Leo's hands were shaking. Not from cold. From the weight of three years of silence.
Leo's chest tightened. It was true. He hadn't ridden for joy in three years. He'd woken up, gone to work, paid bills, watched the sunset from his porch instead of from the seat of a dirt bike. He'd called it "being responsible." But it was just fear dressed up in work boots.
He pulled out his phone. No signal, but he typed a message to Elena anyway. moto x halloween
The landing ramp met his tires with a solid thump . Perfect. Smooth. Alive.
"The race is tonight," Leo said, not looking up. He was adjusting the rear shock—too stiff for the rocky uphill, too soft for the jump. There was no perfect setting. There never was. Leo's hands were shaking
"He didn't crash because of a bad line," Leo said. "He didn't whiskey-throttle. He crashed because he was trying to prove something to a dead thing. And now I have to go finish it."
Leo's thumb hovered over the kill switch. He could stop. Roll off the track. Walk back down the mountain and spend the rest of his life as a safe, sad man who used to ride. Leo's chest tightened
"I'm okay. And I'm going to race again. For real this time."