"Trust me."
"I already do."
Shiloh "Lo" Peterson hates her life in Astoria, Oregon. Maybe she spent too much time rewatching American Horror Story, or eating Snickers bars in the gas station her brother worked at. The only thing keeping her afloa...
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"Jeez, you're such an ass." Sage groans in my direction, sort of limping from the kick I sent to her leg. I know a bruise would form soon due to past experiences, but I regret nothing, she completely deserved it.
"Karma's a bitch." I say casually and she rolls her eyes. Soon we get to the park and see Jeremy waiting for us at the edge of the concrete. We walk over and greet him before I put my board down and get ready to start skating. I start skating over to the ramp when I feel an arm go in front of me.
"Not so fast, bitchface." Derek says, shoving my sticker-covered helmet on my head and annoyingly patting it down.
"Thanks, dick waffle." I say sarcastically and turn to see him smiling smugly. I look forward and see Finn, Jaeden, and Jack all holding skateboards they probably picked up from the hotel.
"I suggest you stand back when she comes back up." I hear Sage say to the boys. I adjust my old helmet, and get ready to skate. I fumbled a bit with the buckle, since the dumb thing had to be replaced with a new one after I fell on my chin a couple months ago.
I remember Derek smacking the side of my head before using his own flannel to stop the blood flow. Sage almost passed out at the sight of how much blood I lost, but I didn't feel any different from when Derek kicked me in the ribs.
"I had to learn the hard way while filming her." Sage says, probably referring the incident from last summer where Sage had to go to the emergency room and get four stitches on her left jaw. I turn around to make sure Sage is filming, and she is. She gives me a quick thumbs up before setting the camera in place.
It's the little puzzle piece moments in our friendship that make me truly, truly grateful to have her as my best friend. When she films me skating, when she helps me do makeup- actually, scratch the first part. It's more like she puts the pieces together, and I'm the billion piece jigsaw puzzle.
"See ya." I smirk, waving a little, and I drop into the ramp. I get to the other side and pull a simple disaster and ride back in. I carefully maneuver my way around Sage's camera and go right under it, looking up into it and making a face before doing a blunt. I catch brief glimpses of their shocked expressions, and Sage scrolling unamused through her phone.
I wanted to try out a staple gun but I wasn't sure if I was ready. My dad taught me how to pull it off last summer, and I'm 70% sure I still have bruises from falling so much. I stay on the ramp for a bit doing some nose stalls and more blunts.
After a bit, I decide to go up to attempt a staple gun, but I got distracted by Sage and the boys talking and chuckling.
"How is she good at everything?" Finn asks Sage and looks at me. Our eyes lock and I feel my body freeze up. I end up messing up my footing and falling back into the ramp, side first.
"Shit dude!" I yell up, feeling an ache in my hip bone. Derek runs over and checks on me, genuine concern on his face.
"What the fuck Shiloh?! You have to be careful. Dad said you shouldn't do staple guns around other people, you get distracted too easily." Derek snaps while checking my bones to see if I broke any. I start to feel slightly guilty, but I couldn't help myself. He rips off my helmet and checks me for bleeding, and luckily I'm not.
"Don't get your panties in a twist, mom." I groan out rolling my eyes at him and slapping his hands away. I stand up, already used to falling on my ass.
"Sorry for caring about you, asshat." I hear Derek say with a hint of relief in his voice. I turn around to hug him, feeling extremely lucky to have a protective brother.
"Yeah, yeah. I love you too or whatever." I mumble and he chuckles, shaking his head in disbelief at my quick return to sarcasm. We go back to the group, me acting unfazed by the incident, and Sage automatically punches me in the arm.
"Your dad said no staple guns!" She scolds and I chuckle. She's such a mom friend when it comes to health.
"Save the lecture, Derek already annoyed me about it."
"Yeah, well be careful, we don't need another trip to the emergency room." She gives me an all-knowing look and I give her a guilty smile. I shake my head a little at her maternal instincts, and then see that she's looking through her camera.
"We get any good shots?" I ask, trying to look over her shoulder. She moves away from me so I can't see the screen and I stick out my bottom lip, slightly pouting.
"You'll have to wait and see." She winks and puts away her camera, making me groan.
"Gross." I grumble.
"Let me see the damage." Sage says, putting a hand on her hip. I lift up my shirt, revealing a large red area on my hip. It's already turning all sorts of colors and Sage tsk's. "I'll clean you up and ice it when we get home." She moves out of the way, and I see the boys approaching. Finn stops everyone and turns around, confusing me.
Until I realize I'm still holding my shirt up.
I tug it back down and brush myself off before telling them it's okay now. When Finn turns around, his face has a deep red tone to it.
"Sorry 'bout that. Sage needed to survey the damage." I say sheepishly, mentally slapping myself for barely almost flashing the boys.
"Okay but what the hell? How are you so good at skating? You're better than, like, all of us combined!" Jaeden says waving his hands around, completely ignoring what just happened. I'm really grateful no one has said anything about it. I smiled at him and laughed a bit.
"I don't even know man," I chuckle, " I've been skating since I could walk. Dad was disappointed that this one refused to skate." I say, pointing a finger at Derek as he stuck his tongue out at me.
"So he forced his skating onto me. Not that I'm complaining or anything, I love it so much." I grin, ignoring the throbbing pain on my side.
"That's so cool though! You could totally get signed by someone!" Jack says, his eyes wide.
"Haha I hope." I say as I look around at the group. As the boys start to head over to the ramps, I lean over to Chosen to whisper, "I bet two bucks that Sage is going to mother me about this huge ass bruise on my hip for the rest of her time here." This makes him laugh and as he tells a puzzled Sophia what I said, I notice a pair of dark brown eyes staring at me intently and I make eye contact before he quickly looks away. The same eyes that gave me the giant purple ring on my hip.
