He Was A Skaterboy | COMPLETE

twenty three

They walked together, side by side. Sometimes their fingers brushed. Sometimes their shoulders bumped. Every time they touched; Kiara pushed herself away putting more space between them. But no matter how out of reach she was, Emre was pulled towards her closing the gap between them.

"I...I heard...," she said weakly, "about your mom. I'm sorry."

Emre shrugged and looked at his feet. Not sure how to feel about the pang of sadness in his chest every time he hears those words. "Thanks," he says simply instead.

"How's...how the bakery?"

"It's going good. My sisters have taken over it," he smiled softly at her. She had shrugged on a light camel coloured trench coat over her brightly printed kurta before leaving the apartment and she wrapped it tighter around her body. "My dad's enjoying his retirement. Well, as much of it as he can anyways," he frowned suddenly.

"How about you? How about your parents?"

"They're fine...still together...still dysfunctional," she chuckled bitterly, tucking her hair behind her ears. She fingered her earing, twisting a few times it before letting her hand drop.

"You removed the wrist brace..."

"Yeah...yeah I did..."

"Is...is something wrong?"

"Oh no...no...its just, my wrists hurts sometimes when I'm doing normal stuff. Something about the angle and stuff, so I wear it because of that..."

"Did you ever learn to play the saxophone?" he blurted suddenly.

"You remember!"

"Well...yeah....so, did you?"

"I tried and suck. But I am still learning. One of my colleagues is teaching me. He gets a good laugh every time I mess up."

"He a good teacher?"

"Yeah, he's alright. He's a better friend though," she smiles wistfully, looking ahead as the rounded the corner from her apartment complex. She could hear the mixed sounds of laughter, music, spirited conversations, children laughing and crying spilling out from the apartments towering around them. It was way past dinner time, and everyone was getting ready for the weekend.

"That's...that's great..." she heard the hesitancy in his voice.

"You published a book," she heard herself say and winced. It felt worse than being strangers, the way they spoke to each other. Tiptoeing around the things they wanted to ask each other. They things they wanted to tell each other.

"Yeah...Yeah I did..."

"I didn't know that was part of your dreams, rockstar. And by the way, didn't I say that you would be a total rockstar?"

"Yeah, you did. You were the only one who did."

"That can't be true. You were always so talented," she brushed off the warmth that flared in her chest at his words.

"But no one believed in me the way you did," was his quiet response and Kiara had to look away, reminding herself silently to breathe.