Learn to Fly (51 page)

Lenny made a face at
Shane’s name.

“
Yeah,
I saw all that over the X-Games.” Ben laughed. “I loved
how you stuck it to him. That douche bag had it coming for a while.”

“
Eh…I’ll
have to avoid him I suppose.” Lenny said wryly. She wished
Nick had told her that Shane was going to be there...oh well.

“
Maybe
we’ll have an appropriately timed avalanche during his run.”
Ben waggled his eyebrows.

“
That’s
not funny, Ben.” But Lenny was laughing anyway.

“
Man,
it’s so good to see you.” His sincerity was obvious.
“It’s been years. You look…really good.” He
nodded his head in approval.

“
You
too.” Lenny smiled in return. “Who is Shelby Lynn? The
names familiar but I’m having a hard time placing her.”

“
She’s
this little daredevil from Vermont. She’s only seventeen or
something but she’s blowing up the circuit right now.”
Ben took a seat across from her and stretched out his long legs in
front of him.

“
Oh
yeah, I remember seeing something about her. She’s just a kid,
I can’t believe Nick is taking her along.”

“
C’mon,
Lenny,” Ben chided, “We weren’t much older when
Nick took us up to Valdez the first time.”

“
That’s
true.” Lenny rolled her eyes, “Man, time flies.”

“
True
story.” Ben agreed shaking his messy hair out of his face.
“Hey, you still with the rock star?”

Lenny groaned., “Not
exactly.”

“
It
was all anyone talked about after Aspen.” He raised an eyebrow
at her.

“
Yeah,
I noticed.” Lenny said dryly remembering the tabloid pictures.

“
What
happened?” Ben was just making conversation, he didn’t
know that it was weird for Lenny to talk about.

She wrinkled her
nose. “It just didn’t work out.”

“
Was
he bad in bed?” Ben asked suggestively making Lenny laugh.

“
It
just wasn’t meant to be, that’s all.” Lenny hedged
wishing she could find a way to get him to drop it without being
rude.

“
Was
he a jerk?” Ben frowned.

“
No,
Luke was really great.” Lenny pursed her lips. “It’s
still kinda raw for me so if we could not...”

Ben nodded,
understanding. “Gotcha. Well, when you get to the phase where
you want to trash him unmercifully, I have lots of good ones in my
repertoire.”

Lenny smiled,
grateful for his consideration. This trip was going to be fun.
Exactly what she needed to help her work through all the turmoil
inside. She didn’t even mind that much that Shane was going to
be there. She felt like she had already kicked that ass and
hopefully they could move on like adults.

Her mind drifted
briefly to Luke. She wondered what he was doing. Who he was doing
it with. She blinked hard, forcing the thoughts away and
concentrating on the conversation with Ben. No reason to go there.

“
I
haven’t seen Trucker in years, I had no idea he could still
ride.” Lenny remarked.

“
He’s
in the geriatrics league.” Ben joked, making Lenny laugh
again. Yes, this was going to be an excellent vacation.

***

Luke stared out the
window of his bedroom from his back. Sleep wouldn’t come. The
sky was black, the stars floating in the darkness. He could almost
feel her forgetting him. Didn’t they have something special?
Weren’t they different from the rest? He knew the longer he
waited, the harder it would be to get her back.

He felt gutted.
Like a car that had been burned up from the inside out. Empty and
charred, waiting to be shuffled off the pavement and taken to the
junk heap. The fire leaving nothing useful behind.

He had sold his
house. He had a week to get his things out. He didn’t even
have anywhere to live. He figured he’d place his stuff in
storage for now. It didn’t matter. Nothing felt like home
without her there.

Luke suspected that
if Lenny knew his suffering, she would feel justified somehow. This
is what she wanted, isn’t it? For him to be miserable and
sleepless and hard to get along with? Well, that’s what had
happened.

He’d been
living with Sway for two days now and hated every second of it. As
relaxed and unkempt as Sway appeared to the outside world, he was
surprisingly strict about his home. To the point of obnoxious
perfectionism. A place for everything and everything had a place.
And sometimes he would want it put away before Luke was done using
it. Forty-eight hours into their living arrangement and Luke wanted
to kill him.

“
Listen
Luke, you’re welcome to stay with me until you find your own
place.” Sway was making his diplomatic speech for the
umpteenth time. “But you have to pick up after yourself. You
didn’t hang your towel straight after your shower and I had to
fix it. We don’t want musty towels, do we?”

Luke rolled his
eyes. “You don’t give a shit about cleanliness on the
road. What gives? Are you just giving me a hard time?”

“
That’s
‘Road Sway’ this is ‘Home Sway.’” Sway
responded like it should’ve made perfect sense to Luke. He
walked into the living room and got his coat out of the closet.

“
Where
you going?” Luke asked. One of the reasons he had asked to
stay with Sway was for the distraction. He thought it would be
easier to not think about Lenny if he could hang out with some new
girls. And Sway was constantly drowning in women.

“
I
have some people I’m meeting up with.” Sway answered
casually.

“
You
need a wing man?” Luke asked.

Sway
grimaced as his words. “Wing man? Dude, we’re not in
college anymore. Besides, I’m insulted that you think
I
would need a wing man.” He checked his face in the mirror by
the door. He adjusted his long, shiny hair around his shoulders.

“
Sorry,
I just thought I could come with you. Maybe hookup with someone.”
The words sounded strange and forced, even to Luke.

Sway
turned and frowned at him. “You’re looking for a
hookup
?”
He shook his head with disappointment. “Man, you’re not
like that.”

“
I
used to be.” Luke protested, feeling his ego getting testy.

“
You’re
not that guy anymore. You changed with Lenny-”

At the mention of
her name, Luke looked down and swore under his breath. No one had
said anything to him about her since the day Mike had visited him in
the garage. It was a touchy subject for all of them. The guys
disagreed passionately about Luke’s complacency. And Luke was
determined to prove them wrong. He was just doing the worst job at
it.

“
I
know you don’t want to talk about her and shit but let’s
be real for a second.” Sway was trying to sound laid back so
Luke wouldn’t feel threatened but he saw through it. “You
guys had something real. I’ve never had that with anyone…But
seeing you guys together gave me hope that I could have it someday
too.”

“
What?
Are you saying you’re done being a dog and you’re gonna
turn into a respectable human being?” Luke knew his words were
too harsh but he didn’t care.

***

Sway
wasn’t fazed. He was fine being the one Luke took his hurt
feelings out on. “Yeah, I’m working on it.” He
paused as he rested his hand on the doorknob. “You can’t
come with me tonight, I have a date. A real one.” Actually,
Sway was on his
third
date with the same girl this week. It was totally new for him. He
saw the confusion and disbelief in Luke’s eyes and took
compassion on him, “We can hang when I get home, I won’t
be out too late.” He promised.

He opened the door
and looked at his friend one more time. One of these days Luke was
going to have to come to terms with his own hardheadedness. He needed
that girl more than he knew. They all did.

***

Luke
tried watching TV for a while but there was nothing on. He wondered
what Mike was up to. They used to hang out all the time when they
were off tour. But Luke didn’t want to call him and get
another stupid lecture. Mike had no right to tell him how to handle
this, he wasn’t the one in love with Lenny.
Shit.

Luke stood up
angrily. He was getting so sick of his head leading him back to the
same damn train of thought. He didn’t want to think about her
anymore. It was needless heartache. She was gone and she wasn’t
coming back. He found himself staring at his phone. Not just his
phone, he had already cued up Lenny’s number and his thumb was
hovering over ‘send.’ He stood still for a long time,
debating in his head if he should call her or not.

He shoved his phone
back in his pocket and got his jacket from the closet. He didn’t
want to talk to her. What else could she say that she hadn’t
already said. He didn’t need to hurt himself on purpose. He
left the apartment and went out into the Boston night.

***

Lenny
thought she heard her cell phone ring and took it out to look at it.
Nope. She didn’t even have a signal.
That
was weird.
She frowned at the display, she was so sure she had heard it ring…

“
Something
going on on your phone?” Ben asked from beside her.

She shook her head
and put her phone back. “I thought I heard it ring but it
didn’t.” She couldn’t shake the feeling that
someone was trying to call her.

“
You
probably won’t get too many calls in Thompson Pass,”
Nick said from the front seat. “You’ll have a better
signal in Valdez.”

Lenny just nodded
without voicing her thoughts. She looked out the window of the SUV
at the frozen landscape.

It had been years
since she had first laid eyes on the beauty of the Alaskan terrain.
Valdez boasted an annual snowfall average of 300 inches with some
600-900 more in the surrounding areas. Which is exactly where they
were headed. The stark contrast of the crisp white snow against the
brilliant blue of the sky made Lenny’s heart quicken just a
tad. Alaska had always felt like a second home to her.

“
It’s
great that you could join us this year, Len.” Nick was saying
from the driver’s seat. They were barreling down the highway,
trying to beat the oncoming snowfall. It was an easy 6 hour drive
inland from Anchorage as long as weather permitted.

“
Yeah,”
Lenny agreed, not really listening. All she could think about was
how much more amazing this would all be if Luke and the guys were
here.

***

Ben frowned
thoughtfully at Lenny. She kept drifting in an out of being totally
fine to being completely somewhere else. They had been able to talk
quite a bit on the plane ride up, getting reacquainted and rebuilding
their neglected friendship. Nick couldn’t pick them up until
morning and they had both opted to just stay the night in the airport
rather than get a hotel.

It was fun, they
spread their coats out on the floor by the heaters and laid head to
head. They continued talking and joking until they got too tired and
both fell asleep. Ben had been awakened when Lenny had reached above
her head and smacked his face for snoring.

He never felt like
he had ever really gotten to know Lenny completely. She had always
been this whirlwind of ambiguity. She wasn’t shy but she
didn’t flirt either. Ben was naturally attracted to her and he
was usually very good with women but Lenny treated him more like a
kid brother than anything else. He didn’t mind, they had the
whole trip to get to know each other better. And Ben was looking
forward to showing Lenny how much of a kid he wasn’t.