Fast and Furious: Future (editing and adding to)

Chapter 5: Santa Monica

Thegiggling of girls somewhere off to the right reminded me of whatAlison and Jasmine had asked me. 'Is there a race this weekend?'I asked.

Jackseemed to be heading towards the lifeguard stand so I followedbehind. 'Not that I know of. Why? Do you want to try and beat me?'

'Pfft.That will be settled on our own. No, my friends were complaining thatI never bring them along.'

'Ah.'He sat down on the bottom few steps to the stand. 'Have youbefore.'

Ileant against the banister. 'A couple of times. They aren'tinterested in cars at all. They like the lads and the atmosphere morethan anything. Plus they don't really believe that I'm not theonly female driver.'

'Don'tthey have boyfriends?'

'Haha,no. And neither do I but it's not a big deal for me. Anyway, I wasasking because the next time there is one, I need to remember tobring them along. Just to shut them up. They will more than likelyget lost among the amount of people that turn up at the races.'

'Istill don't see how you got into cars in the first place. Yourfriends seemed more the girly girl kind than tomboys.'

'Iam not a tomboy. I sort of got into cars through my job rather thanthe other way around which is the case for my co-workers. I don'texactly do my cars up myself.' I rested my arms on the handrail andleant my chin on my arms, looking down at him as he lounged backwardsagainst the other banister.

Scuffinghis foot through the sand, he seemed to remember something himself.'Have you ever done Race Wars?'

Ihad never heard of that. 'No, what is it?'

Hislaughter was so genuine that it made me feel humiliated. 'Seriously?You street race but you've never heard of Race Wars?' I merelystared at him. 'Hmm. It's up in San Bernardino, on the airbase.There's a couple every year. It's meant to stop kids from streetracing and gives them a chance to race the cops outright in a quartermile drag race.'

'Ha,its main purpose doesn't seem to work then.'

'Nobut it gives us something to aim for every three months or so. Itused to be every half year but the cops realised it wasn't oftenenough. Anyway, there's one in a couple of months. They might enjoythat a bit better. The next street race is a couple of weeks. Gottakeep off the radar, so Ed says.'

'Youknow Ed?'

'Allthe serious racers know Ed. They just don't necessarily now eachother. I usually park a distance from the race line so you should beable to find me next time you're out.' It was obvious why he wastelling me this.

'Cool.Depending on my mood, I turn up early or late. If I'm early, I parkup in the middle and if I'm late I park up where my race friendsare. They always save me a spot.'

Hesuddenly got his phone out and quickly sent a text. 'Think you'llhave enough cash for a race in two weeks then?'

Ithought about it. 'Hmm, thanks to you, I might possibly haveenough. Why?'I asked suspiciously.

'Oh,nothing.' Rolling my eyes, I looked over to the salt water and leftit at that. It was clear that the whole of today and tonight was notgoing to be normal or easy-going whatsoever.

Inmy head, I was very confused. On the one hand, I really Jack; he wasfunny and we understood each other even if not a hundred per cent. Wehad a lot in common and he made me feel more than just a girl workingin a car parts store. However, on the other hand, I felt like hanginground with him could make things overly complicated and, perhaps,everything could go wrong over night. That's how my more cautiousside felt when were got close to each other. It wasn't because itwas him but of his family and what I knew they had been through inthe past. It might have been about twenty years ago yet I didn'tknow how they went from being on the run to back where they belonged.I wasn't even sure I was attracted to him in any sort of way otherthan us being friends, and close friends by the rate the last fewweeks had gone.

'Ishould probably head home soon,' he said just as we heard his phonego off. He ignored it.

'Family?'

'Yeh.'

'Youknow it's only because they care about you. From the little you'vetold me, they just don't want to see you get into the trouble theydid.'

'ButI do keep out of trouble. It just seems like trouble just follows myfamily.'

Ididn't mean to smile but it wasn't at what he said but rather athis reaction to what he was saying; as though he didn't believe hewas blabbing off to me and we hardly knew each other personally. Thelaughter that had been in the distance sounded a lot closer now and Iwas scared our privacy would soon disappear. I was even surprisedthat I was thinking about it; about how much I really liked beingaround him on my own.

Jackstood up, brushed off some sand from his jeans and walked around meto head back to his car. 'You coming?'

Slippingmy hand into his (he was only a couple of feet away), I looked himgently in the eyes and gave him a thin smile. We walked closely sideby side all the way to his car where he let my hand go and went roundto the driver's side. 'Jack?'

'Hmm.'

Iknew I was asking this, it wasn't out of spontaneity. 'Do youwanna stay over tonight?' I was asking because I felt a littlesorry for him; sorry that he had such a locally famous family andreputation to live up to and there a little physical sign that it wasa burden on his shoulders.

'Letme think about it on the way back.' That was fine by me and, as Ithought about it myself, the next thing I knew was that we were onceagain roaring along the freeway back to LA.

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