This choice: You finally learn to slide • Go Back...Chapter #4You try to learn to slide by: Yote  Until one day at school, a few weeks after Open Day, that you find that lanky ginger kid behind the bike sheds, smoking the biggest joint you've ever seen in your life. It looks like a fucking tortilla. A thick white fog of sickly sweet smoke pours out of his nostrils and out of his mouth as he lolls his head to the side and kisses the girl sitting beside him... Jessica.
Fists clenched in rage, you go for them. Jessica spots you, her eyes widening in shock, immediately sliding away with a pop of displaced air. The kid staggers to his feet, too stoned to slide, and you grab him by the shirt, lifting his body off the ground and pinning him against the wall.
"You little ginger puke. The hell are you doing with my girl?"
He fixes you with a lopsided grin and mumbles, "Your girl? Mate, she hasn't been your girl for weeks. She was all over me."
You scoff, glaring into his bloodshot eyes. "Why the hell would she cheat on me for you?"
"Because this, man," he says, holding up the massive joint. "In my world, there's fields of this stuff. Your girlfriend is a total stoner. I mean... my girlfriend." The air bursts out of his lungs as you swing your knee up into his stomach. He collapses onto the ground, chuckling even as he sucks down pained sips of air. "Face it, man, you're finished. Nobody cares about how good you are at football anymore. The only thing that matters is how good your planet is. And mine's the best."
As you swing your fist into his face, his sliding ability finally kicks in on instinct. His body falls away under your knuckles, dropping through the portal that forms around his skin. You snarl in frustration, staring through the portal as the bastard lands on the earth of his world, scrambling to his feet and darting away into the dense, swaying fronds of cannabis plants beneath a tropical sky. "I'll get you next time, prick! You gotta come out some time!" you shout after him.
You sit and wait by the two portals for hours, until it gets dark. Eventually you're forced to leave for football practice, though half of the guys don't even show up, and you walk home troubled. The guy was right. If you didn't learn to slide soon, you were going to get left behind.
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"Punch me."
Tim stares in confusion. "Wh-what?"
You close your brother's bedroom door behind you. "I need you to punch me. If you punch me, I'll slide automatically, right? On instinct."
"I don't think mum wants us sliding..."
"Do you want to punch me or not?"
There is surprising strength in his scrawny arms and limps wrists as he clocks you across the jaw. Your head snaps back and... indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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