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“Don’t let go!” Vera shouted two hours later.
When the board glided with ease down the beginner’s slope, I released her hands. She widened her eyes as big as saucers and rode down the slope, her speed increasing with every moment that passed.
“Blaise! I said not to let go!”
“But you’re doing it, V! Keep going.”
Vera steadied herself as much as she could but didn’t show any sign of stopping when she came to the end of the skatepark. Unlike how I had shown her to stop—to place her weight on the tail of the board—she jumped off the board and tumbled onto the concrete, arms first.
Oomph.
The skateboard slammed into the park bench and nearly knocked over my phone. I jogged over to Vera, who turned onto her ass and leaned back on her hands. I expected for her to frown at me, but she was actually … smiling.
“I did it.”
I grabbed her hands and tugged her to her feet. “You did.”
Once she wiped the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand, Vera glanced over at the pizza box that must’ve been cold by now. “Gah, that was a lot of work. I’m hungry,” she said, skipping over to it and collapsing on the concrete beside it.
After grabbing a slice of pizza, I lay back in the skatepark bowl and stared up at the dark sky. Vera sat crisscross next to me with the helmet and kneepads still on. It must’ve been around ten p.m., but we had this place all to ourselves tonight.
Leaning onto one of my forearms, I unstrapped her helmet and placed it down on the opposite side of my body, so she could lie down beside me. Vera took a bite of the pizza, slumped her shoulders forward, and lay back, staring up at the sky.
“That was … fun.”
My lips curled into a soft smile. “Good.”
She didn’t know how much her coming here with me meant to me. Nobody hung out with me at the skatepark or pretty much anywhere else. It … fucking meant more to me than anything else ever had.
But because I ruined everything that I ever fucking had, I found myself asking the one question that I’d told myself I wouldn’t. “You have a good time with João tonight?” I asked, the words acid on my tongue. As soon as the question left my mouth, I knew I had destroyed fucking everything.
But I couldn’t take it back now.
With the pizza halfway to her mouth, Vera froze. She turned her head to the side to stare at me, but I didn’t look at her. I couldn’t. She might’ve cared about me a little, but not the same way that I wanted her. She only wanted me for sex, just like … everyone else did.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“You know what I mean.”
I balled my hand into a tight fist by my side, feeling so fucking useless. While I could intimidate any other kid at Redwood, Poison was different. The only way I’d be able to keep someone like João away from Vera was if I kicked his ass so badly that he wouldn’t be able to walk for weeks. Even then, he’d get his buddies after me.
Again, Vera became silent and took a bite of her pizza. “I’ll tell you, if you tell me about your black eye.”
“I got into a fight. Nothing more than that.”
“Why’d you get into a fight?”
Pressing my lips together, I stared up at the stars, like we used to do in my backyard as kids. Except way back then, I hadn’t cared about losing Vera because I never thought I would. I’d thought she would be in my life forever. Now, I knew differently.
“I already answered one of your questions. You have to answer my question first.”
“No.”
“Vera,” I said through gritted teeth, “come on. Don’t be a bitch.”
“I’m not being a bitch. Why can’t you just tell me why you got into a fight?”
“Because you don’t need to know.”
