"You ready?" Matthew asked as I walked into the garage so he could show me California. I went to the passenger side of his car and placed my hand on the handle to open it, but he gave me a weird look.
"What?"
"What are you doing? We're not driving around California." He stated as he held up two penny boards. "We're penny boarding around California." One penny board was blue with pink wheels and the other one was yellow with green wheels.
"I want the yellow one," I said and he handed it to me before we walked out of the garage.
Matthew placed his penny board on the side walk that went all around his neighborhood and all around California. I put mine down as well and stepped on top of it, pushing off with my left foot with a force.
"Whoa, I though I'd have to teach you."
"Nah, me and my sister used to penny board almost every day,"
"You have a sister?" He asked me, catching up with me and skating beside me.
"Yeah, her name is Jensen." Jensen, the other person I actually care about. Natalie and Jensen, those are the two.
"Oh, how old is she?" He asked me, putting on his black and blue ray bans.
"She's 15, so a year younger than I am." He didn't say anything after that, so, I put on my aviators and smiled as we made it to the streets where you could see the ocean perfectly.
"Cool, huh?"
"Cool? It's beautiful." I said, hopping off of mine, well, Matthew's penny board and picked it up off of the ground as I looked at the ocean.
"We could go surfing sometime, if you'd like."
"I can't swim." I replied, looking up at him.
"I'll teach you." He said, licking his lips. "It's really easy once you learn the basics, we could go satur-" Matthew was cut off.
"Hey, Espinosa! Is this your girlfriend?" I turned around to the boy who cut him off. He had on a blue bandana, a tie-dye tank top that showed a little bit of his ribs and abs, khaki shorts, and blue vans.
"Taylor!" Matthew yelled and gave him a hug the way guys give other guys hugs. "No, she's not my girlfriend. She's this menta-"
"I'm a friend." I stated loudly and bluntly before he could call me a mental patient.
"Oh, well, I'm Taylor. Taylor Caniff." The boy, Taylor, said while holding his hand out.
"I'm Ellie, Ellie Williams." I replied and shook his hand.
"You should hang out with us, Taylor. We're just penny boarding around California." Matthew said, pointing to Taylor's orange penny board that had green wheels.
"Are you sure? I don't wanna ruin anything."
"No, it's fine. C'mon, Taylor!" I said and put my penny board down, pushing off with Taylor behind me.
"Wow, you sure can skate good." He said as the tree of us all skated side by side on the street.
Taylor was cute. We spent all of today in shops that they 'had to show me'. Taylor bought me a really good drink called an orange Julius. Matthew stopped talking after two hours of being with Taylor and I, he'd only answer with a nod or a shrug of his shoulders that hung low all day. We stopped by Taylor's house and he gave us both hugs and now we're back at Matthew's. We were putting the penny boards back on a place on the garage's wall as I asked him a question that's been on my mind all day.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing," he snapped and started to walk away, I grabbed his arm quickly.
"Matthew, you haven't said a word in three hours. What's wrong?"
"Ugh, look. Ellie, this was supposed to be my day to show you around, not Taylor's." He stated, sighing heavily.
"Are you jealous?" I asked him, smirking.
"No, why would I be jealous of you and Taylor? He can have you, I don't care." Wow, ouch.
"Uh, okay. Well, I'll be in the guest house if you need me. Oh, and thanks for today." I said quietly before walking out of the garage and running to the guest house.
Why did it hurt when he said he wasn't jealous?
