Page 2 of Ride or Die
The flag is thrown as I pass the line, and I slow to a stop. The crowd lining the entire quarter mile cheers out. Not that they expect anything less from me.
I get out of the car with a smug smile on my face, and that stupid Brayden fuck drives right out of the industrial park. Axel approaches me and hands me the four grand, and I throw it into my car.
“Fuck he's a pussy. No wonder his girl fucked you,” he says, making me laugh.
“Funny thing is, I can’t even remember fucking the bitch he’s talking about.” I shrug. I lean back against the car and place my hands in my leather jacket pockets as the excitement bubbles around me and the next race starts.
Brittany sashays her way towards me. She’s on the prowl, her eyes set on me. I eye her up and down in her white tank top and short jean shorts as she steps up to me. She’s not really my type, a blonde with huge fake tits, but she will do.
Anything to forgetherfor another night.
“Hey Colt,” she purrs as her finger runs down my chest.
“Hey Brittany,” I say coolly. She bites her lip and looks up at me with seductive blue eyes.
“What do you say we get out of here? Watching you handle that car hasmyengine revving.” She lets out a little giggle. It takes everything I have to not burst out laughing at her attempt to be sexy. But I’ll take it. She will make this nice and easy. I’llhave my way with her for an hour and send her packing. There are worse ways to end an evening.
“Yeah, why not. Hop in,” I say casually. She excitedly runs around, making sure to flip her hair so everyone can see she is the one getting into my car tonight.
Every chick wants to fuck a ‘bad boy’ and is waiting their turn. Tonight I will cross Brittany off the list.
Every night I have my choice of any girl, except for the one I truly want.
CHAPTER
TWO
THE GOOD GIRL
LAYLA
Accounting & Business Mathematics can suck it. I hate math. I have no intention of doing math in my job. I’ll hire an accountant to do this shit. I shift on my uncomfortable wooden seat in the lecture hall and twirl my pen around my fingers in boredom. I read ahead, so I am already familiar with the content the professor is teaching.
My name is Layla White and I’m known as one of the ‘good girls’ in The Shores. And somehow that reputation followed me to college.
Looking around, I don’t know a single thing about any of my peers, and they know nothing about me either, or how I got here.
In its heyday, The Shores was a suburb full of middle-income families. It was a beautiful waterfront community about an hour outside of the city. But that’s no longer the case.
When the car plant closed, the families that got jobs elsewhere vacated the area, leaving it virtually abandoned. Eventually, the homes were designated low-income housing and a more poverty-stricken community started to build.
The car assembly line turned into food and product factories that paid minimum wage. They hired people in temporary part-time positions to avoid paying for benefits or sick pay, limiting room for wage increases and beginning the cycle of crime for those in desperate positions.
Crimes like gangs, drugs, and petty theft, among other things.
Everyone here has fallen on hard times or was born into generational poverty. Doing anything we can to survive, to try to get out and make a better life for ourselves, at any expense.
We moved to The Shores when my parents were laid off from the auto industry in Detroit, and my dad’s friend got him a job at the local food plant. We have now lived here for the past ten years, renting out a decrepit old house that almost feels colder inside than it does outside during the winter months.
As tough as living here has been, it gave me the drive to get out. Watching my parents struggle through poverty while they enslave themselves for someone else’s profit is a great motivator. That is not the life I will lead.
I worked my ass off in high school to get a full-blown scholarship and multiple grants for a university business program. Grants and scholarships that paid for my tuition and living expenses. I put them to good use and will likely graduate with a 4.0 GPA at the end of this year.
I always dreamed about starting my own business and going anywhere my heart desired, being my own boss. And that's exactly what I’m going to do.
So because I’m a dedicated student, because I work a normal job at a coffee shop, because I don’t party, because I want a future outside of this place and choose to do so legally, it makes me a bookworm, a nerd.
The good girl.
