This time I know it's for real

 

This time for sure. Possibly it was a mantra that Rafe kept telling himself, and the fact he finally got his hands on a motor scooter.

"Couldn't you have found something else?" His father awoke him to the fact that he didn't like the idea of him on any kind of motorbike.

"It'll be fine," he shrugged, reminding him that he'd always been at his best on a skateboard and a bicycle. "I keep bumping into things when I drive a car." He didn't know what it was. Maybe it was his eyesight. Besides, he loved being on the go on the old moped.

"I think you've lost it," his dad shook his head, looking at it there in the driveway. After all, Rafe got it for a mere two hundred and fifty bucks. How long could this machine last? "You can't drive it in the snow and ice. Winter is a bad time."

"So?" Rafe looked at him as if his dad hadn't been any help to him in the transportation department.

His father dug his hands deep in his Chinos in thought. He gritted a smile, shaking his head. 

"It's all because of that girl, isn't it?" His dad knew.

"What?" Rafe never knew what bewildered meant until that moment. He thought he might choke on a laugh or stutter nonsense. "What if it is?"

"Well, if she's changed you for the better, then I might like her. I just think you need to be reminded that if you think she's more than somebody to go steady with for five minutes-" He sighed. "I hope you've grown up."

Rafe practically smirked then. His dad told him they would need to take it for a tune-up. See what could probably be wrong with it. "And you must wear a helmet. She'll have to wear a helmet too."

Then he spoke practically in a foreign language to Rafe about insurance and that one day if he did make a commitment, he'd have to be a good provider. "She'll have to be on your insurance too." He almost smiled. "These days, you'd probably be on her insurance plan."

Rafe winced. He had no idea what kind of future his dad was talking about.