Never I Thought

Chapter 3 - It's Always Me

"Mmm, take us through it again?" Penny asked.

Mabel, Penny, Samantha and I were standing in her kitchen. Flour was all over the countertop and dusted through Mabel's dark hair. We had no idea that once we turned the beater on that the flour would freak out and fly everywhere, smoking up the kitchen as we breathed in the white powder.

"He was out the front of his house, on the phone shouting at someone," I started to retell the story.

Robin had been standing in his front porch as I rode my bike past him. He was wearing nothing but sweatpants, not even socks, as he was talking harshly into the phone trying to keep quiet but letting his anger overtake him. I had never seen him angry. No one at school had ever seen him even a little upset.

Between my shock and trying to listen in on what he could possibly be talking about, my bike hit uneven concrete and gave way, both of us toppling to the ground and into a bush next door to his home.

My mind knew if he caught me than it would never be the end of his taunting and after his gym comment earlier today, there was nothing more I wanted to do but avoid, avoid, avoid.

So I ran off before he had a chance to ask a stranger if they were okay. I ran down the street my face warming up, my heart beating violently like it was struggling to pump the blood around my body and if it were to fail me then we would die. I would die on a sidewalk and Robin wouldn't even blink an eye.

By the time I knocked on Penny's front door, I finally had time to collect my thoughts. My thoughts including, oh my god I forgot my bike, just as any normal person would. The palms on my hands were slightly grazed and I had a feeling my knees were too but my jeans covered them.

The three bursted out laughing again. I ran my tongue along my teeth and gave them all dirty looks.

"It's not funny," I mumbled.

"No, of course not." Mabel agreed but her face gave her away, "it's not like you literally left your bike behind just so Robin wouldn't have known it's you."

"If I was him, I would've been so confused," Penny's sister, Samantha commented.

"Alyssa, my beautiful, Alyssa," Penny said gently, but her smile was still there on her lips, "you're the only one I've ever known to have a bright, red bike. I think he knows."

"You think so?" I groaned and put my head in my hands. Big mistake. I felt the flour fall off my head and onto my eyelashes.

"You're the only one who rides a bike, period," Mabel added which only made me feel more humiliated.

"I just don't understand when he's around I'm always falling and hurting myself, granted that textbook incident, he most definitely tripped me."

"Maybe it's because he's hot and you just don't wanna acknowledge that," Penny flashed a smile and tossed her strawberry blonde hair over her shoulder.

"Didn't you mention the man was shirtless? Now that would have me trippin' and fallin' every time I catch a glimpse," Mabel said.

"Especially if that man was Matt," I added and squeezed her cheek with my floured fingertips, not wanting to acknowledge Penny's comment at all.

Penny pulled the freshly baked cupcakes out of the oven, the poof of hot hair followed by the scent of fresh cake filled the aroma. They weren't the most appealing cupcakes, with the sides a little more crispy and the top a bit flat but I knew a little icing would fix that in no time. She placed them on a cooling tray and took off the pink oven mitts she had on. Now we were ready to make the icing while the cupcakes cooled.