"You okay?" he asks. "You look a bit flushed."
Asshole!
"Yeah, I'm good," I mumble and close the door. I slide my sunglasses down onto my nose. We start driving. It's awfully quiet so I turn to see what my brothers are doing in the back. Vance's head is tilted up towards the ceiling of the truck, his sunglasses covering his eyes, and his mouth is slightly open. He's fast asleep. If I was sitting next to him, I'd pick on him hardcore. I turn to look at Vin who is on his phone.
"What time did you guys get in last night?" I ask Vin.
"Later than I wanted to."
"And him?" I point to Vance.
Vin laughs, "I think he came in shortly after I woke up this morning." I shake my head. Vin leans forward between the front seats. He taps Chase and asks, "Yo, did you meet up with Nic then?"
I stiffen and very slowly look over at Chase. Are you fucking kidding me right now? He did NOT just touch me in the house and say what he said when he was with someone else last night. I can feel the anger rising; the warmth is spreading and my body is shaking. I look away from him, watching the world zoom by outside the window. I'm clenching my jaw so hard, it's hurting. I don't even want to hear his fucking reply.
Chase laughs. He fucking laughs. "No, I told you she was with her friends."
"Dude," Vin says, his tone sarcastic.
"Actually…" Chase pauses, and it forces me to look at him. He puts his hand in his front pocket and pulls out his phone then hands it to me. What? "V, can you send Nic a text for me? Just send something nice, like, ‘good morning beautiful’."
I glare at him. He may not be able to see it, but if looks could kill, he'd be dead. He's lucky. Not only would my look kill him--if it were possible--but he's also lucky my brothers are in the cab with us. It is the only thing that stops me from telling him what he can do with his fucking phone. I school my expression and my temper the best I can, forcing a smile on my face as sweetly as I can.
"Sure. I'm sure Nic is SO lucky," I respond with as much sarcasm as possible. Chase smiles so wide, I can see his molars. I can't fucking believe this--or him. I want to scream. I want to cry. Fuck that, I want to punch him. My brothers are right. Men are fucking pigs. I swipe open his phone and push on the little envelope icon. ‘Nic’ is the first name in his messages. I don't even see my name...and we were texting last night, too. I should text her and tell her that Chase is a dickhead. I smile to myself. I am such a bitch. I don't even try to read what they talked about even though part of me wants to--I just can't.
Chase is a dick, and you should run far, far away from him.
I stare at what I wrote in the message box, hesitate for a second, and press ‘send’. I smile and hand it back to him without even looking his way.
My phone vibrates and pings a minute later, the only person I can think of that would be texting me right now is Tay. I open my bag and pull my phone out of the front pocket. I have a message from ‘McSwoony’. What the hell? I swipe my phone open, go into my messages, and find that the text I just sent ‘Nic’ sits in my inbox. It takes me a second to register what just happened. I can't help the smile from spreading, and I laugh. The anger I just felt is replaced with relief and happiness. I am ‘Nic’, and he told my brothers about her--well, me. I laugh a bit more and take a deep breath while holding my phone to my chest. I guess it's a good thing I don't have a superpower that can kill with one look; I'd be pretty sorry right now. Vin isn't even paying any attention, he's still talking to Chase, but I feel Chase's eyes on me. I rest my head against the seat, a smile on my face, watching the trees blur by.
Hit or Miss
V's face when Vin mentioned Nic was so apparent. She was pissed. It may have been mean for me to mess with her like that, but I obviously couldn't tell her that she IS ‘Nic’. I think I made it obvious that I'm into her, so the ball is pretty much in her court. After a twenty-minute drive, I pull onto the gravel road of ‘Harry's U-Pull It’ and pull the truck into a makeshift spot. I put the truck in park and cut the engine. Vance shoots up. "I'm awake!" he shouts. We all face him and bust out laughing.
"Shut up," he mumbles as he grabs for the door handle. He gets out of the truck pulling his small tool bag out with him. Once we're all out of the cab, I lock the doors from my key fob. No one speaks as we approach the pay booth.
"Oh my gosh!" V whispers to my left. I look at her, taking in her facial expression. Her eyebrows are arched up above her sunglasses, and her mouth is parted in surprise or shock. I follow her line of sight to the area next to the booth. A beat-up car sits just on the left of it towards the back of the chain-link fence. It's almost too hard to determine exactly what kind of car it is, but the distinctive ‘SS’ in the grill is a dead giveaway. The yellow Camaro has seen better days, for sure, and a ‘For Sale’ sign sits in the front window. Veronica rushes toward it. "Look at this!" she yells to us, jumping in place. "Oh my gosh!" Her excitement is adorable. Vin and Vance move towards the car, and I follow behind them. I tear my eyes away, reluctantly, from Veronica and look back at the car. The tires are flat, the paint is non-existent, there's rust around the wheel wells, the headlights are missing, and the seats are ripped. With some TLC, the Camaro would look beastly. Vin whistles, "Damn."
"This car is beat!" Vance waves his hand at it, then walks to the booth.
"It's beautiful," V says to no one in particular. Watching Veronica get this excited over an old car like this is beautiful. There's no information on the sign in the window, just a number. I snap a quick picture of it with my phone.
"Even if it's beat, it's gonna be pricey," Vin says. "They don't come cheap, these classics." He kicks the flat tire.
"C'mon, let’s go, " Vance yells impatiently. I watch Veronica's shoulders drop, and I see her excitement disappear as she rounds the front of the car. I put my arm around her and squeeze.
"It's so pretty," she whispers like a sad little girl who is parting with something special.
"It is," I agree.
"I want it."
"I know." I rub her shoulder, then release her as we move towards the booth where Vin and Vance are waiting for us. My instinct is to pay for her, but it'd look weird...so I pay for myself. He stamps my hand, and I move out of the way for Veronica to pay next. Once she's settled, we all make our way into the yard. Harry's is organized by make, which makes finding what we want much easier. Vance is walking ahead and at one point he turns around, and walks backward to tell us, "I'm gonna go over to the beamer's. I'll meet up back up with you guys then." The three of us keep walking towards the Acura area, the make of Veronica's car. Normally you'd get a map, but we've all been here too many times to count. Enough times to remember where the parts we need are.
It's a bit of a trek, but we finally reach the area. Acura is a very popular import car, so it's no surprise that the cars are almost bare--any and everything that can be removed has been. Vin moves towards the right, Veronica goes to the left. As much as I want to follow V I don't, so I continue walking forward. While Harry's is separated into sections of make, they are not separated by model. This requires you to pay more attention to the body, especially when most of them are stripped bare.