Blame it on our Fates

f i f t e e n

  "How did we get here so quick?" I shouted through the wind. After the police lost our trail, he still hadn't slowed down much. Just a wee bit.

  "Shortcuts, Brown, shortcuts. I just took us out from one of the narrow lanes and avoided all the places that could have gotten us attention," he shouted back.

  "When did you move here from USA?" I asked, genuinely curious.

  From beneath my touch, I could feel him tensing. His posture went a little stiff and even through the wind, I could hear him inhaling sharply. I knew I hit home. I opened my mouth to apologize quickly but before I could say anything, he spoke.

  "I moved here in my freshmen year," he said with a strained and a pained voice. I heard a hint of pain in his voice. Knowing I had hit too far, I decided to drop it for now.

  I didn't say anything. But then I remembered something.

  "Oh God Nolan! It's a school night! What the hell? What if we reach late and I sleep in? Hailey will be so angry with me," I started panicking. I heard him chuckle.

  "No wonder they call you 'Nerd Of The Year,'" he muttered and I glared at his well sculpted back.

  I realized we were only a few streets away from my place. I could see that the sky was clouded even when it was dark. I knew it was going to rain. You could never guess the weather in London. It rained almost every other day.

  "Where are we going now? I don't want to be late," I said, my voice whiny.

  "You'll just have to see," he replied in his cryptic way.

  Soon, the rain started but it wasn't raining cats and dogs but just a light downpour. I tried shielding my face from the chirping water but to no avail. The water had already drenched me from head to toe, leaving my derriere of course. It wasn't like I could stand on the bike and try to get my derriere soaked, too. Well, now that I thought about it, standing up didn't really seem like a dangerous idea. Well, in reality, it was. Obviously. It was crazy. Like way too crazy.

  I didn't know what would Nolan's reaction be if he saw me standing on the back seat of his bike. But I didn't care about his reaction. I really wanted to live. Either that, or I could regret not doing one of the craziest stuff in my life for the rest of the life. Did I really want that? Regret and 'I wish's' for the rest of my life? I didn't. Simple. I wanted to live in the moment and that is what I did. Slowly but sure steadily, I started buckling up my legs and the bike swerved a little. I raised my legs and on the seat and holding onto Nolan's shoulder like my life depended on it, well it did, I stood up. I could hear Nolan shouting saying how crazy I was to do something like that. But at that moment I didn't care. The only thing I cared about at that moment was that I was free. I felt free. I closed my eyes and the rain continued to ambush me, soaking me. My hands were gripping Nolan's shoulders and I was crouching not completely standing. No matter what, I didn't really have that much of bravery of foolishness to stand completely still and upright. My Jordan's firmly pressed against the back seat of Nolan's seat.

  It was crazy really. The old me would have never ever done something like that. And yet here I was. But that was the thing. The old me. The old me that was scared just to have too much fun. But the old me wouldn't even have deteriorated her grades. It was a priority for the old me. And maybe, just maybe,  I am not the old me anymore.

  The bike soon stopped and I snapped open my eyes. We were near a local park where I had been many times with Cassidy and Hailey. I look down at Nolan and fear crippled inside me. I knew for  a fact that Nolan was flabbergasted. There was no way in hell he would have been happy about my craziness. I didn't know what came inside me and I did something as foolish as that. It was a good thing Nolan had a control over the bike or else we would have been on our death beds. Nolan removed his helmet and I cautiously  bent my legs over and sit on the seat. Once down, I got down, I looked at Nolan to start scolding and say how childish it was of me to do something like that.