Gleaming The Cube

Kaylee left the rec room and walked with Travis and the skaters, that had been with him, to rec room four. It wasn’t a long walk, of course, and as they walked in they were greeted by a course of greetings from the other people already there.

As promised there were snacks. Several bags of chips, bowls of popcorn, a mix of candy, soda, and water bottles were placed throughout the room. It made it easier to grab snacks throughout the movie without getting up.

The various members of the group sat around; there were only three couples in this group. Most of the people were single. Not that the skaters really cared if people dated but it was just that most of them had a much more relaxed view about that whole thing than the group of friends that Kaylee had just left.

The group Kaylee just had pizza with seemed to hang a lot on a simple flirting moment or connections made between two people. The skaters, on the other hand, never thought someone would date unless the two people involved announced they were. People would flirt in this group, sit next to each other when watching a movie, even go on casual dates but it, mostly, didn’t mean a whole lot. It just meant, at that moment, the two people involved wanted that. It had its benefits; not so much was riding on who was dating who or who had broken up with who. Feelings weren’t hurt. Friendships weren’t broken over liking the same person and, at this moment, it was a welcome change.

Kaylee was starting to wish she could feel that way about Conner. She still was resolved that she wasn’t about to break up her friendships if he picked Blossom. She had said she wasn’t going to be mad and she wouldn’t. It didn’t mean that it would be easy for her either. She thought for a moment about what had occured tonight and just let herself a quick moment of reflecting on it before she heard Travis ask her a question.

Travis’s hand touched her shoulder. “Hey, you okay?” He asked her. “Too much pizza?”

Kaylee smiled at him. “Something like that. Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Cool, let’s do this movie thing,” Travis said, and the group seemed to agree.

Kaylee took an empty seat on one of the couches and didn’t think much about it when Travis sat next to her.

As the others were getting settled Travis asked Kaylee,“Have you seen this movie?”

Kaylee shook her head. “No.”

Travis seemed surprised by her answer, “Oh, it’s so sick. The tricks are so retro but gnarly.”

The movie started and, of course, there were the occasional noises and comments from the audience at tricks that were made or not throughout the movie. While Kaylee knew this movie was a classic skater movie it became clear that the only reason for that was the tricks which, she had to admit, were pretty great.

Travis had started just sitting near her but as the movie went on, his arm went behind her, then over her shoulder. It was Travis, though, and this was the skaters so Kaylee didn’t think much about it.

Sometime later:

The movie ended and people started to talk about the various tricks that had been in the movie, which only cemented her idea of the movie. Travis’s arm was still around her shoulder but she still didn’t think much of it. She took a sip of her water and conversed with the others about the film.

People started to break up talking in smaller groups and Travis turned to her, “So, did you really like the movie?”

Kaylee responded, “Yes, it had some great tricks.”

Travis suddenly seemed to decide to change subjects, “I’m so stoked about the new park.”

The new skating part was opening this weekend; the skaters were all going to the opening but Kaylee had other plans this weekend.

She shrugged, “I’m not sure. I have plans on Saturday.

Travis nodded. “Well, the grand opening is both Saturday and Sunday. I think we’re mostly going on Sunday, anyway.”

Kaylee thought about it for a moment, “Okay, then I’ll come.”

Travis nodded.“So, what else you got planned for the night?”

Kaylee answered, “Nothing really” She was caught up on her homework and she didn’t have anything else going on for the moment.

Travis smiled at her, “You wanna hang. I mean we could talk tricks or whatever.”

Kaylee thought nothing of this so she agreed and the two did just that. They hung out and talked about all things skating related. He promised to show her how to do a trick she had seen him land. They looked at skateboards and tricks on some of the sites on his phone. After about an hour and a half of talking about nothing but skating, Kaylee had had enough. She really liked skating but had other interests, as well. She started to see that Travis’s life was pretty much skating centered. She said she was getting tired and with that excuse, said goodbye to the people there and Travis and headed back to her room.