Terra glided down the street on her longboard. The sun glinted off her shades as it began to set on the horizon. A great explosion of fire, as the day’s light seeped into darkness. Her earphones settled in, the wire hanging freely by her side where her iPod fit snugly in the pocket of her short shorts. She wore a simple white, punk-rockish shirt that she cut a bit to show off her shoulders and flat stomach. It was another warm day in Southern California, and the peaceful breeze caused her hair to flow gently as she kept rolling on idly.

It was the last night before school, and she had snuck out. Typical Terra move. But, she wasn’t going to miss out on a party. Anything to just lose herself. It was Tommy Jones’ party, a football player. One of those kids with sandy blonde hair and smooth blue eyes. A complete asshole. She just liked taking his free beer. Terra knew she was close when she heard the sounds of chatter and the bass booming from a speaker.

When she got there. There was a group of kids near the front of the house. She rolled her eyes as one of them chuckled. It was Eric Atkins, a rich lacrosse douchebag who she may or may not have slept with over the summer. Two others were recognizable lacrosse players, but one of them she didn’t know. Seemed a bit quiet, with a cool gaze. 

“Hey, gorgeous.” Eric said with a cockiness oozing all around him. Terra ignored him. He looked mad, and went and pulled one of her headphones out. “Hey!” Terra yelled at him.

“It’s rude to ignore people, you should pull your earphones out when you’re at a social event. Kinda like an unwritten rule.” He said with a smirk. “Fuck you.” Terra spat back at him.

“Been there, done that.” Eric laughed, and his group of friends did too. Like a bunch of hyenas. “How about you come and give me a kiss?”

Terra gave him the finger, put her earphone back in and trotted to the door. Eric grabbed her by the wrist and tugged her hard, causing her to drop her board. “Now, now. Don’t be so hostile.”

She spit in his face, kneed him in the crotch and gave him a hard punch in the face as he dropped. One of his other friends came at her, but she was quick to grab her board and slap him hard in the face with it. He sprawled to the ground too. The others just looked at her in shock.

Terra knew how to defend herself. But she would get herself into big trouble if she kept up at this pace.

“Have a nice night, bitch.” Terra said, pulling a cigarette out. She looked at the quiet one. “Got a light?”

Silas, the boy she had directed the question to, stared back at her for a second before responding. After that display of dominance, he certainly did not want to say the wrong thing to someone like her and end up with a longboard slammed between his legs. His eyes darted to his two passed out companions. Eric, the cockiest of those on his team, obviously had some history with the girl, but he wasn’t so sure about his other teammate.

“Uhh, no. Sorry,” Silas said, looking back to the girl with an innocent smile.

Terra smirked at Silas. He seemed pretty shy. With a smooth motion, she slid the board down so it would lean against her leg. She popped out a lighter from her other pocket. Click. The flame ignited and Terra lifted it to her cigarette. She inhaled nice and deep, then blew the smoke out smoothly, looking over Silas carefully behind her darkened view of the world.

“That’s okay. I like to get guys to do things for me even if I don’t need it. It’s fun.” She laughed lightly. “Well, I’ll see you around cutie.”

She turned and sauntered into the party.

A confused expression came over his face as he watched the girl casually walk away into the party. Had they ever met before? Did she go to his school?

A pained groan came from the floor.

“Jesus Christ…” Eric muttered, standing up. His face looked rather pale, like he was nauseous, but he was visibly enraged at the beating he had just received, from a girl nonetheless. “That little bitch…”

“Who was that?” Silas asked, reaching his hand out to steady Eric as he stumbled for a moment.

“Terra Reyes.” The name escaped his lips with pure hatred. “I had a thing with her over the summer. I should’ve stayed away though. She’s fucking insane is what she is.”

“Does she go to our school?”

Eric nodded and began to walk into the party as well, beckoning from him to follow. “Help Kyle off the ground,” he shouted to a friend before looking back at Silas and handing him a red solo cup.

“You haven’t seen her around before?” Eric asked, taking a gulp from his own cup.

“I guess not,” Silas answered. He looked down at his cup and pondered taking a sip.

“That’s a surprise. She’s pretty damn hard to miss. Talk about thirsty.” Eric took another large gulp from his drink and slammed his cup down on a table with a belch of satisfaction.

“I feel like shit,” he said. A black eye was already beginning to become vividly visible. “She got me right in the balls. Talk about a cheap shot.”

“Yeah,” Silas replied.

Eric paused and then chuckled. “Well, I guess I’ll go try my luck with some other bitch here. I’ll call you if I need a wingman, Silas.”

Silas held the cup up to his lips, pretending to take a sip and nodded at Eric who turned and walked off into the party, disappearing into the crowd. Now, Silas was alone, just like he feared. This was the first real party he had gone to, and even though he had come in a ‘gang’ with all his lacrosse ‘friends,’ he still managed to end up alone. Why didn’t he just stay home? How did people even have fun at these? God, this was just going to get him in trouble. He had told his already suspicious parents that he was just going to spend the night at Eric’s house. What if the cops showed up? His parents would literally hang his ass over the mantle.

Starting to get a pang of social anxiety, Silas left his cup on a table and found his way to a bathroom and shut the door behind him. He half expected a couple to be making out in the bathtub or something, but it was thankfully empty. He locked the door and rubbed his face in front of the mirror with a sigh.

[i]What are you going to do, Silas?[/i] he thought to himself. He had a whole night to kill, and he hardly knew any of the people there. God, what a mess… He took a step back and examined himself closely in the mirror. His friends had insisted that he wear his red lacrosse pinny to symbolize his initiation on the team. Other than that, he had on a pair of khaki shorts and the lacrosse player favorite: Sperrys and midcalf socks. His self-confidence wasn’t the highest, but he knew he wasn’t unattractive. Maybe, he could just find a nice girl to talk to for the night.

He laughed at himself. People don’t come to parties to ‘talk.’ He couldn’t just leave, could he? Would that be social suicide? Yeah, he had to stay… At least until some people started clearing out. He just needed to survive until then.

He took a deep, somewhat shaky breath, and unlocked the bathroom door, emerging again into the bustling party outside. He knew he didn’t belong, but he tried his absolute best to try to fit in, to be a typical douche, but to attract minimal attention to himself. As he was working his way toward some seats, a girl had wrapped her hands around his waist, hugging him tightly.

“Do you dance as good as you look?” she asked in an annoyingly high-pitched voice.

Terra watched Silas come out of the bathroom and laughed to herself. He looked completely out of his element. She wondered why, he was getting a lot of looks from different girls. And, well, did he even notice? For all she knew, he might be the most clueless person of all time when it came to these types of situations. It was then, some girl with platinum blonde hair wrapped her little arms around his waist. That annoying voice could make anyone’s good mood become foul. Terra might be new to the state, but over the summer she got to meet a lot of the school students. This girl was Erin May. They were most definitely not on good terms.

Luckily for Silas, Terra had a good mix of regular smoke and weed smoke in her. A nice comfortable balance going for her. She boldly walked up to him and gave him a quick kiss on the lips.

With a quick glare at Erin she said “Beat it skank. This one is with me.” And with that, she grabbed Silas’ hand and pulled him upstairs.

Erin let go of Silas in a heartbeat with a snort of disgust.

“When you’re done digging through the trash, I’ll be waiting, Silas!” she shouted after them angrily.

Meanwhile, Silas was thoroughly confused. He followed Terra up the stairs into the second-level hallway where Terra released his hand. He furrowed his eyebrows and looked her up and down. It was the girl from before. What was it, Terra?

“Thanks for… saving me,” he said with a nervous laugh, as he remembered how aggressive she was.

Terra smiled as his eyes looked all over her. “Not a problem. She’s annoying as hell. Listening to her talk might be worse than scratching a chalkboard.”

“So, you’re name is Silas. You’ve got a bit of an accent. Are you from Texas or something? Eh, I guess that doesn’t matter so much. The real question is, why is a handsome guy like you hanging out by yourself in a bathroom?”

Silas blinked, surprised, but kept a calm face.

“Am I supposed to bring a friend with me when I piss?” he asked.

“Sure. Not like all others go to the bathroom BEFORE they go to a party. But, I’ll believe you’re the .01% exception to that rule.” She replied sharply, sticking her tongue out at him. Terra then opened up the door, where the smell of weed poured out.

“I think you just need to relax a little. How about it?” She moved into the room.

Silas took a staggering step back when they opened the bedroom door, sending pungent fumes of weed into the hallway. Terra already went inside, but he nervously stood back at the doorway.

“Look, I--I don’t smoke. Especially during lacrosse season,” he explained. “I’ve got to stay focused.”

Terra laughed. “So instead of smoke, you drink. That logic, doe.” The other kids in the room giggled. “Hey, how about you guys leave. I think my friend Silas here needs a one on one to feel comfortable.”

They groaned, but didn’t dare raise a fight to Terra. The group shuffled out, leaving a good amount of weed for the two of them. “Come on Silas. You’ll fit in if you do this, and you’ll be much sexier to the girls here.” She jumped on the bed and grabbed the bowl.

Silas bit his lip as he watched the others file out of the bedroom like zombies. That sent a shiver down his spine. He didn’t want to act like that. He turned inside and looked at Terra, and, for a moment, considered just leaving. But he couldn’t. It was too late, and Terra was just too persuasive. He walked inside but left the door open.

“Do you have a beer?” he asked, sitting down on the bed a couple feet away from her.

She smiled at him. “No, actually I don’t. The funny thing is, I don’t drink. At all, ever.” Terra took a hit from the bowl, holding it deep in her lungs before blowing out the smoke. “That feels so good. Come on, Silas. Try it. It feels like… like you’re completely light. All your worries… Gone.” She whispered the last bit seductively, handing him the bowl.

Silas looked at her sadly and didn’t take the bowl from her hands.

“I’m not going to pry,” he said, “but if you don’t ever drink, then you should understand that I don’t smoke. Logic, right?”

“But drinking is bad for you. This isn’t. Look it up.”

“I never said drinking was good. I just prefer it. Maybe I like to live on the wild side and take a risk,” he said, though he laughed as both of them knew that wasn’t true.

“Eric says your name’s Terra, but I’ve never seen you around,” Silas added quietly, hoping to change the subject.

Terra rolled her eyes, taking off her shades, revealing a pair of unbelievably beautiful blue eyes. They were the mix of her parents, the cold blue of Landon, with the soft emerald of her mother. It made a soft, soothing blue that could wash away anything. 

“Yeah. To be blunt, your friend is an asshole, so that was the end of that. I moved here in May from North Carolina. And you don’t seem the party type so… You probably wouldn’t have seen me much.” Terra stopped, but before she let Silas change the subject totally, she held the bowl back up more.

“So Silas. Care to take a risk?” 

Before Silas could interject that he too was from North Carolina and go on a tangent about that, Terra immediately had held up the bowl again to his face. But this time, her eyes stared deep into his, nearly hypnotizing him, like Aphrodite did to that young hero in the mythology book he had just finished that week.

“You and I both know the answer to that question,” Silas replied, looking away.

Terra sighed and tossed the bowl away. Instead, she moved in and placed herself dangerously close to Silas on the bed. Her hand softly tracing its way up his arm to his face, gently turning him to look her in the eyes.

“Was that your first kiss, Silas?” She asked.

He shook his head soft enough for Terra’s hand to remain in contact with his face.

“No, I’m not a prude,” he answered boldly. “I’m just… In new territory.”

Terra smiled mischievously. She got up and kicked the door shut and locked it, turning to Silas with a playful look in her eyes.

She walked up to him and sat on his lap, grinding against him light enough to torture him. “In new territory you could hunt… or be the hunted. What will you choose?” Terra said teasingly, getting her nose close enough to lightly graze his own.

Silas tried to stay still and calm as she came onto him. Her eyes were locked onto his, and he knew he was in the hot seat.

“Don’t you think it’d be pretty hard to hunt while you’re stoned?” Silas asked nonchalantly. “It’s a lot easier to shoot an incapacitated animal.”

Terra grinned at him. He had a sense of humor to him after all. But, he simply played into her hands with a comment like that.

“Maybe I want you to take control. Unless you’re too scared.”

“I’m not scared,” he said truthfully. “But… I do have some class, believe it or not.”

“Class is for people who don’t know how to have fun.” Terra then put on a face that looked convincingly offended.

“Are you saying you’re better than me?” Her eyebrows furrowed, and she glared at him.

Silas nearly flinched when she glared at him. He had nearly forgotten about her temper. At least she didn’t have a longboard in her hands. Still though, this wasn’t good…

“No…” Silas said rather lamely.

Terra burst into laughter. She put her finger on his lips. “Silas… I was kidding. So how about you shut up… and relax.” She pressed her lips onto his and made out with him, seeing if he would entertain.

Silas figured it’d be best to play his hand and not resist her. He kissed her back, but there was a feeling in the pit of his stomach which made him a little apprehensive. For a second, he felt himself get lost inside the kiss, and when he realized it, he quickly pulled away for a second.

“Why…?” he said, sounding like he was almost out of breath. “Why me?”

Terra frowned. “Why doesn’t matter. It’s fun, just enjoy it. Stop thinking about it. This isn’t some big gesture.” She started kissing him again.

Something didn’t feel quite right. And out of nowhere, this feeling came over him, which was some terrible concoction of anxiety, fear, and low self-esteem. Running on pure adrenaline, he quickly dropped backwards onto the bed, and as she had been leaning against his chest, she came down with him. While she was still slightly confused, he rolled over on top of her and pinned her arms to her side.

For a second, he glared into her face, looking rather surprised. But in a flash, he got up and darted out the door.

Terra was stunned when he left. She had no idea where that came from, but when he had her pinned underneath him with his face so close to her own. It was indescribable. The electricity that tingled all around her. But, he was gone now.

She sighed and looked at the clock. The party would be dying down soon, and she was bored. Terra grabbed her shades and her board. Within moments she opened up the window and climbed out. Terra just went on home, rolling on her board. Hopefully her father was asleep. Either way she’d be climbing up. 

When she got there, she rounded out to the backyard. She carefully climbed up the back onto the slanted roof in front of her window. Terra had smoked a lot of weed and wasn’t in the best climbing shape at all. That’s when the worst thing happened. She slipped a little and dropped her board that rolled and clanged against the roof and fell down with a big crash on the cement below. With great speed, Terra just opened up her window and jumped in, closing it in a hurry. 

Landon was sitting at her desk chair, facing away from the window. He had been awake for some time and knew it was just a matter of time before his delinquent daughter snuck back inside. This wasn’t the first time she had done so. He silently swiveled around in the chair to face her.

“You dropped your board,” he said.

Terra froze at the sound of Landon’s voice. Why did he have to be awake, or know that she was out? He always knew! It’s like he had cameras in her room or something. She turned to face her dad, pulling her iPod out.

“Yeah, I was just sitting out there looking at the sky. Ya know? I was just a bit clumsy coming back in.” She lied, lamely. Mentally facepalming herself.

“Mhm. And whose house were you looking at the sky from?” Landon asked.

“Uhh… Ours?” She responded. Terra pulled her iPod out of her pocket, but accidentally pulled her pack of cigarettes out at the same time. [i]Shit![/i] Like an instant reflex she kicked the pack under her bed as if it didn’t happen.

“Good one, Bob Marley. Where’d you get those cigarettes from?” Landon continued to interrogate, his parental reflexes on point.

“I’m holding onto them for a friend. They’re not mine, I swear!”

“Oh, don’t bullshit me,” Landon said, standing up. “You reek of weed and tobacco. Do you think I was fucking born yesterday?”

“No, if you were born yesterday you’d be an infant… Duh?” Terra gave up the lying act and just pulled off her shades, took out the lighter and put them neatly on her bed.

“Very good,” Landon said sarcastically. “Next question: Do you want to go to fucking rehab?”

“Hardly, as if I need to go to rehab. It’s not like I’m overdosing on pills and coughing up vomit anywhere. And I don’t have an alcohol problem. Woohoo, double bonus there. Got any more fun and original questions in our fun little game of twenty questions, dad?”

“That’ll be all,” Landon said, reaching under her bed and grabbing the pack of cigarettes as well as the lighter from her bed. “Maybe one day you’ll learn to be responsible for your actions.”

“And what time did you break out the whiskey today, dad? At noon? I’m super responsible. I’m like the fun fairy of responsibility over here.”

“I was doing this cool new thing called ‘working’ at noon,” Landon replied. “Maybe you should try it!”

Terra rolled her eyes at him. “Oh yeah, I forgot. It’s just okay these days to forget to be a parent, and then wake up from an alcohol-induced stupor after a few months and think everything’s forgiven. Right on.”

Landon narrowed his eyes at her. “I’m sorry I have feelings,” he said. “It’s called a coping mechanism. When’s the last time you’ve ever expressed yourself?”

She ignored him and went under her covers on the bed. “Goodnight, dad. School starts tomorrow. I’m grounded, bla bla bla. See you in the morning. ‘Love you’”

“Good, I’m glad you’ve rehearsed your lines.” Landon stuffed the pack and lighter into his pocket and left her room, going down the stairs to the kitchen where he sat at the table, holding his head in his hands with a sigh of stress and deep pain.

“She’s so much like you, Kaelyn,” he muttered. “I don’t know how I’m gonna keep her under control without you.”