Status: Chapter 25 to come!

Reach for the Sky

Life as We Know It.

Watching television with Travis had become a staple of my evenings after his doctor assigned him the task of waking up before the hours he usually had his night terrors as an experiment - perhaps disrupting his sleep schedule would help. I thought it sounded like a long shot, but I was just the little girl who was trying desperately to learn how to backflip a dirt bike so I could eventually learn how to backflip my quad runner. I hadn’t broken any bones and there hadn’t been any strange instances - not yet, anyway.

Well, not until that night.

I had managed to figure out how to flip a dirt bike, and had moved from a peewee to a full-sized bike in just one day - even Jolene was proud of the progress - and so, the guys decided that they would throw me a party, during which I would get to watch everyone get very, very drunk. Which was so much fun, because at the age of twenty, I couldn’t legally drink and had no interest in looking that stupid, either. It wasn’t like I couldn’t do that on the track during the day. So I resigned myself to sitting in the corner of the dining room with my cell phone in hand, text messaging Oakley until he went to sleep and left me high and dry, alone with Achilles who wasn’t very good entertainment.

A few days prior, when Travis had gone in to see his doctor, I had accompanied him; there had been a strangely-shaped mole in the middle of my back that he had wanted the doctor to inspect. The biopsy results from its removal (I nursed an enormous, cigar-sized cauterizing wound right over my spine, which hurt like hell) hadn’t come back yet, but also weighed as heavily on my mind as the drunk people backflipping and belly flopping into the pool.

“Scottie, what’re you doing? We’re celebrating for you!” Travis had come inside - the guys were all listening to music and dumping one another into the pool out on the deck - with two beers in hand. He set one down in front of me as he sat down.

“I dunno, I guess I just migrated in when I heard that awful song. And it’s not like I did anything really great.” I shrugged, and ignored the beer.

“What awful song?”

“’Scotty Doesn’t Know.’” I practically spat the song’s name, and took a sip of my water as if punctuating it.

“The worst song, really?”

“I had a boyfriend once; he made it his theme song. He thought Scottie didn’t know.” It was difficult not to re-live all the anger once more - as I did every time I heard the song. Lars had thought that Scottie was a complete retard and knew absolutely nothing, as if I were deaf and dumb; he had succeeded in driving me further and further down my career path.

“Oh. I‘ll be sure to take that off the playlist. That sucks hard,”

“It’s straight, you guys didn’t know.” Travis looked concerned - I was convinced he had been nursing the same beer for the entire night.

“Well… Have you considered going on two wheels and coming to Romaniacs with us?” I couldn’t help but smile at Travis's infinite optimism.

“Uh, duh I’m going to go. I mean, I need to get used to riding bikes again, but I want to do it. I think I can.”

“I wouldn’t ask you if I didn’t think you could.” He clapped me on the shoulder as he stood. “Come on out, I promise it’ll be fun. Just don’t bring anything you don’t want to get wet,” With a laugh, I left my phone on the table and followed the gangly man outsid