The End

Eight

Eight

"We are so bad at this," I giggled, making a fool of myself by attempting to do a trick on my all black skateboard. I had barely even mastered riding it normally, even though Mark and I had spent a few hours practicing.

"Maybe, but we're good enough for a race, right?" he wondered. Before I could respond, he hopped on his red board. "Ready, set, GO!" I rolled my eyes as I got back on my board and caught up to him. We sped down the sidewalks, clumsily making turns when necessary. We kept going until we reached the music performance hall and I beat him by the tiniest amount.

"You're such a cheater," he complained, running a hand through his dark hair that the wind had messed up.

"You got the head start! But if you're really mad about losing, we can race back to the dorm."

"Ready, set, GO!" he yelled, cheating once again. I decided to let him win this time so the score would be even. He seemed pretty proud of himself when we had made it back to our original starting point at the dorm.

Mark and I continued our adventures and our friendliness towards each other. That wasn't very difficult. The hard part was resisting from saying certain things, and having to tell myself that even though we had kissed before and I wanted it to happen again, it couldn't. There were moments when I couldn't avoid being affected by him. Like the next day, when we tried out the rock climbing wall in the rec center and he put his hands on my waist to help me down. Or when he would pull a hoodie up over his head and his shirt would almost come off with it, showing his abs. Or, the most awkward and tense experience yet: the morning when we both said we were going to take a shower at the same time.

"You can go first," he told me. It did sound a little awkward to shower in the same room as him, but there were about ten shower stalls in the bathroom. It would be dumb to take turns.

"We can shower at the same time. There are plenty of shower stalls. It's fine."

"Okay."

So, I chose my favorite stall in the middle and he took the one on the far end. We both undressed behind our curtains and tossed our clothes onto the bench that ran along the opposite wall. I turned on the water and realized that we were both naked in the same room, and it felt so weird. Was it wrong that it made me curious? I wondered if he was washing his hair or his body. Was he thinking about me? I almost wished we were in the same shower stall...

No! I couldn't be thinking these things. We weren't even in a relationship! I waited until I heard him leave the bathroom to get out, dry off, and get dressed. When I got back, I acted as if nothing was weird about that experience at all.

We spent a lot of that day playing video games, mainly Smash Bros and Mario Kart. We both sat on his bed, which was closer to the TV, and it was probably a good thing that we didn't have neighbors, because lots of shouting at each other ensued. We got pretty competitive, which was typical for those types of games. We had another movie night, too, and we made popcorn and everything. But I got tired quickly, and I fell asleep at around 10:30 pm, which was early for me.

When I woke up, I was surprised that I was so close to the window. My bed was on the other side of the room, against the wall...then it hit me that there was a body next to me, too. I turned over and saw Mark, sleeping soundly. I looked past him and noticed the time - 4:23 am. He must have fallen asleep during the movie, too. That, or he didn't want to wake me up or take my bed. Either way, it was somewhat comforting to have him so close, so I turned towards the window again and went back to sleep.

Once I woke up for a second time, I was alone again. Mark's towel wasn't hanging on the door anymore, so he must have gotten up to shower. The sun was up and he was up, so that meant it was about time for me to get ready for the day, too. I grabbed my caddy of morning necessities and headed for the bathroom.