How to Save A Life (On Hold)

2. Motorcycles and Me

I quietly set my books down onto my desk which is in the back of the classroom and take my seat.
I like the back. In my mind, I'm less likely to get called on to answer questions and I found that if I don't make eye contact then I'm even more less likely to be picked. Its not like I don't know the answers, I mean, my father is an English professor, it just the 'all eyes on me,' thing that I don't like. The less attention paid to me, the better.
My English class will begin in a few minutes and I wait patiently for the bell that signals class, to ring. While I wait, I hear yelling coming from outside my classroom. It begins to get louder and louder as in approaches my class. Some kids start to flood into the hallway. Others, like me, watch the door and try to listen to the dialogue being said.
"Excuse me!" I hear a familiar female voice shout. "I said, ' you can't smoke in here'!"
"Yeah, I heard you." Another female voice replies annoyed. I continue to watch the doorway to look for any action, but there are far too many people standing in front of the door for me to see anything.
Suddenly the kids crowding around the door start to separate and motorcycle girl walks in, taking a long drag from her cigarette. Small puffs of smoke disperse from her mouth as she flicks the cigarette into the trash and struts toward an empty desk in the middle of the room. She sits down, flips her long, black hair over her shoulder, crosses her legs and looks out the window. As soon as that happens, Mrs. Burrows comes storming in with my schools principal, Mr. Evette. He's an elderly man who's been principal here forever. He's a strict man, but fair and brutally honest.
"That's her!" She points an angry finger at motorcycle girl and Mr. Evette approaches her slowly.
He taps her lightly on the shoulder and says, "Miss, would you come with me please?"
She doesn't even acknowledge that he is talking to her. She just continues to stare out the window. "Miss?" He repeats and again, she doesn't reply.
Just when I start to think she's deaf or has some sort of inner ear issue, Mr. Evette speaks one last time to her. "Miss!" She turns to face him, then in one fluid motion, she stands up, looks at me and walks out of the room; Mr. Evette follows.
"Okay, that's enough excitement for one day! Everyone, back to class!" I hear Mr. Evette shout at the crowd of people watching from outside the door and waiting in the hallway.
As I turn to face the front of the class again, Alexia walks past me it a green tank top and cut off shorts. Her long, blonde hair reaches the middle of her back and her bangs cover her left eye. She really is a beautiful sight.
"What was all that about?" She puts her books down and sits in front of me.
"Uh, I don't know." I lie, and she leans over my desk to kiss me. I smile and kiss her back; my class begins.
At lunch I sit with Alexia and a few other people in the cafeteria. Alexia is pretty good at keeping up conversation with herself, so for the majority of lunch hour all I say is 'yeah', 'okay' and other sounds that make it look like I'm paying attention. I'm a good boyfriend, I swear, but sometimes I just have nothing to say.
Alexia snaps her fingers in front of my face and says, "Luke? Babe? Are you okay?"
"Huh? What? Yeah," I reply not realizing that I had zoned out. "I'm fine."
"What's on your mind?" She smiles perfectly white teeth at me.
"Nothing really." I say back as I grab her hand from across the table. She smiles at me as I kiss her hand.
"Are you sure?" She asks with a flirtatious tone of voice.
"I'm sure," her green eyes sparkle with curiosity, first at me, then at the cafeteria door. I follow her eyes all the way behind me. In the doorway is motorcycle girl. Her black jacket is draped over her shoulder and she's leaning against the frame. As soon as she sees me look she walks away.
"What's her deal?" One of the girls at our table speaks.
"I don't know," another girl replies.
Then the table talk begins. "I heard she was expelled from her other school." One girl named Veronica says.
"I heard she's been to juvie like seven times," says a girl named Julie
"I heard she was a total freak at her old school," adds another girl.
"She's a total freak here, did you see what she did in Mrs. Coopers class?" Alexia adds angrily.
"Lex," I frown at her.
"What, it's the truth!" She frowns back at me.
"Seriously Luke, look at her and tell me that she doesn't scream murderer or something, to you!" A big football player, who goes by the name of Ace, adds in his two sense. I normally wouldn't be sitting with them, but they're friends with Alexia.
"You guys haven't even met her!" I add in her defence.
"Oh, and what you have?" He replies.
"No, but-"
"But nothin'. She's weird, that's that! " He adds.
"Does anyone even know her name?" Veronica says and the table goes silent.
"I think it's Drew, that's what Mrs. Cooper called her. " Julie says and this conversation topic slowly draws to a close.
Motorcycle girl finally had a name, and it was Drew.
After school I take Alexia home in Yoda. She doesn't have her own car yet and she lives close to school, so everyday I drive her home and we talk, just the two of us. It's really nice.
"So," she says putting in her seatbelt. "What are we going to do this weekend?"
"Uh, I don't know, why?" I reply starting the car and putting it in reverse. I check my surroundings and notice that motorcycle girl, I mean Drew, is gone.
"You forgot didn't you?" I hear Alexia say as I put the car into drive. I turn my head to look at her and I see that she's frowning.
"What?" I reply.
"It's our six month anniversary tomorrow." She answers and tears start to form in her eyes. "I can't believe you forgot."
"No no, baby. I didn't forget!" I lie. "I was just trying to save the surprise for you!" I pull the car over and put it in park. Then I undo my seatbelt and move as close to Alexia as possible.
"What surprise?" She sniffles.
"If I told you babe, it wouldn't be a surprise now would it?" I smile and pull her close. "But it's on Saturday," I say trying to buy myself sometime, "not tomorrow, so anything you want to do tomorrow night, lets do it!" I changed my mind I really am a bad boyfriend.
"Veronica is having a party tomorrow night, we could go to that," she sniffles again and I frown. I don't really like parties and she knows that, but I forgot our anniversary so it's the least I could do for her.
"Okay," I smile and she kisses me on the cheek. I move back into my seat and start the car again. All the way to Alexia's I try to come up with ideas for our anniversary. I start to realize how completely screwed I am.
When we pull into her driveway, Alexia unbuckles herself and says, "You wanna come in?" Her voice is back to being flirtatious again.
"Nah, I gotta get to work soon." I reply politely.
"Are you sure?" She says moving closer to me and then sits on my lap. "My parents aren't here, we could go upstairs and I can give you part of your anniversary present a little early." She starts to kiss my neck and I close my eyes. She moves to my mouth and kisses me hard.
At first I give in a little, but then I pull away and say with a little laugh, "no, really, I have to go! My uncle's waiting." I smile, and she gives me big, pouty eyes. "Lex, I gotta go. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Your uncle can wait baby, but I cant." She continues to try to kiss me. I kiss her and consider going inside with her. Quickly I decide that it wouldn't be a good idea and start to pull away again.
"I promise that we will spend lots of time together tomorrow and Saturday, okay?" I speak in between her kisses and soft moans.
"Okay," she says, still trying to kiss me. "Okay," Alexia replies one final time before sliding off of my lap, fixing her hair and leaving the car. She pokes her head into the driver side of my car and says, "I love you," I smile awkwardly and she removes her head from the car as I put it into reverse. She waves goodbye as I back away slowly and drive away.
When I get to work, my uncle is nowhere to be found, which is weird because he always has some sort of lesson for me when I get there. My uncles body shop is a small building that joins to his house. I've worked there for nearly 4 years, and I have learned a lot about cars, trucks and even motorcycles. It really has been a real learning experience for me that I wouldn't trade for the world. I really like working alongside my uncle too. His name is Larry, he's my fathers twin brother.
You may be wondering how my dad became a professor and my uncle became a mechanic, well long story short, my uncle made a point of being the exact opposite of my father, they love each other, they just wanted really different lives. He and my father even look exactly the same, except that my father has a moustache and he does not. They do however, have the same brown eyes, same dark hair and same smile. Their ideas about life are a little different though.
"It's a great world," my uncle would say, "if you don't weaken!" I never really understood what he meant by that and I could never ask because knowing my uncle, he would want me to figure it out for myself. He's good like that.
I'm in the middle of changing someone's oil when he enters.
"Luke, how long have you been here?" His deep voice echoes through the room.
"Not long," I roll myself from under the truck and wipe my hands on my oil rag. He helps me up and then motions for me to follow him. And the lesson begins.
"Kid, don't you do anything fun?" He smiles as we walk into the break room where several others are sitting and enjoying their afternoon coffee. There really isn't anywhere private to talk in this whole building, plus these guys are family.
I give a slight chuckle and say, "nothing that I can tell you about."
He frowns, "Luke, your eighteen years old, everyday I see you here, under a car or a truck trying to avoid your childhood or past, or something. Seriously, what the hell are you doing?"
"I work here?" I reply confused.
"No, I mean with your life, you dumb ass," He laughs and this causes the others to chuckle. "Kid, all I'm going to say is your only a kid once, you got the rest of your life to work. I will not sit here and watch you let your life pass by."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm trying to help you. Now, you can still work here, but I will only allow four days a week from now on. And you can't work Sunday's unless I ask you to."
"What are you going to do about the walk ins?" I say trying to fight for my job.
"I'll hire someone else, maybe I'll get Joey to do them, who cares? Go! Enjoy your life! You only got one." He finishes speaking and walks out of the room. And with that, the lesson is complete.
The rest of the guys look at me and say nothing. Joey smiles at me and I suddenly have the urge to punch him in the teeth. He's not very bright and only got this job because my uncle didn't want to see him go back to jail. I don't remember the lesson my uncle gave me on jail, but I remember it was really terrifying.
My father may be the one with the graduate degree, but my uncle is just as intelligent.
I return to the truck to finish the oil change, and when I'm done I hear the front door bell go off with a little 'ding.' I roll up from the truck and peak around the corner. From where I'm siting I can I see big, black boots and ripped faded jeans. I follow long, slender legs all the way up to a black t-shirt and long black hair. I stand up and take a long look at her, taking in all of her beauty. Then I make my way to the front desk.
"Uh, hi." I say as calmly as possible.
"Hey," she replies; pretending not to know me, but she does, I can see it in her beautiful blue eyes. "I need someone to fix my bike."
Before I can say anything else, my uncle comes up and yells, "hey, Joey! We got someone here who needs some help." Just like an obedient dog, Joey comes running up and asks Drew to come with him.
I turn to my uncle, who seems very pleased with himself. "Luke, I promise I'm doing you a favour. Just trust me on this, okay?" Then turns and walks away.
My uncle can also be a dumb ass sometimes.