ʜᴇʀᴏ

racing

james and i had been going steady for the last week. and it was the most intense, crazy week of my life.

we would spend almost every day after school together and i stayed out until the very limit of my curfew. but i made sure to be home at ten on the dot, so darry didn't have an excuse to keep me from seeing him.

but darry actually didn't mind jamie now, ever since he beat up liam and bryce for what they did to me. sometimes darry even invited him in for a little after he dropped me off. he even invited him for a smoke on the porch the other night. it was progress.

soda had been real quiet the last week, ever since the brawl outside of the drive in. he had some bad bruises and cuts from his wrestling match with bob. he honestly got the worst of it on our side besides dally's arm gash, which he still had bandaged a week later.

since soda had been down lately, i was very excited when i learned about the race that saturday night.

the gang loved going to races and soda was always happiest behind the wheel, racing. i always thought he was an adrenaline junky or something.

and this would be my first time going to a race with jamie, so i was very excited to say the least.

the racing always took place after sunset, in a large open field that was about 800 acres, so plenty of room for racing. and it was about twenty minutes out of town. this way the police didn't get called.

as the sun was setting, jamie and i started to head down towards the field. the gang was going in steve's car and soda was driving up in the car he had been fixing up to race.

jamie had one hand on the wheel and the other was holding mine.

his sun glasses were on but i knew he was taking his eyes off the road too often to look at me. he had a bad habit of doing that.

"i like it when you get dressed up like that.."
he said, lifting my hand that's in his to his lips and kissing it.

i liked to get dressed up for races, most girls did. i preferred pants to a skirt, it's more practical. but i wore my most flattering pair of hip hugger jeans with a black belt, a black knit top that hugged my figure, and some chucks. i always wore my chucks, they're easy to run in. it was not the most dressy but it was about as dressy as i got.

i smiled and rubbed the back of his hand with my thumb.

jamie and i hadn't done anything besides kiss at that point. i was just not ready for it and he knew that, and he understood which made me relieved. to know that he liked me for me was comforting.

we got to the field just after sunset but you could swear the sun was still up. the amount of headlights surrounding the field was blinding.

once jamie parked on the outskirts of the field, we got out of the car and started to hike over to where the fun was happening, closer to the center of the field.

jamie was a little further behind me but caught up after a minute.

"here.."
he said, holding out a beer to me.

i looked at it for a second before taking it and examining it.
"thanks.."

i had never drank before. not that i didn't want to, just never got the chance.