At one point in his life, Tony Petersen was as down on his luck as a young man could be. No social life. No friends. No family. Nothing but sad songs on a guitar written for no one by a man with no will to go on. Then a complete stranger stormed into his life by preventing him from ending it, before ironically becoming the only person keeping him going.
Cut to present day and deep down he knows he loves her with every fiber of his being. But does he have the heart to tell her? Could she possibly feel the same way, or is it simply a recipe for disaster?
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I - The Prelude
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Tony Peterson looked down at his cell phone for about the third time in the last 60 seconds, secretly waiting for some kind of sign that what he wanted to do was the right decision. "Once you call her, there's no going back," he told himself unaware that all he was doing was adding even more pressure to the situation than what was previously there. This was a big moment for him, that much was certain. On one hand, by calling his best friend and telling her to come over to hear the song he wrote, he was committing himself to play it and thus couldn't back out. But that also meant he'd have to indirectly expose the only secret he has ever kept from her, which given his complete lack of self-confidence was going to be far from the easiest thing for him to do.
He'd struggled to write the song for weeks, and struggled even more to keep the ever-present subject of his desire in the dark about it.
The girl in question had tried multiple unique yet diabolical ways to break him into giving her even the smallest clue. She made what she knew was his favorite dinner three consecutive nights in the hopes that a full stomach would make him easier to dig into to no avail.
Then she bought him a new guitar pick despite the fact he didn't need a new one with the plan to kind of needle him a bit to get him to spill the beans. Tony stood strong.
When all else failed, she flashed her irresistible eyes and wore him down enough to get him to play the melody to see if she could read the song's feel only to realize she didn't know nearly enough about music.
Luckily for Tony the weeks of bribery had given her no legitimate results, so she made him swear to play her the song the minute he finished it.
Looking at the words scribbled on the paper that lay next to him on his bed, he felt relief that the last of the exhausting song's lyrics were finally finished. It was as ready as it would ever be considering he'd already read over them twice. Due to his promise, he now had to call her. He took a deep breath, picked up the phone, and tapped the only contact under the "lifeline" category. It only rang for about five seconds before the most beautiful sound in the world to him hit his ears.
"What's up Tony?" said Rose in her usual eager tone. Just hearing her speak made his chest tighten. It was a complete miracle he hadn't already flatlined from the anxiety she unknowingly brought him.
"Hi Rose," Tony replied, unable to hide the shakiness in his voice. This was going to be a total disaster if he didn't pull himself together.
"How ya feeling today?" Rose asked as she readjusted herself on her bed by placing her skateboard and tools on the floor so she could lay down. The board wasn't busted but it was one of her personal favorites and she'd rather tweak it at home than down at the shop where she worked. In truth, she was just thinking about calling him. She knew he had been so busy writing this song the last couple of weeks it meant she had to call him to talk rather than it being an equal balance as it stood before this latest project of his.
She wasn't upset with him though. Far from it, actually.
Tony was an artist and she had long come to terms with that. It also didn't hurt that he was damn good at what he did. As a pure songwriter, he helped launch the careers of both Robert Sash and Troop 93, two of Canada's most popular acts in the last couple of years. It always bugged her that no one knew what Tony was capable of on his own merit. But if his demeanor the last few weeks was anything to go on, this was a big deal to him for a song. And this was coming from a writer with more than one legitimate hit under his belt. It required almost all of his attention, leaving Rose grasping at straws just to spend a few moments with him. But she also took note of how nervous he had been around her when she did get him to herself. And to Rose, any change in the dynamic between her and Tony wouldn't go unnoticed.
"I'm fine...uh. I guess." Tony replied and right away, Rose picked up on something. Tony sounded off, like maybe he was tired which would somewhat make sense but also something else. Was he sick? Could he be overextending himself? She was used to him sounding timid because it's just who he is. He's not a naturally loud person, rather he's reserved and prefers to keep to himself. One of the many things she loved about him. But now he sounded nervous, scared even like she could almost see him sweating on the other end of the line. This was new and she wasn't a fan.
What was his deal?
"You okay, Tone?" She asked, using the pet name she gave him not long after they first met. "You sound a little all over the place. Need me to come over? I'm not exactly busy." Rose replied, wondering if he could hear her desperation for an excuse to see him in her voice. She did want to be around him, but she was also legitimately concerned at the same time.
"Y...yeah you can come over. But really, I'm okay. I just finished my song, and I was gonna ask if you wanted to anyway so I could play it for you." Tony replied a lot calmer than he felt at the moment.
"OMG, it's finally done? Like completely finished?" Rose said, not trying in the least to hide her excitement. In context, he sort of expected this kind of reaction given how much effort she put into trying to get information out of him.
"Yeah." He replied.
"Tony, I'm on my way. Stay breathing, I'll see you in ten." Rose said before abruptly hanging up. She practically threw herself off her bed and into her closet, carefully yet quickly scanning through her clothes looking for the perfect outfit. If she got lucky it would really catch his eye. She'd been waiting for weeks to hear this song. Everything had to be perfect.
Tony just stared at his cell. He did it. This was gonna happen. He then turned his attention to his bedroom. His guitar stood at attention leaning up against his bed. Things were in good enough order, except his desk. Papers lay scattered across the large wooden makeshift table by his window, but those belonged to Rose so he decided to leave them there. His floor was clean as was the rest of his apartment. As many problems as he may have had like depression or overactive anxiety, being a slob was never one of them. He had always hated clutter growing up, and that desire for order and tidiness had remained with him to this day.
With Rose likely to show up sooner than later, he figured he would try practicing the song before she got here since it would be at least twenty minutes before she pulled up. As it often did when he started playing, his mind began to wander as the music slowly filled the room. This time around, his mind drifted back to the not-so-distant past. A day that held the title as both the best and worst day of his life, as it was also the day he first met the girl of his dreams.
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II - The Sk8r Girl
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Two years ago...
"Holy shit, that was awesome! Dana, please tell me you caught that!" Rose practically shouted at her skateboarding partner Dana.
The two had met up about thirty minutes prior at around 2 PM and began filming almost immediately. Since the girl with the camera was rather new to skateboarding, Rose volunteered to take her under her wing until she learned the basics and maybe joined a local crew. They were right across the street from The Zoo, the most popular skate spot in the city. A year ago it was a community center, but due to financial issues, it relocated to another more populated area of town leaving the building an empty shell. That is until local skaters managed to start changing the interior, somehow adding ramps and railways and eventually creating the Skate Zoo as it stood today. But because Dana was a rookie, Rose decided to train her across the street in an empty parking lot. Feeling a bit frisky herself, Rose attempted a Double 180, a move she'd only pulled off once in the Zoo.
"I totally did! It came out real clean too." Dana said as she reviewed the footage from the camera video.
Rose picked up her board and headed over to where Dana was standing to look at the footage when out of the corner of her eye she noticed a guy walking down the street, seemingly heading towards the Zoo. He looked about her height, maybe a little taller with long black shaggy hair and he was wearing a long-sleeved navy green sweater and black jeans with Converse sneakers. Before long, Dana looked up and saw him as well.
"Oooh, he's kinda cute," whispered Dana.
"I know, right? Just saying, I without a doubt saw him first." Rose said back. They watched him walk up to and then enter the former community center.
"That's weird," Rose said, right after he disappeared behind the glass door.
"What?" Dana replied.
"He just went into the Zoo, but he didn't have a board. And he looked a little...out of it, right? Was it just me?" Rose replied.
"Really? I mean, he did look a little confused I guess." Dana replied, clearly not giving it as much thought as Rose had.
"I think I'm gonna go after him..." Rose said as she started inching towards the building.
This threw Dana off a bit.
"Wait Rose, seriously? You don't even know that guy. What if he's like...a junkie or something?" Dana said. This drew Rose's attention, though only momentarily.
"What do you mean?" Rose asked.
"Well, you said he didn't have a board, right?" Dana asked. Rose nodded in response.
