
A big, bold smile. She realized how happy she felt. She felt satisfied. For once, in 16 years, she felt free. All of her worries were far behind her. And the vibrations of the music in her hand gave her energy.
Shyla pushed off the ground again and placed her foot back up on the board. She closed her eyes and breathed in the air. She could smell lilac flowers still in bloom, and felt the warm sun shining down on her slightly tanned face.
And then it hit.
Shyla tumbled to the ground. The penny board got kicked behind her and her cellphone flew in front of her. She landed on her stomach. Arms out to the sides and legs flailed out in back of her. She lay there in the middle of the road for a minute.
Her body ached. Nothing was severely injured, but her black, skinny jeans, which usually had one small slit on each knee, now had two, gigantic holes down to her shins.
Shyla rolled onto her back and sat on her butt hugging her legs in to her chest. Blood was oozing out of medium sized gashes on her knees. It ran out of the torn holes in her jeans and as Shyla lay her head over her knees, her long hair draped into the small river of blood.
She put her head up. Tears were pouring out of her eyes like snow falls during a heavy snowstorm.
"Goddammit!" She screamed. Looking up to the sky. "Why does it have to be like this? Why does this always have to happen to me?" She rested her head on her kneecaps again, and as she cried, her back bobbed up and down.
Her music was still playing, even through the hard impact it made to the ground. The only words that Shyla could make out through her muffled sobs were "Without you I feel torn like a sail in a storm."
And that was all that Shyla needed to hear.
She quickly brought her head up, jumped up from her curled position and ran over to where her phone was laying. To her great surprise, it was not fractured. No pieces of glass were missing, there were no cracks, dents, nothing. She turned her phone on, and a big smile emerged on her face. Her smile glowed bright and her tears melted away instantaneously.
It was a message.
From Nash.
                           • • •