Chapter 5
Keanna
I don’t know much about Clay, so it’s a little weird walking with him to the nearby pharmacy. He’s tall, taller than Jett, and a little wider too. Tattoos line both of his arms, some of them colorful and some are just black shadows and shapes. I find myself trying to sneak a glimpse of them without being too obvious.
He used to have hair, which he kept floppy and in need of a haircut. That’s how he looked when I first saw him on the Team Loco website. But a few months ago, he shaved it all off and now he looks like a scary bouncer at a night club.
“You gotta make me a promise, okay?” Clay asks me as we walk.
“Um…okay?” We barely know each other so it feels weird that he wants promises from me.
He gives me a hesitant smile. “Now that Jett’s out of the season for a few weeks, Marcus is going to put me in the races in his spot. There’s no denying that Jett is the faster guy here, that’s why I got second place and he got first in the summer series. I just—” He runs his hand across his head, almost as if he expected to be able to run his fingers through his hair. He sighs, letting the air out slowly through his lips.
“I’m not trying to upstage him or anything, okay?”
“No one thinks you are,” I say. This is a new side of Clay, the timid and slightly worried side. He’s always seemed to uptight and serious when I’ve been around him.
He nods quickly but he still looks nervous. “I don’t want Jett to be pissed at me for taking over, you know? If you could just, I don’t know, like say nice things about me to him? Let him know I feel like shit and I hate that he got injured.”
“I think he knows that, Clay. It’s not like you jumped out and pushed him off his bike or anything.”
He shrugs. “This is a competitive field. I can already see the articles now…journalists asking me if I’m happy I got another chance to up my race stats and take over as the top rookie…” He shakes his head. “Jett and I are teammates. I want it to stay that way. I’m on his side.”
“I’ll make sure he knows,” I promise.
At the pharmacy, Clay opens the door for me. While I get Jett’s prescriptions filled, Clay walks around the store, collecting random items. We make our way to the front desk to pay, and Clay dumps it all on the counter.
“It’s on me,” he tells me, taking out his wallet.
“What is it?” I say, lifting an eyebrow at the stuff he’s chosen.
“A care package for Jett. Magazines I know he loves, candy, junk food, a phone charger because he was complaining that he left his at home, and some Band-Aids.”
“Band-Aids?” I ask.
Clay smirks, handing his credit card to the cashier. “Inside joke.”
Clay holds the bags of stuff as we make our way the three blocks to the hotel. “Don’t take this the wrong way,” I begin.
“Uh oh,” Clay says. “Those words are almost always followed by something I’ll take the wrong way.”
I laugh. “It’s just that you’re actually a cool guy.”
He grins. “That wasn’t so bad.”
I scratch my arm and glance over at his tattoos again. “You just seem like a boulder. Like this mean asshole who doesn’t ever know how to smile.”
“Okay, that was mean,” he says sarcastically.
“I told you not to take it the wrong way!” I say, slapping him on the arm.
He chuckles. “It’s cool. I get that a lot. I’m just a quiet guy most of the time. I don’t care for small talk or any of that shit, unless I’m with friends.”
“So are we friends?” I ask.
He throws an arm around my shoulder. “Looks like we are.”
***
