Tina awoke from her sleep still curled in a ball and half remembering a dream. Light was beginning to fill her room and she could hear movement downstairs. She felt funny as she got up and looked at herself in her vanity. The air seemed still and her muscles felt like they needed to warm up before they'd be any real use to her.
Slowly she descended the stairs and sat at the table watching her family eat breakfast. Her slightly overweight father was reading the news on his phone while he ate. Her mom greeted Tina with a good morning while still wearing her jogging outfit that looked like it was designed more for showing off the sexiness of the wearer instead of aiding in the activity and then turned again to discuss details of something with Daniel.
Daniel.
The memory was coming to her and as she looked at him use his toast to soak up the yellow from his sunny side up eggs, Tina felt herself have to swallow. Was it getting hot already? She wanted to fan herself. She looked at him and if she could see herself in the mirror at that exact moment she'd see her pupils dilate. She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly and started to get light headed.
"Good morning, pumpkin." said her father and Tina was pulled out of her daze.
"Morning, daddy."
Tina's mom was putting a plate of pancakes in front of her just as Daniel was getting up and grabbing his jacket from the back of his chair.
"See you later." his mom said to him as he went for the door to the garage.
Automatically Tina got up and followed him without paying much notice to anything else. She stood at the door frame for a moment as she watched Daniel put on his jacket, zip it up, and get on his motorcycle. She tried to walk over to him in a nonchalant manner and realized she was barefoot and was still only wearing her skirt from the night before.
"Hey, Danny."
"Hey." he answered as he was putting on his gloves.
Tina felt awkward. She felt uncomfortable in her body. She felt like she wanted to fidget. What was she doing? What was her plan?
"I think we need to talk."
"Ok." he answered but then added, "Can you pass me my helmet?"
"I mean it. I think we need to sit down and have a proper serious talk."
"Ok. As soon as I get home."
She wanted to delay him. It was suddenly dawning on her just how dangerous this motorcycle was. She had never really seemed to care before but now she did.
"Don't you think it's getting a little hot for this?" she said as she grabbed at the zipper of his jacket.
"Not when the wind hits you at 45 miles per hour."
"Oh. Right. ... Anyway. Um."
"You want to have a talk. Cool. I'll be home later."
"Sure. It's not urgent or anything." Tina was lying. It was urgent. It was very urgent.
He waited and just looked at her. She saw his eyes trace the outline of her body. She knew what he was thinking. If she had seen him do that the day before then she might have felt differently but in her mind she discovered that she wanted him to think that. It was a thought that was becoming less and less of a shock to her.
He looked up at her eyes again. "My helmet?"
She smiled and let out an embarrassed laugh. She grabbed it and handed it to him. It was a boring helmet. Just white with no other interesting colors. His motorcycle wasn't fancy either. It wasn't one of those big bikes you see mean looking bikers ride. Daniel's license only let him ride up to 125cc so it had to be one of those.
He put on his helmet and started up the bike but before he pulled out she felt the need to fasten the strap on his glove and give him a once over to see if anything was out of place. Daniel tilted his head as if to ask why she had done that. Tina waved and he waved back and then rode off.
As Tina watched him leave she found herself biting her nails. She'd never done that before.
Tina returned to her pancakes but as she ate she found the corner of her eye looking up at Daniel's plate still on the table. Why was she staring at it? She was loosing her mind. Yet she couldn't look away. Even when her mom picked it up and brought it into the kitchen, she couldn't look away.
...
Historic downtown was lame. The town was only founded back in the 1970's. How 'historic' could it possibly be? The city council had decreed that all the buildings downtown had to have an old-timey look to them to attract tourists but as of yet that industry was still very much not happening.
Talk. Tina wanted to talk. That was something that Daniel couldn't let happen. Not yet. Talking would lead to analyzing and that could lead to an emotional explosion. It was best to let it all cool a while. The ball was back in his court and for now he wanted to maintain control of the clock.
Daniel met up with Kate after parking his bike. She was the girl he had been trying really hard to convince himself that he liked. She was pretty. She was polite. She was intelligent. She was ... Boring. Still, it wasn't as if he had absolutely zero feelings for her. She was a good friend and an excellent conversationalist. She seemed to really like Daniel and he appreciated that. Now that he thought of it, she had a vague resemblance to Tina. They had the same kind of hair and were about the same height. Tina.
"I haven't seen that in a while." she said.
"What?"
"That." she pointed at his face.
"What?"
"You, smiling."
"Oh. Why wouldn't I be smiling? I have you."
"Uh huh. You mailed off your acceptance letter didn't you?"
"Busted."
"I knew it. I knew you were just getting moody about having to make a decision."
That's not what was really going on in Daniel's mind but he usually just let Kate think as she liked.
"Well, I'm all smiles for you today. So what do you want to do?"
"Oh, I have a list." she said as she tried to be cute.
This felt good. It was easier to be with Kate than it ever had been. Maybe Daniel could kiss her today. He still wasn't completely feeling that way about her but on a day like today he felt he could do anything.
"Do you know what you want to major in?" Kate asked as they walked.
"No."
"You better think about it."
"I have plenty of time for that. You don't even have to decide until second year."
"I'd start early though if I were you. They say college is the time you finally have to decide who you want to be and you don't want to waste time taking classes that in the end won't help you."
"I don't know about that. There's something to be said for setting goals and all but what if you want to be an astronaut and find out you're scared of heights?"
"Well, that's why you have to think hard about it."
"But it isn't all your choice." Daniel countered. "College is also about finding out who you really are. You may choose this or that for yourself but then one morning you wake up and discover you are a certain way and there's nothing you can do about it."
Kate stopped and Daniel turned to look at her. She seemed to look at him as if some big revelation was hitting her.
"Are you ok?" he asked.
"Yeah. I'm fine." she said. "Do you want to tell me something?"
Why was she asking this? Was Daniel letting something on? She couldn't possibly suspect the truth. He couldn't tell her either. Even if he neglected to mention that it was his sister, she'd probably think going down on another girl was cheating. If he did say it was his sister she'd think he was a monster. The more he thought about it the more he realized he was probably starting to look guilty.
"What do you mean? I'm just speculating here."
Her mood seemed to change. There was a new look on her face that Daniel didn't recognize.
"So, what are you going to major in?" he countered to get the mood back to where it was.