Demolition Lovers

Chapter 8

Jake first noticed that the plum car wasn't in his match before it had even started. The cars were lined up in the arena and he looked around again as he drove in. Maybe he just missed the bright color, he thought as he tried to ignore it. Once the match started though, it was glaringly obvious that Drew wasn't here.

His bright color was hard to miss, even when it was dulled down with mud.

Jake knew that Drew was on the line-up with him, he had checked enough times to not doubt himself. So why wasn't he here? Did something come up?

He ended up fumbling the match hard, being one of the first cars out because he had too slow of a reaction time. (Getting t-boned by a truck really did not feel that good, especially when you aren't expecting it). He felt embarrassed, upset with himself for getting so distracted over something that wasn't that big of a deal. He knew he could've easily avoided it if his mind wasn't so stuck up on why Drew was absent.

Zander ended up winning the match and Jake was honestly impressed with how many people he had taken out. Despite how he seemingly did not like getting muddy and seemed to like having everything he owned neat, he could definitely fuck people up in the arena.

Zander and Luke shared an embarrassingly long kiss after the match, Jake awkwardly pretending like he didn't see as he took off his helmet. They were all gathered in the back lot again, the final match of the night ending early, the sun still setting in the sky since there was less matches lined up today. The breeze felt cool, a nice contrast to the heat as it swept through Jake's hair.

People were in gathered around in groups talking to one another, and Jake, Hailey, Zander, Luke, Sean and Milly were all gathered outside of one of the large garages near a pile of large tractor tires.

"Drew was supposed to be on the line-up.." Jake commented, the website pulled up on his phone as he scrolled, looking at Drew's name as his finger hovered over it. "Why wasn't he here tonight?"

Sean shrugged, bright red soundproof headphones wrapped around his neck, his neon yellow ref shirt muddy. Milly just rolled her eyes, black baseball hat on backwards as she ate some greasy looking fair cheese curds.

"He probably quit after you beat him," Zander suggested, his voice obviously sarcastic but Jake bit the inside of his cheek at the notion. "It was pretty embarrassing for him after threatening you so much, imagine losing twice?" He laughed, and Luke chuckled with him.

"He has been going after you a lot Jake," Luke mentioned, stealing a cheese curd from Milly. "Why do you two hate eachothers guts so much? I mean despite the obvious."

Jake shrugged, "I don't hate him! He was just a massive asshole, breaking the rules and leaving Hailey standing in the field... And he's the one that keeps coming up to me while I mind my business!"

"Woah, no need to get defensive buddy," Milly patted him hard on the back. "We believe you."

Hailey shrugged. "He probably got sick or something, or maybe just ditched the match altogether. It's not that unbelievable."

Zander nodded along, sipping on his juice box.

"His daddy does own the derby, he could get away with ditching last second." Zander agreed.

Jake felt unease about it all but be let the conversation switch away from Drew. He looked around at the crowds gathered and spotted two bright ref shirts. Henry, and the guy with the middle part. He immediately excused himself from the group as he walked away and up to the two.

("Why does he always do this.." Hailey sighed and Milly laughed. "Does he just like talking to strangers or something?")

He knew these two were friends with Drew, having seen them together multiple times as well as their intense amount of effort in defending his glaringly obvious rule breaking, but that didn't mean they hated his guts just as much, right? So pushing aside his embarrassment, he greeted the two of them with a smile.