Page 34 of Head Over Wheels

Folklore99: As long as it’s not Anakin.

LoonieDunes: I wouldnotbe Anakin. Maybe I’d be Qui-Gon Jinn.

Folklore99: Except he fuckingdied. I can’t believe you made me watch this schmaltzy thing.

LoonieDunes: We don’t have to watch episode two. Maybe I should have made you watch them in the original order. You can really ship Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher and blame the… what did you call it? Schmaltzy? You can blame it on the seventies.

Folklore99: I had no idea you liked Star Wars for the romance… Ahhh *hiss* Shit my back didn’t like sitting up.

LoonieDunes: You okay?

Folklore99: Yeah...

LoonieDunes: Ehm… Folklore?

Folklore99: What?

LoonieDunes: Doyouhave a boyfriend? I know we just train together on screen and watch films. I can understand why it wouldn’t come up. We don’t have to get personal.

Folklore99: Keep your pants on, I don’t have a— Ahem.*cough*. Fucking allergies. Damn it.*rustle, swipe*Noboyfriend – not that it matters. That guy in front is totally not a bot. His cadence is too bad. He’s probably just an introvert. I never used to talk to anyone else on Zpeed before. I had an actual life and this was just a place for occasional training.

LoonieDunes: Well, you know, harsh winters.

Folklore99: Not really… *cough* I have two summers every year.

LoonieDunes: Ouch, and two springs with those allergies must be hell.

Folklore99: …yeah. I didn’t mean to imply you have no life by the way.

LoonieDunes: I know. But do you ever think about how much time we spend staring at fake people’s arses on a screen?

Folklore99: Gngh. Sometimes I think about how much of my life I waste listening to your voice over my headphones.

Chapter 14

Lori

It was the worst moment of my life.

Okay, maybe not the worst. I’d had a lot of worst moments over the past year. But as my skin prickled cold with the realisation that Seb was going to turn me down – LoonieDunes, who I kind of knew had had a puppy-dog crush on me, was turning me down – mortification sluiced over me like sweat.

I hoofed it for the door, turning away with a cry of ‘Forget it! Of course it’s a bad idea!’ and hoping he didn’t hear the stifled choke as my throat closed. I hated that I was upset – about something so stupid. I’d just lost a race because of a horse! It didn’t matter if some guy didn’t want to sleep with me. ‘You’ve just heaved your guts up anyway. I shouldn’t have asked.’

Ouch, taking it out on him was petulant and unfair and I regretted my words as soon as they were out of my mouth.

‘Forget I said that too,’ I muttered over my shoulder. ‘You busted your butt today and I have nothing but respect and… well done.’

Ohhhh, shit. I was going to cry.

I’d always thought that one of the best reasons to watch road cycling was the opportunity to see grown men cry. We put ourselves through hell, sacrificed the good things in life – a lot more than just cheese – for shit days like this and tears weren’t uncommon. But I was supposed to be tough. I’d beenbrought upto be resilient.

That day I burst into tears like a 7-year-old who’d skinned their knee at the park. To make everything worse, Seb’s posture softened immediately and that place on his shoulder, right near the crooked collarbone, looked more inviting than a comfy bed with a laptop for Netflix.

‘Don’t touch me!’ I said when he took a single step in my direction. ‘I’ll go as soon as—’Hiccough.

‘What did you do with Amir?’ he asked, glancing down the hall behind me before closing the door.

It took me a second to clock the subject change. ‘You think I lured your roommate out so I could have my wicked way with you? I just saw he was settled downstairs. It was opportunistic, not planned. And I just needed to get out of my—’ Damn it, thinking of my own roommate and the team I’d let down made my eyes sting afresh.

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