Victoria Rivera, “Colored”
“You’re almost there, Oakley!”
The girl on the bike looked over her shoulder. Phillip had his head stuck completely through the driver’s side window of his secondhand stickshift, waving wildly.
“Thanks!” Oakley panted, turning back toward the horizon that she could feel getting closer and closer. Her legs were still fighting to make it over that last quarter mile of mountain. She thought she could see the summit, and a feeling of pride swept through her. She would cross the mountaintop — finish the ride she’d always dreamed of — and someone would be right behind her, cheering for her, telling her what a momentous thing she’d achieved. She pushed herself to go faster, waving back with one hand.
“We brought a picnic in the car for when you get to the top,” a voice that certainly wasn’t Phillip’s said, the sentence tilting up at the end as if it was a question in that trademark habit that Oakley couldn’t stand. Ally was sitting in the passenger seat, one small hand waving to Oakley, the other reaching for the wheel that Phillip had completely let go of in excitement. “We would’ve been here for you at the start of the trail, but somebody overslept.”
Oakley could hear Phillip slide his head back in the window, laughing in unison with Ally. Before Oakley could respond, they rolled up the windows and were speeding ahead of her. The dust from the broken exhaust pipe made her cough and let go of the handlebars for a moment to wave a hand in front of her face. She watched the cloud of dust and the rusty car climb upward and then disappear.
“He brought Ally,” Oakley murmured. She wiped the sweat from her brow and felt the sore muscles in her legs for the first time all morning. “He brought Ally.”
–
You: hi phillip!
UR BESTIE!!!: hey
UR BESTIE!!!: ready for the big bike ride tmrw?
You: yep! i’m excited
You: wanna come cheer me on? we could hang out after too?
UR BESTIE!!!: …
UR BESTIE!!!: …
UR BESTIE!!!: …
UR BESTIE!!!: ofc i’ll be there
–
The sharp ping of her smartwatch tore Oakley’s eyes from the horizon. The numbers and stats proudly proclaimed that she was 0.1 miles from her destination instead of the original 27. It almost didn’t seem real that she had made it so close to the summit.
She’d wanted this forever.
And then she could see Phillip.
“Oakley!” Ally shouted from the picnic blanket where she was sitting with one of Phillip’s arms around her. “You did it!”
“Yeah,” Oakley murmured, throwing her legs into double time and feeling herself reach the point where she wasn’t pedaling upward anymore. Her smartwatch pinged, but she didn’t bother to look before she hopped off her bike.
Ally was already up and hugging Oakley. Phillip waved to her from the picnic blanket, and Oakley stumbled over to him, sitting down and opening a bottle of water.
“So how was it?” Ally asked, plopping down closer to Phillip than was strictly necessary. “Everything you wanted?”
“It was great,” Oakley said, finishing the bottle in nearly one gulp. “Tiring, though.”
“Well, the view’s great,” Phillip said. He inched closer to Ally.
“I bet the sunrise was beautiful,” Ally said. “When did you start?”
“I was on the trail at five.” Oakley pulled a granola bar from her pocket.
“In the morning?”
Ally elbowed Phillip. “Yes, ‘in the morning,’ silly.”
“But I usually get up that early to train before school anyway,” Oakley said.
“You’ve got some dedication,” Phillip scoffed. He took a muffin from the picnic basket and offered one to Ally. Oakley waited for a moment, but no one turned to extend a muffin to her too
“Um, yeah.”
Ally turned to Phillip. “Remember when we went on that bike ride? Over by your grandma’s house.”
“That was awesome…”
Oakley looked away, hearing muffled laughter as she surveyed the landscape she’d climbed so far upward to see. It didn’t look like she’d thought it would. The golden early morning mist was gone, and every edge of rock or cactus was sharp in the sunlight. She couldn’t even see the sheer face of the mountain that was so impressive from the ground.
–
Phillipadelphia: guess what guess what GUESS WHAT
You: what?
Phillipadelphia: i asked ally to homecoming!
You: she said yes?
Phillipadelphia: YES
You: that’s great
Phillipadelphia: i’m gonna ask her on a date after
You: really?
Phillipadelphia: i swear
–
“I guess I should get going,” Oakley said. She stood up, brushing granola bar crumbs off her shorts. She kicked up the kickstand on her bike and began rolling it forward. Ally jumped up too, despite Phillip’s arm around her shoulders.
“How are you going to get down?” Ally asked.
“My mom left my car at the summit parking lot. It’s a ten minute walk.”
“Wait,” Phillip said. Oakley whipped her head toward him, her ragged ponytail whacking the base of her neck. “Didn’t you say we were going to hang out after?”
Oakley paused. She’d almost hoped he’d forgotten.
“I mean, we don’t have to if you don’t want to…”
“You’ve had a big day,” Ally said gently when the words were still stuck in Oakley’s throat. “We can talk some other time.”
“No, it’s fine,” Oakley said. “We should go do something.”
“Ice cream?” Phillip proposed, hauling himself to his feet.
“Sure, yeah,” Oakley said. She curled her hands around the handlebars tightly. “The creamery on Main?”
“We’ll meet you there,” Phillip said, breaking into the smile that Oakley always had to look away from.
“Okay,” Oakley said. She turned away, fishing her car keys out of her drawstring bag with one hand, guiding her bike to the path with the other. “See you there.”
Ally and Phillip talked to each other in low voices as Oakley started down the path. She reached her car in a few minutes, hands shaking as she started the ignition. She typed the address of the ice cream shop into her phone as Phillip’s car swept past her down the mountain road. The dust stirred behind his worn out car coated Oakley’s driver side window.
She wondered how long he and Ally would wait for her if she didn’t show up. Whether they would actually wait or just eat ice cream together. A cute date instead of a celebration of Oakley’s biggest accomplishment.
Oakley put her hands on the steering wheel. Biking up the mountain was a thrilling challenge, sure, but sitting there in the car with her hand on the gearshift, trying to decide if she should put it into drive, she didn’t feel anything except tired sadness.
Phillip’s smile would only hurt her.
But the thought of his smile gave her just enough strength to put her foot on the gas.
–
Phillip: are you ok?
Phillip: you weren’t in class?
You: yeah i had a bike competition
Phillip: woah that’s cool
Phillip: you bike?
You: yeah i love it
You: my dream is to bike up that mountain outside the city
You: maybe i’ll get there by senior year
Phillip: i hope you do
Phillip: i’d love to come watch
–
Phillip and Ally were already sitting at a table with fountain drinks and big, cheesy grins when Oakley walked up to the shop.
“You ready to order?” Oakley asked.
“Sure!” Ally chirped. She picked her hot pink phone off the table to walk into the store with Oakley, but her grin fell when she caught sight of the screen. “Actually, my mom’s here to pick me up. Apparently my grandma came to visit?”
“Everything okay?” Phillip asked. He put a hand on her shoulder.
“I’m sure it’s fine,” Ally said. She waved to Oakley apologetically and made her way to the red car that was pulling into a nearby parking space. “Sorry, Oakley! I’ll see you soon!”
Oakley watched the red car pull away, feeling Phillip’s eyes on her, but she didn’t lift her gaze to meet them.
“What flavor are you going to get?” he asked, after a short pause. “Is lemon sorbet still your favorite?”
Oakley glanced up at him quickly, then back down to the pavement. “Yeah, it is. I’m surprised you remember.”
“I remember more than you think,” Phillip said. “Even if I didn’t remember to set my alarm this morning.” He nudged Oakley’s shoulder playfully.
She smiled. “And rocky road for you, as usual?”
“For sure.”
Inside the shop, it was easy to keep her eyes on the displays of different ice creams as she and Phillip ordered, but when they walked back out to the table, she finally was able to meet his eyes. He was laughing about some memory from when they first became friends, and Oakley couldn’t help but smile back. Her eyes flicked to Ally’s empty chair, wondering if this was wrong.
But the way Phillip was smiling…it was full of friendship, the friendship they used to have that had somehow fell away when Ally entered the picture.
Maybe Phillip wasn’t the one who had changed.
Maybe Oakley had.
Oakley always thought Phillip didn’t value her after dating Ally. His eyes, squinting in the midafternoon sun that was slowly melting his cone of rocky road, said otherwise.
Let’s be friends again, they said.
Oakley forgot about homecoming last year, she forgot about the picnic this morning, she forgot that her legs were still sore from her big ride, she forgot that she should be exuberantly happy, not tasting bittersweet feelings with every bite of lemon sorbet.
She put all of her remaining energy into making her eyes say let’s be friends back to him.
–
You: hi this is oakley!
You: ellie from math class gave me your number to ask about the group project
unknown number: hi oakley!
unknown number: i’m phillip
