Neon Nights

Chapter 56. Loveless Drunken Hallucinations

".... That's a pretty intense story there," slow words drawled out between pursed ruby red lips, connected to a glass of sparkling champagne. The woman's usually bright, cheerful blue eyes now looked deeper than the darkest depths of the ocean, perplexed and concerned for what she had just heard.

Her hand moved her drink away from her face and over onto the bar counter inches in front of her body, staring down at it and nodding to herself. To take in everything, like the fates of people's lives she intercepted and changed and how unhappy they now were, weighed on her callous heart only a little. Still, it was enough to steer her mind to a heavy halt, and recovering would take many more drinks than what she could stomach. "Those boys used to be inseparable. They never told me all of this, fuck, of course they wouldn't! They were always so secretive with their emotions. Typical guys. Well what are they doing now? Is Dylan still in Rilia?" She asked over to the man sitting next to her on the barstools, their faces lit up by the mixed colored lights pouring down onto the nice bar in hues of soft purples and whites, painting them in shades of melancholic, deep colors.

He wasn't drinking tonight, he rarely ever did, but had gone through five glasses of water already and was halfway downing his sixth when he set his glass down to speak. "Last I heard from her, she heard that Dylan was clinging onto Ryker- he was the MC that replaced mine right after I left the city. It sounds like Dylan and Luke have split factions going on."

"Dylan and the MC back in Rinen fought constantly," she looked breathless, but was overexaggerating her emotions because of her drunkenness. Hearing her prodige starting to trust racing MCs sounded like it had to have been a lie. The Dylan she remembered hated being told what to do if it didn't come from her or Luke at times, and shit talked the MC constantly behind her back and as well as her face. It had to have been one of the most surprising things Carla had heard all night that Dylan was changing his views on someone whose position he never respected, not once.

"- I can't believe he's making friends with his new boss so soon. Maybe they have a good deal going on behind the scenes, or rather Dylan wants morale support while trying to fight Luke.... I hate to even say that, they're like brothers, Kegan, they're like my kids! And now they're breaking apart and hurting each other... They just never know when to quit," she put her hand right under her chin to hold up her face, staring at the nearby bartender at work as a means of trying to find a momentary distraction.

She thought for a moment in silence. About her boys, about the work she put in to helping them, and how happy the three used to be years ago. Initially she only wanted to groom someone into taking her place as Rinen's champion racer, so she would feel less bad leaving the city she loved if someone else could bring in stardom and glory to it like she had. Legendary racers were so rare these days. Meeting Luke and Dylan, although, gave her hope for the future that she really could leave in peace.

She remembered first meeting them after one of her races, signing their shirts they had bought of her, those two clueless high school kids with bad attitudes and no future once they graduated. She could see all of that just through one interaction with them, and when they were about to dissapear back into the crowds and flashing lights in the streets- she had called them back out of longing.

Carla didn't know why she cared so much about them after just a few words, but the feelings only ever grew. She called them back, she told them to meet her again, and weeks later began tutoring them out of the kindness of her heart. The feeling of guilt for leaving Rinen had dissipated right as it started, Carla didn't care what came of the city and its future in racing once she was gone anymore. All she wanted was to see those two live good, comfortable lives, doing what they loved and being around each other whom they loved.

Dylan was arrogant and narcissistic, but he made sure to listen to her wise words and teaching so as to keep him grounded and merely only confident in himself. Luke was violent and crude, but she taught him calmness and understanding to help clear his head and his worries.

She couldn't keep them from fighting, if anything she just went and let it happen, it was how they expressed themselves to each other when emotions got to hot to handle. What was weird was how even after Luke busted Dylan's lip and Dylan bruised Luke's arms and legs, they'd both show up for practice the day after, already reunited and apologizing to her for looking so worn and hurt.

Violent, hormonal, brash, angry, all of the inner city boys they hung out with were like that, influencing them constantly. She swore to help them to know better and be better though, and made it a point to never let them grow apart if they truly cared for each other.

Who knew the understanding she bore into them would go on to make Luke dissapear from his career in the dead of night. She never could have expected it. What's more is how Dylan first called her when it happened, agonizing and scared for him, so upset his words folded in on themselves into cries from being abandoned.

She'd been restless on the inside, here at the national league where everyone seemed so perfect and mature, a kind of racing scene she'd always envisioned. These people seemed so put together and perfect, yet she was one of them now, infiltrating them with her fears and pains hidden deep beneath her heart.

She didn't know what to do anymore. She didn't know what to say to them. She didn't know who would listen to her, if they even would anymore. The past year her mind constantly wandered back to her kids, hoping they would talk things out... Hoping they would call her, laughing and drunken together, saying they were friends again and that they missed her so.

The call never came, and now she found herself here under the bar lights, hearing stories of her kids from a man she hardly knew, who now seemed to know them better than she did. Carla couldn't help but crack, it had been a long time coming now, the day she'd look exhausted from the grief those two caused her.

Kegan could see Carla, this stranger, his adversary and fellow opponent, a living legend he'd hardly interacted with, looked so, so distraught now after one conversation. He never thought he could bring someone so famous and powerful into silence like this, she really did love those two, that was clear.

"Those two... I really do need to see them again.."