by Tara Wimble
“Cool.” Janice blinks down at the pants again and then her face whips up. “Wait, date? Santos’s on a date?”
Robin pauses and decides she’s said too much.
“No, no hey! You can’t leave me hanging after saying that!” Janice skips after her.
Robin backs up. “I said I wouldn’t say anything until she told everyone else. Besides, this isn’t any of your business.”
Janice’s astounded. “Santos’s love life is totally my business. We’re scrabble buddies!”
“Have you ever thought that she might not want all your enthusiasm on her first date?” Robin puts on a helmet and walks over to the gloves. Somehow she still manages to pull it off and look attractive. What? She’s not blind to her roommate's looks, she just prefers people who are a little more motivated. And older.
“My enthusiasm would get her all the way up the aisle.” Janice counters. “She’ll be upset about that when she’s twenty three and alone.”
Robin stops. “You scare me sometimes.”
“Look, I’m not saying that I’m a charmer-”
“Good.”
“-but people like me Robin. I can’t help that people like me.”
“I’m starting to debate that.”
“Please. Look at my face and say you hate me.”
Janice leans against the neon waterproof jackets and gives Robin the look she gives to her grandma when she fakes how much she loves her Christmas presents. It’s a real winner.
Robin groans. “I can’t even lie. How do you do that?”
Janice pretends to dust off her shoulder. “You should see my bedroom eyes.”
“No.” Robin walks away from her. “Does this helmet make my head look big?”
Janice mutters under her breath because all helmets make your head look big, Robin is no exception.
“I heard that.” Robin sighs. “I guess I should get one though.”
“It sure would suck if you died. Alone. On the side of the road.” Janice drags on. “Single. Because I’d cockblocked all your attempts at romance because you didn’t tell me who Santos was dating on this fateful day-”
She’s sure Robin just cursed Jesus Christ at her dramatics but it could have been the chime of the door to the shop opening.
It’s then that Laurel walks in, red faced and smiling, with open arms ready to take whatever Robin needs her to carry. Right on time. Janice is seconds away from jumping all over her with questions about her date and how nice she looks when she spots someone through the open door, walking on the other side of the road.
“Janice,-” Laurel opens up, intending to throw out a disclaimer of sorts when-
“Laurel.” Janice puts her hand up. “Tonight when you get in I will grill you like a sandwich but right now my future wife is slow motion strolling over there and I need to go.”
Officer Sorenson is actually handing out a speeding ticket to the car over the road, bending over to place it on the window as she does. That’s like a bat signal to her. A bat-ass signal.
Laurel sighs but it’s more out of amusement than anything. “Alright. Go.”
Janice quickly hugs her. “You beautiful girl.”
“Cheating on your wife already?”
Janice sprints out of the door. “Hell no!” In her hurry she almost knocks over a blond girl following Laurel in. They all look back to see Janice skipping across the road in chase of Officer Sorenson.
“Think she’s going to embarrass herself?” Robin asks.
Laurel rolls her eyes. “Oh definitely.”
Robin hands one of her wheels to Laurel before noticing that the girl Janice almost knocked over is standing there with Laurel. “Oh, hi.”
Laurel grins at her acknowledgement. “Yeah,”
Robin smiles. “The date’s still going then?”
“Um,” Laurel waits for her date to nod. “Yeah, Amy, this is Robin. Robin this is my date. Amy.”
Amy is sweet and smiling and shorter than Santos, just enough that Robin can imagine them fitting together perfectly. When it comes down to it, fitting matters.
“It’s nice to meet you.” Robin tells her before handing over a set of handlebars. “How good are you at carrying things?”
To her credit, Amy laughs. “I’m semi-professional.”
Robin laughs. “Awesome, because I have a ton of this that I need to store in my room.”
***
THE Bike Shop actually exists, is her first thought when she finds the place, not that Lexie doubted Robin at all but it sounded a bit too good to be true. The college managed it and taught students how to fix their bikes, and apparently let eighteen year olds run around with heavy tools and equipment after a short safety talk.
Perfect.
Lexie stares at the blue and yellow sign, hugging herself to keep warm, while she waits for Robin to show up. The parts that her dad drove up a few days ago sit next to her. The frame that she’s been keeping for a year or two is the only thing not in a box. It’s red and too small for her so she doesn’t have anything keeping her from giving it to Robin.
Except the last person she built a bike with she was dating. So there’s that fond memory ready to hover over her every time Robin asks a question about what she’s doing.
And there’s zero chance of them making out in the back of her parent’s garage either. Lexie ducks her head, pressing the heel of her palm to her face. Well, not yet anyway.
“Hey!” Robin’s voice is accompanied by wheels against gravel and the familiar clacking of her skateboard. She has a bagful of something heavy, with one handlebar poking out of the top of it, and a wheel in each hand. Again, it shouldn’t look so cool or attractive, but it does.
“Hi!” Lexie jumps up and takes one of the wheels. “Here, let me get that.”
Between thanks and hi and Robin taking off her bag, Lexie gets caught in a tight hug against Robin’s tight body-
Stop Lexie.
“You ready for this?” Robin grins.
“Totally.” Nope. Not at all.
“Awesome. Let’s get this inside and build a bike!” The skateboard lays flat and pushes some of the heavier things towards the Bike Shop.
Robin finds them a working area. It’s not as busy as she’d thought it’d be but Lexie figures that they’ve come at a time when classes are all synced up and keeping people away. A few of the student staff spot them coming in and offer to help with their things before giving them a rundown of how things work.
“Okay, so I need you both to read this-” Jake, his nametag states, slides them each a piece of paper. “And sign at the bottom that you’ve read the safety notices and that you’ll be responsible for your own repairs, your workspace, the tools and everything. When you’ve done that just bring them back and then call over if you need any help.”
Lexie’s laugh is contained but Robin picks up on it anyway and smirks at her confidence. They sign away and hand the forms back. “I think we’ll be good here.” Robin says. “Lexie has it on lock.”
The frame is the first thing they bring to the table. Robin makes a show of doing the heavy lifting by rolling up her sleeves while Lexie feigns disinterest. When it’s on there though Lexie points out what they’re going to do.
“I’m pretty sure that this will fit you because it’s only a little too small for me,” Lexie states. “I want to measure it against you though after we put the wheels and the seat on and everything.”
Robin presses her hands on the table and listens intently as Lexie maps out the plan for the bike. Gripped wheels, padded seat, a light that would probably blind and she vetoes Robin’s suggestion of having a fixed gear because everyone is already worried that Robin’s going to injure herself through her travel methods.
“You’re gonna let me fix on some pegs though right?”
Lexie gasps so loud as she's putting the frame onto the work space table that a few people turn around.
“And defile my baby?” She shudders. “This is a thing of beauty. You
’re not going to cheapen it by adding pegs.”
“Not that type of bike?” Robin raises a brow at Lexie’s exaggeration.
“Not that type of bike.” Lexie pushes up her sleeves over her shoulders, ignorant to how Robin watches her, and takes the seat clamp and the post. “Grease that for me?”
Robin blinks for a second before taking the post. “Like how much?”
“Like, a lot.” Lexie mocks. “All over it. Otherwise this will rust.”
“Rust on my baby?” Robin catches her eye in amusement.
Lexie passes her the grease. “Shut up and grease.”
Robin utters a grinning ‘Yes ma’am’ before opening the pot of grease Lexie brought with her and covering the post in it. Once she’s finished Lexie has her put it together and hold while she grabs the seat to attach.
“Next?” Robin asks holding her messy hands in front of her.
She doesn’t look grossed out by it and waits for Lexie to pass her a rag to wipe them off. A warmth flutters in her chest like the day Robin asked about the bike and slowly settles the longer they’re around each other. She’s getting comfortable.
“We’ll do the headset.” Lexie murmurs lightly. Robin stands by her side, as her extra hands, but ends up nudging their shoulders together more than actually helping.
They stay until Robin has to go to class and they don’t get all that much done with Lexie double checking and taking things back apart as she goes. Robin jumps in every now and then to suggest painting the frame or adding stickers until Lexie cracks a smile and pushes her away from her bike.
“My baby.”
“Our baby.”
“We’re sharing the bike?” Robin asks. “Because I don’t know how I feel about someone else having her hands over her body.”
She says it and all the blood rushes to Lexie’s face causing a spluttering laughing or choking sound to emit from her mouth.
“You alright there?” Robin asks. Lexie manages to wave off her concern as she picks up the forks for the bike to carry on.
“Fine. Can you hold the frame for a second?”
“Sure.”
Once they’ve secured that Robin actually looks at the watch on her wrist with upset, announcing she has a philosophy class to attend. She won’t lie, she wishes Robin would ditch it and carry on with her but she’d rather not have the girl she’s crushing on fail all of her classes before Christmas.
“When do you next want to meet up for this?”
Lexie thinks. “Well, Laurel mentioned something about going out next Friday but if you want we could meet up before then to work on the bike?”
Robin nods. “Sounds good. That’s if it’s open.”
Lexie hums in thought before turning to look at the boy that helped them set up with a curious expression. He’s been hovering around them, looking slightly impressed, for the last hour. “Don’t worry.” She tells Robin with a grin. “ I’ll get something worked out.”
It’s a good enough answer and Robin packs away her things and grabs her board. She pauses for a second, debating something in her mind, before she opens her arms out in front of Lexie.
Caught off guard Lexie doesn’t drop the wheel she’s holding until Robin coughs awkwardly. “This is the hugging part.”
“Oh, shit-” Lexie almost drops the wheel entirely in her haste but saves it from the floor. “Sorry.”
Robin’s laugh gets muffled in her shoulder. Hot breath and the smell of her shampoo and the arms that tighten in the small of her back. Lexie’s cheeks feel the warm contact.
It doesn’t last long enough.
“Next time, we may even progress to secret handshakes.” Robin promises. “But only after you master hugging.”
“What, you’re saying I need practice?” Lexie puts on an offended expression as Robin backs away from their workspace. “At hugging?”
“I’m available when you realize you need it.”
Lexie can’t think of anything to say back to that before Robin is stepping outside and jumping on her board, beginning the perilous journey to her class. Squinting to watch the first person that Robin almost runs over makes her realize that, actually, she doesn’t need to say anything at all.
She stays a while longer. She doesn’t have any classes until later, and even then she might skip that, because she’s finally back doing what she wants to do.
When she first told her dad that she wanted to make bikes for a living, he told her to sleep on it. So she did, every night for two years after her fourteenth birthday, while she slowly started saving money from all of her Saturday jobs and birthdays and Christmases to buy handlebars and wheel stokes and seats until her dad walked into the garage one day when she was sixteen and realized just how serious she’d been.
Of course the first few bikes she’d built hadn’t been amazing and mostly sold to neighbours and family but seeing her covered in grease and dirt in front of something she’d made had changed her dad’s mind. Since then he’d turned around completely, only stepping in to stop her getting ripped off or curbing the amount of bikes she keeps at any one time.
The dream about the bike shop gets closer every day. A college education. A small time job during the summer. A down payment on space somewhere with an apartment not too far away.
Lexie fixes the forks into the bike and looks over at the student staff lounging by the counter. It takes her a second to put everything down and approach them with a determined look on her face that they all instantly straighten up at.
“You wouldn’t have any job openings would you?”
Jake looks at her, then at the bike behind her, and smiles.
“I’ll see what I can do.”
***
“GO AIMES!” Laurel screams louder than the rest of them as her friend streaks forward.
The crowd does a good job to overwhelm Laurel’s voice but a few more of them are saying the same thing. Lexie grins at the commotion and the electricity of being in the stands for the soccer game. It’s been a week since she and Robin started building the bike. A week of joking, and testing, and Robin reminding her about that first hug with every accidental touch before Janice had stormed into the Bike Shop looking like a smurf, literally, and handed them tickets to come to the game and be social because ‘you’re not the only two people in the world!’ and something about making googly eyes that she's not sure Robin heard.
“Damn Santos.” Janice recoils into Lexie’s side. “She’s still warming up on the sidelines.”
The four of them are quite close to the back of the team’s bench so that Laurel’s friend glances backwards with a smile. Lexie laughs at Laurel’s enthusiasm but she’s can’t deny the feeling everyone is getting from being in the stands. This is the first college sports match she’s ever been to and so far it’s not disappointed.
“How do you know Aimes? Aimes? Is that her name?” Lexie leans over and asks.
Laurel looks past Janice, who is looking at her phone, to be heard. “Amy Diaz. She’s taking one of my classes this semester. We’re..." She pauses looking at Janice for a second. "-project partners.”
Robin whistles loudly as a show of support. Lexie isn’t sure Robin has ever met Amy before. “She’s a forward?”
“Starting this year.” Laurel nods. “She wants to go pro.”
Janice scoffs without looking up. “Her and everyone else.”
Lexie nudges Janice.
“What?”
“Be supportive.” Lexie says. “If you were up there we’d be cheering you all the way to the Olympics.”
Janice sighs but her focus is still on her phone. “I painted my face didn’t I?” It’s an impressive shade of blue that makes her unrecognizable actually.
Laurel yells quickly as Amy subs into the game. Lexie misses sport.
“Besides.” Janice claps along with everyone else as Amy runs on. “Olympics don’t consider being this hot a sport yet.”
Robin’s eyes widen in amusement as Janice makes an obnoxiou
s pose with her hand on her hip. Lexie can’t help the look on her face. “Wow.”
“Whatever,” Laurel brings the conversation back to the field. “Don’t tell me you wouldn’t kill to be out there playing.”
Robin is the only one that openly nods. They’ve lazily kicked a ball around campus a few times, and she’s pretty sure Laurel’s hinted about trying out but Lexie is nervous enough about keeping up with her work this semester. Maybe next year.
“You want some paint?”
Lexie turns at Robin’s voice. She’s got the little tub of blue face paint in her hand and she looks kind of nervous to be asking. Which is weird since Robin is pretty chill about everything.
“I don’t know.” Lexie is already turning towards Robin as an answer so the paint is uncapped.
“C’mere, you might as well.” Robin’s thumb is covered in blue paint, like half of her face, to support their school’s soccer team. She’d stolen it from Laurel when they’d all met up outside the stands. “Once you go blue...”
“I’m-” Too late, Robin is already touching her cheek. “Good.”
“You’re good when I say you’re good.” Robin winks and sets about painting Lexie’s face.
It’s chilling in a good way. That cool feeling spreading over her face combats the flush she feels standing this close to Robin. Her crush is cute according to Janice but she can’t talk until she stops hanging out in the back of squad cars with Hope McJustice and not making out.
She thinks Robin kind of knows and is just too nice to say anything. As far as she’s seen, she’s cool with girls who like girls, she’s friends with Janice after all. But she’s not sure that matters when it’s Robin that she has a thing for.
Robin concentrates on not painting Lexie’s hair, ignorant to the thoughts running through Lexie’s head.
This is a girl that misses class more than she misses church. Whose twitter feed is a mixture of bible quotes and pictures of her skateboard.
Damn.
“There.” Robin wipes the last of the paint on her chin. “You’re good.”
She could totally fall for this girl.
***
AMY hits a sweet goal into the back of the net which has Janice screaming until her throat is sore. Laurel gives her a look as if to say ‘I knew you’d get into it’ and that’s that.