Phony: His One-sided Rivalry

Lady and Gents

BAUER

"HEY! BK THUNDER!" Amara yells inappropriately loudly.

I cringe at the stupid nickname she's been using on me for the past six weeks.

I regret being the only one at the skate park right now. The others were supposed to be here ages ago. Maybe they got themselves killed by a street gang or something. I couldn't put anything past that lot of bird brains.

But for the time being, I'm stuck with Amara Chiba's company.

Joy.

I visibly scowl, letting her know I do not want to speak to her.

And, as is her usual style, she ignores me and forces a smile instead, revealing her small gap tooth and crouches down next to me, not getting the message.

"Where is everybody?"

I remain silent. Her smile falters a little but she plasters it back on. Clearly uncomfortable.

I scoff. She could save a lot of energy if she didn't have to pretend so much.

"Why didn't you come with them? They could've gotten lost or jacked. You know how they are. Especially Mikey."

Silence.

She hesitates now. Looks like she's finally starting to get the message.

"Um, I've never been skateboarding before, have you?"

More silence.

She clears her throat and clutches the olive skateboard she's holding tightly.

"Yeah, um, I guess -,"

Lé silence.

You have got to admire her persistence. Too bad I didn't.

I cut her off by plugging my ears. I didn't even pretend to play music.

That was when she shut up. I didn't even glance at her.

I shut my eyes and pretended I was somewhere distant and she wasn't there, waiting for those three idiots who wanted to humiliate themselves to show up.

Don't tell me they actually ran into trouble on their way? Those bozos attract trouble like a magnet. I look over at Amara whose gaze is now fixated on a spot on the ground that looks like dried blood (What kind of skate park is this?).
She's troublesome too. That's probably the only reason why she gets along with MY friends so well.

I look again and see that she's looking directly at me, almost studiously. She wears artificial dreadlocks long and thick but refuses to style them anyway other than letting most of it fall in front of her face. Right now all I see is just one dark brown eye peeking at me and creeping the hell out of me.

I pull out one bud and ask -

"What?"

"Hm, nothing," she's says and looks away nonchalantly. "Just wondering who pissed in your cornflakes this morning."

She turns her head away and grumbles a colorful word that only our friend, Mikey could have taught her.

That potty mouthed delinquent.

I roll my eyes, smirk a little at how funny she sounded and bump her shoulder with mine, letting her know I'm just messing around.

"Language, dude."

Gotta keep it civil for the group.

She stifles a laugh and ends up snorting instead.

"I knew that would work." she says, like she achieved something just now.