𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐘, 𝐒𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐄𝐓

ONE: SCARLET

hawthorne, california | year of 2009

eighteen-year old tyler walked down the sidewalk with his friends, jasper, taco, lionel, sydney and earl; odd future. the group of best friends laughed as earl cracked a joke. tyler held the truck of his skateboard as they all walked into the small convenience store. all six of them practically filled the entire store and made it dramatically louder.

"jasper, shut the fuck up, you're fat ass don't need no more soda," tyler joked, laughing and backing up as jasper launched at him, grabbing the hat off his head and threw it. taco caught it and slapped jasper in his head and the boys started to roughhouse with one another in the tiny store.

the owner, a middle-aged hispanic simply leaned back in his seat and read his newspaper. the boys had come in here plenty of times before. he got used to their disturbances.

earl got up and rubbed his sore cheek from being elbowed in the face. "let's get our shit and head back to t's crib."

"hell no, y'all not coming and i gotta be home before my mom come home because i'm supposed to be watchin' lynda little fat ass," tyler complained, getting a pack of krispy kreme donuts and walking to the register with the boys.

they laughed at his dilemma. still holding his skateboard in his hand, he spun the wheel with his pinky finger as their stuff was being paid for.

grabbing the bags full of snacks, tyler and the boys began to walk out. tyler abruptly backed up, someone skating past the store. they kick flipped off the sidewalk, landing smoothly on the street and circled back to the front of the store, kick flipping back onto the sidewalk. it was a girl.

"damn, that was clean," tyler commented. he took a long look at her. her cheeks became crimson as her grey eyes met his.

a slight smile formed on her face and disappeared quickly. she bit on her bottom lip, making her pink lips become red. "thanks." she eyed his skateboard and the boys behind him.

"never saw you around here before," tyler saws as he walks up closer to the girl, clutching his bag of donuts in the other hand.

"look at this simp ass nigga, man," earl laughed and jasper joined in on it. tyler ignored them.

"i just moved here a couple weeks ago," she responds, squinting her eyes, for the sun was in her face. "do you know the area well?"

tyler chuckled. "grew up here my whole fucking life." he spun the wheel on his skateboard again. "i could show around sometime."

the girl shook her head. "for certain circumstances, it's better if you don't." the response was weird and tyler raised an eyebrow. his eyes caught a bruise on her collarbone that was trying to hide with the oversized t-shirt she had and another one on the side of her neck. "my name's scarlet by the way."

"scarlet? that's a tight ass name. i'm stuck with tyler. i prefer wolf haley, though," he says.

"nice to meet you," she says with a smirk on her face and gets on her skateboard pushes off a little. "see ya." she rode away and tyler watched her until she wasn't in sight anymore.

taco came up to tyler and flicked his cap off. "the fuck is your faggot ass doing?"

jasper and earl laughed. sydney stood off to the side giggling a little. tyler rolled his eyes, picking up his cap off the ground and put it back on. "talking to a girl obviously."

"you ugly, don't nobody want you," lionel joked and tyler's long arm extended and slapped him hard. they started to slapbox each other and roughhouse once again.