It's a Small Town✔️

Chapter 8

"And to correct the shading... you need to stay awake in my class. God bless this boy. Mr. Slen!" The woman shouts and I shoot up like a rocket causing the others to burst into fits of laughter. "I'm sorry" I apologize, immediately going back to my sketchbook.

Why am I even here? My drawings aren't going to get me anywhere.I need money. I don't want to be greedy, but my sister isn't going to be able to live off ramen like I was hoping to.

I rub my eyes still not understanding why I'm even in this class. I don't want to be that know it all kid that complains all the time, but I know how to do this! Like it's just shading creases we learned this in high school. I learn more on YouTube for crying out loud!

I must have slept most of the class because a few minutes later she's turning her projector off waiting for us to finish. I just sped through it real quick. The professor points to the basket upfront which is her way of saying turn your shit in and you can leave.

I don't understand if she thinks she's cool or something, just say to turn in your papers and you're dismissed, but no she's got to be some sort of soldier pointing harshly at the basket the whole time not moving a second.

I weave through people who decide to stay back and talk letting out a shout as I fall to the ground. I look up to just find one of my random classmates. "Fag" he shakes his head and rolls his eyes as I hurry to turn my now crinkled paper in.

Her eyes follow me but she doesn't say anything... or move as I hurry out of the door. Lily is at home with Evelyn and she usually waits for me but once again Evelyn.

I quickly sort things out in my folders on the bench so I don't lose anything and stand. Immediately speed walking to the house. A hand grabs my shoulder and I whip around stumbling out of the grasp.

"Oh it's just you" I let out a breath of relief quickly stiffening up. "Ouch kinda hurts" Axel jokes and I frantically try to apologize. "No I didn't mean it like that- it's just- I-" my brain was going blank I had nothing.

"Oliver it's fine I know, I'm just picking" he nudges my shoulder. "I'm sorry" I groan shifting back and forth. "Do you need something? I'm sorry I just really need to get home to Evie" I explain trying to be as nice as possible.

"Let me give you a ride" he suggests stepping forward. "As in- on your motorcycle?" I ask actually petrified of that thing. "Yes on my bike, it will be quicker" he smiles and I look to the side trying not to blush. He's just being nice it's what friends do.

"Okay" I answer and he takes my shoulder leading me to where he parked. "Here give me your stuff" he puts his arms out and I hand it to him. Axel places it in a satchel on his bike with his other things before leaning over to grab a helmet.

I watch in awe at how good he looked but immediately stopped staring when he stood back up with the helmet. "Here" he hums putting the helmet over my head. He tightens it and lifts the thing shielding my eyes so he can see me.

"Shake your head," he tells me and I give him a weird look but do it. "Okay good" he pats the top of the helmet before turning to get on the bike. "What about you?" I ask and he turns back to me. "I'll be fine, don't worry. I've got a hard head plus I'm stubborn" he laughs before patting the seat behind him.

I watch him get situated and straddle the seat, behind him. Okay, I've seen the movies, I've read the books. I don't want to die on this thing so should I hold onto him. Maybe I should wait for him to tell me. What if he doesn't though. Do I just grab the seat?

I wonder how bad it's going to hurt if I fall off? Would I break something? Does that hurt to break something? Focus! I'm on a motorcycle with my crush. The loud noise of the engine starting brought me completely back and I look around in a panic.

"Are you okay back there?" Axel calls over the noise and my stupid self nodded. "I'm okay" I answer. He turns the slightest bit and smiles before flipping the eye shield thing down.

"Scoot closer to me, you need to be able to hold on" he laughs his smile absolutely killing me. Thank Jesus for this helmet because my face is red. I think the worst part is he watched me scoot forward until I was practically up against him.

I look up to him wanting to be told what to do, so I didn't screw it up. "Arms around me" he continues and I nod before wrapping my arms around him like a hug from behind.

Only then does he turn back. I watch his foot kick up the kickstand and before I know it he's slowly edging it forward, and as soon as we left the parking lot, we were zooming.

I tighten my grip on him, a little more scared than I wished to admit. I still looked around at everything flying by as we raced down the pretty much empty streets.

When you go by so fast it's almost hard to see the ugly. I didn't see nearly as many things as I would have if I was walking and I didn't mind. It made the quiet old town seem homey, beautiful, and almost peaceful.

Axel was right it didn't take long and he was pulling up next to Lily's old rust bucket of a car. That we love dearly of course. He brought the kickstand down and killed the engine and when I knew it was completely off, only then did I get off. I don't want to talk about how much of a struggle it was though.

Axel hopped off easily and I rolled my eyes muttering to myself. "Show off" I continued, crossing my arms. It turned into a panic when he came over to me. "Let me get this" he starts loosening the straps before pulling it off of my head.

I blink rapidly before immediately going to pat my hair down. While he went to put the helmet down, I went over to the satchel. "Is it okay if I get in this?" I ask getting a thumbs up. I open the satchel and pull out my folders and notebooks. I close it, clipping the magnets back together before turning.

I'm met by Axel himself and almost fall onto the bike in a panic. "Get everything?" He asked and I nod knowing my words would fail me. "Did that scare you too much?" He continued and this time I shook my head no. My mouth refusing to open.

"Well then, you should come with me more often" he suggests and at the moment I was really wishing I still had the helmet on. "I'd like that- if you don't mind," I said in a somewhat okay and incredibly basic sentence.

"You can come with me anytime" he moves a hand to my hair flattening it like I was trying to do earlier. "Thank you" I mumble, getting bold and putting a hand on his arm.

He looks at my hand but doesn't shove it away and looks back down at me with a grin. "Maybe I should-" he stops when the door opens revealing Lily and my sister running clumsily to the porch stairs. She turns around and slowly makes her way down them before pushing herself back up and running to me. "O!" Evelyn screams excited, making her stumble and fall.

I take my hand from Axel and move so I'm no longer stuck between him and the bike. The child pushes herself back up and continues running to me the biggest smile on her face as well as the dirt smeared on her cheek.

"Hi, Evelyn" I coo crouching down to pull her into a hug. "Hi!" She shouts as I pull her up and down. She had a diaper and a crop top on as a dress.

Lifting her to my hip I kiss her head before turning to Axel. "Did you have something to say?" I ask and he shakes his head moving to put his helmet on. "Another time" he chuckles and I nod. "Okay thank you for the ride, I'll text you tonight" he freezes for a minute and stares over at me through the helmet.

"You will?" He asked and I quickly nodded. "Okay then, I'll be waiting" he hops on the bike and I blush, turning the other way. Quickly going to Lily who was eyeing me.

"I totally just interrupted a gay moment and I hate myself for it" she sighs as I bring us inside. "I was holding him from behind and I didn't even think to feel his possible abs!" I shout plopping onto the couch.

She shakes her head disappointed in me before pulling out the list. "Okay, we can talk about gay later. For now, little Miss. Evelyn. We need to go shopping." Lily looks the baby up and down who was gurgling to me all her hair pulled up into a ponytail on her head.

"I'm go job hunting tomorrow, then we can go shopping"