Under The Helmets

Rachelle Lorenzo spent years making herself smaller for someone who still wasn't satisfied. By the time she walked into a dance studio and slapped the rear fender of a stranger's motorcycle, she had forgotten what it felt like to take up space.

Malcom Vidal is Viper Vidal on the track - precise, calculated, one of the fastest riders in the country. Off it, he keeps everything at arm's length and everyone at a safe distance. He has rules. He has arrangements. He has never once brought someone into his world the way he keeps bringing her.

She wasn't looking for anyone. He wasn't supposed to want to be found.

Under the Helmets is a story about two people learning - slowly, honestly, in the middle of race weekends and fishball carts and one very opinionated cat - what it feels like to be loved out loud, in the ordinary places, by someone who never asks you to be less.

Written in Filipino/English. Code-switching throughout.