Rewritten || l.h [au]

00: Anticipating

"These days I can't seem to make this right," - Strange Love, Halsey

ZOE O'CONNOR

Grinding down the pipe, I screamed as I fell off, almost reaching the end. "Fuck!" I seethed. My knee had started bleeding but, in a bid to look cool, I spat on my hand and patted my knee. Fuck, again. It hurt even more with my saliva now dripping down my leg. God, I felt sick to the stomach. My mom was going to kill me since she had warned me about falling off a skateboard. She knew I'd attempt a move or two because I so desperately wanted to impress my crush and he skated at the same park as I did.

I wanted to cry. Is that normal for a girl of my age after she has fallen off of a board? Probably, I cry too much. But this is exceedingly different from other crying times, this is from physical pain. I can't stand physical pain and honestly I can't stand blood, either.

"Are you alright, Zoe? I told you boarding wasn't for you." My best friend frowns, nudging my shoulder ever-so carefully. Aiden knelt down to inspect my bloody knee, grimacing at the trail of scarlet down my leg. I winced a tad as he bunched up the white towel he had used for his sweaty forehead and applied it to the seeping blood. "Dude, you've got a really nasty gash," he informs me as if l'm completely dumb. "Give your knee some rest. You shouldn't be boarding for a few, um, days. Seeing as it's you, I'll give you another few days until you obtain another injury, then you'll be out for months." He laughed. He found it hilarious that I was the one bleeding and not him. I guess it's okay, I do bleed once a month from a very different place, another single week wouldn't hurt. Or maybe it would since I already felt like I was over-dramatically dying.

"You're such a dick! I don't get injured all the time." I recall, crossing my arms in anger. All of a sudden, at a higher speed than everyone else in the skate park, a guy with ravishingly blonde hair whipped past me and Aiden. Of course, it was none other than Luke Hemmings. Luke resided from Australia and his voice sounded as if it had no end and no beginning. It was glorious. 

I've had a very, very big crush on Luke since second grade but somehow nobody else knows. In second grade he asked me to the disco and we danced together, it was the best school memory I have. I remember in third grade he asked me again but my parents wouldn't let me go for some reason, even though I was already dressed in my funky get up. My old best friend, Kanin, liked him, too. She'd write him love letters much to my distaste. Fortunately she's moved to a different high school now and, in the end, Luke always thought the love letters were a joke.

"I've got a brilliant idea. It's not like I don't know you have a longtime crush on Mr. Hemmings over there," Aiden giggles nonchalantly, pointing over to where Luke is sitting on his skateboard, opening a can of Monster energy drink. My shocked expression must say it all, since I hide my journal in my underwear drawer. I can't even imagine Aiden rifling through my imitate things to find what he's looking for. "Darling, you shouldn't leave your personal journal lying around, someone might find it. By the looks of it, that somebody was me. I really enjoyed you writing the somewhat vivid dreams you have about you and Luke. Next time put a damn parental guidance sticker on that nasty book, will you? Although did Kanin really try to steal your man? I mean boy, whoops."

I softly punch him even though I want to make him bleed, too. "So, what's the plan?" I ask, even though I feel like he's trying to provoke me on purpose. "I'm pretending not to be mad at you just to see if this plan you have is actually worth a shot."

He might actually help me, who knows. By the way he is mischievously grinning, I'm not sure if the plan he has in mind is even legal or majorly inappropriate.