(Book One) Do you ever feel as if your life has yet to begin? I've been alive for almost seventeen years now and absolutely nothing has ever happened to me. Not until I met a girl who kick-started my life. She introduced me to love, sex, scandal, ex...
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If you thought I went back to class like a good student. Then you're sadly mistaken. Normally, you would've been correct but when it came to Ari all the rules I've lived by my entire life get thrown out the window.
We go in separate cars. I drive behind her, unsure of her intended destination. The mall? Starbucks? Bookstore? Science museum? She arrives at a skateboard park. I park next to her and cautiously get out of my car. She pulls two skateboards from the back of her Jeep and hands me one.
"I have an extra deck."
I take it and stare at it likes it's a venomous snake.
"Can you skate?" She asks.
I shake my head. She reaches back into her Jeep and pulls out a helmet. I take it but I'm not sure how it's going to magically help me learn to skateboard.
"Are you sure about this?" I ask. Immediately images of broken limbs and skulls flash into my brain.
Ari chuckles. "I'll teach you. It'll be fun."
She walks away expecting me to follow. And I do. There are only a few skaters around. I assume most are still in school. A couple of them call her by name and wave.
"I'm going to drop in on vert. Do a couple of runs in the bowl and then I'll be back. I need to get some of this pent-up frustration out."
"Yeah, sure." I nod my head.
She could have told me she was flying to the moon and back. I thrust the helmet she gave me towards her. She waves it off. She walks away, ignoring my disapproving stare, and the helmet.
I watch as she climbs up a fourteen-foot ramp. It looks incredibly dangerous. There's a small queue of boys but she says some words. They all smile and let her go first. And then she drops in. And all I can think is 'Sweet mother of Pope Francis, why isn't she wearing a helmet? Did she have a death wish?'
She zooms down the ramp and up to the other side. Her body flies in the air and twists mid-air. I don't know the trick. But I figure it's rather impressive because the guys start to hoot and a holler. She rides back and forwards doing tricks until she loses momentum. Then she hops off the ramp and heads for the giant pool shapes in the ground.
My attention is pulled away when a guy skates up to me and asks.
"You skate? Sick deck." He points to the skateboard in my head.
"No. I'm watching."
He looks disappointed, but he stands around. "Too bad, we need more cute skater girls. You want me to show you how?"
"I don't know," I say slowly. "I've never ridden a skateboard."
I hadn't missed him calling me cute either and I don't want to embarrass myself in front of him. He has a bad boy vibe, tattooed and scruffy, but also a kind smile. I definitely did not want to fall on my face in front of him.
