Grease Monkey | shawnmendes

two

"Here she is!" We pulled into the driveway of our new home - an old farmhouse. Great.

"Who's here?" I mumbled, noticing a beat up car in the drive.

"Well, we know how badly you're going to miss your Mercedes, but since we couldn't bring it, we decided to surprise you with this!" My dad grinned.

"Is this some kind of sick joke?" I climbed out of my parent's SUV to inspect the piece of junk. It was a red sports car sort of thing from at least thirty years back - definitely not my kind of vehicle.

"Ken, we'll get it fixed up nicely. Calm down and enjoy this experience, would you?" My mom tossed me a bag and we went inside to view the home. It was old, but nice. It didn't have the amenities that our upscale New York flat did, but then again nothing about this place was the least bit similar to New York. The place came fully furnished since we were traveling such a long way. I flopped on the couch and pressed buttons on the remote while my parents doted on the house.

While they were upstairs, I heard a slight knock on the front door. I debated on answering - not really being in the mood to talk to anyone - but I got up and trudged to the front door anyways. Behind it was a plump elderly man in overalls, who looked dirty from head to toe. "Hello there young lady!" He smiled. "Is your father here?"

"Hi, you must be Bart?" My dad came up behind me and answered the old man. They shook hands.

"Yes. Yes, I am. Jeremy is it? Nice to meet you!" They continued to greet one another and I folded my arms, listening to what the old man had to say.

"I just wanted to see if you all needed any help moving in." Bart smiled a lot, I'd decided. He was genuinely a nice man.

"I think we can manage! Thanks though, Bart!" My dad answered him.

"Alright then, well if you have any problems with the car, just bring it down to the shop! We'll have one of the boys take care of it. And if you want it spiffed up or anything of the sort, the boys can do that too! They're quite handy!" Bart turned to go.

"We'll probably bring it down tomorrow. It's my daughter's so she'll stop by!" My dad said goodbye to Bart and turned to me. "See, we're getting the car fixed up. It's going to be sweet. I'm driving it every now and then." He was excited about every bit of this move. I rolled my eyes.

"You can drive it anytime. I'd honestly rather walk." I huffed, returning to the couch.

++

I stood in the yard and looked at the car. Fixed up, it could probably be nice, but right this moment, it wasn't fixed up. I pulled on the handle to open the driver door. The door squeaked loudly. I eased down into the driver's seat. The car smelled like old furniture and body odor. I held my nose as I rolled the windows down. After starting the car, it began to smoke. I cursed it and tried to back out of the drive. The car squeaked as I drove it. I was so annoyed.

After what seemed like forever of driving, I pulled into the automobile shop parking lot. Bart came out of the front door, smiling. "What can I do for ya, ma'am?" He recognized me and the car.

"Can you make it stop squeaking and smoking when I drive it?" I asked and Bart nodded.

"Shawn!" He called out. The tall, brown headed guy I'd seen the day before slowly made his way out of the shop. His gait was lanky, as was he. He had plenty of muscles, but he was just so tall. He had on dirty jeans and a button down with a tank top underneath. He was also wearing some sort of bandana in his curly hair. He was greasy all over. He looked like he didn't know what bathing meant. Tattoos adorned his tanned skin and a cross hung around his neck. His brown eyes met mine and all I could think was how annoyed I was. If he couldn't fix this car, I was going to die out here in this town, I just knew it. If he fixed it, on the other hand, I could possibly drive back to New York. "Make it stop smokin' and squeakin'." Bart turned and went inside the office, leaving me alone with the tall, rugged mechanic.

Shawn, as Bart called him, looked me over before beginning his work. He didn't say a word. No one told me where to go or what to do, so I just stood there, awkwardly. "Can you fix it?" I asked him after a few moments of him looking under the hood.

"There's not much wrong with it." His voice was insanely deep. And rough. He had an accent - Canadian maybe? I scoffed loudly at the idea that there wasn't anything wrong with that piece of trash my dad bought me to drive around in. The mechanic looked me over again, as if he disapproved of me. I felt uncomfortable. He took his time and did a few different things to the car before walking back into the shop. He didn't say a word before he left. I had no clue where Bart was so I climbed back into the car and started it. The driver door didn't squeak when I opened it and there wasn't any smoke when I hit the gas. I shrugged and pulled out of the parking lot - heading home.

++

One Month later

My alarm clock aroused me from a dream about Kyle - whom I still hadn't spoken to since the breakup. I'd talked to Tessa a few times, but with school starting in New York, she didn't have much time. Now it was my turn. Senior year started in a few short hours. Ugh. I rolled out of bed and headed for the shower.

"You're wearing that?" My mom asked as I walked into the kitchen. My parents had really taken to the small town life. They were dressing the part and acting the part. I wanted to slap some sense into the both of them. I was wearing high-waisted black jean shorts, converse, and a white tee. It was the exact style I'd had in New York and it was the style I was keeping. I ignored her comment and downed the egg omelet she'd cooked. "Have a great first day!" She called out as I went out the door. Ever since the move, I'd had little to do with my parents and I was fine with it. If they could take away all I'd ever known without even caring, then we didn't have the relationship that I thought we did.

I climbed into my beat up sports car and made the drive to school.

++

"Miss Greer?" The teacher asked as I stood in front of the class.

"Yes." I looked around the classroom. It was full of people that looked completely different than me. I could tell they thought the same from the looks I was getting. I was late to class because I had to get my schedule from the front office. They took their sweet time, so then I was that girl who's late on the first day. Great.

I found a seat in the back and tried to focus on the lecture, but all I could think about was Kyle and Tessa. I missed them terribly. I had to focus. I loved school back home. I had straight A's and teacher's loved me. I was popular, but Tess and Kyle were who I hung around the most. Here, I hung out with myself. No one had tried to get to know me so far. But then again I hadn't met anyone my age.

Then school day drug on and I'd decided that the reason I hadn't met anyone my age is because they were all pricks. Not a single person had said hello to me. All I'd received was strange looks. Lunch time came around and I had no clue where to sit. I was miserable. I walked outside of the school and leaned up against the building, letting the sunlight wash over my face.

"Why are you even here, you grease monkey? Go back to the shop where you belong. You'll never graduate!" Someone's yelling interrupted my thoughts of Kyle. I opened my eyes to see a fight playing out just a few feet in front of me. A short, stocky boy and his group of friends were yelling at a tall boy. Once my eyes adjusted, I realized the tall boy was Shawn from the car shop - the one who'd fixed my car a month ago. I hadn't seen him since and I'd all but forgotten about him. The short boy was rattling off profanities at Shawn and suddenly, Shawn had had enough. Shawn's right fist collided with the boy's eye. They were both on the ground, wrestling and hitting one another. Shawn seemed to have the advantage. He was beating the other boy to a pulp. The other boy's friends were trying to break up the fight, but were unsuccessful. Soon, the principal came out and broke up the fight. I shook my head and went inside for my next class.

Apparently, the fight had me so distracted that I'd missed the bell and was fifteen minutes late for my history class. My teacher was also an absolute asswipe and sent me to the principal's office for being so late.

I was a bit nervous, seeing as I'd never been in trouble or sent to the office. I gave the receptionist my note and she directed me towards his office. "There are others waiting so you'll have to take a seat." I nodded in response to her directions and made my way down the hallway to where she'd told me to go. Great. The only seat available was right next to Shawn- who'd just almost killed some boy.

"Hey." I smiled at him. He didn't reply. "You fixed my car, right?" He didn't reply a second time. Instead, his hard gaze was fixed forward. "Well, if I'm ever in a fight, I want you on my team." I added, hoping to get some sort of response out of him. I watched him from my peripheral vision. A smirk played out on his face when he heard my comment.

We sat in silence for what seemed like forever. The door to the principal's office finally opened and out walked the short boy from the fight. He had three bags of ice - one for his eye, lip, and head. He looked pathetic.

Shawn stood to go into the office. "If you need anything else done to the car, or if you just want to make it look better, don't hesitate to bring it by." With that, he sauntered off into the principal's office as if he didn't really care that he was about to get punishment.

I sat there, bewildered at my first day. And it wasn't even over yet.