The Crew

Chapter 6

A WEEK LATER.......

Friday, the day/night of the Big Rush Hour event was finally here. The illegal race which could determine our futures. I decided to persuade Josh to let me film it, although he was concerned at me getting involved in an illegal event like this that could possibly ruin the hit and run case. I was meant to stay away from these things til they could find the suspect, but it was hard to. I mean, not even Billy was even abiding by the rules, but then again, he never really abided by any rules. "Don't worry," I told Josh earlier that day at work. "As long as I'm not the one racing or behind the wheel, it should be fine." I had given him a reassuring smile. Now that work was almost over for the day, the nervous butterflies had started up again in the pit of my stomach and I felt dizzy and scared. I glanced at Josh at his desk and got to thinking about the last couple of weeks. Since we started dating, I hadn't been at the apartment for most days, sleeping mostly at his place, even though I had parents and cops calling trying to ask more questions about the investigations which I was still trying to remember. At first Cass wasn't too happy when I had rung her about sleeping at Josh's. "Are you sure that's a good idea? What if your parents come around and see you're not here? And what about his parents?" She had asked in a worried tone. I had just shrugged then and told her that if my parents did come around, that all she needed to say that I was working long hours at the studio. And that Josh's parents were away for some time.
Josh looked up from his desk and caught me looking at him from the photocopier and smiled. "You okay?" He asked gently. I hesitated, then nodded. "Was just thinking about tonight and about us, that's all," I replied quietly. Josh was about to say something when we were interrupted by Annabelle. "You have visitors from the council and the body corporate," Annabelle announced, sticking her head in the doorway. Josh hesitated as he got up, he looked at me, then glanced at Annabelle before heading out towards the front of the studio.

Once he was out of earshot, Annabelle gave me an icy unfriendly smile, clasping her hands in front of her, making me feel uneasy. "You do know that most boys, especially ones in car scenes are just boys, right? They're not "men". You can never ever trust them. So I'd be careful of this one if I were you," she warned me darkly. I narrowed my eyes at her, warning bells going off in my head as I tried not to panic or explode with anger. "Look, whatever him and I have going on in our relationship, is none of your business. And just for the record, he is nothing like Billy," I hissed. Annabelle tossed her hair back over her shoulder and gave a short snort and a sharp laugh. "Oh you poor naive girl! There is more to Josh Hollister than you know. I am only warning you once. You still don't know anything about him even though you've been dating for a few weeks and for the record, you DON'T belong in his crew. Why do you think your ex is doing this illegal race?" She hissed back. At that time, Josh came back with a stressed and irritated look on his face. Annabelle gave me one last fake smile before picking up a folder with a stack of photos in it and taking it with her. Josh sat down at his desk again with a loud groan. "Billy Bennett is the biggest douchebag on the coast. I don't freakin care if his mother is in the freakin council, that doesn't mean he should get her involved and mess with my business," he said angrily when Annabelle was out of earshot. I bit my lip, not sure what to do, so I pulled another chair up opposite him and sat down. "What did Billy do now?" I asked, even though I could possibly guess. Billy's mother was a council candidate and took care of many building sites, including the little strip mall that Indie Photography was located in. "He's messing with my business, something that's way too personal now, again," Josh replied, rubbing his temples. He was getting a slight headache because of this. I could feel the anger rising up in me for the second time that day. I clenched my fists. What the heck was Billy up to? Why did he need to force one crew out, just because he wanted his crew to run the town, to be the best? This was so wrong. "Maybe this is because of me.........I can try to fix this," I say. "Maybe......." I trailed off as Josh shook his head and stood up from his chair and came over to me, leaning against his desk. "It's not actually you...........this goes far beyond you. I have to admit something. Something.............something happened a long time ago, before Billy dated you. Something that I did that made your ex hate my crew and I from then on," Josh responded, avoiding eye contact. I looked a bit worried, and confused. What could he be talking about? Josh groaned, putting his hands to his face. "Gosh I should have listened to you in the first place and not have dragged you into all this. This is my mess, I'm so sorry," he mumbled as I got up to give him a cuddle. He wrapped his arms around me and rested his chin on my head. I sighed, as I rested against his chest. "Don't be, it's okay," I replied gently, looking up at him. "So what happened?" Josh let go of me and leaned back against the desk. "It was about 3 or 4 years ago, there was a big car event up near the Tweed River. Tommy and I took our chances since we both knew it was an illegal street event. We got into a bit of a bet with your ex and his crew. He wanted to know which one of us could beat his GT Mustang. A car, of which, we only found afterwards, that he stole. Since I was a better driver than he was, especially when it came to drifting, the crews pitted me against him. I won him by a mile in a friend's Chevrolet. After that humiliation, the majority of his old crew joined mine and Billy was super furious. Ever since then, he's been out to ruin everything I do from car events to car shoots, meets, cruises, even my photography work. I started running my photography business out of a surf shack. His moron friends decided to burn it down and since his mum worked for the council, I had my business licence provoked for a year because he made up crap about me selling drugs after hours and that I had burnt the place down myself," Josh explained, rolling his eyes. I just sat there my mouth agape, shocked that this happened. "Obviously that stuff he said wasn't true but the cops reckoned I was the one putting on the illegal Rush Hour events too, just because I was in the car scene, but that was Billy's idea." I listened quietly, amazed that Billy had been so cruel towards him, a guy who I once thought didn't have a mean bone in his body.