“Hey, save some for me.” Beck plops down next to me and reaches for my smoothie.
“No way. I’m not sharing this thing.”
He starts to pout but Lennon pushes the other glass on the table his way. “I already had one, this one’s for you, Beck.”
Beck, who loves to cook, is just as impressed, and once the two of them get talking on ingredients and food, I ask for Lennon’s phone so I can see the videos. She’s right, we do look good skating together. Beck’s a stronger skater than me of course, but somehow I still look better next to him than I do on my own. Could be the happy glow vibrating off me, or the way we keep glancing at each other, smiling, laughing, stealing kisses. I replay a short video of me doing a 540. But this time I watch Beck. Yeah, it’s nothing about me that makes me look better with him, it’s simply the way Beck is around me. He stops what he’s doing whenever I try a trick, and the way he watches with a little reverence? Damn, that’s hot. It’s the same way I’m certain I look at him, and it does something to me to know it’s reciprocated.
Lennon’s ready to hit the park again and she offers to send me the videos. “I’m actually excited to post something for once,” I admit. It still feels like a chore, but I’m finally getting the hang of this skateboarding social media thing.
Beck takes my hand as Lennon skates away. “You want to keep skating here?”
We’re surrounded by some of the world’s coolest skate parks, and I’ve hit up nearly all of them. But it’s hard to resist this private one. It’s also hard to resist this guy drawing circles on my palm with his thumb.
“Yeah, I think with that smoothie in me I can really go for a 720 now.” It’s a trick I’ve only heard of one girl landing ever. It seems aerial turns are easier for kids to hit because they’re smaller, and so far the only female to land a 720 wasn’t even in her teens yet.
Beck’s thumb-circling stops and he freezes with his smoothie halfway to his mouth. “You want to try for a 720?”
I shift in my chair. “I guess I’ve never talked about it with you, or anyone. But yeah, of course as soon as I landed a 540 I started thinking about what’s next.”
Beck puts down his drink and leans forward, his hand slipping from mine as he places his elbows on the table. “When did you first land a 540, anyway?”
“A couple months before I started college.”
Beck nods. “Yeah, you had it down by the time we met, didn’t you? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you fall trying a McTwist, now that I think about it.”
A McTwist is just another word for a backside 540.
I shrug and lean back in my chair. “Well, it’s my best trick.”
“And it hasn’t been a challenge for you now for over a year,” Beck adds. “I get why you want to go for a 720 next,” he concedes.
“But?” I prompt, knowing where he’s going.
“But it’s dangerous as hell. Your back is to the landing for a long time, two circles. It took me weeks of hard crashes before I landed my first 720. Griff never landed one and gave up after breaking his ribs.”
“Griff’s style is street, not vert. Besides, he’s a foot taller than me.”
Beck’s actually landed a 900 too, and for a dude over six feet tall, that’s quite the feat.
Beck runs a hand over his hair, disheveled from the helmet he took off a moment ago. His eyes meet mine. “How would you feel about watching me try a 1080?”
I can’t stop the wince that hits. “Yeah, that would be painful.”
I’ve seen Beck fall plenty of times. But he’s right, aerial spins like these mean tons of crashing, and not little minor slides down the ramps either. We’d both be covered in bruises and risking more serious injuries if we went for that next level.
“So I should just give up on the 720 because it’s too risky?”
Beck doesn’t answer right away. “I’m not planning to go for a 1080 anytime soon. To be honest, I don’t think I could pull it off on a vert. It’d have to be on a mega ramp, and even then it’s a long shot.”
“You don’t want to try because you don’t think you can?”
“I guess when I weigh the odds of me pulling it off against the risk of hurting myself, I’m not real motivated. Only a couple kids have done it and they were much smaller than I am. I’ve got plenty of other tricks I want to keep working on and getting better at. A 1080 isn’t calling to me.”
“So, you think the risk outweighs the odds for me too with the 720?” My chest squeezes just asking the question, and I hold my breath waiting for him to answer.
He looks me in the eye when he does. “I don’t want any risk to you, Jordan, but this isn’t about me. If you want to know if I think you can pull it off, then yeah, I know you can.”
The tightness radiating in my chest dissipates with his faith in me. Given his own decision not to tackle a 1080, I know he’s not placating me. “But I’m torn here about everything, Hotshot. I’ll beat myself up if you’re back in the ER because you tried a trick I encouraged you to do, but I’ll also beat myself up if I discourage you from going for it if it’s calling to you.”
“It’s calling to me, Beck,” I confirm. I know exactly what he’s talking about when he says that. Getting back after inverts was one thing, but a 720 is something I’ve been dreaming about for a long time. “I know it’s not going to be easy. I don’t want easy.”
Beck studies me. “You’ll wear knee pads, elbow pads, wrist pads.”
I nod, because he’s not making a request, he’s telling me this is the only way I’m getting his support. “Your helmet’s still new,” he goes on, and I nod again. “You know the ramp here isn’t ideal. A bigger one would make it a lot easier.”
“It’s big enough,” I tell him. I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and I’d much rather practice this kind of trick in privacy than on a perfectly-sized ramp with an audience. With the exception of that moment after the invert this morning, I’ve never experienced anxiety in this park.
Beck grabs my hand again and brings it to his lips for a kiss. “Let’s do this then. First lesson, learning to fall.”
I roll my eyes. “I know how to fall, Beck.”
“Knowing is one thing, but let’s make it muscle memory so that even if panic sets in, your body does what it needs to do to protect you, yeah?”
He’s referring to what happened in December on the Riptide half pipe.
“If it makes you feel better, sure Beck.”
So the lesson starts with both of us in knee pads sliding down the thirteen-foot half pipe. There’s also the giant bowl in the back yard, but that one’s around eight feet at its highest.
When we finally get to skateboarding, I’m determined to put Beck at ease. We’ve been laughing and smiling and kissing all morning, so I’m loose when I make my first attempt. Panic and doubt are the furthest things from my mind as I try again and again. Hours pass, and by the time I’m ready to call it a day, I’ve almost got the double spin down. The landing is going to take a long time, but I’m determined. Aerial spins are my thing, and while I want this for the pure fun of it, the joy of the challenge, I also want to stick it for another reason. I need something in my arsenal if I’m ever going to beat Sarah Kase, and this trick might just be what it takes.