Before You Go

chapter twenty-four

Eliza

October 20th, 2009, Whistler, BC

"How can you ride a bike so slow and not fall?" I ask Leon. He's pedalling, practically in slow motion, next to me as we meander down the trail. Above us, the last of the red, orange, and yellow leaves are rustling in the cool autumn breeze.

"Practice," he replies.

I make a small noise of indifference. I'm slightly jealous of Leon – he's a natural at everything. Give him something new and he'll learn how to master it within days, sometimes hours. It's so unfair.

"Keep frowning like that, Liz," he smirks, "and your face is going to freeze that way."

"Funny," I drawl, shooting him a look.

The smile on his face broadens and he turns his attention to the trail before us. Somehow, he manages to keep treading beside me as I walk. I would normally be biking beside him, sometimes even racing him down the track, but my bike is in the shop for repairs. The last time Leon and I went mountain biking, I wiped out and bent the handlebars. Mom wasn't very happy with me – she told me to take the wreckage to my dad and get him to pay for it. Which I didn't do. Instead, I paid for the bike repairs myself.

My mom's suggestion to make my dad pay for the repairs was another one of her ploys to make me pit my parents against each other. And although they've put me through hell during their divorce by trying to bend my opinion and convince me that one is better than the other, I know it's wrong to add fuel to the raging, destructive wildfire between them. I don't want to choose sides. I don't want to make things worse than they already are. I just want to live my life the way a teenager should.

"Wanna sleep over tonight?" Leon asks. "Mom's making her famous chicken cordon bleu tonight. After dinner, we could binge a bunch of horror movies."

"That would be perfect," I reply. "But I'll have to ask my mom. I doubt she'll approve, though. You know how she feels about us being alone in the same room."

Leon snorts. "My mom and dad will be home. Maybe I'll come over and ask your mom for you – she never says no to me."

"That's because everyone loves you," I reply, rolling my eyes.

Although he doesn't take my compliment, he also doesn't deny it. I don't think anyone, except for a few stupid people, could hate Leon. It's impossible.

"Well, well, well," says a male voice to my right. "Look who it is, boys. The Lovebirds."

Leon grabs the back brake and hops off of his bike, taking his place next to be as we stare ahead and just to the right at Mateo O'Connor. His cronies are behind him, flanking him, if you will."

"What do you want, Mateo?" Leon sneers.

Out of fear, I thread my fingers through Leon's and squeeze his hand. I've never let a man intimidate me or tell me what I'm worth, but Mateo scares me. No matter how many times I stand up for myself or the girls on the basketball team, he still flings degrading comments at us. He also gets in a lot of fights at school, making him one of the most well-known bullies on campus. But what I don't like about him, what really makes me grind my teeth, is the fact that he makes fun of Leon and me on a regular basis. He tells us that we're too old to be having sleepovers and that we're probably doing a lot more than cuddling or hanging out. Once, he was even pigheaded enough to spread a rumour about be losing my virginity to Leon; he implied that we had sex under the bleachers during one of the school's football games. That day, Mateo even had the audacity to mimic what my moans – that he supposedly heard – sounded like.