I started to walk away to my car, I don't know why was I even surprised, even back home in Cali people approached me to use me, to gain something I didn't even have myself, why did I think it would be any different here.
-"five years ago, does Mechanic Sargon ring a bell?" Ben's raspy voice made me freeze in place, I stud quietly. A shiver went up to my spine and rested on the nape of my neck making every hair stand up, how much did they know about me?
-"Mechanic Sargon is just a competition right?" I shrugged off, that was not my proudest moment, I still felt awful about what happened all those years ago.
Everyone looked on at Ben waiting for what he was going to say,
-"That you just so happened to be disqualified from." He stated dryly while rummaging through his pocket, I raised my guard up, he did know, he knew everything. I swallowed,
-"It was a mistake." I began in an apologetic tone. Ben pulled out the cigarette box from his pocket and took one to his mouth.
He chuckled lightly,
-"How old were you?" He asked paying attention to the lighter near his face, Kyle Juan and Ray stood quietly waiting for what was to come,
-"I was fifteen" the pressure made me cave in, I shoved my hands in my pocket, This was stupid, I was sure I could beat Ben's scrawny ass into juice if I felt like it! So why was I letting him trail on as if it was nothing?
-"Look, I know that what I did pissed a lot of people off, but my family was only going to be in Florida for that year and I really wanted to compete, I practiced so har-" I tried to explain to Ben but he cut off with a short laugh.
-"So you entered under a fake age and name in the competition, right? You remember that it was 21 and over, yeah?" he said with a shit-eating grin plastered on his face.
I rubbed the back of my head nervously, in truth, I hated when people reminded me of this, it was a weird chapter in my life, my dad was away serving in the army and me and my brother Tristan were home alone most of the time, mom was always slaving away, doing late shifts, so we barely saw her, I was young and dumb and with way too much time on my hands, so when Mechanic Sargon rolled around Tristan helped me illegally enter, we really caught hell for it, Mom almost killed us, and Dad...well, Dad was Dad...
-"And you won Dean, You fucking won, a stupid 15 year old won" Ben said, making me snap back to reality, that was a weird summer. -"and then everyone realized who and how old you were, that's when people got pissed "he laughed as if it was the best joke he's heard in a while, suddenly I realized, he wasn't putting me on trial or angry he just found it impressive.
I did understand, there were all kinds of sides, some called me a cheater and didn't even acknowledge my victory, Others thought I was a genius or something.
-"They covered your story on the news and everything, I remember that" Kyle pipped up
The knot on my stomach became tighter, I do remember getting calls from news organizations left and right and mom always declining even though the fame would have done me good, for a career and such, However, it didn't matter now because only a few even remembered that, these guys must have done their research.
I shrugged for the 10th time that night, a nervous tick at this point.
-"I'm leaving now, you guys are just over estimating me" I gave my final farewell as I started to walk away, feeling like tonight was just another regret on my long list.
-"Hold it" Ben stopped me, I groaned, what now?
he looked at me quietly, -"Kyle" he said not breaking eye contact with me.
-"Yeah?" Kyle responded nonchalantly
-"Give him the Shelby," He said with a smirk, Kyle's eyes nearly fell out of their sockets, Juan and Ray seemed visibly excited.
-"Are you Crazy? he's not ready, I thought you said slow Ben" Kyle protested.
-"Don't worry, I have a feeling he'll be just fine," Ben said confidently while throwing his finished cigarette on the floor. Kyle groaned and reached into his pocket for something.
I had no idea what was happening, I looked at my own car as if the escape route seemed farther away. Kyle walked up to me and glared at me.
-"You better take care of it, Or you'll fix it better than when I gave it to you," he warned as he handed me the keys to his car, His Mustang Shelby.
I looked at Ben, looking for answers he just gave me a toothy grin.
-"See Dean, I want you in my crew, I need you in my crew," he said capriciously.
-"Your crew seems more like a cult Ben." I retorted looking at the keys in my hand, what the hell is this? I wanted to leave, I wanted to run the other direction, but this, this just got a lot more interesting. Ben laughed, finding my sarcasm amusing, I guess.
-"From town and back, if I get here first, you'll join my crew," he said, aroused almost.
my skin started to feel prickly, I didn't like that gleam in his eyes, yet, his arrogance pissed me off even more.
-"A race?" I asked. Ben nodded, a full spectrum of expressions showing up on his face.
-"isn't that illegal?" I asked uneasily.
-"if you're gonna race to beat me, they'll never catch you," he said licking his bottom lip, the carefree and mild Ben was gone now, in his place stood a thrill-seeking monster, with a dangerous glint in his dark eyes and for some reason, I wanted to throw my dice in too.
-"What if I get here first?" I asked, of course, I wasn't going to gamble with the stakes this high and no price.
-"You've been working so hard on my car, I know you want to get paid right? So get here first," he said with a sly smirk. of course, I wanted to get paid, it was my money, but for him to hold it over my head this way, how dirty! Now I wanted to do this even more.
-"fine." I gambled as if it didn't matter. All I knew now is that it wasn't even about the money, I just wanted to beat Ben and wipe away his fastidious smile.
I felt like I ran to Kyle's car. He followed behind me to give me the instructions for it, but I knew how everything worked, I knew a car just as much as I knew the palm of my hand. His car was manual like mine, so this was already known territory for me.
-"I've never driven a Mustang before," I told Kyle as I settled in the driver's seat and gripped along the steering wheel, the inside of Kyle's car was completely modded, well it was to be expected, this was a racing car after all. Kyle grinned at me.
-"Can I come with you?" he asked with excitement in his voice. I laughed hard at his question.
-"It's your car, dude," I answered, he quickly ran to the other side without even giving me a second thought.
-"Most drivers rather be alone," He said, buckling in, -"At least Ben finds it hard to race with people next to him, he feels like he needs to be more careful." Kyle continued.
-"So he drives like a maniac?" I asked almost concerned,
-"No" Kyle answered, -"It's more like; he's not scared of dying," he said with a tone that sent shivers down my back.
-"Well then, Call me suicidal from now on, because I'm not letting him win." Determination burned in my eyes. Kyle laughed at my declaration.
-"Hey, Dean." Kyle said -"I'm betting on you," he said confidently.
-"And why is that?" I asked.
-"That car you're fixing for Ben what noise did it made when you turned it on?" he asked.
-"Oh that, Yeah it was pretty terrible wasn't it? I know exactly what's wrong though and I can fix it, I already told Ben, But besides the noise, it runs just fine, it's a Corolla, so it should survive." I explained to him, he looked at me and smiled.
-"At the start of summer this year" he began, still looking at me -"Juan and Ben found that car on the side of the road, Here it's pretty common to find abandoned cars, so they were not surprised, They took it back to Ben's. We figured it could be a fun project to Mod the absolute loving shit out of the car, so we all took turns on it." Kyle stopped and started chuckling.
-"What's so funny?" I asked confused and very intrigued by this story.
-"We didn't hear a noise!" He explained, I arched a brow.
-"Did I break it?" I knew I wasn't as polished as these guys thought me out to be so I wasn't really surprised, It was a matter of changing a part so, I wasn't really all that discouraged.
-"No. You didn't." Kyle said smiling wide at me, I was beginning to think he liked me a lot, He looked at me the way a child looks at a brand new toy, full of wonder and happiness.
-"You see, we didn't hear a noise because we couldn't turn it on." He said Bursting out in laughter. I swallowed, There's no way, I was replaying what I had done to it in my head over and over. I didn't realize when the laughter left my lips, I didn't quite understand what was so funny, but it felt liberating, to laugh this way, to be this free, that's what being with Blaire felt like...
Ben looked at me from the window of his Dodge stealth, it was pink, Kyle explained that it was because it was his favorite color, I tried to contain my laughter. Ben revved up the engine in his car and it sounded beautiful, like a chorus. Kyle's Car didn't sounded quite the same. I wasn't worried though, Kyle's car was an all-American muscle car, what this car didn't make in elegance it made in speed. I trusted American cars above everything, maybe that's why I was a little nervous about Ben, but I was not going to let my worries scare me from beating Ben.
-"Dean I might be getting aroused, I've dreamed about this, y'know!" Ben shouted from his car
-"Gross dude!" Kyle retorted. I simply laughed
-"Try and keep it in your pants, asshole!" I shouted back.
Both cars were perfectly aligned looking at the road ahead. This race was simple and less than 10 minutes long, We both had to find the way to get here before the other, Ben had the advantage though, he lived here after all. he knew the roads, he knew the shortcuts, he knew where to go, where fewer cars would be, But I wasn't going to lose, no fucking way.
As soon as Juan dropped the oil-stained rag on the floor, I was off, the tires screeched in protest, but I didn't care. Ben was behind me by just an Inch so I figured I make the gap bigger and stepped on that accelerator like I wanted to die. Kyle looked horrified, but the adrenaline was so much I started laughing my ass off. I loved this instantly, fuck. the sound of the engine the smell of the gas, pushing a powerful car that was modded for this, amazing! I wanted this for myself.
-"I didn't think she was capable of doing this only the first 2 seconds," Kyle said wide-eyed.
-"I know old cars, Kyle." I bragged arrogantly, as I looked at Ben's car through the mirror.
his Stealth was very elegant, even though pink wasn't my color, it had dignity.
-"What I wouldn't give to see Ben's face right now," Kyle said giddily.
We were a approaching the town, I already knew I was taking the right, if cut through the doughnut shop I'd get there faster, I took the right turn, Cutting in front of Ben's Stealth making him reduce speed significantly, I heard him cursed colorfully at me from behind.
-"Nice Dean!" Kyle cheered looking back at Ben.
Ben was still behind us, my foot landed on the clutch so hard I thought I broke it I quickly switched gears.
-"I've never thought about going this fast, but holy shit I don't want to slow down" I admitted to Kyle, I felt my heart go faster with every minute.
we were 5 minutes away from Ben's place and I still had a significant lead on Ben when we saw the blue lights, a few feet behind us.
the color drained from both me and Kyle's Faces.
-"Okay Dean, don't panic, whatever you do, don't let them see the license plate," Kyle instructed.
I reduced the speed and quickly made a U-turn, our car zoomed passed the cop car and then I noticed, It was mom.
-"Fuck" I found myself muttering
-"Don't worry just keep going, I know where we can lose them." Kyle comforted me.
did she notice? did she see me? does she know it's me? I don't want to imagine the world of shit I'll get into if she... no, she didn't see me, I was going too fast, This wasn't even my car, The windows are tinted, right, tinted windows, nothing to worry about.
Blue lights following behind were blinding, the siren's sound was deafening, I couldn't concentrate on anything, fuck, why did it have to be mom.
-"Dean" Kyle's yelled pulled me right out of my thoughts.
-"I'm taking this turn," I announced as I saw the sudden opportunity, this was the turn that I made Ben slow down at. Ben, where was he? bastard probably bounced.
Kyle yelled about how at the speed we were going we could die, and that the turn was too sharp for the Shelby to take, but I didn't care, we were taking this fucking turn.
Kyle held on tight and braced, I knew the Shelby wasn't made for taking these sharp turns but it was going to happen, it was the only way I was getting away, I did the turn as I heard Kyle scream like a little girl, mom kept going straight, I knew it would work, by the time she did the U-turn to come after us we would have been miles away, Oh how sweet victory tasted! I did another left turn, to get back on the right path to Ben's and we were home free!
the funerary silence inside the car was sharply replaced by the sound of Kyle's laughter, aftershock it seemed, he kept laughing.
-"Oh my god, Dean I can't believe you actually did that." Kyle said while catching his breath he was looking behind making sure we weren't being followed, -"Dude, that was fucking awesome!" he praised on settling back into his seat.
I shrugged, I couldn't really tell him that if my mom saw me doing these things she'll break my legs. That woman was scary. I'll keep it a secret, for now.
-"Well I wasn't gonna get caught in my first race" I felt myself smiling ear to ear, was I really considering trying this out again? after knowing that mom was going to be sniffing for these kinds of things? I knew her and now she had a vendetta, because in her mind I was the one who got away. Christ! that just made it even more exciting.
We made it to Ben's and less than two minutes later Ben's car came into the backyard like a bullet, Kyle and I were leaning against the victorious Shelby talking, when we saw him leave his car and curse colorfully, what a tasteful sight, it really made me smile.
-"Don't be a sore looser Ben, I won." I bragged to him, he smiled.
-"Yeah, you did, dirty but you did." He admitted and I could tell he was still upset about not beating me.
-"If it wasn't for that Cop..." Ben rambled and passed back and forth as he looked for the cigarettes in his pockets.
-"Relax Ben, tonight was fun, I see myself doing it again," I announced, everyone looked at me wide eye, Ben looked at me as if he was about to cry, or something similar.
-"Welcome to the crew!" Ben said with the widest smile I had ever seen.