Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
APRIL 11, 1983 IN NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK
LEIGHTON'S P.O.V. i smiled to myself as i quickly moved around the main floor of the roller skating rink, plenty of pop and disco hits playing over the radio. i gracefully moved along the rink in my roller skates, doing some pretty cool tricks as i moved along the rink.
after i did a bit of spinning and started normally moving across the derby, i saw cliff with three other guys. two of them i knew as his friends, named james and lars. both of them were a part of cliff's band, metallica; james was rhythm guitar and vocals, and lars was drums - and, well, it was more so their band instead of cliff's, as they were the only two founding members still in the band. but the other guy that was with them, i didn't recognize. he had black curly hair, and he had kind of a baby face. he was cute.
cliff waved me over, and i nodded before skating over to him and the boys, leaning up against the barrier between the rink and the carpeted floor when i reached them.
"hey guys, what's up?" i asked, tilting my head slightly as i gave the four a smile. seeing the curly-haired boy there, i knew what it was, but i was just asking to make sure. but goodness, this guy looked so familiar; why couldn't I recognize him? "the sky," james responded jokingly, making me giggle. "well, leighton, we auditioned that guy you suggested to us, kirk," cliff started. oh yeah, that's who he was, kirk hammett - the hot one from exodus!
"and?" i asked. "well, he's in!" cliff said with a smile. "oh, that's awesome! glad you guys listened to me when i said he was really good," i said. "so you must be an exodus fan, huh?" kirk asked me, and i looked to him and nodded. "oh yeah, definitely; i listened to the demo, and i really, really like whipping queen. i've also seen you guys live once or twice; you guys put on a great show," i complimented, giving him a friendly smile.
"well thanks, that really means a lot!" kirk said with a smile. "i'm kirk, by the way, and you are?" he asked, offering me his hand to shake. "leighton; i'm cliff's little sister and designer for metallica," i introduced, taking his hand and shaking it. "wow, that was pretty formal," kirk said, and we both laughed, and we released the handshake.
"so, you guys here to pick me up or something?" i asked. "no, we came here to, well, one, give you the news, and two, do some skating as well," cliff told me. "wait, we're skating?" kirk asked. "ah, fock, sorry; forgot to tell ya," lars said. "well, uhm... i can't really roller skate," kirk admitted. "oh, no worries; i can totally teach you!" i offered. "yeah, she's really good at skating, if you couldn't already tell," cliff said, and he and i exchanged little smirks.
the boys walked off for a few minutes to get their skates, and they soon came back with their skates on. cliff, james and lars went out to the rink (they weren't super skilled in skating, but they knew the basics, so they were fine alone) while kirk stayed back with me.
"alright, now just take my hand and i'll help you out to the rink and make sure you, y'know, don't fall on your ass and shatter it or something," i joked, making him laugh. he then took my hand and slowly got down on the rink, trying to regain balance without holding onto the wall. "alright, now you're just gonna push forward with your right foot and just glide on that foot, and then after a bit, do the same with your left foot," i said, doing what i said as i said it. kirk nodded and began doing so, getting the hang of it quite quickly.
"yeah, there you go! once you think you've got it down, you can progressively get faster," i said, slowly but surely picking up speed. kirk tightened his grip on my hand, letting me know that it had startled him a bit, but he soon got up to speed with me. "yeah, you've got it! now you want to try it with no hands?" i asked. "no," he responded quite quickly. "oh, it's gonna be fine," i told him and began to loosen my grip on his hand. he seemed reluctant to let go, but he soon did and began to skate on his own.
i began slowly skating backwards, and i gave him a smile and a double thumbs up. "yeah, you're doing great!" i encouraged him. suddenly, 'american pie' by don mclean came on the speakers, and i widened my eyes and smiled. this was definitely one of my favorite songs to dance and skate to.
"hope you don't mind if we part ways for a bit, but i really love this song," i said to kirk. "ah, it's alright," kirk assured me, and i smiled and nodded before i quickly skated away, beginning to dance and do some more tricks as i sang the song to myself.
KIRK'S P.O.V. god, she's adorable. yeah, i just met her only 15 minutes ago, but she seems like a real sweet gal. i mean, she was patient enough to teach me how to roller skate, and i'm quite a slow learner, especially when it comes to roller skating. she's also pretty funny, and not to mention, she's absolutely gorgeous. she and i were gonna get along well.
when she first let go of my hand, i let out a quiet whimper; i liked holding her hand. though, her encouragement really made me feel a lot better. again, she was a real sweet gal.
when i first watched her skate off, i smiled slightly to myself and continued watching her. she skated really fast around the rink, and even did some super cool tricks when the beat of the song got faster. damn, she was really good at roller skating. i noticed a lot of people had taken notice to her, which wasn't surprising to me. her skating abilities were stunning and mesmerizing, just like her - dammit, you just met her, hammett; stop falling for chicks so easily!
"she's really good, ain't she?" a voice asked from beside me, startling me and me lose my balance, soon causing me to fall right on my ass. ouch. "oh shit man, sorry for scaring you," it had been cliff, and he was now offering a hand to help me up, which i took. "it's alright bro," i responded, "but yeah, she is really good. does she do roller derby or something?"
"no, but when she was about 8 years old or something, she just started skating for fun after she went to a friend's birthday party at a skating rink. she started teaching herself how to skate from then on, and when she was about 15 or 16, she started going to the local skating rink about every week just to spend time with herself skating," cliff explained to me. "oh, so she's been at this place before?" i asked, and cliff raised a brow. "what? no, this is our first time in new york; we're from san francisco."
"oh, really? me too, man!" i said, i gave him a fist bump. after a few minutes, the song was over, and leighton was back to helping me out in about no time.
and the hours passed by, the other boys all just minding their own, and leighton kept helping me out (i got the hang of it quite quickly and began skating with the boys at that point because we couldn't keep up with leighton).
and that was the best first day i've ever had at any job.
♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡
AUTHOR'S NOTE: the amount of muse i always have to write this story is AAAAAAASTRONOMICAL
