The Delinquent's Haven

Chapter 4

Chapter Four

 

          "What's the story with you?"  Darin asked after awhile of just relaxing with Haven in the garage and sharing potato chips and coke.  She looked over at him before dipping one of her potato chips in the fizzy soda and eating it.  Sighing, she wiped her hands and leaned back into the car, looking over at Darin.

          "What do you mean . . . ?"  Haven asked, not really wanting to talk about her past.  The problem with that was he seemed keen on hearing it, though, for he looked at her with curiosity and what seemed like astonishment.  Of course she knew what he was talking about; it was obvious enough.

          "Come on, Haven . . . "  He muttered, slightly annoyed.

          "Can we just not talk about it?"  She snapped, catching him off guard.  Groaning, she buried her face in her hands and leaned forward onto her knees.  She tried to relax herself, but she couldn't.  She didn't usually snap at people like that just because they asked a question about who she was or who she used to be . . . plus, she'd done it to him before.  She felt a little hypocritical and guilty for her sudden spat of anger. 

          "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to snap at you.  I'm just not used to talking about myself," she explained causing Darin to smirk. 

          "No, don't worry about it," he said, pushing it off.  He understood what it felt like to have people annoy the hell out of you for a little piece of insignificant information and didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable.  She was a friend to him, at the very least, and he didn't want her feeling like she couldn't relax around him.

          "What do you want to do?"  He asked and she shrugged, "Shit, that's right.  You don't know what we do around here for fun . . .  Do you have any hobbies?"

          "I skateboard and box . . .  Or well, I used to skateboard and box," she corrected herself, shrugging her shoulders while he looked over at her in disbelief.  He couldn't believe what he'd heard from her; she did what?  Was she being serious?

          Hardly anyone Darin had met did those kind of things; especially if they were a female.  It just wasn't the traditional thing for them to do.  It wasn't feminine and it required an extremely high pain tolerance at times.

          "Run that by me again," he said with a sly smile.

          "I said I box and skateboard; why?  Is there something wrong with that?"  She asked, slightly confused by his request.  Darin didn't say anything for awhile, causing Haven to roll her eyes in slight annoyance.

          Sighing, she stood and walked over to where a skateboard sat in the corner of the garage.  Picking it up, she ran out of the garage and hopped onto it after tossing it down on the ground.  She rode around a couple times, doing flips and handstands on the colorfully tattooed board.

          "Where did you learn that shit?"  He asked as he watched her intently, analyzing every one of her tricks.  He'd watched people skateboard, but no one in town knew how to do what she was doing.  He'd hung out at the skatepark with Ryan a few times, but he never touched the board himself.  He just wasn't coordinated enough for skateboarding.

          "When I had a good relationship with some of the people at my old school, I got involved with the skaters," she said, kicking the skateboard before hoping onto it and riding down the road again, doing a front flip and landing on the skateboard.

          "You were with a crowd?!"  He asked with disbelief and fake surprise, widening his eyes and forming an "O" with his mouth.  She chuckled at his expression and nodded.