And then he turned around. He'd been kneeling on the ground doing something to the trucks on his skateboard, so I hadn't really noticed him until then. I saw him, and he saw me.
I literally stopped in my tracks as though someone had punched the breath from me. He had bright green hair, obviously dyed, and gray blue eyes like Alex's. I remember what he was wearing so well, and I'm such a saddo, that I went and made a Tektek of him so that I wouldn't have to just describe him in words. sweatdrop
He was a year or two older than me, I reckoned, with drumsticks in the back pocket of his faded blue jeans and a pair of old brass and leather goggles on his head. He wore a white vest under a suit jacket - an actual suit jacket - and a black tie loose around his neck. There was a small scar on his right cheek, just on his jawline, that hadn't quite healed over yet.
It was one of those moments that I never thought I'd actually experience. That girl who called me a Lone Angel said something along the lines of "through time you'll learn to recognize your charge", and I now wonder if this is what she meant. When I saw Alex for the first time, I remember a strong urge to get to know him that I can't remember having ever felt before...It can't just be coincidence, can it?
So this skater guy stared at me, and I stared at him, and his friends seemed more or less oblivious until he began to walk towards me. I didn't move. I'm not even sure if I actually could have.
He asked me what my name was, and then just stood and talked for what seemed like hours as though he had known me forever. His name was James, he said, and he was seventeen. James gave me his telephone number and email and told me to call him some time, but that on Friday he would be busy because his girlfriend was coming to town.
And then one of the other guys called him. They were going down to the ramps, and was he coming? Yes, he'd be there in a minute.
And with that, James left me feeling more confused and sane-feeling than I had in a long time. He smiled as he said goodbye, flashed the silver wire of a retainer. I continued on my way down to the store to buy onions and treated myself to a tub of cookie dough ice cream.
James had, in such a short time, managed to fill a hole that Alex's death had made. He had a girlfriend and didn't seem to be an a*****e or dying from anything, so maybe for once I'm going to have just a regular friend?
