Last Summer.

I tapped my fingers along the plastic covering of the brightly tinted table, trying not to sigh as I waited for Ava to finish her food. My stomach was already beginning to rumble after consuming my big-mac in record timing, even for me, yet she’d barely eaten one chicken nugget, and all her fries were still in tact. She looked up from her food, and caught me staring at her with a confused look upon my face.

“What? Do I have sauce on my face?” She asked, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

“No,” I said shaking my head laughing at her, “I’m just amazed at how slow you eat, do you generally eat that slow, or are you making a special effort today?”

“Special effort of course.” she said smugly, but began eating slightly faster. My stomach growled out loud, making Ava burst into a laugh.

“How can you be hungry after the half a cow you just savaged on?” She asked me, pointing to the cardboard box I had crushed, and the vibrant red container the fries came in.

“How can you not be hungry with that food in front of you?” I asked her, grabbing a few of her fries and shovelling them into my mouth. She looked at me, one eyebrow raised as she gave me the evil eye.

“Class this as your warning: touch my food again, and loose your hand. Simple?” She said, smirking as I backed my hand away from her food as I went to reach for some more of her chips, and to possibly nick a chicken nugget when she wasn‘t looking.

“Scary much?” I said laughing, “Remind me not to get in the middle of you and your food!” I slumped back in my seat, my eyes wandering around the franchise we were in. It always confused me why McDonalds colour scheme were always a mix-match of florescent colours, and the furniture implied that the interior designer was in the middle of a mental breakdown and decided to bring back some aspects of the eighties that, to be quite honest should stay in the past.

When I looked up, Ava was crunching up the post-box red cardboard box that her fries came in. She casually tossed it aside with perfect aim into the bin, before standing up and grabbing her bag. For someone who took their sweet time eating their meal, they sure ate a lot in the 0.3 seconds I was looking away.

“Where to next?” She asked me swinging her bag over her shoulder and I quickly stumbled to my feet, the chair scraping along the linoleum flooring. “Didn’t you mention a skate park before?”

I nodded, “Yeah, a few of my mates should be there now.” I added, before holding the door open for her. She nodded at me as a sign of gratitude, before stepping out of the door into the cold breeze.

“Jesus Christ, I thought it was meant to be warm at the seaside? I’m gonna have to invest in a winter coat a few months early!” She sighed once we were both stood on the street, shuddering as she rubbed her bare arms.

“You’ll get used to it,” I laughed, “Its something to do with the sea temperature. We did learn about it, but as I recall, that was the lesson me and Sam had a massive ‘rock-paper-scissors’ game. She’s a bad influence on me. Alphabetical seating plans are never wise.”

“Oh, that’s another thing I have to look forward to. A new school. Joy.” Ava said sarcastically. “My mum expects me to start on at the college here. Shame I have to disappoint her.”

“My mum wanted me to be a girl, so she’s used to the disappointment.” I told her, causing her to laugh, “In the earliest baby photos of me, I’m wearing pink. So not my colour.”

“What do you mean, wanted you to be a girl?” She asked me, with a mock look of horror upon her face. “I mean, with your long locks, and rosy cheeks, I just thought you were a tom boy!”

“That hurts, really.” I said, pushing Ava slightly who almost stumbled off the kerb into the road. “It stings, right here!” I said, resting on my chest, feeling my heart pump my blood around my body. I wasn’t an expert on the rate my heart, but today, it seemed to beat faster than usual. Almost in an excited manner.

“Oh, be a man. You big pansy!” She said, and shoved me back into a lamppost. Luckily for me, I managed to miss banging my head and possibly knocking myself out. I tended to do that, ever since that time my grandma dropped me after one to many glasses of red wine. As we walked down the quiet street, we soon turned around the corner, and were soon stepping on a thin and windy ‘dirt track’ that led up to the skate park. She was looking over at the field littered with trees and a few old deflated footballs, talking softly with a hint of a smile playing on her lips.

“If we were in London now, we’d probably be reaching for a can of pepper spray because some old drunk would be - OW!” The crack of branches scared the birds away from the trees as she fell backwards, and the expression on her face was priceless. I couldn’t hold back my amusement, and my laugh rung out through the open air like the impact of a bullet from a gun. When she got up, she had a furious look upon her face, and I decided it was in my best interest to run away from her as possible as I could - which probably wasn’t very fast as I always spent PE lessons hiding from the teacher or trying to convince them I had some kind of physical pain that deprived me from joining in their lesson.

“You complete and utter wank!” she screamed at me, beginning to run after me. The skate park was about twenty metres from me, and already the group of my friends there were calling out my name and waving. I cut across the freshly cut grass, Ava hot on my tail, and the cut grass seemed to slow me down more than it did her. She ran up behind me, and pushed me with a force, leaving me head first into the recently sliced grass.

“James, you’re getting beaten by another girl? You need to learn how to stand up for yourself, mate!” Matt said, laughing as he pushed his skateboard to the side with his foot, and began walking over to us. Ava held out her hand to help me up, tears of laughter building up on her eyeliner rimmed lower eyelid. I gave her a dirty look before spitting some of the freshly-cut grass that had gathered in my mouth, and got myself up without her help.

“Ava! What the fuck was that for?” I spluttered, before spitting even more of the blades of lawn out of my mouth. Ava and Matt were sniggering at me, and I noticed out of the corner of my eye my other friends were watching, and taking pictures. My embarrassment will be all over youtube by the time I got home.

“You just shoved me into the freaking grass before! It was uncalled for!” Ava groaned at me, but brushed some of the grass off my back for me, “Although your little tumble was amusing.”

“Shut up.” I muttered under my breath, before catching Matt looking Ava up and down, a smirk playing on his lips. He caught a glance of my disapproving looks in his direction, but he just flashed his ‘bad boy’ smile at me. “Ava, this is Matt. Matt this is Ava.”

“Hey Ava,” Matt said to her, and she replied in a tiny voice, looking down at the scuffed soles of her trainers as she spoke. “Are you guys coming over to the park? Or are you off somewhere more… private?” he added, raising his eyebrows at me.

“Uh yeah, that was the plan.” I said, and Matt turned on his heels, and started walking back in the direction he appeared from. I looked over at Ava, who was glancing over in my general direction. I smiled at her, and she returned the smile, only it was so much weaker. She darted her eyes back down to the ground, watching her foot crush the grass at every step.

“Don’t worry,” I told her in an optimistic tone, “They’re all really nice, and pretty cool. You‘ll get on with them fine.” She mumbled something I couldn’t catch under her breath, but I let it slip. We had reached the gate to the skate park. It creaked out in the summer air as I pushed it open easily with one hand and little force.

Ava stepped through the gate behind me, an uneasy look upon her face as she looked up to see four pairs of lingering eyes watching her every move.