"Hair Everywhere?" Came a voice scooting past me, the familiar sound of rolling wheels.
"Yeah? What’s it to you?" I quickly defended the name of my Mum’s new hairdressing salon.
He shrugged his shoulders, his hair was dark brown with a hint of a blonde streak hidden underneath his designer cap. "Just kidding, it’s cool." He complimented.
"Oh?" I said with slight regret as I looked up at the signage at the front of the shop. Silence filled the air for what seemed like ten minutes, but was only a split second, when I quickly followed up with, "Humph, pretty lame, huh? It’s my Mum’s idea of a trendy slogan. It was either that, or ’Hair to your Crown… as in… Heir? And, well, ‘Hair Everywhere’ sounded more conservative so she chose that one… but I prefer the other name, myself… personally." God, I can’t believe I’m babbling my words up!
He looked at me. His gorgeous, vivid, green eyes glowed with shyness as he made eye contact with me. That was the moment I think I almost fell off my skateboard! That was the moment we both laughed off the awkward silence, feeling like little school kids again, even though we were technically school kids, if you classify being 14 years old as being a school kid, which really we’re more like teenagers or young adolescents.
It was the first time I had felt these weird cramps in my stomach. So, is this love at first sight? This must be what it feels like to… have a crush?! NOOOOOOOOO!!!! Like, I’m a Tom-boy! I’m supposed to like skateboarding (which I live for) and, well, skateboarding… among other things, such as… skateboarding. Hmmm, seems I could be more of a girl than I thought! I’m not meant to like boys, I’m a Tom-boy and Tom-boys like boy things – doesn’t necessarily mean that I want to be a boy or anything, just means that I’m not into buying those ‘Dolly’ magazines that have the latest on how to put on make up or survey the top 5 hottest boys in ‘Vogue’ right now – and especially not boyfriends! Ewwwww!!! I can’t believe I’m even having this conversation with myself thinking about boyfriends!
As I balanced on one foot and scooted my board with the other, I did a half round quarter back turn and dog-legged over a small pot hole in the footpath.
‘Hey, that’s not bad! Where did you learn that?’ he noticed as he stood his own skateboard up with a quick flick of his right foot, catching it ever so effortlessly with one hand to tuck up under his arm.
I was a little taken aback as he’d stopped and showed interest in my skateboarding skills. ‘I call it, ‘the Demo Del Mondo’’. I used my hands to help pronounce the name in an Italian accent as if it was famous or something.
‘The Demo Del Mondo’, eh?’ he replied back, nodding his head approvingly. ‘Pretty impressive. Show me how you did it and I will show you one of my own tricks that I invented, which I call the ‘Jet Pack!’’
‘The ‘Jet Pack’?’ I mocked as I raised my eyebrows in some sort of bizarre response.
‘Yeah.’ He replied. I call it the ‘Jet Pack’ because, for perhaps many reasons, it resembles me in a lot of ways.’ He shrugged his relaxed shoulders as I stared blankly at him. ‘Long story’ he felt obligated to add. But I was staring at him, not to make him feel dense or anything, but because, the more I looked at him, the more I noticed about him. The dark freckles on his nose made his smile somewhat cute.
I quickly reminded myself that I am a Tom-boy and I want to stay a Tom-boy for as long as I can, perhaps forever… or, for whenever. So, I courageously gathered myself up and pulled myself together enough to volunteer to show him how to do the ‘Demo Del Mondo’.
