The Streets

28. Street Race

"You better not lose my car Jock Boy." Thayer hissed at me a few hours later.

"Yes yes we all know." Paul answered. Thayer had been threatening me since I got back from practice.

"Just saying." Thayer muttered, making Paul roll his eyes.

"Will you two quit it?" Dakota said, as she came up the stairs. "I can hear you bickering all the way downstairs. Don't make it harder on Cole than it already is."

She was right. My nervousness over the past few hours had increased. I had gone from worrying about losing to worrying  if they would kick me out if I lost. I had told The Twins about my fears and they eased them.

"No worries Cole," Jacob answered. " Trish doesn't run things like that. If she did, all of us would of been kicked out."

"Let's go boys. Trish is waiting downstairs for us." Dakota said. I gulped, looking at my phone. It was almost time for us to meet The Raiders. Downstairs was crowded, I had to push my way through some people to get outside. I sucked in a huge breath of cool air as soon as I got out, only to have it knocked out of me.

Trish was leaning on the hood of Dakotas car, looking off into the distance. Her hair was whipped out behind her because of the breeze. She had a pair of shorts on and they had fake spikes on the front of them. Her upper half she had a shirt showing off her stomach with the American flag on it.

Someone let a whistle out beside me. "Trish babe, looking good. Making sure Zeke knows what he lost huh?" Dakota complimented her.

Trish smirked but she didn't answer Dakotas question. Instead her eyes went to me. I could see that she was wearing makeup making her eyes look sultry.

"You ready Cole?" She asked seriously.

I nodded my head, not trusting my vocals. She nodded back to acknowledge she saw my answer and she slid off the hood and on the back of Jacobs motorcycle.

I got in Dakotas car and we arrived in moments. The area was under one of the major highways in the city and we could hear the sounds of traffic overhead. I looked down the end of the road, only to see it disappear around a building.

"Where am I racing?" I panicked slightly. I should've asked this question as soon as I won the bet against Trish.

"I'd thought you'd never ask." Paul spoke, as he took a map out of the back pocket of his jeans. He unfolded it and spread it on the hood of Thayer's car.

"It's a simple route. Only two miles. Around the building the roads straight for a mile until there's a sharp left turn back this way." He explained as he trailed his finger along the route for me to see.

"Seems easy enough to me."

I glanced at my phone to see that it was two minutes until The Raiders were supposed to be here. "Shouldn't they be here all ready?" I asked.

Cars came revving around the corner. There had to be fifteen, all of them with music playing loudly and people hanging out of the windows. The first four cars stopped along the sides of the road while the fifth one stopped beside Thayers. The rest of the cars parked behind ours, making it impossible to leave if we wanted to. Zeke came out of the first car, looking cocky and the rest of The Raiders came out of the first four cars.

"Nice to see you again Trish." Zeke commented as I saw his eyes rake over her. I bawled my hands into fists.

"Should we get this show on the road?" Trish asked Javier, ignoring Zeke.

"Little eager to begin are we? You don't want to talk about Z or all the months we haven't see each other?" Jasmine asked.

"No. We got better things to do." Dakota replied for her best friend.

"Bet you don't. We got all night to begin this race." Monique began to pick her nails, emphasizing her point.

"What I want to talk about", Javier cut in before Dakota could reply. "Is your new boy toy you got." He said as he glared at me.

The Raiders seemed to remember that there was a new member of the Mischief's, as did the crowd did to. They all looked at me and I could feel their judgement stares as easily as I could feel the Sun's rays on me if it were daytime.

"What was your name again?" Zeke said pretending to think. "Cordon? Cory?Joey?" He listed.

"It's Cole." I spat.

Zeke merrily shrugged, simply trying to anger me. "Don't care."

"Well I do." Javier began, glaring at Zeke before he turned to me. "How's the gang life treating you so far? Fun? Boring?" he questioned.

I shrugged."Business is business."

Javier blinked, miffed by response. He was expecting a rookie reply and based on the rest of The Raiders and Mischief's faces they had expected the same. I inwardly grinned to myself. I had talked a lot to the Twins and Dakota what they thought about what we did. They were honest, telling me there were benefits like the money, cars and girls but they also told me that there are downfalls like getting arrested or killed.

"Enough of him." Zeke said in an annoyed voice. " How you doing baby girl?" He looked Trish up and down again.

"I'm good. Knowing Coles going to kick your ass, I'll be able to sleep like a baby tonight." She smiled as she spoke.

"Enough chat." Samir cut in impatiently. "Let's get going."

"Catch Jock Boy."Thayer called as he threw his keys at me, which I caught.

"Hopefully your driving skills are better than your football skills." He called over his shoulder as he walked away.

"Don't listen to him. You'll do fine." Dakota said as she gave me a quick hug.

"You got this man." The Twins spoke as they clapped me on the back, after Dakota finished hugging me.

Theo gave a small nod of his head, which I took as his encouragement.

"For good luck." Trish said as she swiftly hugged me but pulled away before I could react.

"You done getting babied by your friends?" Zeke called. I looked to see him in the driver's seat of a red Camaro.

"Ready to lose?" I called as I got into the car and started the ignition. I had to admit looking around Thayers car, I understood why he would never let anyone drive it. The car was spotless. There was no smell in the car, no trash, nothing. There didn't even look to be any dust on the dashboard. I was surprised. Dakota has had her car for awhile and it reeked of perfume with take out containers everywhere.

"Gentlemen!" A female voice called. There was one of the girls who came with The Raiders and she was standing in the middle of the road.

I revved my engine,ready to win this race for the crew. I felt my blood start to pump faster and chills of adrenaline show up on my skin. I was aware of the cheers from people watching on the side, none of them for me. I felt a huge smile appear on my face as the I heard the girl yell;

"Go!"