by Lilly Purdon
“Whatever.” I grumbled before walking the opposite way. I gave him a small wave as I sauntered away from him. I did feel bad in a way, but I wasn’t going to get on that beast! As I was walking further down away from him, I heard his engine roar to life.
“I’m not letting you walk there!” he yelled from behind me. “You don’t even know where we’re going!”
I did something I never imagined myself doing to him. I flipped him the bird. I heard him laugh and make a comment about me being a bad-ass-goody-two-shoe before the sound of the engine came closer. I kept walking away as fast as I could.
Don’t look back Rosie, don’t you dare look back!
“Hey Cinderella, I’m coming after you!” Axel sounded much closer now.
Cinderella?
What was up with all the nicknames?!
Don’t respond! Pretend he’s not there!
He slowed down next to me on his motorcycle. We were just a few feet apart. I was on the sidewalk while he was on the road.
“Get on,” he ordered.
Ignore him Rosie! You’re not getting on that running death machine no matter what!
“Please?”
Don’t fall for his angelic voice no matter what! His voice might be dripping honey but he’s no good!
“Flower.”
Keep walking! He’ll get bored of you ignoring him and leave you alone.
“You know I’m not going to leave you alone until you get on, right?”
Don’t listen! Block out your ears, you’re now deaf to everything he says to you!
“Are you ignoring me?” he asked.
Don’t reply, keep walking.
“Please get on.”
Distract yourself!
“Flower?”
He was driving right next to me now. It was getting incredibly hard to ignore him.
“Please stop ignoring me.” He pleaded.
Distraction, I need a distraction!
“Rosaline Arlene Winnefred!”
Why did he have such an effect on my heart?
I didn’t know he even knew my full name…
“Come on! Just please ride with me, it’s not that bad, I promise.”
Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high like a diamond in the sky-
“If you don’t do this the easy way, we’ll have to do this the hard way.” He warned.
Uh oh.
Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are-
“Hard way it is.” He huffed, turning off the engine.
I kept walking while forcing myself not to turn around. I heard footsteps coming closer and closer to me, but I chose to ignore them. A bead of sweat rolled down my back. I had no idea what he was planning in mind, but I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like it.
I couldn’t hold it longer. I couldn’t stand ignoring him and I was dying to know what he was planning to do to get me ride with him. I turned around to face him quickly. I bumped right into his rock hard chest. Ouch! My poor little nose! He looked a little shocked to see me not ignoring him anymore.
“What evil master plan do you have in mind?” I asked him suspiciously.
He had both his hands shoved into his jean pockets. Oddly, nothing looked suspicious about him. He looked like a normal hot guy taking a walk. I narrowed my eyes at him as he looked around him with confusion.
“What?” he asked.
“What are you doing?”
“Walking.” He answered in a ‘duh’ tone.
“Where’s your bike then?”
“Parked in the middle of the street.”
“What?!” I screamed at him, looking at the street behind him.
Sure enough, his motorcycle was parked right in the middle of the road without any care in the world. Thank god there were no cars around, or a car would’ve run it over.
“You can’t just park it in the middle of the road like that!” I shrieked at him.
“Why not?”
“The cops would tow it, or a car might run it over!”
He shrugged. “Whatever, my stepdad’s rich, he’ll pay for it.”
I just stared at him in shock. He had no care in the world.
“Besides, I can get a new one anyway.” He just shrugged like it was nothing. “I’ll name the new one ‘Rosie caused this’.”
Even though my dad was rich, he was nothing compared to Axel’s step dad. And even if I were that rich, I wouldn’t be that careless or carefree as him.
“Please! Go re-park it.”
“No, I’m not moving it unless you ride with me.”
So this was his way of getting me to ride with him.
Don’t give in! Don’t give in!
“Fine!” I huffed.
How could you just give in like that?!
I felt like slapping myself, but I didn’t after seeing the cute boyish grin on Axel’s face. He ran back to his motorcycle and started the engine before driving it over to me. He handed me a helmet before grabbing me by the waist and helping me get on.
Boy, this was going to be a long ride.
~*~
Chapter 28 SKIPPING SCHOOL [PART 4]
“I hate you,” I grumbled as the engine roared to life below me.
“No you don't.”
I could imagine him smirking while saying that.
“Whatever helps you sleep at night, Mr. Bad Boy.”
“Mr. Bad Boy?” he parroted sounding slightly amused.
“Yeah, your pet name,” I smirked.
He laughed and shook his head before slipping on his helmet quickly.
“You might want to hold on tight, princess.”
“Princess?”
“You remind me a bit of Cinderella.”
I prayed he hadn’t made any links yet. I followed his advice and put both hands on his shoulders. He shook his head though.
“Hold onto my waist, it's more secure.”
I nodded quickly and hooked my arms around his waist. My heart was pounding against my chest crazily from the closeness of our bodies. I guess my life was a little cliché. The good girl gets on the motorcycle with the bad boy, gets scared and holds on tightly to the bad boy.
Once we were ready, we took off at a high speed, I was expecting myself to fall off die, but I didn't. The wind whipped around us violently as we sped down the road. As we went along, it didn’t seem so scary after all.
I felt free.
Like I was capable of controlling my own destiny.
Something inside of me that I had never felt before struck me.
Something inside me came to life. It felt like my heart suddenly lit on fire. And then I felt it, I really didn't give a damn about my safety on the motorcycle.
What was there to lose?
My dad was never home, my stepmother was being horrible, my childhood best friend was acting suspicious, and my crush saw me practically naked in my friend's house, what was there to lose?
I did something I thought I would never do my whole life. Maybe there was a little trace of alcohol in my system? I slowly let go of his waste as we were speeding down some empty roads. We were heading out of town, and there weren't many people in that area.
First, I unhooked one arm around his waist before pulling one leg up to my chest.
“What the hell?!” His voice was muffled.
Then, I unhooked my other arm that was around his waist and brought my leg up to my chest. I heard him try to say more stuff to me, but I couldn't hear him over the wind and with the helmet on.
I slowly slipped off my helmet and put it between my feet before getting up slowly. The wind whipped around me, but I held my balance. My legs were pressed against his back and my feet were on the seat. I was surprised I didn't slip right off though.
I slowly extended both my arms out like Rose in titanic.
My slightly damp hair was loose and flying in all directions, also slapping my face in the progress. I felt Axel's back vibrate as he tried to yell a
t me, but I just decided to ignore him since I couldn't hear him over the wind anyway.
One of his hands grabbed my leg, preventing me from falling off. He was driving with one hand.
Every part of my body was screaming excitement. I really couldn't care less about my well being, all I cared at the moment was how great it felt as the wind whipped around me. I started laughing for no reason.
I guess it was probably because I was doing something that my usual self would disapprove of. I started laughing a lot louder. Someone definitely slipped something in my drinks last night, and it was affecting me right now.
The motorcycle had to slow down for some distance before it came to a stop in the middle of the road. We were now out in the country, and luckily there were no cars passing by. I slipped my feet off the seat quickly and got off before I would lose my balance.
I walked to the front of the motorcycle and folded my arms across my chest. “Why'd you stop the motorcycle for?” I asked in a whiny voice. Did he really have to stop the motorcycle when I was having so much fun?
He took his helmet off and wiped some sweat of his forehead. Damn! He looked incredibly sexy. Well, wasn't he always? His hair was a little damp from his sweat, making his hair stick to his forehead. He was incredibly pissed off.
“What the hell was that?!” he yelled at me.
I was not expecting that.
“Huh?”
“That stunt you pulled!” he motioned to the motorcycle seat angrily.
Oh, that.
“You could've gotten hurt! Hell, fucking killed!” He stomped towards me.
“I-”
“First you're too afraid to even get on a motorcycle, then you pull a stunt like that?!” he yelled right in my face.
“But-”
“I can't believe you did that! You even took off your fucking helmet- what if you fell off?!” He grabbed my shoulders.
“I-”
“What the hell were you thinking?!” He gripped my shoulders. “How fucking careless can you be? I’m fucking shocked,” he laughed without a single trace of humor.
“Shut the hell up and let me finish!” I yelled at him.
He shut up immediately. I sighed and ran a hand through my tangled hair. “I was just trying to have fun-”
“There are plenty of other ways to have fun without trying to fucking kill yourself!"
“What is there to lose?!” I yelled.
You.
I pushed all the hopeless romantic thoughts out of my head for the moment and concentrated on the situation. He stayed quiet and stared at me. I couldn’t see through his emotions.
His eyebrows furrowed, making him look like a sad little puppy for a moment. “I understand the feeling,” he said in a soft voice. We just stared at each other for a moment.
The only movement was the wind blowing passed us. On either side of the road were grasslands. That's what you get for living nearly the center of America. The very few trees around us were shedding their leaves.
His eyes reminded me of the blades of grass in the summer. They were such a special color. I don't think I've ever seen them before. I took time to just study his amazing facial features. His full lips were in a frown, his perfect nose bridge, his jaw, his cheeks looked so pinch-able…
How did I get so lucky to spend time with this guy?
The guy I had been drooling on since middle school, the guy who got in trouble 24/7, but managed to not get held back. The mysterious guy who bottled up everything.
The guy who was rough around the edges, sarcastic, mean, cruel, but soft and caring in the inside. How did someone like me, the school’s nerd, get so lucky to spend time like a guy like this? I broke eye contact first and cleared my throat.
“Let's move before a car comes,” I said.
“When it comes to this stuff you care about safety,” he huffed.
“I care about your safety, and the people driving.”
He remained quiet and hopped onto the motorcycle. I did the same. We put our helmets on, before taking off he said in a low voice, “you shouldn’t care about mine.”
I didn’t know what to say.
~*~
“Seriously?”I asked in disbelief.
“Well, you said somewhere not awkward….” he trailed off.
He had a point.
And he brought me some place ‘not awkward’…
… for 3 year olds!
We were standing in front of a colorful ice cream shop decorated with a bunch of fairytale princesses. The place was crowded with loads of hyper little kids who were bouncing up and down with ice cream smeared all over their little faces.
“You’re not embarrassed to be caught walking into a place like this?” I asked.
“Nope, not as long as I’m with you.”
I don't know how he did it, but one way or another, he got my heart racing. Just little gestures here and there, little replies like that just made weak. I wonder if I was the only girl he's said it to…
What was I thinking?
He had girls pooling at his feet. Why would someone as incredible as him pay attention to only a nerd like me?
We walked into the crowded shop and went to the counter to order some ice cream. On the way there, I tripped on an ice cream cone some kid had dropped.
Right as I was about to fall on my face, Axel caught my arm in time. My face was merely inches away from the floor. Luckily, no attention was directed towards us. All the parents and excited children were too busy checking out the princesses.
Axel pulled me up and grabbed my hand. He leaned in close and whispered in my ear, “you owe me.” I rolled my eyes before trying to pull my hand out of his warm one, but it was no use. He had a soft, iron grip on my hand- it was an oxymoron in itself- it was like he was delicately holding onto me… tightly. I couldn’t find the right words to describe it.
“Let go,” I tried pulling my hand out of his tight iron grip.
“Why should I?”
“You'll cut of my hand circulation!”
“I'm not holding on that tight, Cinderella.”
I rolled my eyes at the nickname he gave me. “Why do I remind you of Cinderella so much?”
“I think you know why.”
I froze and looked at him in the eye. He had an evil smirk plastered on his lips. I felt something odd in the pit of my stomach. Something was telling me to get the hell out of there, but I didn't. I just stared at him, lost in his eyes.
I shook my head, “but I don’t know why.”
