Brake: A Narrative Fiction

“Don’t worry, I think I got this!”

Ethan felt the wheels spin at an unsettling angle. The bicycle gained traction, but sickeningly so. A bump along the road caused it to swerve, rhythmically pulling rusty edges together in a shrill screech.

The little vehicle had become a darting snake, dangerously roaming across the open road. The wheels wobbled, tilted, and turned. Yet Lily looked anything but discouraged, as she started giggling over her terrible sense of balance.

All Ethan could do in the back was grit his teeth and hold on to the thin carrier parts of his bicycle pathetically. “When was the last time you got on a bicycle?” he called out after another harrowing brush against a street corner. “Or when was the last time you got on anything

Stop, we’re going to fall!” The bicycle pressed up against the slope, and Ethan felt his stomach leap to his mouth at the sudden shift in speed. The momentum faded too quickly for him to feel at ease. He heard a loud huff from Lily, and the bicycle barely inched forward, albeit diagonally across the slope. But it wasn’t enough to cross the top of the slope. Ethan panicked again, and shoved himself off the carrier in the instant he felt the bicycle lose the rest of its momentum forward. “Hey!” Lily, who was still saddled in the bicycle seat, fell over on the dusty ramp with a sickeningly loud thump. The walking cane, which Ethan had already let of go in his moment of panic, clanged against the rough pavement and rolled down the slope. Ethan felt a pang of guilt, and moved to pull the bicycle off of the stunned girl. “Sorry,” he said. “Are you hurt?” Lily shook her head woozily, got to her feet, and patted the dust off from her shirt. “I’m okay. I’m just fine.” The day had started out in a troublesome manner, and now it seemed like it could end just as poorly as well. Ethan was currently in the classroom with his nose buried into a notebook. Although his appearance could, for once, pass off as a perfect picture of studiousness, Ethan’s inner world was in a state of constant

Even then, Ethan only said a few words, leaving much of the conversation to Ming. They had turned to other topics to talk about, from the upcoming homework due in the next class period to the semester exams that were more than several weeks away. Talking didn’t really suit the two unlikely friends. While really was nothing else they could do together while waiting for lunch, most of the topics they covered were dry and boring to at least one of the two friends, if not both. Then again, even if it was another activity like playing ball, Ethan only played occasionally if only to oblige. He never really loved the sport, and he was sure that Ming only played out of a hope for something interesting to happen during a game. Ethan would rather pretend to study somewhere in the back of the room as his way of killing time. That sort of activity was unobtrusive, quiet, and easy. “And that’s how the hotel won the court case,” Ming detailed as he recalled an old memory. “I hope that’ll never happen again, because things were looking pretty shaky back