Kat Beeton | Originally published in The Other Side anthology
Featured on BBC Upload
I sat on the cracked concrete step and laced my bright blue roller skates with their rainbow stripes and vibrant yellow stoppers. My hair fell over my eyes like ragged curtains, rough cut and wispy in the wind. Bruises marked my arms and legs, and streaks of dirt criss-crossed my knee. I forced out a sharp breath, blowing the uneven fronds away from my face and pushed myself up. Leaning over bent knees, arms moving tight to my sides, I dug in and shoved off, gliding over the smooth path and building up speed. One big push, another, and another and I was flying over concrete, flicking from foot to foot, my hair flowing behind. The sun dipped and weaved in and out of the clouds as I thundered down the empty path that stretched out before me. White stripes ran down the side of my little grey shorts and turned to dusky red and orange ones on my white t-shirt; my multicoloured racing stripe. Faster and faster, I rolled along the path, the trees beside me whipping by in a frenzy of green. Then I saw her, standing by the newly stained fence with its brown brush streaks. Her thick black hair caressed tawny shoulders and she smiled her cherry smile. I bent my knee and let my back leg drag, sliding to a stop beside her. Flicking her hair back, her candy-sweet laugh made my stomach churn like shaken soda. Reaching up with painted pink nails, she smoothed my hair behind my ear. We sat on the grass beside the path and without a word her hand covered mine. Warmth spread through my ice-cold fingers, making my skin buzz and my cheeks flush between the freckles. We laid back and watched the clouds roll by while the sun played hide-and-seek. One bright moment sent copper sparks through my hair that mingled with her glossy black locks, and I felt her hand soft as silk on my cheek. I had no name for what was waking in me as she leaned her face in towards mine. My fingers dug into the ground beside me, and I felt her breath on my face like a warm breeze that began to burn through my skin, bursting in my chest. My eyes drifted closed, and I felt her lips on mine, light as a question. I opened my eyes and hers shone just for me, deepest brown that held another world within. My hand reached out and I leaned into her, giving her my answer. Thoughts drifted through my mind like the shadows of passing clouds, what people would think, what I knew my parents would say. Her arms closed around me, holding me closer, and the aching in the bottom of my stomach burst into thunderous lighting sparks that electrified my skin. I sat there in my rainbow skates kissing a girl for the first time under the sunlit sky. There was nothing but me and her, and now I had a name for what I felt. I was wide awake.