“See? Trouble.” Tom muttered, shuffling over to retrieve his skateboard as the three boys stepped away from Erica. The had-been jock waved his arm toward the teacher and yelled back, “That’s what we were trying to find out, Mr. Robinson! We’ve got this period off!” he added, gesturing to his two friends.

“Get to class!” Mr. Robinson called back before ducking back inside his classroom. As the door swung shut, the jock turned back to Erica. “You heard him, freshman, get to class.”

Erica flipped him off and threw some choice words at the three as she turned and jogged to catch up with Thomas, muttering to herself, “If he didn’t have my piece…”

As she and Tom walked in silence toward the other end of the school, Erica nudged him and arched her eyebrows in the general direction of downtown. “Wanna go finish that match?”

Thomas glanced sharply at her, then threw his head back and laughed. He dropped his board and placed a foot on it, then gestured for Erica to take a place in front of him. She cocked an eyebrow, then shrugged. “What the hell? I might as well learn a new trick.”

As she stepped onto the board and twisted sideways, Thomas laughed again and draped himself over her shoulders, grinning. “Just lean the way I do, and we’ll live. I hope,” he added, and cackled yet again at the look on her face.

Fifteen minutes later, Erica was hopelessly lost in the maze of streets and alleys Thomas rode around. The ‘shortcuts’ he took weren’t any help to Erica’s sense of direction, and after about five more minutes she couldn’t take it anymore and spoke up.

“You got a place in mind, or am I supposed to be rolling a joint over here?”

Thomas giggled in a way that managed to not sound completely queer, and answered, “Yah, I got a place. We’ll be there in…I’d say two to seven minutes, depending.”

Erica rolled her eyes. “Depending on what?”

Thomas put his hands on her shoulders and used his right foot to push, gaining speed, and grinned wickedly beside her shoulder. Pointing ahead, he muttered, “On if I can make this jump over the canal with the added weight of another person.”

Erica focused her attention in front of her, and managed to get a quick glance a hodge-podge ramp assembled next to the canal bank before they shot off it, gliding over the water as it sparkled in the afternoon sun. As they landed on the other side, she leapt off the board and shoved Thomas off as well.

“You dirty dick!” She stood back and regarded him for a moment, then, grinning, stepped forward and shoved him again as her face broke into a true smile. “You’ve done that before, you asshole! Fuckin’ scared me half to death!”

“It’s more fun that way, the first time,” Thomas laughed, getting back on the board and pushing off lazily as Erica walked alongside him. “Next time, you’ll be prepared, and you won’t get that fun little rush of not knowing.”

Erica shook her head and crossed her arms, opening her mouth to retort, but Thomas cut her off with an outstretched arm. “We’re heeerrreee,” he sang, dancing off his board and up to a very old, very abandoned warehouse. Erica stopped and stared.

“We’re where, exactly?” she asked, following Thomas as he stepped carefully around the broken glass and hunks of jagged metal over to a window on the side. He pried loose a board and slipped his skateboard carefully in, then, glancing around, said, “Follow me and find out,” before disappearing inside.

Erica looked around and discovered they were in a particularly empty part of town. Not wanting to be left out of the fun, especially out in a part of town she didn’t know, with no idea which direction was home, she hefted herself through the window and dropped softly to the floor. Allowing her eyes to adjust to the dim light, she put her back against the wall and tried to get over the musty smell of grease and dirt.

Thanks for reading!