Kaidou's Complete Guide to Playing it Cool

Licensed

Risen from its sleep, the sun yawned and blew its rays throughout the sky in the form of wind. With my window slightly ajar, the delicate song soothed me from my sleep, and my eyes opened in a flutter. Instead of the chirping of birds, a slew of mechanical hums groan and enter my room along with the wind. Alarmed, I rush to inspect the strange noise. The sound had a familiarity to it, and I soon found out why. After walking up to my window-I realized it wasn't a sound at all, but the drone of a motorcycle engine; Aren's motorcycle engine to be exact.  

"Hey!" he shouted from the yard,"Get outta there, we've got places to be!" His enthusiasm was an attack on my drowsy morning-self, and so was the bright,sunny day outside. Nevertheless, I shouted back. "Places? It's Saturday!" "Exactly!" that response set me into my weekly routine-before-routine and by the time he had begun to tap his foot, my arms were all packaged up in red. Occasionally, I would throw questions out the window as I got ready, but he wasn't much help. So I was dressing up for who knows what, and I was dressing slowly at that. My only reference of how to dress though was Aren. Sitting upon his bike's seat encased in a beaten-up leather jacket, his inglorious posture was accompanied by a white v-neck; both items cloaked in cuts and stains. In addition to his scruffy upper-half were his legs, which were all bell-bottomed out in denim. He kept a toothpick dangling on his lip, and his shoe on the pedals of his bike. Of which was shining in the sunlight-making him and the patch of pavement he was on shine with it. The outfit he was wearing didn't provide much insight, unless the place we'd be going to was a biker family reunion; so instead I threw on a shirt and some pants and hurried out the door.

As I passed by Sora and Toki's rooms, I made sure I had the essentials. Alright, phone, house keys-"Shun-kun." Before I knew it I was in the kitchen, and so was my mother. She stood in my way with an eyebrow raised and the rest of her in close-knit with hesitance. "Where are you off to?" she asked. I know she didn't mean to sound mean, but its just the way she speaks. You wanna know what I think? I think she doesn't want to appear  vulnerable to her kids. So in an attempt to seem neutral, she actually comes off as cold. Whenever adults yell or even stiffen their tone with me though, I don't handle it too well- so we're not exactly the perfect pair. "I'm-I'm gonna go hang out with Aren." My response was so soft and mumbled that she became even more skeptical of me. But it was the truth! I don't know why she's so suspicious, I've always been good; she's just waiting for me to slip up! "Aren?" she asked, which basically translated to,"A likely story." My bandages were hidden under the sleeves of my shirt, and they were slowly being unraveled with each moment of my anxiety. "He's this guy who goes to my school, I was just gonna hang out with him today." She was eyeing my sleeves as I spoke until she caught a murmur of the motorcycle buzzing outside. So that was her first impression of Aren. An unkempt guy on a loud bike idling in our walkway. Oh boy.

Even though I convinced her to let me go with him, she was still glaring at me through the window. I did everything in my power not to look at her, but her stare was burning holes into my back. Did you think she would let me off that easy? Oh no,no,no. Once I walked up to Aren she pointed at the two things in my hand. Helmets. Big, clunky helmets. She wouldn't let me leave until we put them on. I felt so lame! That helmet and her judgement weighed down on me as I hopped on the back of Aren's bike. "Hold on." he said it loud enough for my mother to hear him inside, just so he could look like a guy who really cared about safety. Of course, I also cared about my own safety, so I did as I was told and wrapped my arms around his waist. For a split second, I felt-I don't know-weird. But nothing was weird, we were friends and we were doing friend things. Whatever it was it went away pretty quickly, because as soon the bike started up I couldn't feel anything but fear.

It had been quite a while since I'd been on a motorcycle. I want to say that the last time was probably when I was getting my license. And that was very briefly, even then I thought that I would go splat! So when we darted out of the driveway I was trying as hard as I could to conceal my panicked state. Without thinking I dug my face into Aren's back, stinging my senses with the scent of leather and tobacco. I didn't want to see or hear anything, the world disappeared save the rush of wind blasting against me. Aren knew something was up when I tightened my grip on his waist, and he almost looked back at me too but he decided to keep his eyes on the road. "Everything okay back there?" he asked. The words didn't come to me so I merely responded with a quiet "Mhm." For some reason I could tell he was smiling even though I couldn't see his face. "Hey man, look up. Feel the wind through your hair!" That was the last thing I wanted to do right now and he knew it. "C'mon, Shun. You're missin' out," At that moment I wanted to tell him that the only thing I was missing was a heart attack, but I trusted him, so I looked up and opened my eyes.