"Oh I see, I see...you invited your girl to look at you tonight," Caleb kept teasing Richie. He just rolled his eyes and answered the same thing again.
"Dude, I already told ya, she's not my girl. I barely know her."
"A-ha, yeah, tell me about it, man", laughed Bill from behind and put his hand on Richie's shoulder, "you've been hanging out with her since she came here."
"Shut up," that's all that the raven-haired boy could answer back because he knew really well how the girl they were talking about made him feel.
"You better win tonight, man. Gotta show off what you got," said a voice from behind that Richie couldn't recognize and didn't even care. But honestly, he had to win not only because he wanted Maddie to think well of him, but also he really liked skating and winning would mean that he's not that much of a loser.
"Yeah, dude don't worry," he stood up from the bench and grabbed his skate, "I'll win."
While Richie was worried about what tricks he was going to do to impress Maddie, the girl, on the other hand, was picking an outfit with her best friend.
"Oh yeah, this one looks bomb," said Mia while vaping a puff out of her mouth. Maddie, who was checking herself out in the mirror, turned to face her friend with a shocked facial expression.
"Mia, what on Earth are you doing?" she exclaimed.
"Uhh...I'm laying on your bed?" she furrowed her brows looking confused, "Oh shit, sorry I forgot to take off my shoes."
"No, dude," Maddie facepalmed, "Don't vape here, my grandma will tell my dad and my dad will kill me if they find out."
"Woah girl, take it easy. It's just a vapor," she laughed and inhaled it again, "It's not like I'm smoking in here."
Maddie just shook her head and continued, "whatever, so we're going with these simple shorts and a t-shirt?"
Mia kept inhaling and exhaling the smoke,
"Yeah, yeah, you don't wanna look all dressed up, y' know? He'll think you're doing it for him."
Maddie slowly nodded her head in agreement and didn't say a word.
It was already time to leave the house and it would be a lie to say that Maddie really wanted to leave it. She still had her mom on her mind and was worried like hell. What if while she's having fun there with all the kids, her mom wakes up? Or worse, what if she...
"Madds, you comin' or what?" yelled Mia, who was already standing in the elevator and waiting for her friend to enter it as well.
"Yeah, sorry," said Maddie quickly and pressed the button, which was going to take them to the first floor.
"Hey, sunshine, are you okay?" said Mia softly and moved some hair out of Maddie's face. The girl just smiled and nodded. They walked all the way to the park where a whole crowd was gathered. Maddie exhaled loudly, she didn't think so many people would come. She wasn't a fan of so many strangers in one place and that made her kind of anxious, but Mia grabbed her hand in hers and smiled, which made Maddie better.
"So, let's find Richie I guess..." started Maddie.
"Um, let's go find a place to sit. He'll see us from there." Mia said and Maddie found that idea better. So, after searching for a while they finally found a place to sit. There were so many teens that it was almost impossible to see the skatepark, but with Mia's persistence, they found a place in front of it.
Richie, on the other hand, was searching for Maddie and when their eyes finally met, they both gave each other toothy smiles.
The show started and all the contestants showed their tricks. When Richie started doing his tricks on his skateboard, Maddie couldn't take her eyes off of him. He looked even more attractive to her when the wind was blowing his hair. How cliche, right?
After Richie's "performance" Maddie was screaming and clapping, it even felt that for a moment she forgot all the problems at home. Mia looked at her and smiled weakly, she was happy to see her enjoying herself.
"You having fun?" she cried for Maddie to hear, because of everyone's screams. You could say that the crowd loved Richie.
"Yeah," she answered still her eyes glued on him.
Mia nodded and continued, "Do you want a drink? The show's about to finish and it's pretty hot here..."
"Oh yeah, great idea. You're an angel, thanks," she said quickly without looking at her.
Mia just laughed and shook her head. "Okay, I'll be back don't go anywhere, it'll be hard to find you in this crowd."
But the other girl didn't seem to be listening, she got distracted by the boy in front of him. He looked at Maddie and waved at her which made Maddie's stomach do backflips. She even got scared of that feeling.
After a couple of minutes, the host came up on stage that was near the skatepark.
"Well, well, well it seems like it's time to announce the winner. And you should decide who is worth it to win tonight's contest." He kept naming some skaters and it depended on how loud the crowd would cheer for them. One of the last names was Richie's name and everyone went crazy after hearing his name. Maddie as well.
"Wow, y'all like this Richie guy, don't ya?" everyone cheered even louder, "Okay, okay...that means, tonights' skating contest winner is our boy -- Richie Bennett."
Richie came up on stage and took his little award. He grabbed the microphone from the host's hand and said,
"Thanks, y'all. I hope you had a great time and I invite everyone to come to the afterparty which will take place at my best mate's house." People kept cheering for him and he was feeling the luckiest guy on the planet at that moment.
After jumping off of the stage he ran to Maddie with a huge grin plastered on his face and asked almost out of breath, "so, did you like it?"
Maddie did this thing with her hand and said, "Meh...it was fine."
They both laughed and after a couple of seconds Richie asked, "you're coming to the party with me, right?" Maddie was a bit astonished by the question but still, she played it cool.
"Yeah, I mean, yeah, why not."
"Okay, great, then let's go," he pulled Maddie's hand and dragged her with him to the party which was taking place at Jacobs'.
While Maddie was on cloud nine, holding hands with Richie, Mia was running from the nearest slushy making machine, with two huge strawberry slushies in her hand, back to her best friend.
