Stories from the Back of His Motorcycle

“What was all that about yesterday?” Delia asked me, referring to the ‘Vaughn incident’ for the millionth time in the last 24 hours. I refused to answer, simply shrugging and making a face of complete disgust. It was only yesterday since that atrocious English lesson but the memory of humiliation and indignation still felt fresh. We were headed to our English room now and just the thought of having my desk back and being able to breathe fresh air was enough to set a smile firmly on my full lips.

“Don’t look now,” Delia stopped abruptly in the doorway so I was left loitering in the hallway. “But Vaughn has returned for round two.” I didn’t have to move to see over her head so it was with ease that I sought out Vaughn’s slumping figure already shaped to the seat next to mine.

“No,” I groaned out through gritted teeth. “This is not fair, why can’t he just go back to his own class or even skip school altogether?”

“That’s amoral Alice, why don’t you give the boy a chance to prove himself?”

“Oh God,” I groaned again, leaning against the hallways’ wall to avoid going in “he’s got you under his spell too.”

Delia puffed herself up as much as possible (not a lot) and shook her array of tumbling blond curls away from her face. “I am under no such spell. I just think that there’s more to Vaughn then just the common misconceptions and pretences.”

“Oh yeah I’m sure he just loves working down at animal shelters and helping little old ladies cross the street.”

“You’re so grouchy this morning Alice,” Delia swept herself into the classroom and left me to the slowly deserting hallways. Maybe that was because my parents had kept me up half the night with their continued row? Or maybe it was because my car had stalled again this morning? Delia’s intellect started and ended with academics – the idea of deep emotions passed her pretty head by like an impenetrable breeze.

I pursed my lips into a thin line and tried to think of a focus point to channel all the unpleasant thoughts I knew were about to bombard me. And then I was through the doorway and sitting myself carefully down.

Vaughn’s eyes took in the way I almost hovered over my chair, making sure it was at the furthest corner away from him. He saw straight away how my hands very folded neatly in my lap. He knew that I was beyond uncomfortable and still his pale lips turned up at the corners into a devastating smile.

“Morning.”

I tensed still further – if that was possible. My mouth was cemented shut.

“Not feeling very talkative today?”

I was being the bigger person in not responding. Soon he would lose interest and just have to content himself with actually doing some work instead of bothering me. It would be like all those times Mom told me to ignore my brothers with their stupid teasing – Vaughn was just a better looking version of my brothers in full annoying mode.

“Do you know what you’re supposed to be doing?” he whispered, bringing me out of a particularly deep reverie. I dared a look at his smirking face and couldn’t help but scoff. “Ah so you are alive.”

I gripped my pen harder and turned to the sheet in front of me – starting to jot down meaningless notes. I just needed to get on with this English. I just needed to make it through another hour and then he would be gone. He would.

“You spelt ‘harmony’ wrong.”

I started in surprise and saw that I had indeed misspelt ‘harmony’. When had I ever misspelt such a basic word? Angrily, I scribbled out the word and replaced it with ‘peace’ just to spite the boy beside me.

“Do you want me to help you spell it? I’m good at spelling,” his tone was undeniably mocking.

“Why are you here?” I snapped.

He raised a thin eyebrow at me, eyes darting around unashamed across my face. It was with enough scrutiny to make my cheeks flush and cause my eyes to harden. Down along my squared cheekbones to my small mouth with its stupidly pouted quality which I couldn't remove no matter how annoyed I looked.

“I was sent here by that teacher. He thinks that I can ‘broaden my social horizons’ in this enviroment with a bunch of smart asses.”

“Well this ‘smart ass’ doesn’t want you here. Can’t you at least change seats or something, go and bother another girl who would appreciate your suffocating presence more than I,” we spoke in half hushed tones so that Miss Rigeti wouldn’t become too suspicious.

“But I bet you do appreciate me being here,” he was staring me down. I hadn’t had four elder brothers without some experience when it came to pointless yet necessary staring matches so I let my eyes fixate with his.

“You don’t intimidate me Vaughn.”

“Don’t I?”

“No.”

“Well then why are you all the way over there?” His arms stretched out to grab the bottom of my chair and carefully drag it back to somewhere relatively over the work-space. With his movements, I’d let out a subconscious flinch. He saw it and smiled grimly. “Not intimidated by me eh?”

“Just shut up. Let me, a constructive part of society, get on with some work,” I turned pointedly back to the sheet and my forlorn pencil. It was just an instinctive movement away from him – it only meant that I was wary of the rumours and his looks. I wasn’t scared.

Only then, as the silence washed between us, did I realise that I could breathe relatively easily without complete suffocation. Peering discreetly over, I saw the window that had been so stubborn yesterday was ajar only slightly. The definite smell of smoke was there but it was bearable. Vaughn shifted away from me in his seat so I could only see his beautiful profile and the hard jutting of his chin. I couldn’t help but stare for slightly longer than necessary before catching myself.

How odd. How utterly and completely strange.

That window hadn’t opened itself.