Motorcycle Michael & the Frozen Waterfall

“Want to go on a motorcycle ride to the icicle waterfalls in the Catskills?” Was my tinder match Michael’s opening line.

“Sure!” I replied. I didn’t ask many questions. I loved the spontaneity of the offer. We decided to go the upcoming weekend.  It was the 1st night of my winter break my senior year of college and I felt as if I’d been boring my 1st semester so why not go on a motorcycle ride with a complete stranger for almost 2 hours each way?

It was my 1st time ever riding a motorcycle and I had no idea how cold it would be so I wore a pair of leggings, a tank top, and a jacket. It was decently warm for December so I thought that this would be appropriate. I met Michael, at a Starbucks. He looked much taller and hotter in his pictures. He was about my height and really scrawny. But I figured I would go with it. I didn’t want to turn down an adventure. So we headed out.

It was freezing! I was probably the coldest that I’d ever been in my life. The wind was aggressively whipping against every part of my body. We stopped at a gas station to pick up gloves and a had for me but they didn’t really help. The ride was torture.

Eventually we made it. We hiked to see the frozen waterfall. It was pretty. We started to make out and he began taking my clothes off. I could hear some icicles falling but I was in the moment. We were laying in the snow but I wasn’t cold anymore. We were almost entirely naked when we heard a large boom. A bigger ice chunk had fallen. We looked at each other frightened and agreed that we should probably head out. So we put on our clothes and got back on the torture-cycle. We were going around a turn when thee motorcycle slipped on ice. I remember time slowing down- almost freezing- in that moment. I knew i was going down. But I had time to position myself to fall on top of Michael. It didn’t help too much. My leggings completely ripped and my knee was gushing blood. I was pretty sure that I couldn’t stand. Michael’s thick jeans ripped through and his knee was bleeding too. We didn’t know what to do but we headed out in search for the nearest hotel. We needed to clean ourselves up so that we wouldn’t get sick.

We found a motel owned by an Indian couple nearby that helped us clean our wounds. We decided to stay for the night and recover a bit. Something about Michael irked me but I couldn’t figure out quite what it was. It didn’t really matter at this point. We were stuck with each other.

I couldn’t walk very well for the rest of my winter break but my best friend had sprained her foot so we spent a lot of time sitting around in coffee shops together. We called it the golden era. I still have a pretty big scar on my knee.

As for Michael, I saw him once or twice after that night. My friend ended up hooking up with his friend for a while but then decided that he was a loser.