𝐑𝐞𝐝 𝐑𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞

M A D D I S O N

"Who knew next time would come so soon, huh pretty boy?" I say, smirking down at Aaron who is currently lounging in the grass beneath a tree in the middle of a large patch of grass between two arts buildings.

Sitting up quickly and seemingly embarrassed, Aaron blinks up at me with tired eyes, and I almost feel bad for waking him up from his catnap in the sun, but his fair skin is starting to look a little pink and I figure I should be a good samaritan by telling him.

"Maddison? Next time..." He puzzles over my words until I see recognition in his eyes and he starts to gather his things, standing up with a shy smile and his eyes focused just behind my shoulder. Cute. "Right...Um..." He stumbles over his words and I bite my lips to hold back a smile.

"C'mon," I say and start walking in the opposite direction. His footsteps are light but I can hear them fall into step beside me, his presence somewhat...reassuring? "How's the foot?" I ask, trying to make small talk for the first time in my life.

I can feel him direct his gaze at my profile and keep my eyes straight ahead, dangling my helmet from the hand furthest from him so as to not bruise him with it while we walk, although he's keeping the space between us large enough to fit another person. "I won't bite, you know." The corner of my mouth quirks up but I keep my eyes on our destination. Aaron's mouth opens but he doesn't say anything. "Not yet at least."

"Why me, Maddison?"

"Because you like to make your own observations" Is all I say, the two of us continuing in comfortable silence.

"You ever been on one of these?" I run my index finger teasingly over the leather seat of my motorcycle, looking up at Aaron through my eyelashes because I just can't help it, when he stops behind me in the parking lot.

"Take a wild guess."

"Ooh, that famous British sarcasm." I make eye contact before swinging my leg over and straddling the seat, facing him and his slightly confused expression. His hands are by his sides and he's tapping his long fingers on his shorts-covered thigh. The muscular thighs dusted with blond hair serve as a huge distraction for me but I manage to tear my eyes away only to see that his green ones are on mine as well.

Instead of my leathers, I wore denim shorts because of the extreme heat and humidity that came out of nowhere, and I'm all too aware of the length of the hem right now.

"Wanna go somewhere with me? The only acceptable answer is hell yes."

"Guessing it's a surprise?" He shocks me by putting a hand on my waist gingerly and climbing on behind me, leaning on his right leg and kicking the kickstand up before I can. I blink twice, my body tensing for a second at his lack of hesitation and confidence in his strength to hold up a 476 lb bike without toppling the two of us over.

My god. I've underestimated the hell out of him. "You guessed right, Rocky. Put this on." I hand him my helmet and he laughs.

"If you think I'm going to let you give me your only helmet..." He settles into the seat, meaning his legs are caging mine in and he's pressed up against my ass.

"It's just for a minute." I reason.

"It's your turn to listen to me, Mickey." He says and I laugh at his addition to my Rocky reference, conceding easily, knowing the stubbornness of his older sister. Sliding the helmet onto my head, I buckle it loosely so as to not waste any more time and start up the bike, feeling odd with the added weight behind me that's never been there before.

Steering more carefully than usual, I pull into the lot of a little gear shop in a plaza just before the highway, not taking the chance to go far enough to grab the one at my apartment. Grabbing a white helmet off of the display, I check the size quickly before heading to the checkout, not able to help myself from looking out at Aaron through the large glass shop windows.

He's still straddling my bike, but he has his phone out and he's typing something out on it when my attention is pulled away to complete the purchase.

"Catch," I say to Aaron when I get close enough to toss him the helmet. He doesn't say anything, just accepts it and pulls it on over his head. I wait until see him struggle a little before I reach forward and do up the buckle for him, running my fingers over his smooth, shaved skin more than is necessary.

Climbing back onto the bike, I accidentally end up more on Aaron's lap than the seat and the two of us quickly slide opposite ways, pulling apart. An unfamiliar, flustered feeling blooms inside me, so I focus on starting the bike to distract myself from my heart beating a tattoo in my chest to match the ones already contrasting against my skin.

When I don't feel Aaron's arms wrap around me, I plant my feet on the ground and reach back to grab them, giving him obvious permission to touch me. For his safety.

As the engine revs beneath us and we lean forward to get onto the street, I feel each movement of his hands against the top of my shorts, teasing me though I know he'd never make a move like that on purpose. The more we move and the faster I drive, the faster my heart beats and my awareness of Aaron is at an all-time high by the time we arrive.

"Funny," Aaron says, his voice slightly muffled from the movement of him removing his helmet. I wait for him to climb off, but he seems to be doing the same for me, so I push back a bit and just as I thought, he practically jumps off of the seat to avoid me pressing against him, his eyes dart to look up at the entrance of the boxing gym.

"You're lucky you didn't break your hand last time. Thought you'd appreciate a little lesson. Unless you've got something better to do?" I challenge him with a raised eyebrow, draping my helmet on one handlebar while he does the same with his, noticing how the black and white look good paired together.

"Why not?" He smiles shyly and I widen my eyes at him, feigning excitement before turning around and leading the way. "Oh, that's unfortunate." He drawls in his accent, pointing to the closed sign in the window beside the door. Now it's my turn to look bashful as I pull out a pair of keys from my pocket, dangling them in front of him before slipping one into the lock and turning it.

The lights inside are all off and it smells like a mixture of artificial lemon-scented cleaner and chemicals, thankfully not like sweat. I move to open a few windows and Aaron doesn't say a word as he helps on the opposite side. I look to my acquaintance to measure his reaction but he's just looking around curiously, the raised, blue boxing ring catching his attention.

"Put on some gloves, let's go a few rounds."

"Was that a partial Marvel quote? I'm impressed." Aaron smiles comfortably at me and I turn away as I feel my cheeks heat.

"You'll never know." I lead him to the back lockers where I keep a bag and some of my equipment here just in case of a spontaneous urge to come here and sweat it out. I pass him a pair of hand wraps but he doesn't move to put them on and I realize that he probably doesn't know how to do it from lack of experience. "Here," I say and step closer to help, taking the roll out of his hands and wrapping it for him.

"So this place is yours?" He asks quietly as I focus on his hands.

"Nope. Making copies of keys is surprisingly easy." I joke and his eyes go wide as the hand that I was wrapping grips mine. He looks towards the door as if a SWAT team is about to bust it down at any movement and it cues my laughter.

"Not a rule-breaker huh? I wouldn't look any further into my bike if I were you then," I wink and he breathes out deeply, his eyes crinkling at the corners with a small, amused smile when he realizes I'm fully joking.

"Well, now I'll have to."  I smile as I wrap my own hands quickly and lead him to climb up after me onto the platform, swinging a leg over the lower rope and folding at the waist to swing under the top rope, Aaron following suit while I hold the ropes apart to make it easier for him. "Don't we need gloves or something?" He asks and I smile at the ground, feigning checking my wraps.

"Not today. Come back another day and it's a maybe. We can just do some light kickboxing today. Get your heart rate up."

"Too late." He says all too honestly and my shoulders drop. What the fuck am I doing here?