That Summer

Ten

After I left the villa, I'd taken the first bus, which ended up leading me right to the heart of downtown Crestville, and roamed around in the local museum as long as I reasonably could before the curator would start thinking that I was planning to rob it.

For lunch, I went to a small Italian restaurant, called Mario's. It was a cozy restaurant with some of the best Italian food outside of Rome, of course. It was had a warm, welcoming atmosphere, and constant chatter of the surrounding people calmed me.

Needless to say, the female waitresses at Mario's ogled at me like I was the last piece of food on Earth, but the scrumptious food made up for the head waitress' incessant flirting. She'd even scribbled her number on my hand, just as I had left, which I obviously threw away once she was out of sight.

I had switched my phone off, in order to make sure my friends wouldn't be able to reach me, so when I turned it on for some music after lunch, it wasn't surprising to see how many missed calls and unread messages I had:

17 missed calls and 35 new messages, my phone screen read.

A few of the calls were from my friends and Ian, and Kyra surprisingly, but the majority were from Quinn. Most of them read:

Kade, I'm super sorry :(

I wasn't thinking straight when I said that stuff, I swear.

Come on, dude, everyone's worried here!

Atleast send us one tiny message, so we know you're safe!

I scoffed. As if I was a little kid, who was so unsafe when he was out alone.

I checked one last message from Derek.

Way to be a drama queen, Westin, with the whole door slamming shit and all. I hope you're happy now. That poor girl's worrying herself to death. Anyways, we're still heading to the car race in the park, and I'm counting on you to be there. For her sake, okay?

I rolled my eyes at this, but decided to listen to Derek anyways about going to the car race. He would always be the wisest of us all, though I would never know why. However, let's make it very clear, I was not doing it for Quinn; I was doing it for myself and no one else.

I scrolled through my phone and put my playlist containing bands like Linkin Park and the Fray, before plugging my black Skullcandy headphones in my ears and jamming my phone into my pockets.

For the next two hours, I roamed around town, mouthing the words to songs like Burn It Down and Break Your Little Heart and getting hit on by plenty of girls, of well, various, ages. Various, meaning young enough to be my little sister, and old enough to be my grandmother. Disgusting, I know!

By 3:30, I reached the local car renting shop to rent a car for the race. This shop was obviously found with the use of human kind's greatest creation, a life-saving app called Google Maps.

A teenage boy, with shaggy brown hair, who looked my age stood behind the counter. His nametag read Curt.

"Looking for a race car for tonight?" he asked with a easy grin.

"How'd ya know?" I asked, casually.

Was I really that easy to read?

"The car race is huge. People from all over come to race in it and that's usually the only time we get real business here. Not to mention, you look like a racing kind of guy." he said smiling.

I chuckled. "So, what is your best car?"

"The Ultima GTR probably." Curt said, pointing to a sleek black car in the corner of the shop. "But it's more expensive than the others."