Girl on the skateboard rides down the block past houses with seemingly no one in them.

Girl on the skateboard sees images pass her by. Nothing is distinct.

Girl on the skateboard feels the grit of the pavement beneath her feet.

Girl on the skateboard pushes along.

How fast can I go?

Can I go faster?

I bet I can go faster.

Weaving in and out of cracks and bumps. Lean back and balance. Bend down. Jump up – skateboard comes with.

Boom!

On the ground. Off to the next thing.

You hear the wheels screaming and you know to step aside. Racing down, but it’s easy to her. It’s like…

Ah…

Round the corner and then she’s gone.

…

Saw this girl sitting on the sidewalk once – picking a scab on her knee.

She looked at me and I felt spotted. Like she’d already calculated something about me that I didn’t know. Girl looked back at her knee. Girl didn’t care if I was there. I said, “How’s that knee?”

She just shrugged and made a sound.

“What, you don’t want to talk to me?”

She looked up. Again, the eyes piercing deep within.

“About what?”

She had a point. I hadn’t thought passed giving her shit about being aloof…

“Oh I don’t know… never mind.”

I started to walk away.

“Suit yourself.”

Something stopped me, like it always does. Body knew where to go before the mind ever did.

“You wanna sit down?”

She was squinting into the sun. Hand covered part of her face.

“Yeah, okay.”

Sat there in silence for a while. I noticed a pebble by my shoe. I put my foot over it – rolling it over on the ground. She looked over at me like I was from another planet. Like what is he doing? Like is he going to just sit there?

“Look, I don’t know what to talk about with you.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know. You’re always off…” I traced my finger in the air like a bee trying to find a flower.

“Yeah, so…”

“You get that cuz you fell?”

“It doesn’t hurt.”

I reached out and touched her knee. She just watched me as I did it.

“See, it doesn’t hurt.”

I nodded.

“Yeah, I know.”

…