Bike Ride, Life Ride

Bette is alone crying on a mountain overlooking the water. Thoughts of last night campfire gone wrong keep repeating in her head. “So, are you cheating on me?” Jodie’s face! Bette’s eyes darting from Jodie to Tina. The tension you can cut with a knife. Tina gets up and walks away and then Jodie does the same. She knew it would all come down to this. She knew it would end badly. She should have been more honest with Jodie when she started having feelings for Tina. How did this all move so quickly? Another flashback: Bette knew that although she would be comforted by Tina she should not go to to her last night. She knew that she should try to talk to Jodie. Jodie zipped up the tent and wanted nothing to do with Bette. Right now, Jodie had nothing to say to her. Bette, for the most part understood this, but her own Type A personality wanted her to quickly and neatly sort out the whole situation.

Bette, decided that it would be best for her to not make any one else feel uncomfortable and leave early and ride on her own. It was a crisp, cold morning and Bette was tired and fuzzy-headed from crying for the better part of three hours. She took one more deep breath and drank in the mountain air. She decided to head back up the camp site, pack her things up and head out on her own. She really wanted to avoid the judgment and awkward looks she would get from her friends and she really, really wanted to avoid Tina at the moment. She was caught between this feeling of complete relief that her secret was out and nervousness that it was out there for everyone to know now. Certainly, she had not flushed out the possibilities with Tina and although she knew that she loved her and wanted to give their relationship another try, she felt very guilty that Tina was going to be left holding the bag with all their friends.

Bette crept up the campsite and began to pack up her belongings. She gathered up her stuff and zipped up her backpack and flung it on her back. She grabbed her bike and walked along side it as she pushed it down toward the road. Tina heard the sounds of Bette rustling up her stuff and then the distinct sounds of a squeaky bike. She bolted up out of sleep and slightly unzipped her tent to see Bette’s figure moving beside her bike away from the campsite. Tina jumped out of her sleeping bag and rummaged around looking for shoes. She desperately wanted to yell out to Bette, but didn’t want to draw attention to herself with regards to Bette. She resigned to running quietly down the road to catch up with Bette. Tina leaped out of the tent and ran in the direction of Bette. When she was many paces away from the campsite and thought her friends would not hear her, she tried saying “Bette” in a normally audible voice. She could see Bette putting on her helmet and mounting her bike at this point. Tina started to panic thinking that Bette would not be able to hear and ride off without being able to speak to her, so she began to yell “Bette!”