DRAG - [h.s. au]

3

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It kills to know that you're defeated

I see the wires pulling while you're breathing

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BENTLEY

Dorian showed up to work within a few minutes of my call. He apologized a few times before he started working on the car Allegra was revamping the engine for. I finished the car, making sure there wasn't a single scratch on it and covering it up to make sure nothing would happen to it. Allegra wasn't too happy when I told her Luna stopped by when she was away, but I told her she was overreacting.

Luna's harmless.

"Did you forget that she literally snaps her fingers and can ruin your whole life?" Allegra told me, putting the metalworking mask on after rolling her eyes at me.

The rest of the day went by slowly, especially considering I had no work. I did inventory and all that stupid business shit I avoided doing at all times. If I wasn't making all the money I was with racing, this place would have been shut down years ago.

Luna sent one of her goons to pick up the Caprice a little bit before closing, so the pretty blue car was gone.

I let Dorian go early, making sure he ate something, and then Allegra came back with me to my place to get ready for tonight. I never slept before races, a bottle of diet coke and a stick of nicotine gum was enough to keep me over. I ate one meal a day, lunch with Allegra, solely because she forced me to. I was never hungry, but I guess smoking cigarettes up until last year curbs one's appetite permanently.

"Earth to Bentley. Earth to Bentley!" Allegra calls out for me, and I realize I was zoning out again.

"Fuck, sorry Allie." I tell her, using the nickname she had been using since we were kids. "What were you saying?"

"I asked if Luna flirted with you again today." She laughs.

"Just the usual teasing. Fuckin' bitch is just horny." I sigh. "She's hot, but too bad I'm straighter than a line."

"What's this about heterosexuals?" Apollo walks in, no shirt under his leather jacket and the waistband of his underwear peeking out from under his jeans. His tattoos were on full display, the poem I wrote last year tattooed under his pec the only words he had gotten tattooed on his torso.

I've never trusted the sky.

The unwarranted storms that callous it

Remind me of the half moons

That leave red frowns on my palms

And raw skin under my chipped fingernails.

I hadn't written any poems in awhile... couldn't find it in me to focus and write. All my energy went to my responsibilities: racing and the repair shop. Some nights, I could barely get myself out of bed without Allegra begging me to get up.

I was a wreck.

"Luna stopped by the shop today, came to tell me about her new racer. Any info?" I ask Apollo, standing to change out of my work pants and into the leather ones I liked to wear when racing.

"Harry Styles? Total dick... hot as fuck though." He says, throwing himself onto the sofa. It was said that I was glad I had a loft, everything was visible from every corner and we could talk from opposite ends of the room. "Had a hard-on from the tattoo gun. Pain kink."