Dark City

39.

Tom tossed Alex his helmet and they climbed onto his bike. She tried to ride side-saddle, but Tom insisted it wasn't safe. "Just pull up your skirt. Hurry!"

She bunched the long skirt up around her thighs and straddled the machine like a horse, clasping her arms around Tom's waist. He struck the kickstand with his heel and they launched forward, motor buzzing.

"Watch the exhaust pipe. Lean with me, when I lean. Got it?" Tom had to shout as the wind picked up. Alex's eyes widened when she saw the icy roads twisting out of the forest. Her heart pounded in her chest as the bike accelerated.

"Hold on to me!"

Arms tightly wound around her Perseus, she rested her head against the back of his neck and closed her eyes. They raced down winding roads, passing tall cabins with snow covered roofs and wooden columns. The trees and lawns were coated in white. The roads were plowed, but every turn and lean that came their way made Alex think they would slip and be dashed across the pavement.

It's just like riding a horse, she told herself. Her mother would scream if she knew. "They'll have to scrape you up in a bucket!"

Tom tilted onto the onramp of I-9. As they got up to sixty miles an hour, Alex felt herself lifting off the seat. Cold air rushed up her sleeves. She gripped tighter, her hair flicking in her face. The gale froze her nose and cheeks red, but her soul was singing. Heart full of helium, she kissed behind Tom's ear.

They reached their exit, came to a stop at a stoplight, and Tom planted his feet on the road. He must have felt her shaking against him, because he took off his jacket and had her put it on.

"Thank you for coming back," she said now that he could hear her.

"It's nothing."

The light turned green. Tom kicked up his feet and they propelled into the intersection. It seemed impossible that he wasn't cold.

They tore up the streets of Shark River Hills. Low to the ground and drunk on the raw power of the engine, they zipped around the shady lanes. Alex felt immense relief when she saw the vine-covered brick face of her house. Tom dropped her off out front, but when she took off her helmet and handed it to him, she froze. His wrist had a phone number written on it in blue pen.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Whose number is that?"

Tom glanced at his wrist and scoffed at the nuisance of it. "Nobody's. Nobody I want to know."

"Are you going to call her?" Alex asked. Before he could answer she started up toward her front door.

Tom parked his bike and chased her. He grabbed her wrist, whispering, "Hey, cut it out. Look at me."

Against her better judgment, she looked into his eyes; and they were as blue as the winter sky.

"I woke up on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, and you don't even know what I had to do to get back to you. Don't believe me? Just ask Nathan. I had nobody else I could call to pick me up."

Alex frowned, conceding at last with a nod. "I get jealous easily."

"That's okay. I kind of miss that in a relationship."

"Is this a relationship?" she said, looking away and trying not to sound too hopeful or too unaffected. Tom chuckled but didn't answer. They stood in silence for several long and drawn out moments until finally she said, "Do you want to come upstairs, Brash?"

"Are you parents home?"

"Nope," she said, itching at the flakes of hairspray on the back of her neck.