✓ | Exclusive ~ bruce yamada

01 | The Snack Aisle

• skye hoppers pov •

I awoke to Vance barging into my room, asking for money to play pinball downtown at the Grab N Go.

"Skye, you have money?" He asks.

"Yes. But you're not using it for pinball" I reply, rubbing my eyes awake.

"I'm so close to beating my high score though" He whines.

"I'll bet that Blake kid can beat it" I suggest with a smile. He hates Finney Blake. Never knew why.

"Please Sis?" He asks again. Jesus he is annoying.

"Fine. Oh my fucking lord Vance! Its in the top drawer of my dresser" I direct him as he practically jumps to my small wooden dresser.

"You're the best Skye!" He yells as he walks out of my room, heading to the Grab N Go.

I sat up in my bed, not sure of what to do. Maybe I should catch up with Vance and play pinball with him. I could go for a bike ride? I could go to Robin's place.

I walk out the door, and get on my bike. Off to Robin's I go.

I arrive at the boys home, knocking on the door. He takes a while to answer, but when he does I'm greeted by a simple "Hey"

"Sup Robin" I say, walking through the door and kicking my shoes off by his doorstep.

"What brings you over here?" He questions.

"Bored. Vance went to the Grab N Go" I reply. "He took my money. Bastard"

That earns a laugh from Robin. "Tryna beat his high score?" He smiles, sitting on the couch beside me.

"Yep. He was pretty insistent after I said Finney had a chance of beating it" I laugh.

"What's your brothers problem with Finn anyways? He's super chill" Robin says.

"Wish I could tell you. He never answers me when I ask" I answer.

"You could always bribe him with pinball money" Robin suggests, getting a laugh from me.

"I should try talking to Finney" I say.

"He'll probably cry. He's terrified of you" Robin laughs.

"A lot of people are. Because of how protective Vance is" I say. "Remember when I was hanging out with Billy Showalter before he went missing? Vance totally fucking flipped on him. We weren't even dating or anything"

"I remember that. Billy was cool" Robin says.

Sometimes I feel lonely. As much as I love Vance, he scares away most people I try to befriend. Except Robin, Vance approves of him.

"Wanna go hang out with him?" Robin asks.

"Who?" I reply dumbly.

"Vance" Robin says.

"10 bucks says that he'll be kicking the shit out of someone" I laugh.

"10 bucks says he'll be too focused on pinball to acknowledge us" Robin counters.

"Deal" I say holding out my hand.

"Deal" Robin repeats, shaking my hand.

We hop on our bikes and begin pedalling downtown.

I hold the door open for Robin saying "Ladies first", earning a middle finger from him.

I look over to the Pinball machine, and see Vance standing over it. I swear that boy has an emotional attachment to the machine.

"I'm gonna buy some snacks" I tell Robin, heading to the food aisle.

As I'm turning the corner I bump into a boy whos a bit taller than me. His name is Bruce Yamada. I've spoken to him a couple times, but he's probably scared of my brother like most people.

"Shit. I'm sorry" I apologize.

"My fault, I wasn't paying attention" He counters.

I won't lie, he was definitely cuter than last time I saw him. He used to have braces and was a whole lot shorter. He was definitely taller now, and his jawline had thinned out. He looks at me for a second and I swear I felt a tinge of butterflies. I'll admit it, maybe he was kind of a hallway crush. I mean, hes cute. Why wouldn't he be? But now hes talking to me.

"Skye, right?" He asks.

"The one and only" I smile.

"You're a lot nicer than your brother" He says quickly before realizing what he said. "Shit, I didn't mean-"

"Its fine, Yamada. He's a hardass if you don't know him" I answer.

"How'd you know my last name?" He asks me, slightly raising his eyebrows.

"Good memory?" I reply hesitantly. I have no fucking clue why I know that.

"Soo" He says awkwardly. "What're you doin here?"

"Hanging out with Robin. We decided to bug Blondie" I answer. "What're you doing here?"

"Getting snacks. I'm going to a movie" He answers.

"Ooo! You got a date?" I laugh and see his cheeks turn a dark red.

"No, actually. I'm doing this completely solo" He answers 'cooly'.

"You could get a date really easily. I mean, most girls are gawking over you when you look in their direction. I hear their squeals every. single. day"  I tell him.

"None of those girls are my type" He laughs. "I want the right girl"

Damn, barely talking to him for 5 minutes and hes gonna tell me about his type of women.

"So... what is your type?" I ask.

"Well... I don't even know. Just the girls that ask me out never seem right" He admits.

"Reasonable" I nod. "Girls at our school are fucking psychotic"

He looks at his watch. "Shit. I'm gonna miss the movie"

"Hey one sec. Do you have a pen?" I ask.

"Yeah?" He says hesitantly, pulling a blue inked pen from his pocket.

I gently grab his hand and write my phone number on the back of it. "We should hang out" I suggest. "Not today but... sometime"

"Yeah! Definitely. Just... your brother won't be mad right?" He asks.

"Who said I'm gonna tell him?" I ask. "I can keep a secret, Yamada"

"Okay, okay. Bye Skye!" He says, waving me off as he walks out the door.

"Bye Bruce" I call after him.

I pay for the snacks that I was holding and walked over to Robin who was watching Vance as he was going at another game of pinball.

"You and Bruce seemed to be chatting it up hm?" Robin whispers so Vance can't hear.

"Shut up, Robin" I laugh quietly.

"What are you two dumbasses whispering about?" Vance asks, his eyes still locked on the game.

"Just about how I hope Finney Blake beats your high score!" I answer with a fake smile.

A ping is heard from the machine. "Yeah!" Vance yells. "Take that Finney!"

"Oh my god you pathetic loser" I laugh.

"Shut up blondie" He tells me as the three of us walk out of the Grab N Go.

"Hey, Skye. You owe me money" Robin says, holding his hand out expectantly. "He didn't speak to me until he won"

"Ugh I hate you Robin" I say, handing him a ten dollar bill.

  { word count : 1139 }