Gasoline

Fortunate Son

Diana was upstairs changing out of her clothes from school when she heard the roar of an engine out front. She didn't even have to look out her window to know who it was. She was thankful Lynette wasn't home to let Billy in and ogle him while Diana raced down the stairs. She opened the door just as Billy got to the porch. "Hey, Red" he offered her a genuine smile while looking her up and down.

She had changed into a pink and white tshirt and skin tight black pants, her hair pulled up into a scrunchy revealing large hoop earrings. "Hey, Dumbass" she said unamused as she passed him, heading towards her car. "Now you get to meet my dad, who I can guarantee is not going to happy about this" she gestured towards her car. "He just replaced that damn bumper because my stepmom backed my car into the light post" she said as she rolled her eyes. Billy chuckled at her attitude "Alright well lead the way, Princess". Diana scrunched her nose up at the use of the nickname and slammed her car door behind her.

Billy followed her almost to Hawkins city limits and pulled into the parking lot of a garage that had seen better days. The sign no longer lit up and the garage doors had paint chipping away. A dark green Nova sat parked out front. Diana pulled in front of one of the large garage doors and honked her horn. The large door slowly rolled up and a man walked out with his arms crossed.

Rudy Lister was pushing 50 and had realised he was never cut out to have children. It was always something with Diana. He loved her to death, but she drove him a little bit crazy most days. He had adopted her when she was just three years old. Her mom had her at the ripe age of eighteen, just before Diana's real dad had skipped town. She had gotten married to Rudy a few short years later. Diana had always felt like his daughter, and he had always loved her as if she was. They had the father-daughter relationship down pat, and she had his last name. The only thing that gave it away was that Rudy was tall with dark features that were strikingly different than Diana's. He always joked that he fathered the mailman's child.

"Dammit Pumpkin, what did I tell you about being careful?" Rudy asked her as she stepped out of her car. "I know daddy, it wasn't actually me this time" she told him innocently. "Oh Di, its never your fault! What did I tell you about taking responsibility for your mistakes?" he crossed his arms and looked down at her. She almost cowered as Billy walked up to the door. "Im sorry sir, but this ones on me" Billy said as he stuck his hands in the pockets of his jean jacket. Rudy Crinkled up his face and looked him dead in the eye. "Oh really? So this is going on your tab then, son?" Billy looked at Diana "Well if it means getting this one outta trouble I guess I could swing it" he said as he smiled at her. Diana quickly looked away, back towards her car. "Dad cant you just order it and put it through the garage?" she asked. "Well sure Pumpkin, I could. But whats that gonna teach your friend here?" Rudy asked, never breaking his stare from Billy.

"Well I mean, he just moved here Dad. Im assuming he doesn't have a job or anything. How's he supposed to pay for this?" she crossed her arms and looked up at Rudy. "Im sure we can do something about that. You know anything about cars, son?" Rudy asked Billy. Billy shrugged "I guess you could say that". Rudy looked outside to the Camaro "Cant know that much, that cars only five years old". Billy looked Rudy directly in the eye "Yeah and you'd never guess it was completely totalled two years ago, would ya?" Rudy raised an eyebrow at Billy's cockiness. "Alright son, I'll tell you what. How about you come here after school for a couple weeks. You can help out around the shop, believe it or not we're falling behind we've got so much work comin' in. You can work off the damage you did to my daughters car and I wont have to call your parents like your twelve years old. Deal?" "Sweet Deal" Billy replied almost instantly.

Billy and Rudy shook hands and walked towards the office, leaving Diana standing there baffled. "Are you fricken kidding me?" she whispered to herself. Not only did Billy screw up her car, but now he got a job working right along side her. She ran her fingers through her ponytail, annoyed. She mainly did the office work for her dad but she also liked to come out and help with the cars whenever he'd let her. Now he had Billy to do that. This day was just getting stranger as it went on.