"Hey Mal, what happened to that bike you bought?" Steve asked. Eric rolled his eyes because it seemed like just another excuse to not play any music, but Steve spotted him. "One of these days your eyes are gonna roll right out of your head" he warned, and Eric didn't say anything because even though he hated to admit it he was curious to know what had happened to Mal's bike as well. It'd been - what, two years? More than that, surely. Mal had made such a big fuss about it, he'd bought it at a garage sale or something. For a whole week he wouldn't shut up about it and when he finally showed it to Eric and Steve neither of them could see what the big deal was.

"Have you still got it?" Steve asked now.

"Yeah" Mal said.

"So what happened to it?"

Mal looked sheepish. "The tyre went flat."

"And . . . ?"

"And I couldn't ride it!"

"Did you try pumping it up?" Steve asked.

"Yeah! It just went flat again."

"So you had a puncture" Eric said.

"Well how else would the air get out?"

"And you don't know to fix that?"

"Of course not! Who do you think I am, the bike king?"

Eric couldn't think of what to say to that. "Well you're obviously not that."

"So how long did you have it before the tyre went flat?" Steve asked.

"Like - a month I guess?"

"And you haven't rode it ever since?"

"Nah, man. But I've still got it. I just can't ride it."

Eric and Steve both stared at him. "Jesus, Mal."

"What?" Mal asked. "Man, let's play some music."