Page 118 of Trading Paint

This was going to take some persuasion on my part, highly analytical persuasion skills. Just as I was about to explain to the cops that we were only searching for the guy that keyed the red dragon, a crazed tenant, who we broke down their door, showed up pointing fingers.

“They broke down my door for no reason!” she yelled in the officer’s face.

“You have no proof of that,” was my genies response. I did in fact have cuts all over my hands and splintered chunks of wood covering my jeans.Couldn’t have been more obvious.

There all three of us were in the cop car with Sway on my lap because she refused to sit next to Tommy. She blamed him for this, which was fine by me because it was my fault, my idea at least.

Being inside the cop car was another story. Sway wouldn’t stop moving around on my lap. It didn’t take long before she noticed the reactionis wascausing.

“Are you...is thatyour...?” She had the most adorable blush spreading across her cheeks.

“In my defense...you’re wriggling around in my lap.”

Sway giggled.

“Should I...I mean,” she cleared her throat. “I should get off.”

I grinned. “You’re welcome too,” I implied lasciviously winking at her. “butif you stay, I might.”

Apparently that was the funniest thing she’d ever heard because she started laughing hysterically to the point where I have to hold her up. Tommy just grumbled next to us. He was more upset that the cop now how his paint ball gun.

Once they had our ID’s and ran background checks, I’m sure they saw Sway and I already had B&E’s on our records and also theft but they were distracted by me. Like I said before, racing in a NASCAR series, I was becoming someone people recognized by just the name.

So here the officer came, smiling. “You’re Jameson Riley, like the driver of the number nine car?”

“Yeah,” I moved Sway off my lap. She giggled again when I had to adjust myself. “Are we free to go?”

His smile grew when his partner approached the car. I was all about getting out of this mess without jail time. I didn’t think my dad or Simplex would appreciate me being arrested when I was supposed to be in Vegas tomorrow.

This went on for a few minutes, the officers asking me questions completely unrelated to the crimes we committed. I was fine with that as long as we weren’t arrested but I also began to think we’d be here most of the night by the way they were talking.

How all this was relevant to our situation was not lost by me.

They were both a bunch of weirdo’s but I had a real problem with the shorthaired blonde officer who kept eyeing Sway.

“Are we free to go?” I finally asked leaning against the side of the car.

“Yes, but it appears you may need to pay for those doors you broke.” The blonde officer said to me.

“I’ll pay for ‘em.” I said. “It was a misunderstanding.”

“I’m sure.” He remarked with a sour edge.

I’m sure he was thinking I was trying to use the fact that his partner was star stuck by me but that was beside the point. I had to be in Vegas tomorrow, I couldn’t be arrested right now. I should have thought of this earlier in the day when we planned this escapade but I was too caught up in paying back this asshole that keyed Sway’s truck almost daily. I didn’t think of the consequences, which was usual for me and Sway, she did everything on a whim and looked at the consequences later. Tommy, well in his defense, he had orange hair, we shouldn’t expect much decision making from him in general.

In the end, I handed my credit card over to the apartment maintenance manager. Tommy’s paint ball gun was confiscated and Sway found the dude that keyed her truck, keying her truck again.

Let’s just say he won’t be keying any more cars in the near future.

“That was awesome.” Sway said once we were back in the truck. Only having two seats, she made Tommy sit in the bed. By the time we reached our destination in downtown Bellevue, a nightclub by the name of Vertigo, Tommy’s hair looked much like the time we got caught in the tornado.

Abby, Tommy’s girlfriend met us there and thought his new orange hairdo was pretty awesome. I liked Abby, she was good for Tommy and let’sfaceit, he and his orange hair needed someone special.

We spent the remainder of the night dancing and drinking. Sway and I got a little frisky and I was having a hard time keeping my hands to myself. I pretty much lost most control I was wavering with when she downed her last beer and drug me out on the dance floor.

I hated being hung over. Most of all, I hated being dehydrated when I had a race the next day.

Racing sprint cars, it wasn’t as bad because your feature event wasn’t longer than fifty laps. I think your body worked harder to control the car in a sprint car but stock cars were just as physically demanding but also, mentally demanding because you had to constantly think strategy. Now instead of making fifty laps I was making three hundred.

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