AllFreeNovel
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The girl next to me, one of the ones who hadn’t talked to me, reached out and gripped my hand. She’d had a series of paintings. All of hands.
Hands covered in paint.
Hands covered in oil.
Hands covered in blood.
They had been moving. Realistic, even as they were abstract. If anyone was going to win, it would be her.
Except…
When they announced the winner, they called my name.
My name.
Mary Ellen walked over to me and shook one of my hands in both of hers as she smiled into my face. “I was blown away by your artwork, and the audio?” She brought her fingers to her lips for a kiss. “Chef’s kiss. I was moved beyond words. Whatever you do, you’ll go far, I’m sure of it.”
She walked away and I was left there staring after her, not quite sure I’d heard her right.
I won?
Then all of the guys were there, hugging me, kissing me full on, not caring about anyone else. They laughed, whooped, and pumped fists. I wasn’t sure who did what, because everything and everyone was a colorful blur around me.
I wasn’t sure what I’d been feeling all these months when I made plans to get out of Silver Ranch and away from my family.
Determination. Strength. Desperation.
Because I was certain that right at this exact moment, this light, bubbly thing in my chest trying to spread its wings was hope.
And I’d never experienced anything like this before.
Beck
It hadn’t snowed in at least two weeks, and I was crossing my fingers that this meant that winter was behind us.
Some years it snowed up until June, but this was an unseasonably warm winter, so I was hoping. Working on cars in winter sucked. My hands cracked and it made playing the guitar uncomfortable on occasion.
I’d been at the shop for a while and working on bikes was both easy and hard. Those bastards though had space heaters set up everywhere and closed the garage doors when it was super cold.
Already, the work environment was a far sight away from Tippy’s. Part of me was kicking my own ass that I hadn’t asked to work here before.
The pay was also almost double. Either Tippy’s paid shit, which was likely, or Graves was taking care of me in a way he couldn’t before, more likely.
“Beck!” Jonah ran into the bay. “Have you checked TikTok today?”
“Not since this morning,” I said, wiping the grease on my hands on a hand towel. Graves and Angel used fluffier towels too. Surprisingly, they liked the finer things in life. Not what I would have expected of bikers.
“Check it.” Jonah gasped as he stopped in front of me. His cheeks were flushed, and his eyes were bright. Whatever he wanted me to see was seriously good.
“Okay.” I went over to one of the counters where I had my speaker set up and my phone charging.
TikTok was the first app on my phone. Mainly because it was the only app I was really on.
I touched it with my thumb and waited for it to load. There were like a hundred notifications. Which was normal. Sometimes. It had happened before. I moved my thumb to touch the notification button but stopped.
The followers and likes stopped my heart.
Sometime since I’d looked this morning, I’d gained hundreds of thousands of followers. I was nearly at two million. The likes were several million.
