It Ain't The Speakers |-/ JOSHLER

17.3: and i døn't knøw why

JØSH'S PØV

We rested for a while at the end of the street, admiring how far Tyler had travelled before taking our time on the ride back.

"I remember when my brother and other kids from neighboring houses would get together... I'd ride my bike and my brother would ride his."

"So you could cycle??" I asked, astonished.

"Nah... Not exactly either. It was slightly embarrassing how my younger brother could go without training wheels while I couldn't, and I didn't know how to take them off myself... So one day when he wasn't around, I secretly took Zack's bike instead."

"Mhm, sucks when your siblings are somehow better than you even though you're the oldest, huh?" I sighed, thinking of Jordan and Ashley. "I feel you." He nodded slightly and continued.

"We used to put cards in our spokes and make our engine sound like traffic, because...you know, it sounded badass," he grinned to himself and I couldn't help but do the same.

"So yeah, Zack liked to use Pokemon cards on his bike, the holographic ones... I was trying to ride alone and almost got the hang of it when one of the cards in my front wheel suddenly fell out and got caught somewhere, jamming the wheel. The whole bike literally flipped over and before I knew it, I was on the ground. Bleeding." He pointed at the scar on his left knee which he showed me last time.

"Same reason why I told you not to brake just now," I explained. "But wait, if you were alone, who came to help?"

"Hmm... There was a boy playing alone in the sandpit at my favourite playground in the neighbourhood. I happened to crash near there." He smiled.

I imagined my younger self building sandcastles long ago, and was reminded of how my father thought I only did that figuratively in the sky. Wow, boy did I hate that phrase.

We rolled back into my backyard and Ty climbed off himself this time, accidentally falling backwards, but acted as if it was 100% intentional. I chuckled and laid down on the grass with him, staring at the fluffy clouds. "Would you like to keep it first, Josh? I think you need a bike more than me at the moment."

"Take it home, it's your..."

"Next time, Josh. I don't want to ride alone... I want to ride with you."

He beamed at me till I forgot how to rebutt.

"...and it also gives me another legit reason to come to your place more often."

Can't argue with that, can I?

-----

TYLER'S PØV

By the time I got home, the sun had coloured the sky shades of golden orange. Zack was sitting on our blue trampoline in the shade of the largest tree in our backyard.

"Since when was the trampoline used for something other than jumping?" I casually thought out loud, announcing my presence.

"Ever since the spike in the amount of homework I've been getting!" My brother laughed. "Life in Zephyrus High is killing me." He lifted up a bunch of worksheets, showing me black ink stamped on white which formed tiny patterns we call letters and numbers.

I sat down on the trampoline beside him. "It's your first year, it gets better."

"It does? I thought the higher you go, the more work you get."

"Well... Yeah, we do... It's not that the amount of homework decreases, but that we get used to it."

Zack furrowed his eyebrows then sighed. "I just miss those days where we had the whole afternoon to ourselves. We'd bake cookies with grandma while watching TV, and Grandpa would take us to McDonald's almost every other day after an hour at the playground."