THREE: admirer
los angeles, 1990's
—
ROSY THREW a hot cheeto at fourthgrade and let a proud smile spread across her lips when it landed perfectly in his mouth. the boy high fived her as laughs escaped his lips before the two continued to throw food at each other and try to catch it with their mouths.
ruben watched the tv screen as he smoked a cigarette, claiming every here and there how "relaxing" the cancer stick was to him.
meanwhile ray and fuckshit stood behind the glass counter helping customers and trying to convince them to purchase things they didn't need.
it had been a few weeks since the incident at the corner store and none of the skaters had gone back since. in the time that had passed rosy's relationships with the boys had blossomed. she spent a lot of her time partying with fuckshit, talking about life with ray, fucking around with ruben, and falling in love with fourthgrade.
even though, ray was the only one who knew about what rosy was going through at her old home, the rest of the boys figured it was something bad when they came to the shop early one morning and found rosy sprawled out, asleep on one of the couches with fresh bruises covering her body.
the girl had made the dumb mistake to go home and get new clothes, unfortunately for her frank had been waiting for her. after the girl left her house, beaten, ray welcomed her into the shop with open arms, and let the store become her new home. he even bought a small dresser to keep in the back room where the girl could keep her stuff in. the skate shop as well as the people in it has became rosy's new family and she was extremely grateful for them.
"come again!" fuckshit said in a fake preppy voice as a customer left the store. once the store door closed ray punched him making fuckshit roll his eyes. the two then slid over the glass display case and walked over to the
teens on the couch.
"what're you guys tryna do?" ray asked as he sat next to fourthgrade and rosy. the two just shrugged and looked at ruben who payed them no attention and just kept watching the tv screen. fuckshit rolled his eyes before he turned off the tv making ruben glare at him, "what?" he yelled making fuckshit laugh.
"what you tryna do?" fuckshit asked the boy making him just shrug and mutter, "i don't care." ray rolled his eyes before he looked over at fourthgrade who filmed rosy applying lipgloss on herself. when she saw him filming she put her hand over his camera lens as soft giggles left her lips while fourthgrade just admired her with a smile.
"let's go skate!" rosy said with a burst of energy as she stood up and pulled her friend who's hair was now a faded pink up with her. the two grabbed their boards and started making their way out towards the front of the shop with smiles on both of their faces. the rest of the skaters just shrugged before grabbing their own boards and following after the two.
rosy did a kickflip as fourthgrade filmed her with a large smile on his face. everyone else messed around and skated as fourthgrade filmed them every here and there. they kept skating as sweat fell down the sides of their faces making their clothes cling to them. it was a hot day in los angeles, kids sprayed each other with water guns while other kids rode past the shop on their bikes.
no one payed attention to the group of skaters who were messing around and yelling at each other but one boy. he skidded to a stop on his bike from across the street as he watched the group of kids mess about, his eyes were glued to the girl who skated around on the side of the street, her eyebrows furrowed and she bit her lip as she concentrated on landing the trick.
he wasn't the only person who was admiring the girl though. fourthgrade rested his head on his palm as he watched the girl with heart eyes. he could tell the more time he spent with her the more he was falling for her. he was just too shy to admit it to the girl so he preferred to just gaze at her dreamingly. when the girl saw him admiring she giggled before pulling him up off the ground to skate with her.
fourthgrade smiled before placing the camera in her face once more and then set it down to skate with her. the boy across the street frowned as watched the two's interaction.
fuckshit stopped skating to go and antagonize some older women that were walking past the group, "i love me some mature women!" he exclaimed as he followed after the women. once he got their attention he began speaking again, "any of you sexy ladies tryna see a trick?" he asked before he muttered, "right here." and grabbed his dick with a smirk making rosy roll her eyes yet she still laughed.
when he heard the girls laugh he quickly turned around from the older ladies and skated towards his bestfriend before doing a quick trick. before rosy could say anything she was interrupted by a man coming out of the store next to motor with a broom in his hands, "get the fuck out of the front of my store. where's kent?" he asked as ray protectively placed himself in front of rosy while fourthgrade pulled out his camera. "fuck you bro!" fuckshit yelled as all the skaters tauntingly walked towards the man.
"ay i'm not scared of you guys!" the guy said as he backed up making rosy laugh. "you-you fucking pussies!" he insulted as fourthgrade zoomed in on his face. the boy from across the street laughed as ray told the man to, "go back inside." the man hesitated before walking inside as fuckshit yelled one last "fuck you!" before throwing his board towards the man. he didn't throw it far enough for it to hit him so the board just fell to the floor.
all the skaters just tiredly walked back inside the shop with sweat dripping off their bodies. the boy from across the street just sighed once more before taking off down the street on his bike. meanwhile inside the store rosy collapsed on the couch as fourthgrade lifted her legs to sit before placing them back down on his lap. "what now?" ruben asked as he lit another cigarette.
all the boys just shrugged as they chugged some water from various water bottles that were laying around. a smile spread across rosy's face as she came up with an idea making her instantly sit up. "i have an idea." was all she said making the boys look between one another. "what is it?" ray asked making the girl smile even more. she didn't say anything and instead just grabbed her skateboard and walked out the back of the shop, signaling she wanted the boys to follow after her.
since the boys had nothing better to do they all stood up and grabbed their boards before following after the girl.
the girl skated down the middle of the busy intersection as all the boys followed after her, fourthgrade filming them all. "yo rosy, where the fuck are you taking us?" fuckshit asked just to receive no answer from the girl. the sun had just set and they had already been skating for twenty minutes straight. "are we almost there?" ruben complained. rosy still didn't answer. just as the boys had reached their peak of impatience the girl skidded over to the side of the road and began walking now.
all the teens looked at each other before sighing and followed after the girl. they watched as the girl threw her board over a large fence before beginning to climb it making all the boys do the same. as soon as everyone successfully climbed the fence rosy kept walking. "rosy where are we fucking goin-" ruben started saying before he was interrupted by fourthgrade, "holy shit." the boy said in shock. rosy smirked as she watched all the boys mouths fall open at the sight of the large pool. they had never seen a pool this big before.
"this shits the size of the store!" fuckshit said in shock as he looked at the light blue water. "shhh," rosy said making him quiet down, only then did the teens realize they were in someone's backyard. "what the fuck." ray said as he looked at the huge house.
all the boys watched as rosy began taking her clothes off, only leaving herself in her bra and underwear. "well are you just gonna stare or are you gonna get in? we don't have all day." the girl said, interrupting the boys gawking. all the boys looked at each other with red cheeks before they quickly threw their clothes off, leaving them in just their boxers as they one by one slipped into the pool.
fourthgrade filmed from the side of the pool as rosy swam under the water before coming back to the surface with a small smile on her face. her long hair clung to her body as she swam towards the boy. fourthgrade turned off his camera and left it on the side of the pool before rosy entangled her hand in his and pulled him in. he shivered but smiled, happy to be with the girl. the rest of the boys shoved each other and dragged each other under the water as laughs left their lips.
fourthgrade placed his hand on the girl's lower back making a smirk spread across her lips. she could see the nervousness in his eyes as she grabbed his arm and swam deeper towards the middle of the pool where all the boys played at. everyone splashed each other with water as laughs escaped from their mouths. ruben got out of the pool before quickly running in and jumping ontop of fuckshit making him sink under with the boy. fuckshit responded by grabbing ruben and dragging him under the pool making everyone break into laughter.
the sky was now pitch black as they swam around without a care in the world. suddenly a light clicked on in the large house making everyone freeze and look at one another. rosy placed a finger to her lips, signaling for the boys to be quiet before she quietly swam towards the stairs of the pool and slipped out. one by one each of the boys did the same as her.
everyone quickly threw there clothes on before the sliding door of the house was thrown open, "hey what the fuck are you doing?" a teen boy yelled at the group before he froze. "adriana?" he yelled making the girl just smirk before she grabbed her board and toke off towards the fence with all the boys following after her.
"wait! adriana, is that you?" he yelled to the girl who just kept running. once all the boys successfully jumped over the fence with all their belongings and were far away enough from the house ray spoke, "who was that?" he asked with a laugh. "some guy i used to fuck with." the girl honestly replied as she shrugged.
fourthgrade gulped as he looked down at the floor, insecurity flooded through him but vanished when he felt a hand grab his wrist. he looked up and watched as adriana laughed at ruben who's clothes were inside out as she held onto the boy's wrist. he placed his hand on top of hers and briefly filmed it, wanting to remember this exchange forever.
only when the teens got on their boards and skated back towards the shop did the two's hands separate. when the shop came into view everyone got off their boards as fuckshit pulled his car keys from his pocket. he unlocked the car before everyone climbed in, ray went in the front as rosy sat in the middle with ruben and fourthgrade to her left and right. the time was 10:33 when fuckshit pulled up to ruben's apartment complex, the girl gave the boy a hug before he hesitatingly said bye and climbed out of the car before walking upstairs towards his apartment.
after ten minutes they then pulled up to fourthgrade's broken down apartment making the girl hug him too before he climbed out with his cam corder and skateboard. everyone said bye to the boy before the car speed off towards ray's apartment. ray threw the keys to the shop at rosy with a smile before he said bye to the two and climbed out which allowed rosy to slip into the front seat of the car.
fuckshit and rosy looked at each other with a smile before fuckshit spoke, "i'm not tryna go home." which made rosy smile. "i'm not tryna go to the shop alone yet." she said making the boy smirk. he reached over towards the backseat of the car and pulled too large bottle of beer out from under the seat which made the girl smirk. the two opened their beers and toke a long sip before fuckshit sped off towards the shop. he pulled up at the back of the shop and climbed out with rosy. rosy unlocked the shop door before the two walked in with the beer bottles in their hands.
rosy turned on the lights as fuckshit collapsed onto the couch. rosy reached for her backpack before she pulled out two pre rolls. she looked at fuckshit with a large goofy smile before she placed the pre roll in between her lips and lit it. she inhaled for awhile before she passed it towards her friend.
while she waited for the joint she drank more of her beer. fuckshit passed the joint back to her before he turned on the tv and watched as the skate video from earlier continued to play. the two watched the video as they slowly got more high and drunk.
"so do you l-like fourthgrade?" the boy asked as he slurred his words making the girl just smile. she toke a sip from her beer before speaking, "i-maybe. w-why?" she asked making the boy just smirk. "that b-boy is so fucking in love with you rosy." he said making the girl just laugh. "even if he is it doesn't matter. i can't be with him fuckshit." the girl admitted making the boy look at her with raised eyebrows.
"why?" he asked as he drank more of his beer which encouraged rosy to do the same. "h-he deserves someone else. someone better. he's got shit of his own going on and the last thing he needs is me adding more shit to his plate." rosy truthfully admitted as she finished the joint off. fuckshit pried his eyes from the screen to rosy, "isn't that why y'all should be together. like you're both pretty fucked up so y'all can like balance each other out and understand each other and shit." fuckshit said making the girl just shrug.
"if you don't get with him pretty soon some other bitch is and you're gonna regret it. watch." he said making the girl just down. the two both looked up at each other and smiled, knowing their was truth behind his words but no one wanted to admit it.
"wanna smoke the last pre roll?" rosy asked making fuckshit just eagerly nod his head as she pulled the last joint from her bag. she lit it and inhaled it before passing it to fuckshit who did the same thing. "you k-know you're pretty cool rosy. r-ray won't get fucked up with me anymore, he's too good for that now." fuckshit said, clearly upset that his friend no longer wanted to throw his life away like the two teens. "i know what you mean." was all rosy said as she thought of the boy who used to love going out with her but now he didn't even bother to be in her life, her brother.
the two accepted the silence that followed after as they continued to smoke and drink until they were so fucked up that they passed out on the couches as the skating video played in the background, showing a reality that the two would do anything to live in.
—
-roseissues