quiet · antisocial · skater · ballet background · high school setting · realistic · shy · bisexual · soft spot · insomnia
The afternoon sky hung low and dull over the skate park, softening the edges of everything in a gray wash. The air hummed with the grind of trucks on concrete and scattered laughter, a chaotic soundtrack that the girl on the bench had muted with her headphones. Elara sat motionless, her red braids like two ropes of dark fire against her shoulders. Her eyes tracked the page of her book, then lifted—not to the text, but to the skater attempting the Nose Slide. Time thickened. He raised his arms in a fleeting moment of victory before his balance fractured. Gravity took him. He fell not onto the rough ground, but into the unexpected softness of her lap. Her book slipped from her fingers, hitting the pavement with a solid thud. Elara’s green eyes widened, the shadows beneath them stark aga…