Maybe Nice Guys Don't Always Finish Last

In the morning, Mira woke up before everyone else, surprisingly. She looked down at her phone that was on the bedside table. It was flashing a red light. Mira flipped it open and saw that Joey had texted her. He was just reminding her that they had planned to practice this morning. She glanced at the time and saw that is said 9:30. Rushing through her morning routine, she ended up gearing up before she left. She wore baggy black Fox riding pants, a black and pink jersey, and slipped a pair of Vans on. She would change into her boots when she got to Joey’s. Joey lived on a huge property. He built some dirt jumps in his backyard that included Mira’s favorite feature: a foam pit.

As she rushed through the house, she considered leaving a note for Tally and Kaya, but she didn’t have the time to. Joey always got upset if you weren’t at his house to ride by 10. Mira had fifteen minutes to get to his house that was twenty away. However, she did have time to grab a cereal bar and a Rockstar. She couldn’t ride on an empty stomachand with nothing but alcohol still in her system. As she pulled out into the rode with her bike in the back of her Chevy Avalanche, she flipped her Oakley shades down and she was off. With no traffic in her way, Mira made it to Joey’s right before ten. As she pulled into the driveway, she noticed a black van there. She’d never seen it before. She usually knows everyone that comes here and what they drive. She didn’t recognize this one. Joey came out from the garage as she started unloading her bike.

“I didn’t think you would be here this early,” he said as he leaned against her truck.

“And why is that?” she asked looking up at him.

“Heard you had a pretty good time last night,” he said with a smirk on his face as they started for his garage.

“Who told you?” she asked a little too meanly.

Joey didn’t say anything. He just kept the smirk on his face. Mira heard a bike approach a jump in the distance and looked up to see who it was. Hopefully, it would tell her whose van that was.

“Oh my god, he did not tell you anything,” Mira said rather than ask.

“I think you two need to talk,” he said as he shook his head and went back to the garage. “But I also think you should change out bikes. I don’t think that one can take another good hit like it did yesterday,” he said and Mira followed him into the garage where she kept her spare bikes.

Joey went in the back and got one of her spare bikes. Instead of the turquoise color that she rode now, this one was bright green with no stickers. But Mira didn’t care about the bike. She only cared about what Blake had told Joey.

“What all did he tell you?” she asked walking up to her ‘new’ bike.

“When are you going to get all your shit out of my garage?” he asked changing subjects. This was a normal tease for him.

“When I get a bigger house. Now what did he tell you?” she asked getting an attitude.

“Why’s it matter?”

“Because I wasn’t myself last night,” she said bringing her hand up to rub her forehead. Her head was aching so much from only the five minutes that she’s been here… and it wasn’t from the alcohol.

“Well then you two have a lot to talk about,” He said.

A few seconds later, Blake came into the garage. Mira tensed up. She didn’t know how to handle this situation at all. So, she did what she usually does when things were all going wrong around her. She rode her bike. Her helmet and goggles were already hung on the handlebars of the new bike. All she had to do was get to it and head for the dirt jumps… that she completed easily. All thoughts of Blake and last night left her head the second she started her bike up. She took a few warm up jumps just to get the blood flowing. She back flipped over a few jumps to keep her normal tricks fresh in her mind before heading to the foam pit. She hadn’t thought about any new tricks lately. She just thought it was so much fun jumping into it. For some reason, she wanted to try a 360. It had nothing to do with Bilko either. She thought she pulled it for the most part. She might have under rotated a tad, but she was satisfied. Her energy drink was making her crash already. She didn’t have the energy to climb out and get her bike out too. She lay in the foam for a few minutes taking in big breaths of fresh air.

“Mira, you ok?” hermost favorite Aussie asked from the garage.

She grunted out a yeah and took her helmet off and threw it out of the pit. In the distance, she heard footsteps approaching. She wanted so badly to burry down and hide in the big pieces of foam.

“You’re sure you’re ok?” he asked as he climbed on top of the pit.

“Yeah,” she said not making eye contact with him as she just lay there.

“Do you want some help or are you just going to lay there all day?”

“I’m just fine right here,” she replied as he maneuvered her bike out for her.

After the bike was out of the way, he jumped down into the foam pit with her. She rolled her eyes and looked the other way.

“Just please go way,” she thought as he lay beside her.

She didn’t expect to see him this soon. Sadly, she didn’t even consider his feelings when she planned out and went with her brilliant idea last night. She felt so awkward around him now.

“Were your friends all on your ass this morning?” he asked just as nice as he could be.

“Nope,” Mira said still looking the other way.

They laid there in silence for a few minutes. Mira didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know how he was feeling and she sure as hell didn’t know how she was feeling about the whole situation either.

“Do you… remember last night?” he asked as he sat up to look at her.

“Last night didn’t happen,” she said and climbed out of the foam pit and headed towards the garage. Blake watched her the whole time, stunned at what she said.

“Joey…” Mira said as she walked in.

She noticed his car was gone. Mira didn’t know what to do. Blake was in the backyard, probably on his way to talk to her. She wanted to run and hide, but couldn’t. Her new bike was in the backyard…with Blake. Since they were going to do away with her old bike, she decided to salvage any parts she could off of it. See took all the panels off and started working off the inner parts. She heard Blake making his way towards her off in the distance. She hurried to get the part she was working on off. She was rushing so much that she cut her finger on a sharp part.

“Shit,” she yelled and pulled her finger back. Blood was already pouring through her hands.

“Come here, Chicka. Let me see,” Blake said walking towards her.

“No. It’s fine. Nothing but a cut,” she said not wanting him to come closer.

“Mira, you’re going to bleed to death. Let me see,” he said taking her hand whether she refused or not.

Blood trickled down her fingers as he pulled her hand closer to him. He reached over onto the table and pulled the first aid kit towards him. Before he opened it, he grabbed a clean towel and wrapped her finger in it tight to get some pressure on it.

“Let me see,” he said nicely with some bandages in his hand.

Mira gave him her hand, willing. He worked gently which Mira was thankful for. Within minutes she was patched up. Good as new.

“That should do it. Just watch it. But you should know that,” he said as he lingered pretty close to Mira. She was a little uncomfortable.

“Thanks,” she said with a small smile.

They sat in an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes. Mira wanted so badly to just leave and come back later to get her bike. She’d just gotten the will power to, but Blake started talking.

“So… last night…”

“Didn’t happen,” she said again.

He shot a quick look at her. “What do you mean didn’t happen? A lot of things happened last night. How can you sit there and say none of it happened?” he said as his anger grew.

“Because it didn’t,” she said just as angry as him.

“Mira, we almost had a naughty last night and you’re just denying any of it. That’s so fucked up,” he said slamming his fist on the table.

“Blake, I don’t like you,” she said in an overly mean way.

“What?” he asked surprised.

“I got to go,” she said jumping up and walking towards her truck.

“Mira, wait,” Blake said following her.

She didn’t listen. She needed to get away from himand his sweet Aussie talk. Just as she started her truck, he was right in front of her. She looked at him right in his eyes for the first time and gunned it in reverse. She held his gaze until she was in the road and raced past Joey’s. Right about now she was regretting last night so much.

“Why hadn’t I considered his feelings instead of Kaya’s and Tally’s?” she thought as she was on her way home.