An excited crowd had formed two chaotic lines, jumbling to be the closest to what had been chosen as the starting line, a line that had been marked with nothing more than two empty beer cans.
Zach was nervously watching them, getting the impressing they were jeering at him as he decided on the full safety gear, as opposed to Valerie, who had done little more than put pads on her knees and elbows, finishing her minimum of safety gear with a small helmet that barely covered the top of her head.
She noticed Zach watching, blew him a kiss, then grabbed the handlebars.
Zach sighed, closed his visor and put one foot on the pedal, watching a girl in a skirt, so impressively short that it might be called a belt, walk onto the track. When she turned around and faced the raced he recognized her as Sawyer’s girlfriend, Sophie.
Sophie smiled at them, pulled a fluorescent yellow handkerchief from her cleavage and held it above her head.
Valerie revved her engine to loud cheers from the crowd.
Zach silently swallowed, tightening his grip on the handlebars.
Sophie let go off the handkerchief and Zach watched the cloth whirl to the ground. Valerie opened the engine and the deafening sound of a tire’s screech on the asphalt drowned out the cheers. It coughed up so much that Zach could barely see the handkerchief hit the ground. Not that he needed to, because as soon as it did, Valerie’s motorbike roared to life and shot into the night.
Zach blankly stared for a moment, then it occurred to him he should be doing the same and, starting with a three second disadvantage he followed her onto the poorly lit highway.
Lowering his head, he opened the throttle, slightly concerned about the sudden wobble in his front wheel. In the distance ahead of him, he saw the red blur of Valerie’s tail light, appearing to mock him for not keeping up by swerving across the lanes.
He shifted to the fifth and saw the zigzagging motorcycle come closer. Valerie looked over shoulder and took the right line, waiting for Zach to catch up. Confident he was about to overtake her, he couldn’t suppress a little grin, but right as he was about to, Valerie sped up again, shooting away from him. Zach cursed, switching to sixth gear, struggling to even keep bike straight and barely registering the people that stood on the road to indicate the course. All he saw was a bit of green light to his right, which would be gone faster than he could say ‘glow stick.’
For some time, all he saw was Valerie’s rear light until it was suddenly joined by two more, flanking the red red square. Valerie’s lit up to show she was slowing down, which was Zach’s chance to pass her. He shot past her and the truck that had crippled her speed, then switched to the right lane, hearing the angry horn of a truck behind him. He bathed in the white of the brights behind him, then was glad to return to the darkness of an unlit stretch of highway. In his mirror, he saw Valerie follow.
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He cut through a turn, seeing a group of bikers cheer from the top of a surprisingly wide overpass and felt a shower of cold beer cover him as he raced through. He fought to keep the bike straight in the sudden wet and almost slipped, barely keeping the bike straight. The sudden fright made the brief moment of overpass slightly scarier than it should be and he was glad when he reached the other side, bathed in the orange light of the street lights.
He was less thrilled to see the white of Valerie’s headlight already gaining again, but, being in the right lane, he had the advantage. The off-ramp was already coming.
Slowing down a little, he took a hard turn left past a group of cheering crowd, turned left again and hoped the off ramp would give him that little boost in acceleration he needed.
Valerie needed only half the amount of time Zach had to reach the other side of the overpass and was hot on his heels before they had even properly returned to the road.
Briefly he saw the flashing lights of a police cruiser in his rear view mirror, but they stopped almost immediately, clearly deciding the pursuit wasn’t worth the hassle.
Then, for some time, the only ones on the road were Valerie and Zach and, much to his surprise, Zach was still in the lead. Suddenly a green station wagon, with a large stuffed moose strapped to the roof, appeared, for some reason driving in the exact center of the road and taking up half of both lanes.
Both riders veered to avoid, each on opposite ends of the car and met each other back in front of it. The car’s bespectacled driver leaned out to yell at them and, even though he was already receding fast, Zach had some idea what was being shouted at him.
To his relief, the round trip was over a lot faster than he had expected and he was happy to see the finish line, where two girls were starting to wave checkered flags to welcome them back. The crowd parted to let them pass.
Zach felt the triumph of victory, but, unsure how much time he’d need to come to a stop, he had already started to slow down as to not endanger the crowd. Valerie had no qualms, she sped up and overtook him, flying past the checkered flag first. Zach cursed and continued to slow down, stopping a slight bit behind Valerie, who simply slammed the brakes and came to a neat stop, where she was pulled from her bike, showered with beer and congratulated with her victory.
The girl pushed the crowd away, threw her helmet to the nearest and walked up to Zach, neatly extending a hand.
“Nice try,” she yelled over the crowd, “Wanna go again sometime?”
“If Yuki’s okay with it…” he replied holding his helmet under his arm and scanning the area, wondering where she was. It seemed odd she wasn’t waiting for him, then he suddenly spotted a group of black sedans.
Yuki was in the back, having a conversation with a man in a black suit and seeming more relaxed than she should be, especially as a familiar face was smoking on the hood of the car.
...Vinnie.