silence » c.h.

2

"Bike or skateboard?" Nova called over her back. We were in the garage of her house and she's been going through boxes and shelves for the past twenty minutes.

After my refreshing nap I was finally introduced to Nova's parents and her little sister, Fiona. They were really nice and I was glad to have such a great exchange family.

"Uh, skateboard I guess," I shrugged. I didn't really care, I could ride both. Nova nodded and pulled a skateboard from one of the bottom shelves and handed it to me. It was a bit dusty and had scratches all over it. It looked like someone used it a lot, though a while ago.

Nova got up again and brushed the dirt off her knees, while walking over to the other end of the garage and grabbing her bike. She tugged a bit at the end of her dark blue tank top and pulled her shorts a little higher. I stuffed my phone into the back pocket of my jeans and looked down. I had just thrown on the best thing I could find over the time of one minute, which happened to be my quite old Arctic Monkeys t-shirt. Other than that I just wore my black vans and a red flannel.

"Okay, now I'll show you the cool parts of Sydney," Nova announced and pushed her bike out of the garage and onto the sidewalk. "Well, not particularly cool but I'll just show you around."

I laughed and walked over as well, getting ready to get back on the skateboard. I was used to reaching all my destinations in Los Angeles with my longboard, so I was quite happy there was something similar in Australia.

Holding the bike with both her thighs, Nova got out a red rubber band and tied her caramel hair up in a pony tail. I left mine open and let it fly in the air as we rode down Nova's street.

After we passed a few blocks, Nova turned to the right and headed to a small supermarket at the side. Nova got off her bike, leaning it against a street sign and going through her bag, counting the few coins in her hand.

"What do you wanna get?" I questioned curiously, unsure what to do with the skateboard in my hands. Nova stopped counting up her money and looked up to me.

"I need to get a few things for mum, but I'll be quick. Do you like, wanna wait here? I'll only take five."

I nodded, getting back one the skateboard and taking my phone out of my pocket. I put my headphones in and chose a random song from my playlist.

"It is now my duty to completely drain you," I quietly mumbled along to Nirvana and kept riding the street up and down.

After a few songs I stopped, not bothering to get off the street since it didn't look like anyone was gonna drive on it anyway. I got my phone out again and started going through my playlist, when I suddenly heard someone yell.

"Get out the way!"

I turned to face the direction where the sound came from, but it was too late. Someone, a boy to be specific, crashed with his own skateboard into mine and caused us both to fall to the ground.

"Dude," I groaned, holding my knee. The person who just ran me over sat up, and I could now examine his face. The guy was around my age, maybe a year older, and he had blond hair that was perfectly styled up in a quiff. He looked up from the concrete ground to face me, and I looked directly into his deep blue eyes. He smiled sheepishly and revealed perfect white teeth. God, he was handsome.

"Sorry," he muttered, getting up and holding his hand out for me. I gratefully grabbed it, and stood back on my feet.

"Are you hurt?" he asked, his eyes scanning my body in evident worry.

"No," I lied. I felt terrible pain in my knee, but I wouldn't let him know. He looked like he was stressed out anyway.

"I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to bump into you, I'm just running late to work, and I wasn't able to stop the stupid board and-" he rumbled. He was interrupted by an incoming call, and he picked his phone up from the ground. He took a look at the Caller ID and his face expression turned into a rather annoyed one. The boy quickly turned to me, gesturing that he had to take it. I just nodded and he walked a few feet away.