Finley Reid

Finn's P.O.V

There’s a lot of skate parks around and inside DC, and they’re nicer than the one I go to, but that makes them boring in my eyes.

The skatepark I frequent is two miles away from the edge of the city in the middle of the woods. Large concrete ramps, metal railings, and carved out tunnels map out the area, and every single inch of them is covered in graffiti that seems to change every day.

I’ve always been fascinated with graffiti, and have even done it a few times in the park myself. Something about the art work style somehow interests me and keeps the boredom from setting in, which is very hard to do. I honestly think it’s a combination of powerful colors and odd shapes that twist and shift almost on their own.

The few people that know about this park just call it ‘The Wood’. The name is a code so there aren’t hundreds of people coming here to ‘clean up the place’ and destroy it in the process. It’s also where I play basketball with the others. Earlier I said I play with teenage boys, which is true, but occasionally there’s a couple girls who tag along with them and we get along well.

The Wood always smells like a combination of cigarettes, pine trees, and gasoline. It makes you feel like you’re the last person on Earth and you spend your time acting like gravity doesn’t exist as you do almost lethal tricks amongst the concrete jungle.

I wasn’t expecting anyone to be at the park today with the rain currently pouring down around me as I rocket up the side of the halfpipe, so I nearly faceplant when I hear someone call my name.

“Um, Finn?” an unfamiliar female voice sounds hesitant through the rain as it reaches my ears.

I hop off my board, and go to pick it up before the wind howls around me and knocks me on my ass in a giant puddle. Coughs rack through my body as I accidentally inhale some of the mud water, and I gag a bit as I go to scrub it off my cheeks with the palms of my hands.

“Oh shit! Sorry girl,” the voice shouts again, and I hear rubber sliding against concrete. I glance up, see the person in front of me, and curse under my breath as I feel my face go bright red.

Yet despite myself, I let my brain do it’s thing with the usual analysis.

The girl in front of me is African American. She has bronze skin, black eyes, and two eyebrow slits in her left eyebrow. Her curly hair is black at the top with a dark purple color in the middle and bottom, and it’s all pulled back into a messy bun on top of her head. A leather jacket lays over her shoulders on top of a black crop top, and it’s one of the coolest jackets I’ve ever seen. The inside is pastel pink, the sleeves are yellow on top and blue on the bottom, the right side is red, and the left side is green. She’s also wearing black ripped jeans that go up over her hips with a wide black belt at the top with a white buckle that’s the same color as her doc martens.

I get a closer look as she pulls me up, and realize she’s related to Darren thanks to the similar skin color and bone structure. She has to be about 17, 5’9 (an inch taller than me), and about 160 pounds. She’s built differently than me, definitely curvier, and looks to be as much if not more muscular.

I snap out of my thoughts to realize she’s been looking me up and down, inspecting the bruise on my right cheek and my bandages hands, along with my clothes and haircut, and I feel my face heat up more. She seems to notice this, and smirks.

“Why don’t we go stand over there?” she shouts over the howling wind, and gestures to an area under the abandoned bridge on the edge of the park. My eyes are blurry from the rain pelting my face, but I manage a nod and feel my heart jolt as she grabs my hand to lead me over.

Once we make it under the ledge, we’re both breathing heavily thanks to the fight against the wind we managed to win. I slump against the wall and slide down it to sit at the bottom, and after a minute the girl next to me does the same. She lets go of my hand in favor of holding hers out to me. “My name’s Alexus, but you can call me Lex.”

“Finn.” I shake her hand, tilting my head back against the wall to breath deeper. “But I guess Darren already told you that.”

“He told you about me?” Her brows furrow.

I shake my head with a smirk. “Nope.”

“Oh yeah, he told me you were some sort of genius,” she says with a grin, turning slightly so her body faces me as I take my head off the wall.

I shrug, trying to be humble about it, but she must see the smugness in my eyes because she lets out a laugh.

“Alright then, how many siblings do I have?” She tilts her head up in a clear challenge, eyes sparkling with amusement.

My eyes connect with hers, and I scan her. “Five brothers. You’re the youngest.”

I expect her jaw to drop, her eyes to widen, really any shocked reaction. What I’m not expecting is for her to smirk and nod.

“Spot on. You don’t have any siblings and you live with your dad, right?”

I roll my eyes. “Did Darren tell you that?”

“Nope.” She pops the p and winks at my shocked look, laughing as a blush takes over my face. “I’m pretty smart too.”

“I can tell,” I grumble, rubbing at my face and trying to get the blush off my skin, cursing my pale complexion. We both take a second to breathe, staring at the pounding rain.
I’ve never had a ‘crush’ on someone before. After all, love is just a chemical reaction that urges humans to procreate. A very messy chemical reaction at that. Plus I’ve never had room in my brain to have feelings for anyone, it’s too much effort and all so boring.

But something about the girl next to me definitely isn’t boring.

“So what brings you to The Wood?” I ask, reaching into my backpack in order to grab my water bottle, a hand towel, and a new set of gauze.

“I was looking for you.” Her eyes watch as I unwrap my hands and we both hiss at the same time at the dark purple bruising on them. “Holy shit what happened to you?”

“I accidentally burnt my hands washing the dishes.” I manage not to wince as I pour water over my hands and dry them with the towel before wrapping them up with different bandages.

Alexus’s not convinced. “ADHD, huh?”

My head snaps to her. “How…?”

She grins. “I told you I’m pretty smart.”

Despite myself, a laugh escapes me as I finish with my hands. “Yeah, I see that now.” I pause for a second. “So why were you looking for me?”

“Darren talks about you sometimes, and I got curious.” She shrugs and gives me a look. “I think you can understand being bored.”

I sigh and nod. “You can say that again.”

“Plus I was going to ask you to teach me how to skateboard,” she says and we both glance at the rain. “But I guess that won’t be happening.”

I snort, glancing down at my mud covered clothes. “Yeah, probably not.” A gust of wind blows through the area under the bridge, and I shiver in my soaked clothes. Alexus catches this, her black eyes giving my blue ones and knowing look as she gestures to my clothes.

“You must be soaking, why don’t you change?”

“I don’t have a change of clothes.”

She snaps her fingers, and my eyes snap to her face as she goers to rummage through the black backpack next to her. It takes a second or two before she pulls out a pair of fluffy black sweatpants and a small box. She places the pants on top of her bag, and slides a cigarette out of the box before lighting it. Alexus tilts the box towards me, and I go to reach for one before sighing and pulling my hand back. “I have to head home soon and my dad will freak out if he smells cigarettes on me.”

She tilts her head before her eyes snag on the pants and she goes to hand them to me. “I had MMA before this, and I always bring two extra pairs of pants.”

“You do MMA?” I ask, a grin spreading on my face. “Me too!”

She has a matching grin. “No way! With Coach J?”

“Yeah!” I frown at the pants. “But I can’t just take your clothes. Besides, the pants would just get soaked and covered in mud from my jacket.”
She rolls her eyes, and stands up. I tense, worried I offended her somehow, but then I feel my eyebrows furrow and my face flame up once more when she goes to shrug off her jacket.

Thankfully, she stops there, and sits back down next to me now in a crop top. She then places the pants in the jacket and forces the bundle into my hands. The jacket smells like The Wood with some cinnamon sprinkled in.

“You can take my clothes, and you will. There are no apartment buildings or houses anywhere near here, so I know you’ll have to walk all the way home. So for Satan’s sake put on the damn clothes.” Her voice has a ‘argue with me and I will be forcing this jacket over your head’ vibe, and I’m honestly too cold and mud-covered to argue. I give her a grateful look before securing my grip on the bundle and standing up.

Alexus’s eyes stay on me as I go to take off my jacket, and I give her a pointed look. She sighs, holds her hands up in surrender, and covers her eyes with them. “Fine, fine, I won’t look.”

I watch her for a second, making sure she’s keeping her promise, before I shift on my feet. My eyes flick around the skatepark to make sure no one else is there. Once I’m sure there’s no one, I slide off my mud-soaked jacket, tie, and shirt all in one move, leaving me in my sports bra and pants.

It’s at that point I notice Alexus going to break her promise by teasingly peeking through her fingers and I gently throw my jacket-shirt bundle at her. I apparently threw it a bit harder than I thought because it collides with her face and makes a thwop sounds as she falls backwards.

“Oh crap are you okay?” I throw her jacket on before rushing forwards and starting to give her a hand up.

She looks disgruntled at first before taking in my appearance and winking. “Never better.” I roll my eyes, letting go of her hand so she falls back onto the ground. “Rude!”

“Don’t look this time.” I give her a slight glare nowhere mean as I can be as I zip up the jacket, realizing she’s making no attempt to sit up as she covers her eyes.

“Okay, okay, I promise this time,” she says, and I can tell she means it despite the smile on her face.

After that I quickly change out of my jeans, throw on the pants, and take off my socks as well before putting my boots back on. I use my tie like a bandana to secure my hair back, and leave it there as I tap Alexus on the shoulder.

She sits up, brushes the dirt off her shoulders, and a teasing smile takes over her face as she sees me. “Aw, you look adorable.”

“Oh shut it.” The jacket is pretty big on me, and reaches my mid-thigh. The pants are pretty large as well, but that’s really just because I’m nearly as thin as a piece of paper, and hang almost too low on my hips, making me tie the string impossibly tight.

She opens her mouth, but we both freeze at the sound of my phone buzzing in my bag. I scramble to get it and flip it open right as the person hangs up, and I cuss at the notifications.

“What’s up?” Lex asks, going to look over my shoulder, but thankfully not touching me. It’s not that I don’t want her touching me (I don’t typically like strangers touching me in general), but if she does I may burst into flames.

I tilt the phone screen towards her and we both read it at the same time. ‘14 missed calls from ‘Dad’.’

I check the time. “Fucker, it’s already 6 pm? I have to be home in five minutes!”

I go to scramble to my feet and gather all my shit as Lex furrows her brows and stands up too. “What, you have a curfew at six o’ five?”

“No, my Dad’s friend is coming over at six thirty and I can’t leave them alone.” I take in her confused look. “My dad’s not exactly good at social situations.”

“Well where do you live?”

Another curse. “About ten miles from here.”

She nods, then grabs her backpack and slings it over her shoulder. Her hand is put out to stop me as I go to skate away, and I follow her finger to see a bright red pickup truck a few yards into the rain. “Let me give you a ride.” I go to protest, and she puts her finger to my lips. “I think my house is near yours. Besides, you won’t get there until eight in this weather.” I’m still unsure, and apparently it shows because she crosses her arms. “You can owe me skateboarding lessons tomorrow, deal?”

I glance up at her, over to the car, and give a hesitant grin. “Okay, deal.”

She smiles widely at me and grabs my hand - and there goes my face again - before we sprint through the rain to her truck.

*****