Look Both Ways

With our rocket ready and the launch pad prepped we climbed back in the window and huddled together in anticipation. Three stories up, we aimed it out over the park and looked up and down the street to make sure no cars were coming. I looked at her beside me, could feel her arm touching mine and wondered that anyone could be so beautiful, so serene and so reckless at the same time. We hadn't told the others about us yet and the secret swelled inside me like a balloon and my chest was almost bursting.
Her brother called out a countdown and at "Zero" he pushed the button and the noise was louder than I thought it would be. Everyone screamed and we jostled to get a view of the rocket as it shot skyward. And then, in slow motion, I saw the guy on the bicycle. The rocket reached its apex and started to come down and I ran all the way down stairs, only see the guy on the bike swerve and ditch it on the sidewalk. I could hear them squealing from the window and for a second I didn't know what to do. The rocket was in the grass about ten feet over and the poor guy had been so scared he lost control.
She burst out the front door and helped him up. I wondered if he was going to be pissed, I wondered if he would call the cops, I wondered if I was going to jail. I couldn't hear what she was saying but they were both laughing and I calmed down. He got back on his bike and left and we stood looking at each other on the sidewalk for a minute or two without saying anything.
Then she burst into laughter and I couldn't stop grinning, I was so happy and felt so alive. We picked up the now cold rocket and took it back upstairs and found that they were all hiding in different parts of the apartment. I felt like I was twelve again.

Rocketry. It makes me high.