sk8-hi | sor

ten

"hey, princess. your mom tells me that you had a date last night?" my dad said when i came down the next morning, fully-dressed and ready to head out, again. i nodded. even if and when my oarents get back together and we suddenly become the perfect family image again, i don't knownif i can let my guard down around my dad again. "when can i meet the guy?"

"dad, not yet. it was just our first date. can't you wait until prom?" i joked, grabbing a granola bar and tossing a few frozen fruits into the blender.

"oh, leave her be, brian. tomika will be fine. she's a strong one," my mom winked, pouring in some skimmed milk into the blender, making myself a smoothie.

"i'm heading out. meeting up with summer. i haven't talked to her since that fight broke up at school. bye, ma, dad," i waved and smiled, heading out the door.

"wait! tomika! what figh-" i cut my dad off, shutting the door and skipping down the stairs.

i lied. i wasn't going to meet up with summer. i was going to meet with, you guessed it — zack. as if last night's date out of town wasn't enough. we were going to spend the day at the mall. i walked across the street, over to summer's house. it was only 8 am. zack wasn't coming until 8.45. why not actually visit summer?

"tomika?" summer said, a little flustered, behind me. she had her dog, ruffles, on a leash. she must've walked him. "what're you doing here?"

"just wanted to see how you're doing. how are you?" i gave her a weak smile, and led her to sit on the bench outside her house.

she ran a hand through her hair. it was greasy, messy. her make-up was smudged, and still in her pyjamas. she was wearing a pair of UGGs, even in the austin heat.

"i just like them both so much, and now they're hurting each other all because of their feelings about me and i can't stop that! i can't tell them not to like me, yet i can't bear to break their hearts. freddy's the kind of person you'd wanna spend your entire dayy with. he'd wake you up bright and early and take you on a trip to a lake or the mountains at dawn. he'd pack a perfect picnic for you and take you through every single beautiful part of nature. and he's also a huge foodie, so he could whip up a few meals for you dining pleasure," she laughed. inplaced my hand on her pale, shaking one. "but then there's asher. he steals you away at dusk, he brings you to watch a drive-in movie in his pick-up truck and you snack on gummy bears and extra-large sodas to share. he'd bring a fleece blanket for you and he's just wrap his arms around you and keep them there for the entire movie. he's someone you'd want to spend the whole night with."

"wow. they seem like wonderful people."

"they are. enough about them. how're you and zack doing?" she teased, poking me in the stomach.

"well, i'm actually meeting him right now. we're heading to the mall. want to come with?" i asked, taking both her hands now.

"i'd rather not barge in on the happy couple's date," rolling her eyes, she got up and swatted away all the dog fur on her lap, "i'm going to take a nice, long, hot bath. ring me if you need anything!"

i grinned, remaining on the bench and waiting for zack to come. once he pulled up, i hopped into his car. i noticed summer singing in her room as we drove off. she may have been a little over the top sometimes but i still love and care for her no matter what. i owe her everything. she taught me the importance of friendship, practise, determination and the will to succeed. i never would've been such an over-achiever it weren't for her persistent nagging when we were little kids.

"you okay?" i turned my head so fast when his hand touched mine. "you've been staring out the window for a long time."

"yeah, i was just thinking about summer. she's really confused about her feelings now, and kinda stressed out i must say," i placed my hand in his, and he gripped onto it tightly. once we got to the mall, we headed straight for our favourite shop — the record store.

the place was decked in old posters, album covers, one-of-a-kind vinyls, and so much more. it had shelves of records new and old, and several boxes of casette tapes just in case we wanted to try something more portable. i kept a tab at the place, in which i had to pay for everything i bought over the year every christmas. one of my neighbours owned the store, and my annual payment served to him as a christmas gift on behalf of my family. i mostly got the money from gigs, and shared the records i bought with the band so they'd allow me to take the money.

i pulled zack towards the "new arrivals" shelf, and made him look through every record from a to m, and i did n to z. we eventualy found some old records that seemed to fit well with what genre the band is going for, and after searching those i found some casettes that zack and i could play in the car. zack
also picked up some casettes that he thought i could listen to, mainly because i was someone who didn't normally like to get out of my comfort zone, and he certainly knew a lot more artists than i did.

we ended up spending over $200 while we were there, and decided that our spendy asses at least deserved a little food. we headed over to a new juice/smoothie place that opened which was beside the frozen yoghurt joint, and got some strawberry smoothies and chocolate fro-yo. we chatted again, but this time in a place nearer to home, making us a little more comfortable because we've been here a lot.

i used to see zack following his brother around the mall, always looking either down at the floor or down at his phone. it was nice to see him now, smiling while he walked around the mall, hand around me, with a spring in his step.

he made me happy, and i'm so glad i make him happy too.

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i'm hungry chomp chomp I SHOULDA EATEN DINNER btw this is unedited. will put the book on hiatus for a few days for editing :/