Free Everything Changes by Shey Stahl Page A

overshadowed the moons
reprieve, and I felt naked, even though I nearly was, only more so — vulnerable.
I was nervous over what his reaction would be today. After we had kissed, he
clammed up and didn’t speak to me for a day. What would I be faced with now?
    I thought about how easy it was for Parker and me
physically, in the sense that we could be intimate through kisses and touches,
but neither one of us could openly speak about our feelings or what was
happening between us. When we touched, our bodies spoke for us in ways our lips
couldn’t.
    When I rolled over, groggy from sleep, Parker was
gone.
    A part of me panicked thinking maybe he ran away.
The other part of me was disappointed he wasn’t there to comfort me. It was
something I’d spend years searching for from him and never receive. He wasn’t
capable of providing the comfort I needed.
    Instead, Parker was with Justin, outside on his
dirt bike in the hills behind the condo.   Flashes of yellow blurred past the windows as Parker sped up a hill and
threw the bike sideways, turning on the front wheel with the back tire
vertical, one leg kicked out. Then he whipped around and slid down that same
hill while balancing precariously on the front tire, his left leg kicked out as
he balanced himself.
    Show off. I could never do that shit. I was lucky to keep
the bike upright, let alone perform any acrobatics.
    I laughed when Justin blew past him up the hill
and acted as though he was going to run into him, only to have Parker fake the
same direction, causing Justin to jerk the bike and fall over. I snuggled into
the blanket I had wrapped around my shoulders and watched. He was messing
around and it was cute.
    I knew enough about Parker to understand that he
thought he lost that playfulness he felt while riding when his dad died.
Watching him now, it was easy to see that being here helped him find it, and
maybe I had something to do with that.
    Addy walked
into the room, her blonde hair all over the place and two cups of coffee in her
hands. “He’s awfully cheery this morning.” She smiled with a wink, hip checking
me. “Did you hump him last night or what?”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Pulling
the corner of the blanket towards my mouth, I kept my grin at bay.
    “Well, Parker never does that shit. I’ve seen him
ride. He’s all business and now here he is showing off for you.”
    I gave her a skeptical grin. “When have you seen
him ride before?”
    “Remember that day you went to Seattle with your
mom?”
    “Yeah?”
    Addy shrugged as if this shouldn’t have been a big deal. “I went riding with them in
Belfair that day.”
    “Oh.”
    “Parker is so showing off for you right now.” Her
nose pressed to the window when she noticed Justin out there too.
    “He doesn’t know I’m watching.”
    Addy coughed. “Bullshit. He looks up here every ten seconds.”
    Sure enough, he did. Every trick he did, he
looked at the window. I was in awe at the way he moved on the bike. Instead of
trying to control the bike, he tossed it around as though it weighed nothing.
He jumped off rocks, soared through the air with just a blimp of the throttle,
balanced on the foot pegs while standing, and hopped sideways to bounce off another
rock. All the while, he was able to stay on the bike with just balance,
throttle, and clutch control.
    “He’s relaxed,” I offered. I knew I had a part
in relaxing him.
    I’d never seen Parker ride before today, and I
wasn’t disappointed. Addy and I had watched a few
Supercross races this last season on TV and attended the local Motocross races
in Washougal last year, but I had never seen Parker ride in person. He must have been there last year when we
went to Washougal, but I couldn’t remember seeing him.
    Addy leaned
into my shoulder. “Let’s go outside and watch.”
    Once outside, I was taken back by the track they had, something I hadn’t noticed yesterday. There were large
boulders, steep hills,