Boys & Bikes

Chapter 5

Saturday rolls around faster than my dad's Jeep goes. I find myself panicking as I hear the doorbell.

"Oh my god, Andrea's already here?" I exclaim, not really talking to anyone.

"Lily, your friend's here to see you!" mom yells from downstairs. I race down the steep stairs as fast as my short legs will carry me and casually stop at the door.

"Hey... Andrea..." I pant.

"You ready?" she asks. I nod and we leave together. I look around the street for a sign of her car.

"Where's your ride?" I ask, curiously.

"Right here" she points. My eyes follow the path of which her finger is pointed at and they land on... a bike. A rusty old blue bike with a floral basket on the handlebars.

"A... bike?" I ask in what turns out to be a judgmental voice.

"Wow. You know nothing about Holland, huh?" she giggles. "Hop on!". Andrea pats the back part of her bike, a little ledge above the wheel. She's expecting me to sit on that? Not happening, sis.

"Um, you know, my mom could drive us" I suggest, nervously shifting my weight from one foot to the other. Andrea just shakes her head and smiles.

"You're gonna have to get used to the bike life" she shrugs. "Hurry up or I'm leaving ya here"

I sigh and jump onto the back part of her bike. Let's just say, Andrea's not a great biker. She's swerving from side to side, almost hitting tons of cars. Every few seconds I grab onto her shirt or squeal.

"Oh my god, Lily" she groans. "It's not even that bad. You're just making me unbalanced"

Eventually, we arrive at a large movie theater in the middle of a wide shopping street.

"Let's go!" she claps.

"What are we seeing?" I question

"The nun," Andrea speaks in an attempt at a spooky voice. My heart flutters. Not because I'm scared but because I get to see Willem in a matter of minutes. We enter the movie theater and the smell of popcorn wafts through the air, sending me into a hungry daze. I am engulfed in a hug by someone and I jump. Turning around, I realize it's just Esmé. She's standing next to some girl I've never seen before.

"Hey Lily" Esmé smiles. "This is my friend Kiki. She goes to a Dutch school"

We exchange uncomfortable hello's and wait around for five minutes. I scan the place until my eyes land on the beautiful tall blond boy heading our way. Violin music fills my ears and fireworks go off in my head as Willem approaches us in slow-motion, brushing a large hand through his soft hair. Veins pop in his arms and a smirk comes over his perfect model mouth. I sigh out of pure lust.

"Hey guys," he smiles, stuffing his hands into pockets.

"Okay I'm on the edge next to Esmé and she's next to Kiki," Andrea yells. "And then Lily can sit next to Kiki and Willem can sit on the other side of Lily"

I stutter but no words come out. I glance at Esmé who looks pissed off again and I look over at Willem who is looking at Andrea with an unreadable look on his face, but his face turns into a smirk pretty soon.

"Bit controlling Andrea, huh?" he jokes. Andrea rolls her eyes. We buy popcorn and walk into the theater where The Nun is playing. Andrea winks at me playfully and I pretend not to notice. Way to make things obvious, Andrea.

As the movie begins, we all sit still except for me munching on my popcorn. Throughout the whole movie, Willem doesn't seem to acknowledge me. However, I do notice Esmé looking over at us a couple times, a sour expression present on her face each time. Is she mad at me for something?

The movie ends. I turn to Willem, who's looking at his phone.

"So- So Willem," I begin. I pause for a second until he finally peels his eyes from his phone. "Did you like the movie?"

He stares at me with a blank expression, "It was fine. Kind of cheesy". And with that, he looks back down at his phone. I give up with an annoyed sigh and flop back into my seat. Everyone leaves and I follow them. I tell Andrea I'm gonna go home and she sympathetically smiles.

"Sorry if today wasn't fun," she sighs. "The movie kind of sucked. Did you at least chat with Willem?"

"Not really" I shrug, pretending not to care.

"Guys, I'm gonna bike Lily home" she calls out. Everyone says bye except for Willem, who doesn't seem to really care. I can't ignore the sting in my chest. Andrea leads me to her bike and I get on the back. We ride home, her talking about her last boyfriend and me humming or saying one word every now and then, but my mind remains of Willem. It feels like he hates me and I don't know why.

When we reach my house, I hug Andrea goodbye and head straight to my room, falling down on my new large bed and pulling my phone out. I head to Willem's Instagram. He's got more than 2,000 followers and he follows about 400 people. I scroll through picture after picture. Mainly just pictures of him flexing in the mirror or short clips of him working out at the gym. I scroll down to an older one from about 8 months ago. It's a picture of him and Esmé and they seem to be at some sort of formal together. I curiously check the comments, cautiously looking around to make sure nobody's watching my creepy behavior.

The first comment is from Esmé saying "Love you babe!" with a heart and he responds with a kiss emoji. I hate emojis. Wait- Did they used to date? Is that why Esmé doesn't like Willem? Oh, she must have felt awkward. Hesitantly, I text Esmé.

me- hey i need to ask you something

Within minutes, she responds.

esmé- hey x what's up?

me- you don't have to answer or anything but did u and willem date?

She reads the message and doesn't start typing until 10 seconds later.

esmé- ja we did. we broke up almost a year ago tho. how did u know?

me- just a guess.

I lied. I'm not about to tell her I stalked her hot ex's instagram.

me- but why'd you break up?

esmé- he's a dick.

me- really? what did he do?

My eyes are locked on my phone, waiting to hear what Esmé has to say.

esmé- hey i really have to go. talk later xx

I sigh. Curiosity takes over my brain. Why is he a dick? Did he ignore her a lot like he did to me? Strange... I continue going through his instagram. There aren't any other pictures of him and Esmé together. I guess he archived them. Most of his pictures are of him flexing and showing off brands, him with alcohol or him in giant groups of girls. My heart races when I see a blurry picture of him at a party kissing this pretty girl's cheek. I hope it's just a friendly kiss, but how would I know? The guy doesn't open up to me.

I put my phone on my nightstand and lie on my back so I'm staring at the ceiling. I will get this boy. I want him. Esmé was probably just overreacting because they used to date. I mean, someone can't be that much of a jerk unless you make them act like one, right?