One of the Boys.

I was sat on the lush green grass in the orchard round the back of the house, re-reading Memoirs of a Geisha as I hadn’t read it in a while. This was the only place in the whole 13 acre estate that provided any shade. It was approaching 40 degrees Celsius and it was almost the peak of summer, at the middle of the day. A.k.a, it was absolutely sweltering. It’s lucky I don’t sweat much.
“HEY!”
I looked up and saw Ryan at the end of the orchard.
“HEY YOU!”
He jogged towards me, as it was impossible to run in this heat. We’d been dating for a week now, and no one in the family knew except Katarina. She’d tried to tell my mom, but she didn’t believe her, which I was thankful for. Otherwise she’d probably send Ryan back home or at the very least, make him sleep at the other end of the house, just in case we decided to have sex. Yeah, like that would happen.
He sat down next to me and kissed my lips once. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”
“I said I’d be in the orchard.”
“Yes, but when the orchard is several acres big, it takes a guy a while.”
I smiled. “Sorry. So, what’s up?”
“Nothing much. Your little sister made me push her on the swing for a while, then she tried to make me dress up as a horse so she could ride me. I drew the line there.”
I laughed. “I bet she hates you now.”
“Yeah, she said she hated me.” he chuckled and rested against the tree with me, lacing his fingers with mine. “And Kat said she was going to prove that we were a couple if it was the last thing she did. That’s a little sad, huh? You’d think she had a better way to spend her time.”
“Kat has never spent her time wisely, she’s still living after all.”
“That’s a little harsh.”
“You don’t have to live with her.”
“Actually, I do.” he laughed. “But only for the summer.”
“I’m not putting a death wish on her, I’m saying she’s never done anything productive in her life, and probably never will. That’s the way she is.”
“And what do you want to do with your life?”
“I don’t know… doing something with skating would be awesome, but there’s only so far you can go.”
“What about Tony Hawk?”
“He’s the exception.” I smiled. “I think I’d like to do something with journalism, but traveling, y’know? Put my language skills to good use.”
“Wow. That’s cool.” he nodded.
“You?”
“I’m not sure, but doing something with either music or creative writing would be cool. Still got a year before I choose college courses so it doesn’t matter right now.”
“True.” I nodded and folded the page in my book, putting it down.
He stood up and offered me his hand, which I took.
“Come on, I found this kick ass place the other side of the pottery shop.”
“What is it?” I asked.
“Ahh, you’ll have to wait to find out.” he winked and lead me out of the orchard to the house, still holding my hand. My Papi waved at us and we waved back. They knew we held hands, that wasn’t weird to them, nor did it signal a relationship, so it’s all good.
We got on the tram to the pottery shop, then got off. Ryan held my hand tightly and lead me to the near by park. We walked through it and at the end, lo and behold, was a skate park.
“Sweet! You’re awesome!” I chimed and kissed his lips once.
Thank goodness I was wearing shorts today instead of a skirt, now that would’ve been a sorry sight.
“I know, I know.” he smiled.
The skate park was filled with Italian teenagers, speaking very quickly. I let go of Ryan’s hand as we walked in. I picked up one of the boards, as did Ryan, and went onto a pipe. I was getting a lot of strange looks. Probably because I was a girl. I don’t care, I loved skating and they weren’t going to stop me.
A tall, dark haired, tan guy circled me on his board. “Hello?”
“Hello…” I said, jumping off the half pipe.
“So you speak English?”
“Yes.”
“And you skate?”
“Yes, I do.” I said, skating up to the top of the half pipe. He followed me and stopped me just before I skated off.
“You don’t want to do that, it’s too dangerous.”
“I can handle it, thanks.”
“If you think so, go ahead.” he smirked.
So I did, throwing in the odd flip here and there just to prove to him I wasn’t a useless girl as they assumed.
“You do skate, ah, I was wrong. I am Jorgio.”
“Ezme.” I smiled and Ryan soon joined me on the ramp. “And this is Ryan. Ryan, Jorgio.”
They shook hands formally and I’m sure they gripped that bit too tightly, as a way to spite each other for some strange reason.
“You want a, how you say, skate off?”
I smirked. “Sure. Me and Ryan, you and…”
“Masimo!” he beckoned. A similar looking boy skated up to where we were.
He picked up my hand and kissed it. “Ciao, bella.”
I raised my eyebrow at him and Jorgio swore at him in Italian.
“Ahh, I am sorry, I did not know. We are skating off, yes?”
“Yes.” I nodded. “You do something, we do something, until one of us can’t better it.”
“Jorgio, I am not good for skating off.” said Masimo.
“We need two people!”
“I don’t want to skate, anyway.” said Ryan. “I’m awful.”
“No you’re not.” I said. “But if you two don’t skate, it’s me and Jorgio.”
The two nodded and skated down, so it was just me and Jorgio. I skated to the other side.
“You start.” I nodded.
All of his friends gathered around and I smirked to myself, knowing that he would lose. After all, I’d won these things professionally, a little competition against a big headed kid wasn’t going to faze me.
He started, doing the basics, I copied.
After about three goes, he added in the flips.
I added in the flips.
He added in more, nearly slipped, but his feet caught the board just in time.
I mimicked him, pretending to fall, making the ever growing people watching laugh.
Jorgio spat, to prove he wasn’t pleased. Ooh, scary.
He did a flip which involved spinning 360’ in two different ways. Essentially two flips, one horizontally and one vertically.
I’d never done something like that before, nor had I seen it done. Ryan knew this and looked up at me like “Oh shit.”.
I’d still attempt it.
I pushed off got to the other end and did this several times to gain speed. Once I was sure I was fast enough, I flipped backwards, then sideways. My board was no where to be seen, so I had to flip again. Still no where to be seen. I had no other choice but to land on my feet. I’d failed. Where the hell was my board?
I looked up because everyone was laughing. Jorgio was holding my board.
He’d caught it whilst I was flipping.
What a fucking jerk.
Everyone was laughing hysterically. So I walked up to the top, grabbed the board and whacked him round the head with it. Fucking hard.
“If you thought you were gonna lose, you should have said, rather than cheating.”
“I was going to win.”
“Okay, if you were going to win, copy this.”
I skated to build enough speed, then did the most complex trick I’ve ever done. It took years to perfect and a hell of a lot of Brendon’s help, but when I did it perfectly, the others didn’t have a hope in hell’s chance.
I landed at the top and sat down, taking in a big breath. I could’ve so easily broken my back. “You go.”
Everyone went silent and faced Jorgio. He looked like he was about to shit a brick, but people cheered, which boost is already too big ego, so he slid down on his board. He quickly gained pace. He flipped up in the air but lost control. He was going to break something when he landed, so I quickly slid out in front and caught him. His eyes were shut tight, as if he was ready to fall. Jorgio opened them quickly when he realized what had happened.
“Gratzi, Ezme. You are very good, no?”
I smiled. “Gratzi Jorgio.”
I put him down carefully and several people cheered. He held out my arm and wrote on his number with Sharpie. “Call me, yes?”
“Sure.” I smiled and looked around for Ryan, but couldn’t see him anywhere.
“I’m going to go, Jorgio.”
“Ciao, bella.”
“Ciao.” I nodded and put the board back, then ran across the park to the tram. I looked at my watch, I had half an hour until I had to be back. The next tram came in ten minutes, so I’d just about make it if I ran when the tram arrived back.
The tram was 2 minutes late. I jumped on it and sat down, tapping my foot nervously.
You see, when I’m late, even if it’s by a few minutes, my family flip out. They have this weird obsession about time, I’ve never fully understood it, but if you’re late to a meeting with my parents, they’ll hold a grudge against you for a very long time.
The tram stopped at my stop and I ran as fast as I physically could. I think I’d buy some roller blades tomorrow for when this happened again.
I passed several streets and our house eventually came into view. I jumped over the gate and ran in, slamming the huge doors behind me.
“I’m home!” I shouted.
I fanned myself to try and cool myself down, then walked into the kitchen. The cook was there, and that was it.
“Where is everybody?” I asked.
“Scattered around the house. They ate dinner an hour ago.”
I looked down at my watch and slapped a hand to my forehead. I’d forgotten the hour hand was in the wrong place.
“Don’t tell them, but I’ve put some french fries and orange juice in your room. If you hurry they’ll still be warm.”
“Thank you very much.”
“No problem.” she smiled and I jogged to my room. I swung open the door and collapsed on the bed, shoveling in fries and gulping down the juice. Not exactly graceful, but I desperately needed food and some liquid.
Ryan walked in, his hands stuffed in his pockets. “I see you finally decided to turn up, then.”
“I forgot my watch was set to the wrong time and-”
“Yeah whatever.”
I sensed a bitter tone to his voice.
“Have I done something wrong, Ry?”
“Are you sure you’re not late because you were with Jorgio, huh?”
“Of course I- hang on, what? You think I was making out with Jorgio?”
“I don’t know.” he shrugged.
I stood up. “You mind taking that back?”
He looked genuinely scared, so I calmed it down and made my body language a little less aggressive. “I’m sorry Ryan, I shouldn’t have said that. You have a right to assume that because of the number on my arm and the lateness… but I promise I didn’t. I got caught up in the skate off, sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry for accusing you. It was stupid.”
I held out my arms for a hug and he quickly accepted, wrapping his warm, and now tanned, arms around me. He kissed my forehead.
“I was talking to Spencer a few minutes ago.”
“Oh, yeah? How is he?”
“He said he’s good, as is Brent. As for Brendon? He doesn’t know, he’s been spending so much time with Harriet, apparently. They are pretty much inseparable.”
I laughed quietly. “Not sure whether that’s a good thing or not, as long as they’re happy.”
“Yeah, that’s true.”
He let go of me and kicked my door shut, sitting on my bed and taking off his shoes, then laying down. I lay down next to him and he held my hand.
“I never imagined we’d date.” he said, to no one in particular.
“You mean you never thought I’d look like a girl?”
“No, Em, I’ve liked you for a while. The fact you’re gorgeous is a plus, but that’s not the main reason.”
“Oh, wow. Thanks Ryan.”
“You’re very welcome.” he smiled. “What I meant was that it didn’t really seem plausible. I always thought you’d like the tough guys.”
“And I always thought you’d like small, innocent girls.”
“You’re pretty innocent, and you’re not exactly massive, are you?”
“How am I innocent?”
“You don’t smoke, drink, do drugs, you’ve never had sex, you don’t slash your arms, you’re not anorexic. That’s pretty innocent.”
“You don’t do any of those either, as far as I know.”
“I never said I wasn’t innocent.” he smiled and started tickling my hips. I giggled girlishly and covered my mouth with my hands. He laughed.
“I’ve never heard you giggle before, I didn’t think it were possible.”
“Yeah, well you’ve never tickled me before.”
“Because you’d punch me.”
I laughed as it was probably true. I turned to face him and pressed my lips to his, kissing him softly. He smiled into the kiss and slid one arm around my waist, pulling me on top of him. I licked his bottom lip and he granted me entrance, parting his lips. I quickly took advantage of this and kissed him with more passion, exploring every square inch. He moaned lowly into the kiss as my hand ran through his hair, making me blush. Hey, I just made my best friend moan, I’m gonna be a little embarrassed. I felt his cheeks heat up against mine, so I knew I wasn’t alone in the embarrassment.
I broke away after several minutes and rested my head on his chest. He stroked my hair delicately.
“Sorry about that.”
“Don’t worry.” I smiled and kissed his hand.
And we fell asleep like that.