“Nah, bro, we’ll walk down,” I argued.
“Fuck that,” he screwed up his face as he barged passed me, walking directly toward the front door with a one-track mind. “It’s too far. Way down the ridge.”
“The girls need an airing,” I was referring to the bikes, and he knew it as I followed him as we walked back outside under the security lights, then stepped off the balcony onto the grass, and then to the door. “Clear the dust.”
Lev suddenly stopped dead and turned his head towards the horizon. “Hear that?”
“What?” All I could hear were muffled sounds of our teammates inside the games room, their voices streaming from the window just above us.
“Bikes,” he replied, gazing out across the valley, searching for movement or lights. “Yorkies.”
“Nah, what? You heard them?” I pricked my ears but couldn’t hear a sound. The York brothers had bikes too, and if we knew they were returning to Castlehill, we would’ve snuck into their garage and nicked them, or broken them down for parts. Butthe faculty told us that their parents wanted to transfer them somewhere away from us, so we assumed they took the bikes home with them.
He wavered for a few beats, searching for something in the dark before grunting, “Maybe I was mistaken,” and opened the cellar door and switched the light on.
It was early in the evening and the party wasn’t in full swing yet, so we had time to work on the bikes, start ‘em up, rev 'em up a bit. But I was looking forward to getting skunk drunk to forget my woes and pay the Boleyn girl a visit in a mask. Fuck, it’ll be funny. I’ll take my phone to take a pic of her horrified face. Climb up the side of Morgana. Tap on the window, or maybe I’ll smash it open.
Lev sat on his Honda and switched on the ignition, and it took a couple of tries before it started. Then he revved it up, checked the hum in the tone and the gas, and seemed pleased as exhaust smoke filled the dungeon, smelling like a dream.
Sickle and my bike are off-road motocross bikes because I enjoy heading into the mountains to hunt. Last year, before Castlehill closed for summer vacation, we shot a wild boar and roasted it on a spit to celebrate our victory against the Yorkies and surviving the year in such a remote location.
I’m betting this year will be more fun with the Boleyn girl and the return of the Yorkies to taunt and poke a stick at. The quiet, boring year we thought we were going to have was blown out of the water when we found out about Adina.
“Do you reckon the Yorkies came back to protect the Boleyn girl from us?” I thought aloud.
“I don’t know,” he replied gruffly with a scowl on his face, like he found the question annoying. “I can’t read their minds, and I have no interest in asking them.”
“Bro, she might not be working alone, is what I’m thinking,” I added as he assessed the Honda engine and wiped grease off with his finger, then wiped it on his black jeans.
“Fuck, bro, you are fucking obsessed,” he accused me.
“No, I’m not. I’m just preparing ourselves-”
Lev raised his hand at me, shut up, but his gaze was on the open door. “Someone just walked past, I think.”
“Probably one of the guys,” I waved it off, even though I was cagey about being locked in there again and kept staring at the open door, even when Lez looked away.
Then a sudden movement and everything happened too fucking fast, I yelled, “Lev!” just as a barrage of lit firecrackers was thrown into the cellar and the door shut behind them.
“The fuck,” Lev snarled as the entire space was alive with showers of blue and purple sparks and the loud popping and snapping.
We dodged the flying crackers as we ran up the stairs, threw the door open, and looked around in the dark for any sign of movement. After checking, I went inside to confront the boys, but their faces were blank. They had no idea what I was talking about, but they seemed curious to learn more.
“Yorks!” Lev shouted from outside, and I raced out to the front balcony to find Lev pointing down the valley, where I could see figures moving in the dark, just before the sound of motorbikes starting up.
“Leave it,” Sickle placed his older hand on my shoulder as I lurched forward to race after them. “Not now. Later.”
“They’re getting away,” Lev stressed, twitching for a bike race. That’s all he hungered for was to crank up that Triumph and run down the enemy.
“Nah,” Sickle shook his head. “We’ll pay them a visit in a few days.” He lit a joint, took a drag, and blew out the smoke before passing it to Lev to help calm him down. “Just as they start torelax, thinking we didn’t notice it was them, we’ll slip in at night and plunder their entire kingdom.”
I stepped out onto the balcony and looked out at the horizon as the last of the golden sunset disappeared behind the mountains, while my mind was preoccupied with scenarios and possible outcomes. It wasn’t the Yorks I was thinking about, though; it was the Boleyn girl. Maybe Lev was right. I’d become obsessed.
“Still up for a scare trick tonight?” I spoke quietly, so Sickle couldn’t hear because he might talk us out of it.
Lev cocked his eyebrows, indicating yes.
11
