Live Like a Skyscraper

(Two days later)
Kaytle sat comfortably on the couch on the bus, texting compulsively to her friends at home as my brothers bombarded her with questions.

"Favorite color?" Nick asked.

"Purple." she replied with a smile.

"Animal?"

"I adore huskies-" she said, interrupted by the buzz of her phone. She began to text again, still paying attention to the others.

"Food?"

"Lobster." she answered, her fingers moving quickly over the phone.

Nick groaned. "I am stumped. Joe-" he called. I pretended his voice caught my attention and that I hadn't been listening to them intently from the beginning. "Think of a question to ask Kaytle." he said.

I pretended to think for a moment. "Are you single?" I asked. Nick's attention was focused solely on her as was mine. It seemed to take decades for her to put down the phone and answer when, really,it had been less than two seconds.

"Yeah." she replied and smiled again.

"What do you like to do?" Kevin asked, allowing the joy to sink in my body. Single.

"Uhm. I like to skateboard, play guitar, write, play football and watch horror movies." she said. "Unfortunately, my skateboard is broken, there haven't been any good horrors lately and I don't have many guys to play football with me anymore so.. I just write and put the lyrics to music. I love it but, since I have been doing it so much recently, its gotten sort of boring."

I smiled, hatching a thought. "Hang on a second. Maybe I can fix that." I said, rummaging through my bunk. Somewhere.. somewhere, my skateboard had to be lying around..

"Here." I offered her, finding the skateboard. Her eyes lit up. She stared at it with wide-eyes but didn't take it.. "Er. You can have it." I said and placed it on her lap. She still did not move. She just stared directly at the logo on the back of the board.

She looked up, finally. "You- you- This is- An Element cruiser with perfect wheels and trucks and- and you- Animal classic, man! How can you possibly give this to me for free?! Have you lost your gourd, you insane- person?!" she cried, unable to form sentences. I widened my eyes, confused. "Uh, yeah. I don't really use it-" I began.

"Blasphemy! You aren't supposed to use it! You are supposed to get lost in its glory and stare at it in admiration for every second of your life until you die!" she cried and stroked it. I didn't know how to react. "Do you like it?" I asked, wary.

"Are you mad? If this thing were human, I'd make love to it on the spot." she said.

Nick and Kevin were laughing hysterically. "Oh. Well, uhm. I am glad you like it." I said. She placed the board gingerly on her bunk beside her buzzing cell phone, turned to me and said, "I love you." before tackling me with a hug. I wanted to give her a thousand of those pieces of wood but I was worried that, if I did, she'd have a heart attack. I was pretty happy with just a lung-crushing hug.