Biker's Virgin

“You'll have to tell me all about it sometime. Say, is it too late in the semester to join RAG?”

“You want to join RAG?”

“I’ve been thinking about it. I've volunteered in the past. I've just been too busy recently that it’s been on the back burner, but, you know, it's something that's part of you, right? An intrinsic slice of who you are as a person. I don’t know; sometimes I think I have some sort of weird addiction to helping others.”

I smiled. “There are worse things to be hooked on.”

“True. If I had to choose between being hooked on crack and hooked on charity, I know which one I'd pick!”

I laughed, and he chuckled along with me.

“So, you are still interested in coming to the film festival with me, right?”

“Yes, I am. I didn't forget.”

“Excellent,” he flashed me that smile of his that I still wasn’t sure how to take. I admit it made me question what was going on behind it. “There are a couple of films all showing at the same time, right?” he asked. “We have to pick one out and then just watch that one?”

“Yep. There will be a few different screens set up.”

“Alright, so is there any film in particular that you want to watch? I'm alright with any of them. They all seem pretty decent.”

“Hmm,” I said, giving it some thought. “There's a student remake of an old Hepburn film that I’d really like to see on the big screen.”

“No way,” he said. “You're into classic movies?”

“Yeah, I love old movies, especially musicals.”

“Ever seen Singin’ in the Rain?” he asked with a grin.

“I have to admit I have not.”

“What? And you call yourself a fan of

musicals,” he said with a mock scoff.

I chuckled. “Hey now, I didn't say I was some kind of expert, just that I liked them.”

“Well, you absolutely have to watch Singin’ in the Rain. Seriously. It's one of the best musicals I've ever seen, period. It is Gene Kelly at his finest.”

“Sounds like something I need to watch, then.”

“I've got a projector at my place and a killer surround sound,” he said with a grin. “And, what is possibly the comfiest sofa in the northern hemisphere. Not to mention, I make a mean bowl of popcorn. You should come around sometime for a movie. It's better than going to the theater, guaranteed.”

Class was about to start, so I leaned over to get my books out of my bag and out of the corner of my eye saw Garrett staring at me with that same peculiar smile on his face.

“Sounds like it could be fun,” I said. “I'll think about it.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Emerson

It had been a week since I had last talked to Brooke. I knew she was out of town on the volunteering trip she told me about a couple of weeks back while we were working on a lab. I also knew I’d been a complete ass for not calling her before she left. But the truth was, I didn’t know what to say. Knowing she had likely been the one who called the cops and turned us in made it a bit difficult to want to face her.

I had spun it around and around it in my head, wondering of maybe I'd been wrong. After all, there were a lot of variables and there was always a chance I was totally off base in jumping to the assumption that she made the call.

I tried to justify it to myself by saying I couldn’t get in touch with her if I didn’t have my phone. But then, I had also missed chemistry class the day after being arrested when I probably could have gone. And because I still couldn’t bring myself to face her, I skipped Friday’s class, too.

I got my replacement phone in the mail Friday, but by the time I was able to make it to the store to have them switch everything over, Brooke had already left for the weekend. Not that it mattered. I was still pissed at that point and uncertain if I even wanted to talk to her. I hadn’t even opened the text messages she’d sent while I was at Dad’s or listened to my voicemails.