James Mandarin

Skateboarding, Again

I have a bruise on my butt. Zen can't help but smile. He's proud of his accomplishment. "Don't get me wrong mate, but you're getting better at this stuff. You were just a bit late, turning the corner." I look at the skateboard beside my head and realise I have no other choice but to agree with him. He's right. I was too late in making my turn.

Chloe is going to laugh about this later.

Zen pulls me up and asks if my butt is fine. I nod. I don't want to talk about how much it hurts or how I think I've broken a bone in my butt cheek. Zen smiles and picks up the skateboard. He wordlessly thrusts it into my hand and points to the road. "Do it again." I exhale loudly and Zen raises an eyebrow. "Don't give up now, James."

"I wasn't."

"You looked like you were." He replies.

I narrow my eyes before hopping on the skateboard once again. This time I make the turn and a grin appears on my face. Zen hollers and cheers. I laugh at how stupid he looks with his arms in the air. It still feels strange, being friends with someone so popular. That's the thing about Zen. At times, he feels so...so normal. At times, I forget about his popularity and brains.

I didn't know popular people could be down to earth. It's definitely not like the movies. When we finish my skateboarding lesson, we walk to the fish 'n' chips shop. There, we buy some ice cream and chips. I'm about digging into the chips when I see Chloe in the distance.

"Chloe!" I scream at the top of my lungs. Chloe stops and turns around. At first she looks confused but then smiles. She quickly saunters towards us. Her backpack bounces on her back as her strides eat up the ground.

"Who's that?" Zen asks with amusement.

"My friend," I reply, suddenly becoming defensive.

"Hi James," Chloe says before I have an opportunity to get some things straight with Zen. I want to tell him about Chloe. I want to say, "She's my friend. She's mine, not yours. Don't touch her." I'm pretty sure I'm overreacting. After all, Zen has been nothing but nice to me. It doesn't matter. I don't want to lose Chloe.

"Hey Chloe," I reply as she plunks down beside me. "How are you?"

"I'm great, thank you." She looks at Zen for a split second and recognition etches its way across her face. She then turns to me with wide eyes. I've got a lot of explaining to do.

"Hi Zen," She says stiffly. She's hard, rigid, and deserves to be like that. Zen's ex, Sammy, had made her life hell in year ten.

"Hi. What's your name?" Chloe raises an eyebrow. I chew on a chip.

"It's Chloe." She replies through gritted teeth.

"Chloe..." Zen turns to me with a smirk on his face. "So, she's the one who sucks at Modern History, right?" Chloe gasps and I almost choke on the chip in my mouth. The verdict is in, Chloe shall murder me tonight and dump my body in the sewer.

The rest of the afternoon is spent with Chloe glaring daggers at me and Zen smirking at me. It's fine for him; he doesn't have to explain anything to anyone later tonight.

Zen 1, James 0.