RIDE OF MY LIFE Chapter 3

SOAP OPERA SUNDAY


The next week I was in the kitchen of my friends house with my friend and her mother who told us she had four tickets to a dance in the local school sports hall and we could have them if we liked as she couldn't use them.

Would we what? Perfect. Now we had something to look forward to for the weekend. Oh the excitement! A chance to get dolled up wasn't to be missed especially as we had so little money to keep ourselves amused still being schoolgirls.

It was when we were walking past some shops between my house and her house that he appeared again. He drove his motorbike up onto the pavement and parked it outside the shop, right there beside us.

'Hiya', he smiled and I was speechless. He took off his helmet and I got to check him out ,up close and personal, AND HE WAS CUTE. He had the nicest smile with a dimple in his right cheek and his eyes were blue and gorgeous and I could hardly look at them without feeling myself blush.

I 'd told my friend a little about him and so she knew exactly who he was. She admired his bike and he smiled and showed us how the start up button worked on it and we made small talk, you know, like telling each other our names when all I wanted to do was throw my arms around his neck and plant a big kiss on those lips of his.

He was called Roger he said. Rod for short. And then he went and said it.

"What are you doing this weekend?" He was looking at me. And then at her.

"We've got four tickets to a dance on Saturday night in St Vincents School and my sister's coming too. Do you want to use the fourth ticket and come with us?" she asked him and glanced over at me.

That was the point when my knees wobbled and I nearly fell down on the spot, right there in front of everyone, and all sorts of thoughts started to buzz around in my head.

Did I hear her right? Had she just offered him the spare ticket to the dance? What if he liked her instead of me? Or what if he liked her sister? She was blond and very pretty after all.

I wasn't sure if this was a good idea or not but they were her tickets and she could give them to whomever she wanted to.

'Pull yourself together girl', I thought, dying to hear his reply.

"Yeah, that sounds great. What time?" he asked and I couldn't take my eyes off his lovely crooked smile.

And so it was arranged. We'd all meet up at the intersection of the road he lived on and the main road I lived on at 7.30pm because the dance was starting at 8pm.

This was all going, well, somewhere. I wasn't quite sure where but he was going to be there and that was the important thing.

Wasn't it?

He jumped on his bike, put on his helmet and started up the engine with a roar. Then he was gone off down the road again and Saturday night? Saturday night seemed a lifetime away to me right then.

And I could hardly wait.