How To Stay Afloat (BxB)

Chapter 16: Is that a date?

After we have everything packed we walk outside and I watch Austin put his helmet on. I do the same. When it comes to closing the straps, I'm confused. I thought there would be some button to close it. But there are just two metal rings on one side and the strap on the other side. I should have looked at it before putting it on my head.

Austin sees me battling with the straps and comes over. "Here, let me help." He says and closes it for me. I hold my breath. No need to start sweating. He's just standing really, really close to me. But no big deal.

"Thanks." I say, thanking the gods that I'm wearing a helmet where he can't see my pink cheeks.

Austin puts on gloves and then puts the foot begs in the back down for me. I observe the bike. It's a Honda. Caleb would probably like it since he also likes old japanese cars.

Where do I hold onto? It would be weird to hold onto his waist, right? When I was on the back of Kevin's scooter I always held onto a grab rail behind me. Back then it was a common understanding that holding on to another guy's waist turns you into a raging homosexual. At least that's not a concern anymore. That magic spell won't work on me anymore.

I look at the motorcycle. There is a handle in the back, but it looks a bit slippy to hold on to.

Austin starts the engine by kicking the starter a few times. After the third try it runs smoothly, but it's loud. He looks at me and waves his hand, gesturing to me to get on.

I step onto the foot peg on the left side and climb on, holding onto Austin's shoulder. As soon as I'm settled I grab the handle behind me and Austin starts driving.

He accelerates and I feel the wind hit my eyes and put down the shield of my helmet. The motorcycle is really loud and the vibrations of the engine are strong.

My heart beats like crazy. I'm not sure if it's because I'm scared of Austin's driving skills or because I'm excited to sit on the bike with him. Either way it makes me nervous.

When we pull on the main road Austin passes the cars in between the car lanes to get to the front when the lights are red. I shriek everytime he drives past a car too closely, fearing he'd scratch it. There's probably more than enough room, but it feels really narrow.

If there's more than one lane, I'm always nervous. Back at home I never drove inside the city, just around my hometown, with a lot of turns, but no traffic lights or multiple lanes. I could never imagine maneuvering a motorcycle through a city.

But Austin seems confident in what he's doing. When we halt at the front of the traffic lights he puts both feet down.

"You okay?" He asks me, yelling so I can hear him.

"Yes, all good." I say.

"You can also hold on my waist when I do a turn. That would make it a bit easier to ride. But it's up to you." He suggests.

"Yeah okay." I say, but keep my hands in the back for now.

When the lights turn green he accelerates really fast. Kevin's scooter has nothing on this motorcycle. I hold on to the handle behind me a little harder, the weight of the heavy backpack dragging me slightly back.

Stop and go in the city is quite annoying, we halt a lot of times until we're finally on a street further out of town, with a higher speed limit.

The car in front of us is clearly a lot slower than us. Instead of braking, Austin overtakes it within seconds. Okay, motorcycles are really cool to ride. I hate overtaking cars, especially with my mom's weak car. But it's a lot more fun if you have the power to get ahead within seconds.