~ Outside The Speedway ~ (Lightning McQueen x OC)

Chapter 7

Lightning and I talked about everything that had been going on so far for about two hours. It was now 5:34 PM. We looked through more articles, including ones that had anything mentioned about Chris Silvers cheating back in Chicago. Unfortunately for us, we found nothing.

"I don't get it," I said in frustration. I laid back against the couch.

"What?"

"How do you know about the whole cheating thing, but no one else does? Does Chris know you know? And if you knew this whole time, why not report it?"

Lightning sighed. "You'd laugh if I told you."

"I promise I won't," I said, intrigued. I had an easy time being serious, especially when it came to important things, but every now and then I had to laugh. According to science, it's the best medicine.

But coming from McQueen, you can't tell if he's joking or not. If racing doesn't work out for him, I'll have to push him to become an actor.

"Fine." Lightning looked through the window. "I... I was scared."

I didn't laugh, but I tried to at least keep my smile discreet. It's kind of funny to think that, once, the Lightning McQueen was scared of something. It seems unreal.

"I was scared of Silvers. I've known him for a while, way back then, we used to go to school together before he moved. We were close friends. But he was the guy in school everyone would be afraid of, you know? A bully, but not exactly."

I nodded.

"He didn't hurt me in any way, but I was still scared. If I made the wrong move, nothing good would come out of it." Lightning rubbed his face with his hands. He then ran a hand through his hair, making it messy.

"Then how come you weren't so scared to take me away from him at the conference?" I smirked, nudging him in the leg with my knee.

"The qualification race was, what, half a year ago? I've gained confidence since then, realizing that I shouldn't be scared of anyone, especially while racing. Not even Silvers." He said, leaning back into the couch. McQueen rested his hands behind his head.

"Good for you. But still. How come you knew he cheated?" I stood up and stretched. I walked over to the window and looked down at the highway. There were quite a few cars, coming into the speedway hotel on the other side of the track. Probably getting here early to sightsee in the morning before tomorrow's race.

Lightning appeared next to me. He stood halfway behind me, and halfway next to me, so his chest was just barely touching my shoulder.

"All the racers, except you, of course, were in the men's locker room. We were getting ready and everything, polishing our helmets, you know the drill. Silvers was texting someone at the same time, so he kept his phone next to him on the bench he was sitting on. I sat on the same bench, our backs facing each other. Eventually, Silvers stood up, going to his locker. I glanced at his phone in curiosity since it kept ringing with message notifications."

Lightning paused. I glanced at him, but he was looking through the window.

"One of the notifications was from a girl named Odette. The message said 'are you going to cheat on the race like you said?'. I looked away from his phone when I saw him closing his locker."

I walked away from the window and decided to sit on the floor. The carpet seemed super fluffy, and I felt like a child doing so. Lightning followed, shutting his computer and putting it on the end of the table. He sat down across from me and leaned back on his arms.

I rested my palms on my knees. "So that's it? You just assumed he was cheating because of a suspicious text? Not gonna lie, that sounds like something you would do." I scoffed.