"So Kali what's up with this?" Brad said as he walked over to Kalani. Brad's dyed black hair was messed up from skating, he had three lip piercings and three eyebrow barbells, and he wasn't wearing a shirt so his assortment of tattoos was showing. A ring of fire around his wrist, a skeleton around his nipple, a woman up his arm, and more. He held out Kalani's shirt so it showed his small frame.
"What?" Kalani asked back pulling the shirt away.
"Looks like you lost some weight?" Brad said, a tall skinny guy walked up behind them carrying a skateboard.
"You look like your ten pounds," He said
"Shut up josh," Kalani said back "Its nothing I've just been busy lately,"
"So busy you can't eat, man you need to take a break," Josh said, Brad just stared at him, he could tell that Kalani was lying about something that there was something wrong he wasn't telling him.
"Hey Josh can you go talk to Danny," Brad then said wanting to talk to Kalani alone.
"Yah sure man," Josh said then turned around and walked over to the half pipe.
"What's going on Kali?" Brad asked as soon as Josh left, He got closer to Kalani and Kalani put his head down.
"Nothing man, can't we just skate I'm leaving in a day," Kalani said as he put down his skateboard ready to go.
"No man, there's something wrong," Brad insisted.
"There's nothing fucking wrong, I've just been losing a little weight, lately cause I've been busy on the tour," Kalani said looking in Brad's eyes. Brad grabbed his arms; Kalani twisted away in pain.
"When haven't you been able to tell me what's wrong?"
"There's nothing wrong, I'm fine," Kalani said.
It was early in the morning as Kalani slowly got out of bed before anyone else was up. It had been a few weeks since he had gotten to Horizon. He was starting to get used to the feel of things and he knew most the people. The Withdrawal was still there, he would disappear for a cigarette from time to time but it too was starting to end. He was getting closer with Shelby than he'd ever gotten with any other girl, the rest. Today was going to be different though, he'd been waiting all week for the day, and he'd stayed awake most the night.
"Man your up early," Auggie said as he walked into the bathroom, rubbing his eyes,"
"Yah, couldn't sleep," Kalani said as he brushed his teeth. He finished as Auggie took his shower, then went back in to the cabin and took out a picture from his bag. It was from a surf competition in California, all his friends from Oregon had gone down and visited, he was standing with Three of them smiling and holding up his first place trophy, still wet.
"Come on lets go," Auggie said as he finished getting dressed, Kalani had fallen asleep looking at the picture.
"Didn't get any sleep last night," Scott asked as they walked down to the mess hall.
"Yah I was up all night thinking," Kalani said. A stranger started walking down from the parking lot; he had on long shorts and a beanie. Kalani looked up and squinted to see the person.
"Brad!" He yelled. The person turned Kalani's direction.
"Hey Kali!" He yelled back. Kalani broke away from the group going to breakfast and ran up to Brad giving him a big hug.
"I thought you were coming this afternoon," Kalani said after they hugged, Brad was looking at Kalani.
"I couldn't wait, man your looking good," He said as he looked up. Kalani could see where Brad had just taken out his piercings, except two eyebrow rings.
"You're looking kinda naked with out your piercing," Kalani said with a big smile. Brad was still just looking at Kalani.
"Oh yah, I thought I should take them out," He said.
"Well come on you can come to breakfast with me," Kalani said, pulling on his arm.
"Sure, but wait I brought you some thing," Brad said, he put down his bag and started and revealed a skateboard that e had strapped to it.
"This came right after you left, I'd thought you'd be able to find a place to use it up here," Brad said with a smile. Kalani looked it over; Brad had already put it all together for him.
"Man I didn't get independent trucks for it," Kalani said looking up at Brad, Kalani had gotten the cheaper trucks.
"Well I thought it would be a gift," Brad said.
"So Kalani would you like to introduce us to your friend?" Peter asked as the group sat around in a circle. Most the kids had meet Brad, or heard about him through gossip at lunch,
"This is Brad, um… he's my brother," Kalani said then looked over at Brad and laughed. "Well not my real brother," He then added.
"So you came up to visit Kalani," Peter asked Brad as they sat in private, in Peter's office.
"Yah, I wanted to see how he was doing," Brad said
"He's come a long way, since he's got here," Peter said
"I noticed, I haven't seen him smile like that since Moani died," Brad said.
"How do you know Kalani?' Peter then asked not really sure on how the two knew each other.
"I was best friends with Moani, after he died, I started going over there and comforting Kali and taking him out with me, and he just became a little brother to me,"
"Did you know he was doing cocaine?" Peter then asked
"I guessed he was, when he got back from Hawaii one summer, he had gotten really small and frail, at first I just ignored it but, there was something wrong," Brad said looking down feeling a little guilty about not doing anything.
"So you having a good time over at that place?" Brad asked as he drove Kalani up to the local resterant, both were smoking.
"Its ok," Kalani said back looking out the window "How's holly, man I miss her," Kalani said.
"Well she had a boyfriend for a while," Brad said as Kalani looked over at him in surprise "But then he cheated on her so, she says its never going to happen again," He then laughed Kalani laughed too.
"How are the Josh and Scotts?" Kalani then asked, there were two Joshes and two Scotts.
"Scott A has gone to Utah and no ones heard from him, Scott B still lives with Chastity, although he says he's going to move everyday," Brad said. Then thought for a minute what the Joshes were up to " both Josh's are still in town, they're at the skatepark a lot, Josh is going back out with Ashley though so he always has Parker around with him," Brad said.
"Man I bet that kid has grown a lot," Kalani said thinking about how small Parker was when he had left.
"Oh yah, he's now running all over the skatepark and Josh got him a little skateboard," Brad said. They both laughed.
"I miss everyone over there, even those stupid rollerbladers," Kalani said shaking his head.
"Yah but your getting better man," Brad quietly said. The both went quiet.