"HEY NOEL!"

"Dylan?"

Noel was procrastinating about going home, after his last period he wandered around the library in an attempt to kill time, but the librarian was shooting him nasty looks and then proceeded to tell him to leave as she was going to lock it up.

In a huff he then made the slow trawl to the bus stop, but decided to start walking home as it'd take longer. On his way home he saw Dylan, Noel hadn't seen Dylan in weeks.

His buzzcut had grown out, lessening his menacing appearance and softening his features, on his back there was a large skateboard strapped to his backpack, an assortment of colorful stickers and graffiti had littered the front.

"Yep it's me."

"I haven't seen you in a while."

"Yeah...hey, I'm going to the skate park, do you wanna come?" Noel nodded to himself, any excuse to not go home was welcome.

_______________

Unusually there was nobody there when they both arrived, it was underground, with huge sloping carved wood, and sloppy writing graffiti slapped on the tunneled walls, low level green and blue lights sparked across the ceiling. Noel usually didn't like going here for two reasons, one was that he couldn't skate (and didn't want too) and two was that it was always too cold.

Dylan, however, was in his element, he had jumped up on his skateboard as soon as they entered and was skating effortlessly on the ramps. Noel had sat on the bleachers to the side, wishing that he had brought his earphones with him.

Dylan then abruptly stopped, flipping his skateboard up and catching it with his calloused hands. He then shot a crooked smile at Noel. "I've been hearing a lot about you these past few weeks."

"Oh, like what."

"Your new look." Dylan let out a chuckle, before joining Noel on the bleachers, stretching out his legs in his dark baggy jeans. "And you fought Marcel."

Noel let out a dry laugh, he could feel his pimples pricking at his skin fiercely as he did so and fought the urge to cringe and cover his face.

"He probably deserved it, Marcel is a grade A prick." Dylan continued. He was beginning to see Noel in a new light, he wasn't the kid with acne anymore, he was so much more but Dylan didn't know what the more was. He didn't think anyone did.

"Where have you been?" Noel prosed a question towards Dylan, he wasn't even sure if he was friends with May and Bethany anymore.

"I've been at school, I just had to catch up with work these past few weeks."

"How about Thomas?"

Dylan's face darkened, he gritted his teeth absentmindedly, curling his fingers into fists before releasing them again. "He's gone."

Noel wasn't sure whether he was allowed to ask him more, Dylan's tone was clipped, angry almost. He didn't know Dylan well enough to cross that boundary.

"You can tell me. If you want." Noel spoke carefully, averting his gaze away from Dylan's troubled face and onto a small crack on the ramp.

"It's not really my place to say exactly what happened to Thomas. But I had to do something." Noel was taken aback by Dylan's firm tone, but still chose to not look at him.

"He did some stupid things and expected me to cover for all of it, but I couldn't. People did some stupid things to him that I witnessed and I couldn't keep quiet about it, what type of friend would I be if I did? He's not talking to me anymore." Dylan stopped suddenly, taking a deep breath that came out more like a shaky gasp. "For some reason, I don't even care. I feel free I guess... he wasn't the greatest person out there."

Noel fought the urge to scoff.

"I guess that's why I disappeared for a bit, sometimes you need to take time out for yourself, you know?"

Noel nodded, taking in Dylan's words slowly, he was still a mystery to him, yet his stupid skull tattoo didn't bother him much anymore. "Even though your taking time out for yourself, make sure your not pushing people away, your friends are still there for you."

"Thanks Noel. Thank you." People had been saying that to Noel a lot recently. "You included?"

"What?"

"As one of my friends?" Dylan shot another of his infamous crooked smiles.

"Yeah. As one of your friends." Even Noel couldn't ignore the slight smile that graced his lips, yet he didn't let it happen fully.

"When's your birthday?"

"That's a bit random."

"Come on, tell me!"

"This Friday."

"Happy birthday for then." Dylan then picked up his skateboard once more. "As a present, I'm going to teach you how to skate."

"Nobody uses skateboards anymore."

Dylan let out a fickle laugh, feigning a hurt expression. "Well I do, get yourself to the ramp."

Noel unsurely made his way onto the ramp, stepping on Dylan's skateboard tentatively as if it was a shark about to prepare for its bite.

"You have to gain momentum. Push it like it's a scooter." Noel tried to ignore Dylan out of spite, but proceeded to push the skateboard with his other leg, finding the small movement absolutely pointless.

"What's the actual point to this?"

Dylan sighed, prising Noel off his skateboard and began to skate effortlessly once more, flying all the way to the top of the ramp before flipping his board and catching it again and then skating downwards. Noel watched him in quiet awe, his face was relaxed and calm, the furrow that had crawled its way to his eyebrows had broken and was now replaced with a visual serenity.

"To let go."

"What?" Noel was shocked by Dylan's voice shaking him from his thoughts.

"You asked what was the point, and the point is to let go."

"I never pegged you for riding a skateboard."

"I don't. The last time I rode a skateboard was in 6th grade."

Noel looked at Dylan's face, he seemed like he wanted to say more but he wasn't sure how to word it. Noel decided to cut in, to stop his troubled mouth. "Are you going to talk to May and Bethany again?"

"What made you think they weren't talking to me?"

"Well they said-"

"Don't worry. They get it. They've got each other."

"They've got you too."

"And I had Thomas."

Before Noel could even speak, Noel heard footsteps entering the skate park, he turned to look at a small figure with dark blonde hair chopped messily, it's strands entering into ice blue eyes. He wasn't sure whether the person was a boy or a girl, but he saw recognition seep into Dylan's face.

"Alex." Dylan whispered underneath his breath, grabbing his skateboard he made his way over to the person, Noel following at his heels.

"I haven't seen you in a while." Dylan smiled his trademark crooked smile and Noel was quick to notice a blush seep through Alex's face.

"I could say the same." Alex turned to Noel's confused presence. "Who's this?"

"Noel, he's a friend."

Alex looked dead straight into Noel's eyes, there was no movement to his scarred, pimpled skin or the discoloration on his cheeks.

Noel quickly decided he liked Alex.

"Nice to meet you Noel. I'm Alex. I know you're wondering if I'm a girl or a boy, I'm a girl, I've just always looked androgynous, I've learned to just go with it."

Dylan let a sapid laugh snake out of his lips, his large arms going to circle around her small frame. "She tells everyone that."

"Don't touch me, Mr-I-wont-talk-to-you-for-six-months-on-end." Yet Alex made no move to prise Dylan's arms off her, her short chopped hair stroking against Dylan's flashy t-shirt.

"I'll let you guys catch up." Noel wasn't sure if they both heard him as Dylan began to speak over Noel. "You know he's friends with Myron."

"Myron's friends with everyone. That boy is too soft for his own good."

"You know what he told me."

"Guys!-" Noel broke in, but they babbled on, impervious.

"What'd he tell you?"

"That he loves making friends, it's a sport for him, a game-"

"He said that! How could he-"

"I haven't finished. It's like when you first meet someone, you know nothing about them, you have no history, no shared memories, there just a blob in a crowd, they're not part of your life in any shape or form. But then you become friends, and then he said, and I quote 'someone so meaningless now means so much in your life...how crazy, how wonderful is that.'"

"Myron? As in dumb jock Myron?"

"That's my best friend you're talking about."

"An amazing, philosophical, dumb jock."