Stories from the Back of His Motorcycle

Vaughn lasted only a few lessons before seeking me out in the hallways and catching hold of my dangling hand. I glanced at him and understood that he wanted to leave, his very eyes were pleading and the slight quirk to his eyebrows made him look lost. I wondered if Vaughn even being here was a mistake, if he was secretly missing from some exciting otherworld where the heroes all drove their motorcycles into the sunset. He stood against the other students – completely out of place. Our very hands he entwined seemed wrong. At any given moment I expected him to be snatched back to where he’d fallen from.

But no matter how beautiful he was or how unearthly he seemed, I wasn’t prepared to skip my last few classes for him. I rolled my eyes, gently wriggling free from his grasp. “It’s only for a few more hours.”

“But that’s too long sweetheart,” he leant against the lockers next to mine as I fiddled with the lock. Passers by kept their eyes focused on Vaughn, their gazes full of admiration and awe. To be Vaughn would entail a lot of unwanted attention and a heck of a lot of desperate girls who tried too hard and fell even harder. I watched a few flip their hair and make their hips sway provocatively although it fell on blind eyes. Vaughn’s stare stayed on me even when I shifted uncomfortably with my retrieved folders in my arms.

“Come on, you can’t really be that impatient,” I moaned “we’ve even got English next.”

Vaughn smirked and slipped carefully out of his jacket so only his white tee-shirt remained. I could understand his movement; the heat built up in the hallway was stifling enough to have coaxed a skirt out of me. “As much as a whole hour of staring at your legs is tempting, I’d rather do it in an open and possibly private environment.”

“Nice Vaughn,” I scoffed “real classy.”

“What you don’t seem to understand, Alice, is that I hardly ever complete an entire day at school. It’s boring. It’s tedious. It’s so utterly unnecessary. Why be cooped up pretending to listen to some loon preach at you when you could be out there?” he brandished at the white rimmed window opposite us. “Life is so much more than this.”

“It’s the law. You may be used to breaking the rules but I quite like them thanks. They’re put in place for a reason and, as much as I agree that there is more to life than this, we have all the time in the world for that.”

He visibly stiffened, his bottom lip taken between his teeth. “All the time in the world, huh?”

“Well…” I frowned at him “figuratively speaking.”

“Sounds like famous last words to me.”

“Sounds like you’ve done enough stalling,” I was aware of the emptying hallway and how Miss Rigeti was probably half way to the door. “Now I’d rather go to class and ‘pretend’ to learn something,” I smiled mockingly before making my way to English. It only took him a few seconds to catch up and haul my body back in the opposite direction. “What the hell are you doing Vaughn?”

“Kidnapping you,” he said smoothly.

“Seriously Vaughn,” I struggled “let go.”

“Are you going to run off back to class or are you going to actually let yourself have some fun?”

“I have plenty of fun. Being in a classroom doesn’t restrict the overflowing, vivacious joy I feel towards life,” I said so sarcastically that I could taste it linger on my tongue.

He chuckled, an arm tugging around my waist so I was brought with him. “You know if you run I’ll just catch you again,” he whispered in my ear. I felt the tingles ricochet down my spine and the goose bumps rise in their wake. There was a double meaning to his words that I didn’t want to absorb. There was something more to the effect his voice had on me that I wouldn’t let myself understand.

When he finally let me go we were already outside and I had already lost my willpower. “You’re despicable,” I made a face “and completely bad.”

“Bad?” he had his familiar smirk spread comfortably across his face.

“Bad news. Bad for me,” my hand swept away my mass of hair to a side “you’re just leading me down the wrong path. Next thing I know I’ll be smoking weed and drinking vodka straight from the bottle.”

“That path’s not so great, and the vodka never tastes any better. You’d be better off without me, huh?”

I seriously contemplated this question. Without Vaughn I would still have my unblemished school attendance, still have my best-friend attached at my hip, still be comfortable with living like a zombie. But I didn’t miss being that Alice any more than I wished I had never met Vaughn.

“Probably,” I smiled “but I’d be a hell of a lot more boring.” The expression on his face wasn’t lost on me. There was a spark in his eyes that only appeared on occasion, his hair spread against his forehead in an uncoordinated mess reflected the sun’s rays. He looked breathtaking and I got the feeling his breath had been stolen too.

“That’s true.” I smacked his arm playfully. “And without you I’d be a hell of a lot more derailed.”

I remembered the Vaughn from a few months ago. The guy that hardly ever showed up at school, who kept a cigarette at his lips as if it were keeping him alive, who smirked at passing girls just to revel in the pleasure of knowing that they had completely fallen in love with him. I knew I hadn’t really changed him but I hoped I had lessened him, made him into less of an extreme. The cigarettes were still there but his lungs were blessed with a few hourly intervals and his attendance had improved to the point where teachers no longer looked surprised to see him around. I wasn’t about to fool myself into thinking that I had caused all of that but he knew I hated him smoking and that I liked school better when he was there. It may have been only words, and a stupid idea, but I believed him.

“Are you ready to leave? I’m in the mood to go get high on my weed and smashed out of my head,” he teased.

I laughed at him and straddled the leather seats of his motorcycle. His eyes lingered longer than necessary on my legs where the material of my skirt had ridden up. He groaned while I put the helmet carelessly onto my head. I felt his body shift the bike, my hair momentarily blinding me, and another soft moan escape his lips. In confusion, I twisted the helmet to see Vaughn’s flushed face turned to examine the lace of my underwear. Blushing scarlet, I pulled the skirt violently down before shoving him lightly in the back.

“Do you want to stop eyeing me up for a minute so we can leave, you kidnapped me after all and I demand to be entertained?”

“I could think of plenty of ways to keep us both entertained,” he started the bike, sending me a dirty smirk.

“Get your mind out of the gutter Hart.”

“Nice panties by the way, they’ll match the colour of my floor.”

I shoved him again just as we rolled out of the parking in a loud purr of the engine. “Seriously Vaughn,” I half yelled against the sharp wind our motion created “I hope you enjoyed the view because that’s the only one you’ll be getting. Might as well change your carpet huh?”

He just roared in laughter as we stopped momentarily at a red light. His foot came down to balance us, his body shifting around quickly to flip up the visor to my helmet. Then he kissed me. Absentmindedly, my arms curled around his neck to get us closer as his lips worked against mine, only to find the helmet cracked against his chin. He winced and recoiled just as horns from behind told us that the light had long since turned green.

We laughed at each other, the visor falling back down so my eyes didn’t tear up with the sharp wind. I could still taste him on my lips and I refrained from licking them, wanting to savour it for as long as possible. Sometimes with Vaughn I just couldn’t wait, my hormones overthrew my brain and made thinking impossible.

But the realisation that I liked Vaughn a lot more than I should had sunk in. I couldn’t deny it anymore, couldn’t trick myself into thinking otherwise, because I had kissed back with just as much passion as he had applied. If the helmet hadn’t been in the way I was sure I would have fallen into him completely. I silently thanked the helmet, and prayed that next time I lost my head there would be something to stop me from breaking every rule I had ever created for myself. Vaughn wasn’t the only one capable of rebelling, only for him it probably wasn’t against himself.