Together Forever (9 page)

“Guys, I don’t know. I’m kind of tired,” I sighed looking at
John
for help. He gave me a sympathetic look. “Plus,
John
said he was gonna help me,” I tried.
“You wouldn’t mind
John
, would you?” Audrey batted her eyelashes.
“I uhh,” he looked at me and gave me a sympathetic look. “I guess not,” he sighed.
“Then let’s go!” Audrey chirped and pushed us towards the lifts.
“
John
!” I muttered and pulled him.
“Sorry! I didn’t know what to say!” he apologized.
“I know, it’s okay. Just do me a favor?”
“What?”
“Catch everything on that small camera of yours,” I said.
He raised an eyebrow but nodded anyways.
“C’mon lovebirds!” Audrey teased. I saw Ryan’s eyes snap towards
John
and I. I smiled and pulled him where they were in line.
The lift ride was a wee bit awkward. It was Audrey, Ryan, Me then
John
. Ryan and I sat as far away from each other as possible and
John
was squeezing my hand for comfort. We got to the top and rode away smoothly, but Audrey pulled Ryan down with her.
He looked at me and back down at Audrey when he got up before he offered her a hand. I rolled my eyes and bit the inside of my mouth to keep myself from saying something stupid.
“Let’s go down Kit Carson?!” Mikkel asked.
John
and I nodded in agreement. “What about you guys? You up for it?” he asked Ryan and Audrey. Where’d the others go? Well, they stayed down at the village so I heard.
“Is it hard?” Audrey asked.
“Kind of. Harder than the greens, but you’ll be fine with Jay,” Mikkel winked. She giggled. I rolled my eyes and looked at
John
with a smirk. He smirked back at me and nodded. We had a plan. “
John
, you
wanna take the lead?”
I nodded at him and he gave me a nod back, giving Mikkel a thumbs up. “Everyone strapped in?” he asked
“Uhh, so give me a heads up on this?” Audrey said.
“Come on, you pulled us here. Live a little,”
John
teased, but I could hear a hint of annoyance in it.
“Guys, it’s her 3rd time still,” Ryan sighed. “Give her a break.”
“But yeah dude, she was the one that pulled us through this lift. She can just do falling leaf all the way down,” Mikkel said. Audrey huffed and sat down on the snow, strapping onto her board. I then skated over to where
John
was - at the top of the slope and looked down at it. I smiled at
John
and he just shook his head.
“Guys! Uhm, how do I get out of here?” Audrey practically whined.
“Why’d you strap in where it’s flat?”
John
sighed.
“I’ll go get her,” Ryan muttered and dropped his board next to me, walking over to Audrey and pulling her with him. She had a crazy smile on her face.
We were all side by side as strapped in.
“Can I do that with my binding?” Audrey asked. I looked up at her as I finished cranking the knobs to tighten it.
“Yeah, you can. You can strap into those standing up just fine,” I shrugged.
“Oh, do they sell those here?” she asked.
“I don’t shop here.”
“Oh, okay,” she frowned. “Jay, can you help me with my boot?” she asked.
“What’s up?” he asked
“It’s kind of loose,” she said.
“Tighten your binding,” he muttered to her and she frowned but did so anyways. It had lots of clearance, explaining why it seemed loose.
“Go on ahead,” Mikkel said to
John
and
John
began to ride off. “Go,” he said to us.
“I’ll trail behind you,” I said.
“Go on, Audrey. Follow
John
,” Mikkel said. She nodded and started doing her falling leaf down. “Shall I go?” he asked. I just shrugged.
“What the hell,
Kate
?” Ryan asked.
“What?”
“Why are you being a bitch?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. He hasn’t called me that word since the days when we used to fight. And even did it was as a joke. I glared at him. “Wow, okay. I don’t say anything and I’m a bitch and when I do, I’m still a bitch bitch, great,” I muttered and prepared to ride.
“Don’t you walk away from me,” he grasped onto my arm.
“Don’t you talk to me like that,” I said snatching my arm away.
“What the hell’s wrong with you?”
“What the fuck is wrong with
you
?” I retorted. “What happened to the Ryan that transferred schools for me?” I sighed and rode away. “Follow me,” I shouted without turning back and started going through the trees, onto Ramsey’s and though Greg’s gamble where
John
must’ve taken them. I was going through the trees when I saw somebody stuck in the snow.
“What’s up?” I asked Audrey, when she was trying to get up.
“I can't get up,” she sighed.
“Here,” I said offering her a hand. She took it and got herself on her feet.
“How am I supposed to move?” she whined.
“Falling leaf,” I shrugged.
‘It’s flat,” she said.
“Watch me,” I said and went ahead, inching myself forward and did my turns. Ryan will find her and
maybe they can have their small date in the woods. I groaned out loud, remembering when Ryan and I had our small lunch in the woods in Sierra-At-Tahoe.
“Fuck it!” I shouted out, hearing my echo and started going deeper into the trees, dodging them as fast as I can. Before I knew it, I was at the bottom with
John
and Mikkel, waiting for the two. I didn’t even wanna know what could happen up there.
“What the fuck, man?” Mikkel glared at
John
. “You knew we had a beginner!”
“Oops, sorry,”
John
smirked.
“What’s your problem?” Mikkel asked.
“You don’t know what’s going on, Mikkel,”
John
said.
“Enlighten me,” the other guy said rolling his eyes.
“Jay is
Kate
’s boyfriend,”
John
stated bluntly. Mikkel just raised his eyebrow and laughed. “I’m not lying!”
John
pouted.
“Right. Explain why he’s here with Audrey,” Mikkel challenged, looking from me to
John
. We didn’t say anything. “Exactly,” he said.
I rolled my eyes and took off my gloves, grabbing my phone from my pocket, and scrolling through it. I showed the screen to him, and his eyes widened. It was a picture of Ryan and I a couple months ago.
“Wait, I’m confused,” he said scratching the back of his head.
“About?”
John
asked
“He acts like he doesn’t know you,” he said looking at me. I frowned.
“That’s why we’re FIGHTING,” I said.
“OH!” he said finally catching up. “I’m sorry,” he said to me, his eyes full of pity. “But wait, what does Audrey have to do with this? How do you know each other? Why do you guys not like her?”
I heard a shriek from behind me, and it was Audrey falling on her ass. I wanted to laugh so hard, but I bit my lip. “Can I explain later? At the cabin? Where nobody else can hear?” I asked him. He nodded. “Thanks.”
“Was that a black run?” Ryan asked irritatedly.
“I doubt it,” I said.
“Why were there trees?”
“Because it’s a mountain?” I said rolling my eyes.
“Why wasn’t there a trail?”
“There was, it was just covered in snow,” I shrugged.
“You could have gotten Audrey seriously injured,” he said.
“I didn’t tell her to go that way,” I said to him. “If I recall, she went ahead of me. I decided to go through that way and it just happened to be that she was there.” That shut him up.
“Okay, awkward. I’ve never heard you two speak a word to each other, now you’re fighting?” Audrey raised an eyebrow.
“Let’s just go,”
John
said, and strapped onto his board, before riding away.
“Go ahead Audrey, I’ll stay behind you,” I said to her. She nodded and pushed herself off, and slowly descended the slope after her, leaving Mikkel and Ryan behind.
“Turn left there!” I shouted out to her once we were near the park. She did, and I told her to just avoid the jumps and rails. She nodded at me, and let her go ahead. I waited at the top of the hill, until I saw her at the bottom.
“
Kate
, what’s up?” I heard from behind me.
“Hey Mase, nothing. I just waited for Audrey to get down there so I can hit some jumps,” I said.
He raised an eyebrow at me. “Are you and Jay okay now?”
Josh
asked.
“No,” I frowned. “I’ll talk to you later,” I said once I saw
John
give me a thumbs up. He nodded and walked towards the group of people he was teaching for the day.
I made sure my board was strapped on tightly and properly, and checked the clearing. I put my goggles on, followed by my facemask and hopped off my back leg to start my run.
I hit the first jump, doing a 360 tail grab. I then went to the box, and did a butter and did a 180 getting off. I hit rail, doing a 180 jumping on, and a 180 jumping off. Next, I hit another jump, doing a double
corkscrew, and landed a
back flip
on my final jump.
“Holy shit,” I heard Audrey say when I stopped in front of her. “I didn’t know you could board that good,” she pouted.
I shrugged. “I started when I was 13, I’m not that good.”
“If I recall, you just did a
back flip
,” she said, crossing her arms. “Don’t be modest about it. You just want to show off to Jay,” she said. “I already called dibs, remember?” she huffed.
I refrained from rolling my eyes and looked at her straight in the eye. “You don’t see a Jay around, do you?”
“No,” she said quietly.
“My point exactly,” I huffed.
“
Kate
?” I heard a familiar voice from behind me.
I turned around and was faced by a guy with a helmet and goggles on. I raised an eyebrow. “Yes?”
“It’s me Marcus, from Fremont?” he asked taking his goggles off.
“Oh hey!” I smiled at him. “Coincidence seeing you here,” I chuckled.
“Yeah, I heard somebody say your name up there earlier, and I decided to see if it was the right
Kate
. I mean, how many times do I meet a girl named
Kate
?” he grinned sheepishly. “I was blabbing, huh?”
I chuckled. “Just a little.”
“I’m gonna go talk to them,” Audrey said from behind me and made her way towards
John
and Ryan. I gave my attention back to Marcus, whom said something, but I didn’t quite catch.
“Pardon, but I didn’t quite catch what you’ve said,” I said to him.
“I was uhh, wondering if you wanted to do some runs with me,” he said.
“Oh uhh,” I contemplated. Would it be considered cheating? No right? Because it’s just doing ONE run with an acquaintance.
“
Kate
, can we talk?” Ryan growled from behind me.
“I’ll just give you a call? Yes? Let me get your number,” I said to Marcus, who looked disappointed and confused at the same time. I typed his number into my phone and saved it before Ryan pulled me towards the trees. “What do you want?” I growled at him. “Wouldn’t your girlfriend over there be suspicious that you and I are out of her sight? Or maybe some of your other
friends
might see us and ruin your reputation?” I challenged.
“Who the fuck was that?”
“Who the fuck are you to ask?”
He had a look of hurt on his face for a second but it disappeared as fast as it had appeared, making me doubt that it was even there. He leaned closer to my face. My face was heating up, I could feel it. I haven’t been this close to him in forever. He was basically pushing against me. “If you forgot, I’m your boyfriend,” he said to me.
“If you forgot you
had
a girlfriend,” I retorted.
“Jay!” I heard Audrey shout, then a shriek. Before I knew it, I was kissing Ryan. I was kissing my boyfriend. Why was I so shocked. “Holy shit!” We both pulled away, even though I didn’t want to and looked towards the voice. Audrey was on the ground.
Ryan helped her up. “Are you guys like, secretly seeing each other?” she asked me.
I raised an eyebrow at her. “I was simply talking to her, until you came, and pushed me towards her, making it seem like I kissed her,” Ryan said matter-of-factly.
“Oh,” Audrey said dumbly. “Well, everyone else is waiting and want to go down to eat,” she said. We both nodded and started walking out of the wooden area. “Why were you guys out- Ah!” she didn’t finish her sentence because she shrieked again, followed by me shrieking.
I was ready for snow on my face, but I didn’t feel anything. The only thing I felt were strong arms around my waist. I looked down on the ground, and saw that there were broken branches. I frowned and gained my composure, standing back up.
“I’ve always caught you
every time