What You're Missing

Chapter I

"I didn't think he would ever show his face here ever again," Cynthia commented.

"Me neither," Jace added.

I looked at both of them. I probably looked just as confused as they were.

Cynthia turned to me, smirking to herself slightly. "What's wrong, Jackson?" she asked. "This doesn't hurt you, does it?"

Jace Chun and Cynthia Baxter: my two best friends. They're the two people that know me the most out of everyone else in my life, even my family. I've known Cynthia since sixth grade and I met Jace a few years later when he transferred to my school in eighth grade. He moved to New Mexico from South Korea and he knew almost no English, but over the years he's become fluent (even though he has a strong accent that Cynthia and I pretend to not notice).

Every Friday night, the three of us would go to the town's skating rink together. It was like a ritual. Even if we didn't physically say that we were going to meet up there, we always did. It was summer, so none of us ever had anything else to do anyways. Not to mention that we were kind of legends at the joint, too. If the place was dead, the three of us were always the ones to get the party going. Sometimes, we would even go to the benches and get strangers to come and skate with us. Our times there were the best moments of my entire life and I wouldn't exchange those memories for anything.

As we sat on the bench outside of the rink, we tied our skates. As always, the music was blaring to the point where you had to yell in order to be heard, even if you were talking to someone that was like an inch away from you. The song that was playing was "Making Love out of Nothing at All" by Air Supply, my absolute favorite band. Of course, because of the fact that it was 1983, everyone would always be listening to Michael Jackson and/or Prince, but I would just listen to Air Supply.

"This song sucks," Jace said.

I raised my eyebrows and looked over to him. He was smiling. "Are you dumb?" I joked. He shrugged.

"Maybe," he said. "But at least I have a good taste in music."

I rolled my eyes and looked back to Cynthia, who was now looking back ahead to the other side of the rink. "No, Cynthia, I'm not hurt," I finally answered. "Why would I be?"

"Because Andrew Davidson is over there," she said. "Why wouldn't you be?"

Andrew Davidson. My ex. My peer. The boy I lost my virginity to. We dated for almost three years until he broke up with me a few weeks ago. In only a few months, we officially would've been three years, but he just had to end it. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't upset about it.

Strangely enough, he was standing by himself as people were skating around him. And as much as I'd hate to admit it, he looked good. While we were together, I told him that I didn't like long hair on guys, so he would always cut it to keep me happy. But now that we weren't together anymore, it was starting to grow out. It might be the fact that I missed him, but I thought he looked even better than he did than when we were together.

Jace scoffed. "Why do you even think he's here?" he asked, turning to me.

I shrugged. "I don't know," I said.

While we were dating, I would bring Andrew along to the rink with us whenever I could. He didn't ruin the fun or anything, the four of us usually got along pretty well, but I have to admit that it was always more fun when it was just the three of us. Since we broke up, I never thought I would see him at the rink again, seeing as though it's our place.

"Um..." Cynthia muttered, still looking ahead. "I think that's why." Jace and I looked up.

He was now standing with this girl that I was friends with in elementary school. Her name was Riley Fisher. She was all dressed up as if she was going out to some important gathering or whatever. If I didn't know any better, I would say that they were on a date. And I wanted to believe that they weren't.