Page 26 of Drifting

“I’ll meet you in the living room in half an hour,” Nick says. “Is that enough time for you to get ready?”

“Yeah, plenty of time. I can be ready in fifteen.” I lean in to whisper, “I’m not your sister.”

He lets out a hearty chuckle. “Thank God. One’s enough. See you in fifteen, then.”

I wash up and put some black mascara and eyeliner on. Grabbing my army jacket, I tie it around my waist and head out to meet Nick in the living room

I find him lounging on the couch with his hands behind his head. He changed into a clean pair of jeans and a green t-shirt.

“Ready?” Nick asks, getting up and rubbing his hands down the sides of his jeans.

“Is this okay to wear?” I gesture to my outfit. “Patty didn’t like my clothes. She brought a stylist here to make sure I have clothes good enough for this neighborhood. The first time the lady came, she brought pink, frilly shit. Ugh.”

Nick laughs. “You’re not like the girls around here.”

His words sting, and my eyes drop to the ground as I chew my lip.

Nick touches my arm, and I peer up at him through my eyelashes. “I meant that in a good way. It’s refreshing. Are you ready to go?”

I shrug. “If you are.”

We walk out to his Toyota Tacoma, and I open the door, then just stare at the distance between the ground and the floor of the truck.

Nick cocks his head to the side. “Do you need a hand to get up?”

“Yeah. Don’t think I’ll make it on my own, yet.”

I turn, and he grabs my waist, hoisting me up into the seat like I weigh nothing. He’s stronger than he looks. I swing my legs in, and he shuts the door for me.

Nick climbs behind the wheel and starts up the truck. Fall Out Boys blasts from the speakers.

“Sorry.” Blushing, he turns down the music.

“Leave it. I like Fall Out Boys.” I click my seatbelt in place. “So, stepbrother, tell me about yourself and your friends. What should I expect?”

He backs out of the driveway. “Who should I start with? Luke Manson is our neighbor and my best friend.” He hooks a thumb toward the house as we pass. “He’s also our quarterback and team captain.”

“He drives the bright green Mustang?” I point to it in the driveway.

“Yeah, that’s Luke. Who’s next…? Camden Wright.” He shakes his head as he remembers something. “He’s a total adrenaline junkie and a massive flirt. So, consider yourself warned. Then, there are the twins, Dominick and Maverick Knight. They’re not really twins—they have different mothers—but we always said they are because they’re born a couple months apart. They’re complete opposites of each other. Dominick’s cynical, so it will take him a while to warm up to you. He has major trust issues, but when you finally get past his walls, he’ll be the most loyal person you could ever know. His brother Mav is as much of a crazy person as Camden, so watch out. When they get together, you can almost guarantee the cops will be called. I couldn’t ask for a better group of friends. They’re always there when I need them.”

“They sound like great guys,” I say wistfully thinking of Cin and my pit crew. “You don’t know how lucky you are. We moved so much I never got to make friends. Even if we stayed in an area, the places we lived… It was bad. Patty could barely afford a one-bedroom, which I always got because, most of the time, Patty only made it as far as the couch before she passed out.”

I run a hand through my hair. “Those damn apartments… I don’t know how some of them didn’t fall down around us.” I laugh. “This one place we lived was shaped like an L. The front half got condemned, but it was still connected to the part we lived in, separated by a locked door right across from my bedroom. One night, the wind whipped up, and I swear the whole place started shaking. I remember curling up in a ball under my blanket, covering my head and praying for it to stop. When it did, I peeked out from under my blanket, and the door across me had disappeared. I could see the night sky and the building across from us. During the wind storm, the front half blew down.”

I stare out my window, remembering other, worse times. There are so many stories I could tell Nick.

“Unbelievable.” Nick shakes his head. “I can’t believe you lived in places like that. It sucks you never got to experience having a friend. I read somewhere it’s important to interact with kids. It’s how we expand our vocabulary and, most importantly, our social skills.”

“I interacted with adults, mostly. Might be why my first word was shit. As for social skills, I learned them differently than you did. I think most of the social skills came from my Aunt Maria and Uncle Brett. I stayed with them for five years, from age six to eleven. Their daughter, Cindy, is my best friend.”

“You’ve got better social skills than Hannah. Dad mentioned you got into a bad accident right before you came to live with us. What happened? If you don’t mind talking about it.” He turns off the main road.

I put my elbow on the door’s armrest, lifting my hand to cover my mouth to give me a minute to think. Do I want to go into a lengthy explanation about me racing? For now, I decide to keep it simple.

“I screwed up. I wasn’t completely over the flu, but I wanted to race anyway. One of the other drivers hit me, and my reaction time was slow. Now, there are pins and rods in my arm and a pin in my leg to remind me how stupid I was for not listening and sitting that race out.”

“Sounds like a really bad accident.” He glances quickly at me and smiles. “I’m glad you only have a broken leg and arm.”

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