"Uh…hi!" he greeted randomly.
"Oh my God! Are you alright?" asked Sam as she helped the boy to his feet.
"Yeh, I'll live." He said kindly while brushing himself off.
"Your knee's bleeding!" gasped Sam as she pointed at his trousers.
The boy looked down at his knee and noticed the blood.
"Oh yeh! And I ripped my jeans…aw well!" he shrugged as he pulled at the tear in his trousers.
He sat down beside Sam and carefully rolled up his trouser leg. Sam knelt down in front of him to inspect the damage. It wasn't too bad, but Sam winced at the sight of his skinned leg.
"Don't like blood, huh?" he asked Sam.
"No, it just it looks pretty sore!"
"Nah, I've had worse. This is just a scratch! It'll stop bleeding in a second…"
He held his knee with one hand so the pressure would stop the bleeding and offered his other to Sam.
"I'm Alex O'Hare."
"Sam Manson," she replied while shaking his hand.
"Cool. Nice to meet you Sam."
Sam smiled and looked off to the other skaters who continued their competition. Some of the skaters began to leave and patted Alex on his shoulder and ruffled his hair while saying 'hard luck', 'good skating' or 'nice try' as they left. Alex smirked and waved goodbye to them since they were all friends and he knew they were just kidding before he turned back to Sam.
"Do you come here often?" he asked with genuine interest.
"No…I just found this place today!"
"Do you skate?"
Sam laughed and turned her attention back to him.
"I wouldn't know the first thing about skateboarding!" she admitted.
He smiled at the sound of her laughter.
"It's easy! It's like roller blading except you're on a board and you can jump off whenever you lose your balance."
"Like you did on the slope?!" she asked sarcastically with a grin.
"Quarter pipe!" he corrected, "And that was different, I thought I was gonna land it!"
"Well, what happened?"
"The tail of the board hit the top of the quarter pipe and sent it flying in the other direction! I had no other option but to take the fall."
"Ouch!" she stated sympathetically.
"Huh, it's not as bad as what I did yesterday! You see that half-pipe?"
He motioned towards the wooden structure that looked like a combination of two quarter pipes along the back wall. Sam followed his finger and nodded.
"I was tryin' to pull off a trick on it, but I went too far off to the right and I landed flat on the ground!"
"Oh my God…" breathed Sam.
"Yeh, you should see my shoulder…"
He moved the neck of his T-shirt carefully to reveal a large, black and blue bruise that covered his left shoulder. It looked extremely painful, and Sam let out a small hissing sound at the sight of it. He smirked in satisfaction at her expression.
"Cool, huh?"
"Hardly!" she exclaimed, "You could do yourself a serious injury if you keep it up! You could break your neck!"
He chuckled in amusement.
"I don't think so! I'm not that bad am I?! Besides, the more scars you have here, the more respect you get!"
"Why?" asked Sam in confusion.
"Because it means your actually tryin' to skate- that you've tried daring things, you don't mind messin' up and have learnt from your mistakes!"
Sam stared intently at him and smiled- it made sense.
"So you've made a lot of mistakes!" she joked.
"Yeh and I still haven't learnt anything!"
They both laughed and watched the others skate around the park. Suddenly Alex had an idea.
"Hey, do wanna learn to skate?"
This caused Sam to laugh, but on seeing his serious expression, she stopped.
"Are you serious?"
He nodded his head.
"I don't know, after what you've told me, I think I've been put off for life!"
"Yeh right, I bet your dying to try it out! Besides, I wont let anything bad happen to you…"
Sam watched him carefully.
"…I promise."
'He seems sincere…why not!' she thought to herself.
"Ok, sure. Teach me everything you know!"
He smiled at her enthusiasm.
"Well, that won't take long!" he joked.
Sam smiled and glanced at her watch.
"…Oh, but maybe tomorrow. It's getting late and my parents will be getting home soon…they don't like me being late!"
"Oh, ok. Where do you live?" he inquired while standing up and offering Sam his hand.
"Just a couple of blocks away…I think!" she wondered while accepting his hand and being pulled to her feet.
"You think?!" Alex laughed.
"Well I don't exactly know where here is!" she said sarcastically while motioning to her surroundings.
Sam had wandered pretty far in her attempt to find something fun to do; she could be anywhere!
"Ha, right! Well, do you know the park?"
"Yeh?"
"Well, we're two blocks away from the park!"
"Oh ok, thanks…uh…which direction?!"
Alex chuckled slightly and, grabbing his skateboard, led her out of the ally. They reached the street and he pointed down the road to the left.
"Follow that path and you should reach the park. Do you know where to go from there?"
"Yeh, I think I'll be ok!" she laughed while blushing slightly.
"Hmmm…I think I'll walk you home though…"
Sam gave him a questioning look.
"Just to be sure you get there safely! You don't mind, do you?"
"Well, no…I just thought you would have wanted to skate a while longer…"
"Nah, it's ok. I should really be getting home too before my dad kills me!"
Sam smiled as they set off down the road towards the park.
"Sooo, where do you live?" asked Sam as an awkward silence began to form.
"I live in an apartment near that 'Fenton Works' place with my dad…"
"What about your mum?"
"Uh…she died a couple of years ago…" he said quietly.
"Oh, I'm sorry," she said softly, regretting bringing it up.
"It's ok…after she died, me and my dad moved here so he could get a new job…he works at 'Bucky's Music Megastore' so I get discount on all the CD's!"
"Oh cool, what sort of music are you in to?"
"Well, I like a mixture of bands; I like country western and heavy metal the best. I actually discovered a new band earlier today called Nightwish. The song Nemo is extremely addictive, do you wanna hear?"
"Yeh, sure."
He smiled and pulled out a battered black iPod from his trouser pocket. Somehow, it managed to work even after Alex's fall. He handed her an earpiece and pressed at the buttons with his thumb until he found the right track. He walked closer beside Sam so that neither of their earpieces would fall out mid song. It was a very good, but it had quite sad lyrics. Some particular lyrics had an impact on Sam;
'Oh how I wish
For soothing rain
All I wish is to dream again
My loving heart
Lost in the dark
For hope I'd give my everything…'
'My loving heart lost in the dark…wow…I wonder what she was thinking about when she was writing that song…it's so sad…' Sam thought to herself, 'For hope I'd give my everything…I'd give anything for hope as well…'
Sam was always one to try and find the hidden meanings in songs and tried to read between the lines a little.
'Perhaps it's a little obvious that she may be singing about a lost love…maybe she's confused about something and is losing her faith…maybe I'm reading too much into this! It is only a song! But then again, a song without a reason is just an empty tune…'
While Sam continued to find reason in the lyrics, Alex was just happy to have someone share the same taste in music as him, and to have someone to walk with. So, he settled with nodding his head slightly to the music.
'…Nemo, my name for evermore'
As the lasts words were sang the music slowed until it stopped. Alex smiled and looked down at Sam for her opinion of the song as he put his iPod away.
"Wow, that was brilliant! But, what does Nemo mean?" asked Sam.
"Nemo's Latin for nobody."
"Nobody…my name for evermore…"
"Yeh…kinda puts it in perspective for you, doesn't it?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, aren't we all nobodies in this world of ours? It can be a very lonely experience for some people unless you have someone to share it with- whether its your family, your friends or the love of your life."
Sam smiled as she remembered the good times she's shared with her friends- movies, ghost fighting, even study nights! They've always managed to cheer her up when she was down, but then again, Tucker caused more trouble than he solved! She was starting to realize that, despite Alex's appearance, he was a really sensitive guy when it came to this sort of stuff- but obviously not towards injuries!
"You really appreciate everyone in your life, don't you?" Sam asked quietly.
"Yeh…more than they'll know…"
As they approached the park, they turned in the direction of Sam's house. She felt that she could trust him enough to like her for who she is, and not for how much money she had. Besides, he seemed friendly towards her even before he saw her house. As it came into view, Alex mouth fell open.
"Wow, you live here?!" he asked in astonishment.
"Yeh, but it's not all that great."
"Are you kidding?! I'd kill for a place like this."
Sam gave him a look.
"Not literally!" he laughed.
"Thank god!" she said sarcastically.
"Although…!"
He raised an eyebrow and placed his hand on her right shoulder fairly close to her neck. Sam gave him a startled look and stepped away from him slightly.
"Relax! I'm just messin' with ya!" he laughed.
"Don't do that! For all I know you could have been- I barely know you!" she shouted in fake anger and hit him playfully in the arm.
"And yet, you allowed me to walk you home!" he said with a smirk.
Sam opened her mouth for a comeback, but closed it when she couldn't think of one. She had put a lot of trust in him, but then…he did seem like a nice guy, and he was being very honest with her. Seeing her blank expression as she contemplated how open she had been with him, he smiled and spoke reassuringly.
"Don't worry, you can trust me. Besides, we need to know a bit about each other if I'm gonna teach you to skate!"
"Good point!"
"Right so are you gonna give me your number?"
"Huh?"
"So I can call you and arrange a time and place to skate at!"
"Oh, right!" Sam blushed slightly at her stupidity and took out her cell phone.
She was about to call out her number to him when she stopped. Aaron looked at her in confusion.
"What's up?"
"I still don't know if I can trust you…" she said quietly with an eyebrow raised.
Alex simply smiled in understanding.
"I tell you what," he started as he held out his skateboard, "This is my only board."
"…Poor you!" she stated sarcastically after staring at it for a few moments.
He started laughing at her statement.
"I'm gonna trust you to mind my board until our first lesson tomorrow, ok. So you can trust me with your number."
Sam smiled and took his skateboard as she gave him her cell phone number. After the exchange was made, they stared at each other for a minute.
"Right!" he smiled.
"Right…"
"I guess I'll see you tomorrow."
"Yeh."
"Have a good night!"
"Same to you. C-ya."
"C-ya! And look after that board!"
"Will do!"
Alex walked off down the street as Sam disappeared into her house.
'Well, that was interesting!' she mused to herself.
(Decided to go with Alex cause it seemed more popular and some people haven't really heard of the name Aaron! Hope everyone has a great holloween- whether you're scaring little kids or just relaxing with a box of sweets while watching a horror film, hope you enjoy yourself! R&R please!)