"Della! I'm home!"
Even before Beth could make another call, closing the door, with bags in both of her hands, her daughter came up to her and held one of them from her.
Bethany's eyebrows sprinted upwards, not understanding how could her disinterested daughter in running any errand to help her mother ever, somehow, at the moment was standing here attending to her.
Not saying another word, she took the bags from her mother's hold and walked inside. Beth followed behind her.
"I m smelling something...wait, did you burn something again?"
Right away, she pushed past Della and toward the kitchen, opening up the lid of the pan on the stove.
It had happened before. When the mother was the best cook, her daughter turned out to be a terrible one.
"You got to trust me, Mom!"
The first few words from her as Beth eyed her daughter and back at the cooked mashed potatoes.
"There comes the cooked rice."
She dropped the bags on the floor and went to attend to the rice she let it cook in the microwave.
"The dinner is ready!"
"What is going on?"
Both the mother and daughter spoke out at the same time. The silence followed right after it.
"So there is a party..."
"I knew it...I knew it..."
Beth interrupted her even before she could start. Della dropped the rice bowl on the counter and walked up to her mother who stormed out of the kitchen to the living room.
"The last time..."
"That was four years ago, Mom!"
She yelled and instantly earned a stern look from her mother.
Four years ago was when his friend Jax had invited her to a party. She had just started high school and he was in his last year of middle school.
Knowing her mother, she had sneaked out in the middle of the night and as she came out of her house, he was waiting by the street lane with his bicycle.
"You made it!"
He gave her a smirk and she could not help but smile back as she ran up to him, being very careful to not make any noise and wake up her mother and the neighborhood with it.
"Where is my bike?"
She questioned. The last summer, she had left hers in his home and did not get the time to retrieve it because they had left for Philly to take care of her mother's uncalled father.
"Shit! Forgot it."
He let out as if he regretted it and forgot about it but that was not the truth.
She could tell right through him that he had done it intentionally. The smile on their faces not fading away anytime soon.
He hoped on it and patted the small seat he had installed in the front for her. Their eyes interlocked as she looked back and forth between him and the seat.
Not once did it cross her mind that she might fall off and it could be why because she used to give him a ride behind her baby bike when he did not know how to paddle.
Her trust in him was more than she had in herself.
She came up to him and climbed on it but he tapped on her shoulder, making her halt on her movements.
"Could you ride like a lady?"
That caught her off guard as she glanced at him, analyzing if he meant it. She had never sat that way. She was not even wearing a skirt or a frock.
What was the need for it?
"I can't see if you sit that way."
It made enough sense for her to turn around and climb back, sitting the way he had asked her for, both her feet hanging out as he got ready.
"Shall we?"
"Hell yeah!"
She playfully whispered and screamed at the same time and he started to paddle the bicycle forward.
The empty night street, with just the street lights illuminating the surroundings, the air hitting both of their faces, as he rose the speed.
"There's a speed breaker...there's a speed breaker!"
She yelled, terrified, her position shaking as tried to keep still. It was a not comfortable way to sit for her but he seemed so happy and she felt great.
"Wrap your arms around my neck..."
She followed him right away, encircling her arms around his neck. His hot breath hit the skin of her face.
"Hold on tight and close your eyes."
He said and she did the same. Her face leaning towards him, eyes closed as he hiked up the speed, without applying the brakes.
As her heart raced, anticipating the fall any moment. But she was not letting go of him.
If they were to fall, they would fall together.
And as felt them cycling up and down, she opened her eyes as he shrieked at the top of his lungs, the victory laced in his voice for getting it through without making them fall off.
She could not help but giggle out loud too. The fear and the adrenaline kicking in made her feel things she had not felt ever.
"I would never let you fall."
He mouthed, eyes on her as she could not part her gazes off of his forest green ones too.
"We are here..."
He let out as they reached their destination but forgot to pull the brakes on time and crashed against the gate pillars, falling off the cycle.
"Damn! I knew you guys were gonna collide from afar."
It was Jax who came and stood before them, laughing at them. Shawn glared at him and helped himself up.
Before Jax could forward his hands to help Della up, Shawn slapped his hand away and leaned down to come for her aid instead.
"Does it hurts?"
He analyzed her as she stood up with his help. Jax shook his head.
"Didn't think you would follow up the bet to ride like that, dude!"
That made Della look up. So it was not to have fun with her but to follow up on a bet that he had made with his new friends and he did not even bother to tell her.
"Did they just ride together in that bike?"
Emily Sheldon joined behind Jax and he answered her with a playful yes. She ran her eyes up and down Della.
There was no way, she looked like coming to attend a party when the girl behind her was dressed in some yellow dress, classy as well as alluring.
Meanwhile, she resembled someone who had been just hit by a speeding train on the way.
And the question that punched her hard in the head was how come that middle schooler looked so much more like a mature girl than her, who had started high school?
"Jax asked me and I straightaway told him a big 'NO'!"
She let out and Jax shrugged it off saying that she was no fun.
"Well, at least I m not dumb to ride like that."
Emily spat out and stormed back inside with a sass. Jax excused himself, welcoming both to join in.
When they all left, and the party was still full-blown inside, she asked it him.
"So it was all a bet huh?"
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