rainbows

twelve

Sound of footsteps slows down as Ryan stands beside me. Panting I tilt my neck up to see his face. My hands are on my knees as I look at him. He's looking in front of him, he resembles his father from this angle.

"Why do you have ginger hair?" I ask puffing.

"What?" He looks down at me

"Your hair" I point "they're red." I deep breathe.

"Oh." He looks at the lock of hair falling onto his forehead. "Grandparents" he blows at the hair" they're ginger headed."

"Aha." The road has a few small cracks. For someone who runs, I don't even know why I was panting, maybe lately I haven't that's why.

"You okay?" He asks

"Yeah" I slowly nod my head suddenly interested in the worn-out bench to my right.

"Umm,er-Okay," He says unsure "Um let's go?" He starts dragging his feet.

The sound of his footsteps receding come to my ears, heaving sigh of relief I stand straight and turn around. He arches his back as he moves.

I'm glad he didn't ask me why I ran. To be honest I wouldn't even have an answer if he had asked me. I don't know why I ran, running has helped me with my anxiety in the past but lately I've not been going on runs and it kind of just happened at that moment. I follow him silently. Wait, Where are we going? How am I so dumb that every time we're in the middle of our journey I ask this question because somehow I didn't ask it before?

"Yo," I catch up to him "Where are we going?" He looks at me with a dumb expression and points in front slightly to his left.Oh.His house stands a few metres away. I can't believe I ran so far.

But the main question that pops in my mind  is "Why are we going to your house?"

"Do you wanna walk?" He shakes his head with disappointment and keeps on moving.

"Okay," I shrug. He seems off. But I can't ask him, if I act like I usually act we'll be in a great problem, it'll be awkward. A LOT AWKWARD. So I remove the sarcastic comment I was going to throw from my head and start following him.

He passes his house and turns to his left. Where are we going? He jumps over the fence and enters the backyard. Why didn't I know he had a backyard? He opens a door, I stand quietly with no clue what to do. A dusty bicycle is thrown onto the grass with a loud thud. I back away a little. He arches his eyebrow at me and says "That's for you."

"Why?" I roll my eyes at him. Seriously? I didn't even ask for it.

He huffs "Trust me you don't want to walk."

I roll my eyes but don't say anything.

"Now help me get it cleaned." He looks at me.

I flare my nose at his statement. "I didn't even ask for it."

"Please?" He asks.

"Fine. But-"

"But?"

"You'll pay for lunch."
I'm not fucking paying.OK, The thing is I didn't bring money with me. Ok, I'm dumb, I admit.

"It was my turn, anyway, you lost your shot at making a deal." He laughs
Rolling my eyes I scoot down. I run my fingers over the metal. Dust particles stick onto my fingertips. It's blue and black coloured. I think of backing out from the idea but he already seems off so I go for it. "Fine, let's get this shit over with."

Thirty minutes later we're standing on the road with both of the bicycles. My clothes didn't get dirty, It wasn't much of a work, Ryan did most of it.