Here she comes, all ablaze with red hair and those smoking gray eyes. Heath smiles at the sight of her, but quickly hides it for fear she might recognize him. He lowers his eyes and his skateboard to the ground. It's time to roll.
They head down Emerald Lane, on towards downtown square. The others laugh and mess with each other as they skate, but Heath watches in observant silence, tailing them. CJ launches up onto a metal railing, trying to show off, but his wheel catches and he ends up on the ground. Warren sees the rogue skateboard and seizes his opportunity: one foot on his board, one on CJ's, he glides for a few yards before returning to the wobbly safety of his own board. Heath watches as Kye rolls her eyes at both of them.
"I'm fine, in case any of you were wondering," CJ calls out.
"Mostly worried about the tambourine," says Kye.
Heath grins. She sure has learned to keep up.
He can't help but think how different things should be. Today, a June day in the year they both turn seventeen, neither of them would be here. They'd be soaking each other with garden hoses, climbing the giant backyard tree, sipping lemonade in the house they built on its branches. Maybe they'd bike around looking for the ice cream truck. In the year they both turn seventeen, neither Kye nor Heath should be anywhere close to growing up.
Yet here they are, adults too soon. He wears a mask so she doesn't remember him; she wears hers so that no one can really see her.
Up ahead, she and Blake are leading the parade; she looks like she was born on that skateboard. Flips, jumps and twists are as easy as walking to her. Blake reaches over and snatches the beanie off her head, revealing her flaming hair. It seems to set off sparks in the wind as she grabs for her hat. Their laughter fills the air . . . But hers is only a shadow of the true laugh he knows so well.
Everything here is wrong. And somehow, he has to fix it.
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