"Look at her."

"She's a beaut," Andy agreed. He and Tim, his older brother were kneeling behind the hedge in front of their house. Their cousin, Matthew, had driven over for Sunday dinner on his new Honda CB77 motorcycle. It stood near the curb, chrome and navy trim sparkling in the sunlight.

"She'd be the only girlfriend I'd ever need."

Andy snorted. He was only twelve, but even he knew you couldn't marry a bike. Tim was sixteen, had just started high school, and seemed to have something to say about every girl that walked past.

"You can't have kids with a motorcycle, dummy."

Tim rolled his eyes. "It was a joke, Andy." He stared at the bike a moment longer, then turned to Andy, eyes shining with glee. "What if we took her for a joyride?"

Andy fell back on his heels. "Really? Would Matt let us?"

"The whole point of a joyride is for it to be secret." Tim glanced back to the bike. "Matt brought Stephanie, didn't he?"

"Yeah, I saw her go in." Stephanie was Matt's girlfriend, blonde and most certainly not of Italian heritage. It had irritated Matt's dad until he realized that Steph was a phenomenal baker. The complaints had stopped rather quickly after that. "Why?"

"We're gonna need helmets. You get the helmets and I'll get the keys."

Andy paused, halfway to the front door. "Are you sure this is okay?"

"Yeah, bro. It'll be fine."

Andy darted inside and spotted the helmets on the floor near the over-large basket of shoes his mother kept by the door. Both helmets were obviously new, maybe just a little too large for a twelve-year old. One was a gleaming navy that seemed as deep as the ocean, the other was a vibrant bubblegum pink. He snatched them both and was almost back out the door, when-

"Andy, is that you?" He recognized his mother's voice from across the house. She was in the kitchen, cooking dinner.

"I'm just going back outside with Tim. We're playing dead man." He didn't particularly like lying to his parents, but he liked it better than the consequences for some of the things he and his brothers got up to.  They'd locked Susan out on the roof once. One winter, it had snowed, and they'd busted someone's windshield with an ice-ball. On accident, of course.

"Alright." She sounded skeptical, and Andy winced. "Tell Tim that dinner's in thirty minutes. I expect both of you in here on time, okay? Steph, Matt, Uncle Luke, and Aunt Mary are all going to be here."

"Yep." He shut the door and ran back to Tim. "Mom said that we have to be in for dinner in half an hour. I think she really means it."

Tim waved him off. "Sure. Toss me the blue one."

Andy stared at the navy helmet wistfully for a moment, then passed it to Tim. "Did you get the keys?" he asked as he strapped on his own helmet.

"Yeah. Now let's get going." Tim helped Andy onto the bike. "Hold on to me." He fumbled for the ignition.

"Do you know how to drive this?"

"Sure. I've seen tons of movies. And it can't be that different from driving a car."

It took a few minutes of whispered swearing, praying, and general fiddling around before the Honda finally started. Tim eased it down the street, keeping the noise to a minimum, then turned the corner shakily.

"Let 'er rip!" Andy shrieked.

Tim grinned, revved the machine, and they sped down the road, maintaining an almost straight course.