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Bee surprises them with a ‘last day of school’ gifts, as she calls them.
Well, it’s not really all that surprising, if Andrew’s being honest. He and Aaron have begged for bicycles for months now, ever since some of their classmates arrived at school by riding shiny new bikes earlier in the spring.
Bee had said she wanted to wait a little while more, mainly because Aaron and Andrew are still small for their age, but it seems like she has finally given in to their pleading.
The bikes are different colors, one of them bright red, the other one blue. Aaron calls dibs on the blue one as soon as he sees it, and Andrew doesn’t mind. He likes the red one. It would look even cooler if he added some black stripes to it.
Bee is smiling her most pleasant smile and holds out two helmets. They are brand new, too, matted black but still shining in the sunlight. Aaron fusses over the bikes, too excited to form complete sentences, and Andrew has to agree: this is probably the best gift Bee has ever given them, aside from the adoption.
“Can we try them right away?” Aaron asks, and lets out a delighted squeal when Bee nods. They grab their helmets, and Andrew lets Bee tighten the strap under his chin. It feels a little big on his head and he shakes it a little, making sure it doesn’t fall off.
The bikes don’t have training wheels, because they already know how to ride bikes with training wheels. Kevin, their annoying but sometimes nice neighbor, got a real bike last summer and Aaron and Andrew got to ride his old one.
But that bike is for babies, and Andrew is not a baby any more. He wants to ride a real big boy bike without training wheels. He wants to be able to go further away from their house than he can by foot, like that beach Kevin and some of his older friends go to sometimes. They always claim that Andrew can’t come since he can’t walk that far, even though they could just give him a lift if they wanted him to come along.
But it doesn’t matter any more, because soon Andrew will be able to ride with them.
Bee says that they need to take it one at a time since she won’t be able to help both of them at the same time. Andrew lets Aaron go first and watches from the curb as Bee helps him on his bike.
It looks wobbly at first, and Bee has to hold the bike steady while Aaron tries the pedals. They make slow progress to the end of the street, and Aaron huffs impatiently, trying to get a grasp at it. They make their way back to Andrew, and this time it looks more stable.
“Andrew, look!” His brother exclaims when Bee lets go and he manages to stay upright for a few seconds before tumbling over to the grass.
“Good job, Aaron!” Bee smiles at him and claps her hands at his solid attempt. Andrew huffs a bit, almost laughing but not quite.
“Are you ready to go?” Bee asks him, and Andrew nods. He eyes his new bike thoughtfully and decides to name it Beast. It only seems fitting, being an angry shade of red and all.
Bee helps him on the Beast, and Andrew places his feet carefully on the pedals. He nods his head when he feels ready, and Bee begins to push the bike forward.
It happens so fast. One second Andrew feels the wind on his face, his feet off the ground and his hands on the bars. The next, he’s laying on the ground with his knees scraping the asphalt and his palms bleeding.
Bee’s concerned face swims in his vision, and he bites his lip in order to stifle a cry. The cuts on his skin sting, and he knows he’ll have a nasty bruise decorating his ribs tomorrow.
He glances at his bike and is relieved to see it still in one piece.
Andrew sits up and lets Bee check his bleeding palms and scraped knees. Aaron runs over to them, yelling in surprise and asking if Andrew is okay. Bee asks him the same question, and all Andrew does is nod even though it still hurts quite a bit.
Bee tasks Aaron to walking Andrew’s bike back to their yard as she herself takes Andrew by the hand and leads him inside.
Andrew sits on the side table in the kitchen while Bee rummages through the cabinets where they keep the bandages. She fishes out a Spider-Man one and applies it carefully over his knee. The disinfectant she sprays on his palms stings, but he braves it without even making a face.
Bee calls him brave for that and offers to make him hot chocolate with extra marshmallows.
When Bee asks if Andrew wants to come back outside, he shakes his head. Bee runs a gentle hand through his hair and gives him a little kiss on the forehead. Andrew closes his eyes and leans into the touch.
“Come get us if you need anything,” Bee calls out before disappearing behind the front door.
Andrew settles on the windowsill and watches as Bee helps Aaron on the bike again.
His second attempt is only a little better than the first, but soon he starts to get it. Andrew watches as his brother pedals down the street for the third time without assistance and feels a little pang of jealousy in his chest.
Aaron makes it look so easy. Why can’t Andrew do it?
They come inside eventually when Bee has to start on dinner, but Andrew has already retreated to his room. He ignores Aaron when he knocks on his door and asks him if he wants to play hide and seek with him, burrowing himself under the blankets instead.
Only when he hears Aaron’s footsteps quiet down the hallway does he let the first sniffle escape.
He wanted to be a big boy like Kevin and his friends. He wanted to ride his big boy bike and decorate it with spray paint and stickers. He wanted to feel the wind in his hair and the burn on his legs as he raced down the road with his friends.
Instead, he’s stuck inside with bandages on his knees, watching as his brother learns to ride a bike and gets to do all of those things that Andrew has dreamt of the entire school year.
It doesn’t seem fair.
He has to come out of his cocoon eventually when the air under the blankets gets too hot and heavy to breathe. His face is flushed and itchy, his hair is sticking every witch way and it feels static-y to the touch. He has no idea how much time has passed, but it must be close to dinnertime soon.
Andrew rubs his eyes with his palms and tries to get the itchy feeling to go away. His eyes feel puffy and sore, and he’s pretty sure they are still red from the crying. He feels ashamed, even though Bee has told him many times that crying is okay, that even big boys can cry sometimes.
He takes in a shaky breath and climbs down from the bed, making his way to the upstairs bathroom.
He needs to step on a stool to reach the sink, but he manages to wash his face all the same. No matter how hard he scrubs, though, the red rims around his eyes won’t go away. New tears threaten to stream down his cheeks out of frustration, and he has to blink hard to stop them.
By the time he exits the bathroom, still looking worse for wear, he’s exhausted. He would like to just go to sleep, but Bee won’t let him skip dinner. He wishes she would, though, just this once.
When he slips back to his room, he’s surprised to find Bee sitting on his bed, watching out of the window.
When the door clicks shut behind Andrew, she turns her head and smiles at him. She opens her arms, just a little, but it is enough of an invitation for Andrew to run over and climb to her lap. Bee cradles him in her arms, rocking them both gently from side to side. Andrew burrows his nose into her neck and breathes in the familiar scent of her fruity shampoo.
They stay embraced like that for a long while. Bee draws slow circles onto Andrew back, gently murmuring into his ear the whole time. Andrew keeps his eyes shut, letting the gentle touch soothe him.
“We can try again tomorrow, if you want,” Bee whispers into the quiet. Andrew makes a wounded sound and shakes his head against Bee’s shoulder. He doesn’t want to ever see that horrible Beast ever again. Or at least not tomorrow.
“Or,” she continues, “we could ask the Wymack’s if we could borrow Kevin’s training wheels. I doubt they have much need for them for the time being.”
Andrew considers this. Training wheels or not, he doesn’t think he feels comfortable enough to get on a bike any time soon. And even if he did, he doubts that Kevin wants to be seen with someone with a baby bike with four wheels dragging them down.
Maybe he’ll learn to skate instead.
“Why can Aaron do it and I don’t?” Andrew whispers after a while. They are twins, they are supposed to be identical. They are supposed to be equally good at riding bikes. It’s unfair that Aaron learned it so much faster.
“Aaron has had more practice,” Bee tells him, voice gentle. Andrew lifts his head from the nape of her neck to shoot her a questioning look.
Bee smiles at him. “He and Kevin practiced a lot during spring break,” she says. “When you were ill, remember?”
Andrew remembers. He caught a nasty cold at the start of the spring break and was forced to stay in bed while his friends enjoyed their free time from school. It didn’t occur to him to wonder what Aaron had been up to during the time he slept his sickness away.
“Will I learn, too?” Andrew asks, his voice small.
Bee runs her finger up and down his nose. “You will,” she says.
And Andrew knows it is the truth, because Bee has yet to break a promise.
***
They end up borrowing the training wheels so that Andrew can go with the others to the park next weekend. Bee and Kevin’s parents come with them, too, and Andrew is only a little bit slower with his four-wheeled bike than Aaron and Kevin. They park their bikes in a neat line next to each other and make sure that each one of them stays upright before taking off and running to the swings.
Andrew wins their impromptu race and it makes him feel a little better about himself, especially because Kevin ends up being the slowest and has to wait for his turn while Aaron and Andrew dare each other to swing as high as they can.
Maybe Andrew will ask Bee to teach him again tomorrow. They need to return the training wheels soon, anyway, because Kevin is going to have a new brother who probably can’t ride a bike, either. Maybe Andrew will ask Kevin’s new brother to learn with him, and then they can all race to the park.
But Andrew is not in a hurry. He has the whole summer, and it’s going to be an amazing summer, too.