Ben hugs the last guy and turns back to me, grabbing my low back and bringing me forward.
“This is Charlotte, my childhood best friend. Charlotte, this is Paul, Jake, Troy and Isaac,” he points as he calls out each of their names, “these guys are part of my riding posse.”
All of them crack up, punching him in the shoulder and trying to ruffle his hair.
“Hey, easy, easy, it took me hours to get my hair to look this good!”
“Who said your hair looked good?” Jake jokes before turning his attention to me. “We’re not part of hisposse, per say, but wearejust a bunch of dudes who like ridingtogether. Nice to meet ya, finally.” He reaches out his hand to shake mine. His hands are as rough as Ben’s.
“Very cool. It’s nice to meet you all,” I say brightly, rocking on my feet to expel some of the nervous energy. “And finally?” My focus flies to Ben. “So, you’ve talked about me to them, huh?”
He smiles sheepishly. “Only to tell them what a pain in my ass you’ve been all these years.”
I stick my tongue out and turn back to the group. “How did you all start riding together? Ben’s never mentioned any of you before.”
How come he has this close group of guy friends and never mentioned it to me before? Why’s he keeping big parts of his life from me? ’Course maybe they all linked up when him and Tree got together after he cut me out of his life.
My core tenses and teeth clench in jealousy. More parts of him I don’t know…another piece of him that Tree might’ve known that I didn’t.
“We met last year at a gas station actually,” says the short guy with blonde hair named Troy.
“A gas station? That’s random.”
“Gas stations are actually a common place to meet other bikers,” Ben says to me.
“Really? Why?”
“It’s a common place where bikers go to film content, either for Xypher or for their other social media pages. Plus, we all gotta get gas and they’re great places to take a rest if you’ve been riding for a while.”
“I didn’t realize that was even a thing.”
Biker boy pops in my head, but instead of getting turned on, guilt and shame rises in me. It’s like a betrayal to Ben to think of him now. Maybe I should tell him tonight after the party about my mysterious stalker who I used to be obsessed with. Although, my curiosity gets the better of me…
“Do you guys know who the viral biker boy is on Xypher?”
Ben stiffens next to me, his palm flattening and stick still against my back. The rest of the guys exchange glances at each other before they burst out laughing hysterically.
“No, we don’t know him. We call him the thirst trap king though. It’s really weird and no one does that shit on social media but him. We do keep a lookout for him when we’re out riding, but no one’s ever seen him in action. Dude’s like a ghost. We can’t figure out who he is,” Isaac says, shrugging.
Ben exhales a chuckle out and loosens up. What an interesting reaction. Doesheknow who the mysteriousbiker is? Will that harm our new, fragile bond we’ve just found?
“Ah. I see.”
“Why so interested? Are you one of his fans?”
My skin prickles with heat. Damnit, that’s going to be a dead giveaway.
“No, I was just curious. A bunch of the girls on my track team are obsessed with him, so I was curious if he was well known in the bike community too.”
Isaac seems unconvinced but doesn’t ask further questions. Paul raises his eyebrow but stays silent as well.
“Alright, since we can’t go riding tonight, let’s play some games, shall we?”
I let out a breath, thankful for Ben changing the conversation.
“Ayyeeee. I’m down,” says Paul.
We walk over to the nearest table and start playing a variety of card games and board games that we picked up off the side table.
