“What about you?”
“It’s the same for me. I won’t be a student but it will be home base for me.” I thought she knew this. Sure this summer I’ll be on the road, or planes, for a few months as I compete, but that’s not my norm. This travel has been in the works since before I met Jordan, when I announced I was taking a hiatus. My sponsors wanted some confirmation I’d be back and when I returned, I needed to go big.
Jordan doesn’t seem to be caught up in our conversation anymore. She puts down her board and places her foot on it like she did earlier today. Except this time she doesn’t look down, she looks out at the park.
“Can you go stand over there and wait for me?” she asks, pointing to the other side of the park.
I don’t answer, just get on my board and head to the spot she’s asked. She’s got a plan, and that’s a start at least. I can see the determination in her stance, the set of her shoulders. Jordan wants to break through that frozen state before her friends show up.
When she kicks off like she means business only a few seconds later I want to clap and cheer with excitement. It’s silly, because what she’s actually doing on her skateboard is probably something she could do by age seven. But I know this means she’s coming back.
Jordan stops for a hug but then she’s off again, a smile on her face. This time, she hits a small grind box, and continues around the park.
“You think it was the beer?” she asks, when she circles back to me. The grin on her face is contagious.
“I think it was you. You just had to get out and do it, and now that you know you can, it’s all good.” I don’t know if it’s quite so simple, but I’m hoping I’m right.
“Yeah,” she says, staring across at the bigger ramps.
Maybe it’s too much too soon. Maybe I’m pushing my luck. But with the way things have been going, I have to put it out there. “Hey.” I get her attention and my hand moves around her waist, pulling her closer.
“You can come with me if you want. When I leave in a couple days, it doesn’t have to be goodbye.”
Her face lights up a little more, and since I was expecting outright rejection, I want to kiss her just for giving me this.
Jordan’s arms wrap around my neck. “That would be… a dream come true, I think. But one I’m not ready for yet.”
Even though everything in me wants to fight her on that point, I can’t deny she might be right. Jordan’s tough as hell, but she’s sensitive too. And there’s no denying what joining me on my competition travels would be like. With Shred Live about to air, it’s not going to be anything like right now, this moment. No one around, the two of us at a skatepark not caring who sees us.
“I’ve got online classes that I need to finish so I don’t get too behind. It’d be hard to do those while traveling. I’ve got my job. And, I’m not ready to be hitting skateparks where the pros are competing, even if I’m not in the contests. I need to hide just a little bit longer, Beck.”
“I get it, Jordan. Coming with me is the opposite of hiding. When you get back to Summerside, you can ease back into things. I just wanted you to know the offer was there, yeah?”
She nods. “Yeah. And believe me, it’s tempting. Everything about you is tempting. You know that’s why I signed with Brazen in the first place, right? Maybe I didn’t admit it to myself at the time, but I was willing to do something I didn’t think I wanted if it meant being closer to you.”
“And now?”
“I’ll still do some things I might not think I want in order to be with you, Beck. But I can’t lose myself either. It’s so confusing. I didn’t think I wanted to compete again. But just now, getting the feel of the skateboard underneath me again, I was already thinking about how I might want that. It might help motivate me to get out of this funk, if I’ve got some goal, some contest on the calendar.”
I can feel her coming back to me, little by little. Fuck that, she’s coming back in giant leaps. My lips are on hers before I even process that I want to kiss her. It’s crazy to think of all the things that have already tried to pull her away from me. The concussion drove her somewhere dark, but before that, the stalker and online bullying. The Shred Live contract. It’s not over, but it feels like somehow, we’ve come out on the other side. We can do this.
“Aw, I’m so glad my best friend finally got to learn about how awesome kissing can be.”
We break apart to find Phoebe standing right near us, grinning. The guys are close behind her, and we didn’t even hear them coming.
“We’ve got the place to ourselves!” Levi claps his hands together.
“Lights will go off soon,” Devon informs us. “So let’s make the most of it.” He skates closer. “By the way, would it be weird if I asked you to sign my board?”
Levi groans. “I told him not to, Jo Jo. Sorry.”
Jordan laughs. “It’s fine.”
“I don’t have anything to sign with,” I admit. “But yeah man, of course I’m happy to.”
Devon pulls a Sharpie out from his pocket and hands it to me before getting off his board.
Jordan laughs again, and skates after Wyatt and Phoebe without thinking twice about it. Yeah, she’s coming back. Pretty soon, we’ll have to be holding her back.
Chapter Fifteen
Late July – three and a half months later
Jordan
I spot Zora’s hair first as I ride down the escalator at the airport. It’s hot pink again. Lucy and Ellie are beside her, and I’m tackled by all three as soon as I step off the escalator.
They start talking at once and I try to keep up. Lucy’s telling me about the condo we’ll be living in together, Zora’s admiring my shorts, and Ellie’s asking whether some hot guy she just saw getting off the escalator was on my flight.
I’m trying to keep up when I spot a fourth girl who looks vaguely familiar.
“Hey, I’m Sydney.” She puts her hand out. “Thanks for introducing us, guys,” she scolds the others.
“Right! I’ve heard a lot about you. It must be fun to be home for the summer with these crazy girls.”
Lucy loops her arm through mine and starts guiding me toward baggage claim. I actually haven’t heard a ton about Sydney, only that she’d been their other close friend from Newdale, a town not far from Summerside. They’d mentioned her a couple times this summer over the phone. Lucy had a picture of all four of them at high school graduation as her computer background picture for a while, and that’s how I recognize her.
As Ellie contemplates approaching the guy she’d spotted, who was apparently on my flight because he’s waiting at the same baggage claim area, I hold back my questions about Taylor. She broke up with him a couple of months ago, but I never got much of an explanation.
“So where do you want to go first?” Lucy asks.
“I’ll go wherever you guys want. You all took the day off to hang with me.” I assumed they’d have a plan, and apparently I wasn’t wrong.
“Good, because we already promised Naomi and Summer we’d visit them at Stargaze on the way back from the airport.”