Spencer's Face (Buckeye Hawks) (11 page)

“A fight?” Daddy asked me.
“Did you win?”

He was in a good mood. Thank
God! “Yes, I did.” I told him victoriously. I knew that would help my case. He
would hate that he was putting us through all of his army training and have us
still losing fights. I went into a play by play of the fight for my dad. His
face filled with satisfaction as I told him about the moves he’d taught me, and
how well they worked.

“What was the fight about?”
he asked.

“A boy!” my mom said as if
she was disappointed in me.

“Vicky thought I kissed her
boyfriend, but I didn’t. She wouldn’t believe us that it was Sandy who kissed
him. She wanted to beat me up for that, but Zane held her off. But then she
started saying really mean stuff about Spencer. And he was right there
listening to it all. I told Zane to let her go.” I relayed to my dad.

He looked at me with a smile.
“I’m not grounding her. You can ground her if you want to, but I’m not going to
punish her for standing up for that boy. He’s a good kid, and he couldn’t punch
the girl.”

I smiled at my dad. For once
in my life, I felt like he was actually proud of me. I’d lived my entire life
trying to make him proud of me, and this is what does it? Odd.

“You were taking up for Spencer?”
Mom asked.

I nodded my head. “She was
being really mean, Mom, trying to embarrass him in front of the entire school.
Calling him ugly, and talking about how no one wanted to even look at him, and
he should just go off somewhere and die.” Okay, I was embellishing a little,
but come on...Who wouldn’t in this case?

“Okay. Do the dishes tonight,
and you’re done. We won’t ground you. But fighting won’t stop people from
saying mean things about that boy.”

“I stopped her.” I told my
parents. “She won’t be doing that again.”

My dad gave me a funny smile.
“I’m proud of you, Taylor.” He patted me on the back.

I went to the kitchen and
started on dinner. It was part of my regular chore list, not the punishment
chore list. After dinner, I did the dishes. My mom gave me my phone back. I
immediately texted Spencer, Zane, and Sandy to tell them the good news. They
were ecstatic, almost as happy as I was.

I picked Spencer up on the
way to school the next day. We talked about the fight on the way. I was a
little embarrassed that I was practically a guest on the Jerry Springer show.
School was going to be weird today. I had a lot of explaining to do. Everyone
had to hear about the fight. The teachers told me what I’d missed. I had to
carry around a note to all of my teachers explaining the suspension. Most of my
teachers didn’t count it against me. I did get one zero on a test, but it
wouldn’t hurt my average too much. I’d still make an A in English. That class was
too easy.

Spencer and Zane ate lunch
with Sandy and me all week long. On Thursday, our practices let out early. Zane
decided that he wanted to go to Spencer’s house for some reason. I felt like a
third wheel, so I bowed out. I went on home. It was the first time I’d been
home early in months. I called Sandy to come over and stay the night. We took
my motorcycle out for a ride. Sandy had started me riding years ago. We used to
sneak off to Hassayampa store when we were fourteen. We didn’t even have a
driver’s license then, let alone a motorcycle license. Now we both had our
licenses. We still laughed about our wild and careless days back then.

I wanted to go by Spencer’s
house to talk to him and show him how sexy we looked on the bike. We drove by,
but Zane’s car wasn’t there. Darn it. They must be out cruising around. I
started to text them, but I didn’t want to look like I was too forward.

“Hey, let’s sneak off to Hassayampa
store like we used to.” Sandy yelled to me from the back of the bike.

I laughed at her, then
shifted into the next gear. She had to grab tighter to hold on. No wonder the
other kids thought we were gay sometimes. We probably looked like a couple
riding the bike like this. We took the bike down the back roads to Hassayampa.
We were legal now, but the back roads were more fun than the paved roads
sometimes.

I don’t know why Zane wanted
to stay the night tonight, but I owed him big time for setting me up with Taylor.
Not that he gave her to me, but he agreed to break our pact that we wouldn’t
date girls that the other was interested in. I didn’t know when I’d ask her
out, but I wanted to do it soon before she gave up on me.

“So, how’s it going with
Taylor?” Zane asked me as he drove down the road.

We were driving to Arlington to
check out the volcano. Zane swore it was the coolest thing I’d ever see. I
wished we were driving to Taylor’s house instead.

“Pretty good, I think. Why?
Have you heard something?” I asked, suddenly worried. She’d tell Zane if there
was something wrong. They were friends after all. Well, they were practically
best friends.

“A little paranoid there.
Aren’t you?” he asked me, making fun of me.

“Maybe.” I admitted. “I’ve
never had someone like Taylor interested in me before. I’m sure I’m going to
screw it up somehow.”

“You won’t screw it up. Unless
you don’t ask her out soon. You may want to step it up a little, dude.”

“You’re sure she’s going to
say yes?” I asked him to be sure. I’d never asked a girl out before and this
was almost paralyzing for me. “What if she says no?”

“She’s asking me why you
haven’t asked yet, dude. Ask!” Zane raised his voice to get his point across.

“She is?” I asked him,
laughing. She was too cute. “You know I’m about to really fall for this girl.”

“I know.” Zane said.

“This isn’t going to bother
you?” I asked him. Damn I wanted him to be okay with me dating Taylor. I don’t
know what I’d do if he wasn’t though. I’d come so far with her already, I don’t
think I could turn back if I wanted to now. And, I really didn’t want to.

“I’ve watched her go through
a few other guys, dude. One more isn’t going to put me over the edge.”

“I’m sorry.” I said. I don’t
know why she didn’t like Zane as a boyfriend. Mary sure seemed to like him.
Hell, all the girls at school seemed to like him. He’d been kind of a loner
until I came along. I don’t know why we hit it off so well. I was glad that we
did though. I needed a friend. I was tired of being a loner myself.

“I’ll live.” Zane said, then
he let out a wolf whistle. “Speaking of the devil herself.”

A bullet bike came toward us in
the oncoming lane and passed us. They were driving pretty fast. I didn’t see
who it was. The riders were both wearing helmets.

“What are you talking about?”
I asked him. I looked around for a car on the road.

“Your girlfriend is just
about the sexiest thing alive when she rides, dude.” He said to me. “Don’t hit
me for saying that.”

“Rides?” I asked him. I
turned all the way around in my seat to see if I could see the bike that had
just passed. It was turning around in the middle of the road and coming back
our way. “That was her?”

“Her and Sandy, I think.” He
said. “We’ll see in a minute.”

Zane pulled off the road and
stopped his car. We stepped out of the car. I was really hoping it was Taylor. They
drove up on the bike and killed it. She put the kickstand down. She and Sandy
both stepped off and pulled off their helmets. Damn she was sexy. Leather pants
and a tank top. Sandy was wearing the same thing. She looked pretty good too,
but I couldn’t take my eyes off of Taylor. She actually rode a bike. I was
having a little trouble digesting that fact.

“Hey you two!” Taylor called
to us. She hugged Zane, then Sandy hugged Zane. No one hugged me. I wondered
how close I had to be to her before she hugged me too.

I smiled at her. “You look
like you know what you’re doing on that bike.”

“Well, thanks.” she said
sarcastically but playfully.

I shouldn’t have said it that
way. “I meant you look really good riding.” I corrected myself to her. I didn’t
want her to get upset with me.

“Oh she knows it. That’s why
she rides it.” Zane said, teasing her, then slugging her in the stomach
playfully.

He was touching her too much
for my taste, but I didn’t feel like I had a right to say anything about it
yet. Maybe after I asked her out, I could say something to Zane.

“Where did you learn to ride
like that?” I asked her.

She pointed to Sandy
immediately. “My idol. She still kicks my butt.”

“Wow!” I said. I was
impressed.

“Hey we’re going to the
volcano. Do you two want to come? You could follow us.” Zane suggested.

Say yes. Please say yes. I
wanted to spend more time with her.

“Sure. But we need to run
back to Hassayampa and fill up. We’re running on reserve now. Sandy and I don’t
want to push this thing again.”

I laughed at her.

“We’ve pushed this bike several
times.” Sandy said, laughing at them. “It’s got a smaller thank than our other
one. We keep forgetting to gas up.”

“And, there’s no water around
to dip our shirts into this time.” Taylor said.

“Damn, wish I would have had
some binoculars that day.” Zane said teasing her, almost flirting with her.

She slugged him in the
stomach.

“It wasn’t pretty.” Sandy
said, laughing again. “We were sweating so much that day.”

“We can get some Cokes and
chips and eat at the top.” Zane suggested. “Can I ride it to Hassayampa?”

“Sure, if I can drive your
slow ass car.” She came back at him. She handed him her helmet.

Sandy looked confused for a
minute, then walked behind Taylor. She decided that she was going to ride in
the backseat of Zane’s car instead of on the back of the bike.

Taylor drove Zane’s car to
the store. “Do you ride?” she asked me.

“I used to have a Kawasaki.”
I told her. “We sold it before we moved out here. My uncle said we weren’t
going to have room in the garage for it.”

She made a funny face that I
didn’t completely understand. “You can ride mine if you want.” She offered.

“Will you ride on the back?”
I asked her. I’d love that, her arms around me.

“So you want me to ride
bitch?” she asked laughing.

“That’s usually my spot. I’m
usually her bitch. But sometimes she’s mine.” Sandy called from the back seat,
laughing.

These two girls were a riot.
They were always cracking jokes. Lunch every day last week was a laugh a minute.
We pulled into the store parking lot and stepped out. Zane was already gassing
up her bike for her. We went inside to pay for it. Sandy handed me her helmet,
and Zane handed Taylor’s helmet back to her. This was going to be fun. I’d
never ridden with a girl behind me before. Several guys, but never a girl.

I drove her bike all the way
to the volcano. I loved the feel of her bike, but I loved the feel of her arms
wrapped around me even more. I had to control myself. When we arrived, we all
drank some water and made the trek up the volcano. It was a rocky terrain that
we had to maneuver carefully.

There were several girly
screams, even one from Zane which caused us all to laugh. We had so much fun.
It was almost like a double date. I’d never been on a date before, so I
couldn’t be sure. I was having more fun than I’d ever had in my life almost.
When we arrived at the top, we looked at the hieroglyphics on the rocks up
there. They were really cool. The view from the top was pretty amazing. Zane shared
his binoculars with all of us. Zane and Taylor told me the stories of the
Indians who had lived here a long time ago. It was really interesting.