The Other Hailey

12| she's a bad rabbit

One thing I'm curious about — who invented skateboards? Most importantly, why?

Cars are much more safer, motorbikes are, even though most don't believe that. Did Bill Richards just wake up one morning and think, "Oh, I want to surf on concrete, so instead of hitting water when I fall, I'll hit concrete and scrape my knees, because I'm tired of having healthy knees"?

My shaky eyes fall on the white-haired boy riding down the road. "Okay! I'm sorry! You're not a polar bear. You're more like Jack frost!" I scream out loud as I the skateboard accelerates down the hill. "You know Jack frost, right? He's cool?" The wind makes me dizzy, and I suddenly feel sick.

Calum spins around. "What are you blabbering about?" He has an amused smile on his face. "I like polar bears. They're cute."

"If you're not mad, then why did you let go of my hand?"

"Because I can."

"Okay, Calum! I can see my death bed already, so please grab onto my hand!" I stretch my hand out, and the little motion makes me swerve, causing my heart rate to mimic the acceleration of the board.

"There's no need for that. We're already there." He points behind him. "I say we race for it. The loser has to do whatever the other says for 24 hours."

"Calum, no!"

"Don't worry. I'll go easy on you." He speeds up, and then slides down the streets. He turns his head around, and screams. "Stop when you see a blue ribbon, that's the finish line!"

My eyes widen. "Stop? What do you mean, stop? Calum, I can't stop! It's moving like fucking sonic the hedgehog! How am I supposed to stop?" He doesn't hear me. "Calum!"

I use the sleeves of my blue sweater to wipe the tears off my face. I hadn't realized that my eyes had been watering for minutes. It's not from my emotions, but from the wind fanning my eyeballs aggressively. It doesn't take long before the blue ribbon is spotted down the hill on a bridge. Thankfully, it is a linear pedestrian walk that leads to a bridge, so I don't have to make any turns. Few seconds later, Calum stops effortlessly, and swings his skateboard into his arms. Showoff.

I brace myself for a rough landing, as I recklessly jump off.

Yes, I jump off.

What else am I supposed to do? If I don't get off somehow, I'll end up ramming into the railings, and then I'll fall off the pedestrian bridge, heading for whatever vehicles that zoom past the bridge. Scraping my knees, and having a few bruises is better than anything I'll face if I stay on the goddamn skateboard. Surprisingly, I don't get my knees scraped, because Calum catches me the moment I jump off. My feet dangles in the air, as he holds me by my hips. The skateboard continues moving till it crashes. And, I have to say, I feel like I'm in an action film— where the main lead is saved by a strong man after she jumps off an exploding train.

"You lost." He smiles.

Butterflies swirl in my tummy, and I pat his shoulders for him to put me down, and he does. "So, what do I have to do?" I pull down my shorts that have ridden up.

"Spend each minute of the 24 hour day with me."

I chuckle humorlessly. I have to be at Adam's game soon. "Can't do that. You'd have to pick something else."

He also chuckles, shooting me a daring look. "Oh, we'll see if you can leave me after I'm done."

Having no clue on what he's talking about, I shrug off the conversation. The faster I get this done with, the faster I can go to Adam. My eyes subconsciously float up to the sky, to see that the lavender sky has been replaced with a pitch-black blanket. The moon is nowhere in sight. The darkness in the sky gives off a certain feeling... it brings back feelings of unhappiness, and for a second, I forget where I am, and who's with me.