September 11th
Dear Future Me,
I really miss Nikki. I mean, I miss having someone by my side more than anything. She was always there for me, but as you know, that gradually stopped happening.
I don't want to seem selfish, but can you blame a girl for wanting her best friend? Maybe it's my fault that I didn't give other people a chance because now I feel more alone than ever. Yeah, there's Levi who only annoys me just because, but it's not the same. Nikki and Levi are nowhere near the same.
Maybe I could make things right, but I doubt that Nikki would want to talk to me right now, let alone ever. I'm just gonna have to make do until there's some sort of miracle. I could try to ease up around Levi, but do I really want to? Not really. He can be kind of nice I guess.
I can't believe I even just said that. Side note: feel free to slap yourself now.
Sincerely,
Past Me.
•••
By the end of the week, Skye could not wait for it to be the weekend, literally. She couldn't wait for a second longer. She wanted to explode at this point. It was kind of sad, really. Obviously, everybody yearns for the weekend, but this was different. It was impossible to have a positive attitude, but she had to try her best anyway.
When Skye's dad got home from work on Skye's first day of school, it was safe to say he was not pleased to hear what happened that morning. He didn't get mad at his daughter though, but unfortunately, he had to tell her that she would have to wait until Christmas for a new bike if she were to want a new one. The Simmons weren't made of money, especially since Skye only had one parent around, but they got by. Spending however-so-many dollars on a bike just wasn't in the cards right now.
Due to her father's work schedule and not being to get a new bike right away, Skye had no choice but to walk to and from school. Now, because of this, she had to wake up earlier than usual so she could walk to school and have plenty of time to spare. Skye hated running late, and she especially hated being in such a rush. She liked taking her time, and if she had to make a sacrifice to her sleep schedule then so be it.
The school day had its bumps in the road as Skye yawned her way through every class. If it weren't for the super chattery Levi, she would've straight up passed out with her face pressed against the desk. She managed to have some relaxation time as she finished her work early in her other classes, but it didn't make up for her tiredness. Thankfully at lunchtime, she could indulge and maybe get some energy, even if it was from the questionable school food.
Levi watched Skye munch down on her food like a wild animal, not even taking her time to chew or even spark up a conversation with him. It's not like she had the desire to willingly talk to him anyway, but Levi did.
"Hey, uh, so I saw you walking home yesterday." He said in an attempt to start a conversation. Levi wasn't chowing down like Skye, mostly because he didn't want to, ya know, risk choking and dying before the football season properly started.
His words definitely got her attention as Skye turned to Levi and gave him a look, raising an eyebrow as she finished chewing her food. "Oh, so you're Mr. Stalker now?"
"It wasn't on purpose." He shrugged, going to take a sip of his drink.
"Right..." she said, slowly taking a bite of her food.
Levi kind of felt bad about her having to walk, and because he wanted an excuse to be around her more and possibly actually get to know her, he did this. "I mean, I could offer you rides to and from school-"
"You don't have to." Skye interrupted with food still in her mouth. "I'm just waiting until I can get a new bike."
"What happened to your bike?"
"Oh, on my way to the first day of school I almost got ran over by a car and I jumped out of the way but my bike didn't survive." She said in a nonchalant way. At this point, she just accepted what happened. Life goes on, which a phrase she taught herself when she was younger.
What Skye said to Levi clicked in his head, and not in a good way. Oh my god. He was the one who ran over her bike! It wasn't on purpose, obviously. Actually, it was his best friend Xavier's fault, but that wasn't the point. Now Levi wanted to forget everything he said about one-upping Skye because of the phone number prank. Now he felt insanely bad that Skye was walking to and from school because of him.
Skye found Levi's silence to be a bit odd, but the way he was looking at her was even odder. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
Now, how could he tell her this? He could beat around to bush about it or just be straight up, but both of those options were still bad. He couldn't just go back and time and make sure that never happened, but there wasn't any time machine for him to do this. Levi would just have to face the consequences. "Uhm, I may have been the one who ran over your bike-"
"You're the one that almost ran me over?" Skye fumed. Yeah, she was mad, which Levi predicted. "I can't believe you-"
"Shh!" He shushed her, looking around and seeing the number of eyes on them. "People are staring at us."
"They've been staring every day this week, shut up." She sassed him.
"It was an accident!" Levi exclaimed.
"Oh, really?" Skye crosses her arms. "How so? I'd love to know."
"Um, well-"
Now, the story of how this happened was a short yet chaotic one. Levi was driving with his friends like he usually did, but on that particular morning, his best friend Xavier refused to stay in his seat, attempting to climb over to the back where their friends Danny and Hunter were sitting at for whatever reason. Levi took his eyes off the road for merely a second, and well, that single second lead to that.
Skye listened to the story in full, arms still crossed, and hearing his side of the story lead her to the only possible conclusion. "Well, now you really owe me a ride."
"Can't you take the bus or something?" He asked.
"Ah, ah, ah." She smirked. "You owe me."
Yeah, he couldn't really say no to this. She definitely would nag him until the end of time about it as he was the one driving that day. "Fine, but there's just one problem."
"What?"
"I have practice four days a week," Levi said. Being captain and quarterback, he was considered the "star" of the show. There was no slacking off around here, and he notoriously never skipped a single practice. His dedication is what made him captain, but Skye didn't know any of that.
"Gross, why?" Skye asked in disgust.
"Well, Friday's we have games-"
"Oh my god." She groaned. This sounded like a nightmare already and she didn't even have to be taken home yet.
"You can go to them?" He shrugged.
"As if."
"Your loss."
Look, Levi knew Skye told him that there was no way he could ever convince her, but he liked the challenge. Well, it's not like she was considered a challenge, no way, José. He just thought if they were going to be stuck together the entire school year she might as well do things (like going to his games) as a way to potentially increase their friendship. Was it a friendship? Levi would like to think of it that way, but right now Skye did not.
"Do you have a game today?" Skye questioned.
"Nope." Levi shook his head. "First game is in two weeks, which gives me plenty of time to convince you to go."
"Ugh."
"Still want a ride?" He asked. "I can give you a ride home today, no sweat."
"Unfortunately, yes." She sighed.
"Alrighty then. Fair warning though, my friends will most definitely be there today and every day after that." Levi said. Translation: "the dude that took part in me running over your bike will be there."
"Your poor friends." Skye rolled her eyes.
"Why poor them?"
"Cause they willingly deal with you." She scoffed.
"Ouch!" He said, placing a hand over his chest as a way to pretend to be hurt by her words. "You'll love the guys, trust me."
"Well, lately I'd prefer to be surrounded by more girls," Skye mumbled, thankfully not heard by Levi. She had to find some girlfriends or she was going to lose it, literally.
•••
At the end of the day, Skye followed Levi to his car in the school parking lot, meeting up with three other boys, who thankfully she recognized two of them. Levi did his handshakes with each of them while Skye awkwardly stood behind him, then went to introduce her to his friends.
"Skye, this is the guys." He said. "Guys, this is Skye."
"Hello." She awkwardly waved. You see, Skye was just starting to adjust to Levi's presence, now she had to get used to three more boys in her daily life. It was safe to say that teenage boys were hard to be around, so this was definitely going to be a challenge considering Levi has a very, well, colorful personality.
"This is Xavier." Levi pointed. Skye shook hands with the short (to be honest, she kind of had to look down a little), dark-skinned teen, who immediately went to apologize about the infamous bike incident as he was the reason it happened.
"I apologize for the bike," Xavier said as they shook hands, which confused Skye a little bit, but she went to appreciate it anyway.
"Thank you?"
Skye was then introduced to the golden beige skinned, narrow-eyed Danny. She had recognized him from her homeroom, and she actually sat next to him on the first day! She was definitely happy to see him as he had been nice to her this past week. "Danny."
"Oh, hey! You're in my homeroom!" She exclaimed.
"Yeah, I can't stand the people there to be honest." Danny chuckled, which made Skye laugh a little because she too couldn't stand the people in their homeroom.
"Same."
"And last but not least, Hunter." Now, out of the three, Skye knew Hunter the most. With his golden blonde hair and tanned skin, he kind of just looked like a wannabe surfer. She was a little iffy about Hunter, but like Levi, she was giving him a bit of a chance.
"He's in my Spanish class, actually," Skye said. "I sit behind him."
"Thanks for the help to the bellringer, by the way." Hunter mentioned, referring to the past week where he would turn around and ask her "what the hell are we supposed to be doing?", which to be honest made her laugh a little, but she helped him out anyway. Let's just say Hunter didn't make his way through all those years of Spanish by actually learning all of the material.
"Uh, no problem."
"Alright, everybody in the car!" Levi ordered, pointing over to his small, silver Toyota that used to be his dad's car before it was passed down to him on his sixteenth birthday.
"I call shotgun!" Xavier yelled out (which he always did) and pushed everyone out of the way to get into the front seat.
"I'll just, uh, sit in the middle." Skye offered, considering she was the smallest compared to Danny and Hunter.
Danny got into the back first, then came Skye. As she was climbing into the car with her heavy backpack, Hunter stared right at her ass, which drove Levi to give him a look. There was no way he was letting Hunter try anything with Skye considering his questionable dating history. Plus, he didn't want to risk a good friendship just because he's friends with an idiot.
Squeezed into the back seat, Skye's shoulders tensed as she sat in between Danny and Hunter. Levi looked into the rearview mirror, seeing Skye's head pop up, and boy could he see the look of "get me the hell out of here" on her face. Because of this, he decided to drop off everyone else first, then take Skye home last so at least part of her ride home wasn't all cramped up between two manspreading dudes the whole time.
"Man, this feels like the good old days when we'd pick Megan up on Friday's." Xavier sighed.
"Who's Megan?" Skye asked in confusion.
"Um, my ex-girlfriend," Levi replied hesitantly. Despite Levi being quite the chatterbox, Skye had yet to hear about this Megan.
"Yeah, she goes to this fancy school in the next town over with my girlfriend Nini." Danny chimed in.
"Oh, cool, I guess."
The car fell silent until they pulled up to Danny's house, who kindly wished everyone goodbye before heading inside. This allowed Skye to scoot over to where Danny sat, which she gladly took.
"Awe, don't wanna sit next to me?" Hunter pouted jokingly and semi-flirtatiously (although the latter majorly failed).
"Basically, yeah." She deadpanned, causing an eruption of laughter from Levi and Xavier who were basically cracking up in the front until their stomach's hurt.
"I like her." Xavier cackled, making Hunter grow embarrassed.
"Shut up!" He whined.
"Whatever, you're our next stop, golden boy." Levi snickered.
Arms crossed on the entire way home, Hunter was eventually dropped off, thus leaving to just Skye, Xavier, and Levi who were still reeling off of Skye's little "savage" moment as Xavier called it. It was pretty funny, but she didn't even think anything of it at first.
Not long after Hunter left, Xavier was dropped off, and then it was just Levi and Skye. The rest of the rest was fairly quiet as Skye didn't really know what to say. To be honest, she wanted to bring up Megan, asking who she was and what happened to their relationship, but she couldn't be nosy about it. If he wanted to talk about it he would, but it was apparent the relationship left a mark on Levi.
"Best for last," Levi said as they pulled up in front of Skye's house. He turned around to face her, leaning his elbow on the center console for some leverage.
"Thank you," Skye paused. "ya know, for the ride."
"I mean, I do owe you." He shrugged.
"Should I give you gas money? Or-"
"No, no." Levi interrupted. "Don't worry about it."
"Okay." She said. "Thanks again."
Skye unbuckled her seatbelt, picked up her backpack, and opened the car door, quickly hopping out of the car and waving goodbye to Levi. "See you Monday morning."
"See you." He replied, then watched Skye shut the car door and head inside. Levi drove off in his car, finally being able to head home, but it was worth waiting if it meant Skye would have a ride home.
"Know your place, Levi, know your place."
•••
MARIA TALKS!
hello hello hello
this is going to be an EXTREMELY long authors note but i strongly advise you read it, thank you!
i read a lot into describing characters, specifically characters of color, without being offensive or just straight up vague (news flash if my fellow writers weren't aware, just saying a character is asian is not a description and you shouldn't use words like chocolate and cocoa to describe black or brown skin). i know my writing isn't perfect but putting in the effort to do the best i can for characters of color is what other writers should be doing! it's 2020, seeing all-white casts is and has very much been lame and wack as fuck! just put in the effort.
i'm very willing to hear criticisms with my descriptions of characters like skye, xavier, danny, and eventually nini once she's introduced (as they are all people of color) because i want this book to be the best it can be! diversity should very much be normalized in books (obviously) because guess what you're not gonna walk into a store and just see white people 😐 it's super unrealistic to not have diversity and it doesn't take much to educate yourself.
it is a process to educate yourself on these kind of topics, i can't lie. you're not going to be perfect overnight, but putting in the effort is a step in the right direction!! sorry to go off on y'all but it had to be said and i must use my white privilege to spread what should be common sense 😗
also i noticed that each chapter is getting longer and longer but is that necessarily a bad thing?? actually i don't care if you don't like the length of my chapters kindly exit imma keep doing my thing regardless
oh and if you're a ghost reader the door is right here; 🚪
btw if would be DEEPLY appreciated if you supported one of my best friends in the entire world spiderskoo today in her new peter parker fanfic among us that's based off the game when it's posted. she's been working on it for two months now and although it may be biased of me to say this, it's going to be absolutely amazing based off of what i've been shown. we got a real winner on our hands, trust me.
peace out and go support mari!