AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She better be in this room when I come back. I was so fucking close.
15
JADE
ALL ABOUT ME - Lilyisthatyou
I’m going to go insane in this place. As if I wasn’t already crazy enough, Elliot insists on annihilating my brain. I take a step to the side to look out of his bedroom window, letting my forehead drop onto it. I can’t stay in here while they’re torturing someone in their basement of horrors.
I wonder who it is they have down there. Probably some poor NSC guy who refused to betray Emma Scott for the Kings. There was a wave of betrayals when we took over the town. Elliot and Ethan would torture enough people to scare the others into changing sides.
And they tell you loyalty is everything.
Deciding that listening to Elliot is the last thing I ever want to do, I go grab some tools from the garage. I’m going to do a bit of work on my car and take it for a test drive.
I’m going to race whether he wants it or not.
It doesn’t take me long to check the battery, oil, the tires, and the brakes. That’s the minimum I need to make sure I don’t crash into a wall driving at high speed through our town.
The engine purrs beneath me, sending currents of satisfaction through me. As much as I hate Racer for giving my address to Xi and never bringing me my car, he didn’t lie; he took great care of her while I was away. Probably because she’s so amazing to drive.
I leave the street driving slowly. The moment I’m far enough away, I send it. I start with accelerating in a straight line to see how her zero to sixty is doing. And when I find myself on an empty main road, I push it to a hundred.
“You’re doing so well, baby,” I beam with excitement.
I fucking love this car. I spent so much time and money putting her all together that it almost killed me to leave her behind. I pull over to tighten the straps around my body, shifting left and right to make sure I’m not going to go through the window the moment I start drifting corners.
And then I have fun.
I make my way through town, screeching tires at intersections, sending smoke behind me as I overtake people down the streets. I brake hard at a traffic light, realizing I’m panting, but most of all…
I’m smiling.
Excitement prickles from my chest, down to my belly, and I squeeze my thighs. The electric happiness is giving me a lightheaded buzz, and a soft giggle slips out of my mouth.
“Oh shit. I missed this.”
There’s nothing that feels more like freedom than driving crazily around town. As long as I don’t get caught.
I take a minute to let crazy ideas run through my head before I decide to act on them. There’s nothing wrong with checking if there’s a race tonight. My car is clearly just as special as it used to be, probably thanks to Racer. He’s even added a roll cage for protection, which makes me think he was planning on racing with it. Fucker.
I make my way across the bridge that links the North Shore to the South Bank. The difference is stark. Our rundown streets don’t compare to the middle-class side of town, and I observe their privilege on the long drive to the abandoned development where we race.
I used to be told about those every month. People waited for me to show up at the races in the hope of finally winning the beauty I worked so hard on.
My heartbeat accelerates when I reach the end of their side of town and find a crowd of eager drivers, supporters, and half a dozen tuned-up cars.
I’m in fucking heaven.
The gigantic development that was meant to be a mall, residences, and a new school was never finished. It’s near the highway, at the point where the North Shore and the South Bank almost touch. They wanted to open something that linked both sides of town, but they lost their funding halfway through. The North didn’t want to be gentrified and the South refused to mix with us. They thought the quality of the school would lower, and we thought the shops would be too expensive for us. So many points were raised on both sides that investors pulled out, and it was left with empty, half-finished buildings.
A ghost town. That’s what it is. The amazing thing for us is that the road was completed, and enough buildings’ skeletons surround us to use as corners.
I rev my engine for the crowd to split and let me drive through. I can’t believe the number of people here. When we started racing, there were less than ten of us. Over the years, after some racers started posting on their socials, other drivers joined and brought an audience with them.
This is the one and only illegal race in Silver Falls and its surrounding areas. Because we always do it on a different date, we’ve never been caught. The police can’t keep a constant eye on the area. We’ve been busted many times, but I’ve always managed to escape the cops on time.
Heads turn to my car, but no one recognizes me. I used to have a bright pink car no one could confuse with any other. Now I’m showing up in black, boring exterior. Thankfully, what’s under the hood is still the best in town.
