The Fast Lane

Chapter 24

My reflection on the back of the spoon didn’t make me look nearly as bad as I knew I looked. I tried to move it around to see my scar, which appeared much smaller in the silver than it was in my skin. I touched it lightly with my finger and grimaced. I looked up and saw Joel and Caleb both staring at me from across the table with identical looks on their faces - their lips curled downward in disgust.

"When do I get these stitches out again?" I asked, scooping a bite of cereal into my mouth. Joel gagged. "Oh please it’s not like I touched the scar with my spoon," I said, a little annoyed and slightly embarrassed.

"She said they’re supposed to either dissolve or just push themselves out," Caleb said, pushing the rest of his cereal away.

"Is that a joke?" I half-whined. "I can’t go to the races like this," I pointed to the scar. It was pretty much healed and you actually couldn’t see it. My body did pretty well when it came to healing scars. However, this scar was on my face and I could see where some of the stitches were starting to force their way out. It was gross. The last thing I wanted was to show up at a race as Harry’s gross scar-faced girlfriend.

Harry wrapped an arm around me and kissed me on the cheek. He smelled like Froot Loops. “Next race isn’t for five days. You’ve got time to heal. And even if you don’t, you look beautiful.” He kissed me again.

I tried to smile. I loved it when Harry told me I was beautiful but it wasn’t helping me feel better about myself at the moment.

"Speaking of the race…" Joel began to say.

Harry cleared his throat and I felt someone kick someone else under the table. I looked over at him and then back to Joel.

"What?"

Harry put down the newspaper he was reading and took another bite of cereal. “Well, Love,” he started with a full mouth. “It’s in Tampa.”

"Okay…"

"It’s a big race."

"Mhmm…"

"We’re still trying to lay a little low. Well at least when we’re not racing."

I struggled for a moment to follow what he was saying. “So we won’t want to go back to the apartment?”

Harry patted my leg and smiled at Caleb across the table. “I told you she was smart.”

"Whatever," Caleb said, looking at his phone. I shot him a look of disbelief and immediately he held his hands up like he was standing at gunpoint. "I mean, I never doubted him!"

"Mhmm. Sure." My attention switched from Caleb back to Harry, who was laughing quietly. "So where are we going to stay?"

Harry stopped laughing and cleared his throat again. “I was uh… Was going to ask if maybe we could stay at, ehh, at your place?”

I contorted my face and widened my eyes. “Are you joking?”

Harry half smiled. “The last place they’ll think to look for us would be there.”

"Melissa and Ellie and Katie-"

"Oh no," Caleb interrupted, shaking his head. "They’ll have to go."

"They’re not just gonna leave," I said, standing up and pushing my chair in. "I wouldn’t mind going there but we’ll have to get them out somehow."

"Oh my gahhhh guys, I have the perfect plan!!" Joel shouted, jumping up from his seat. He ran down the hallway into his room, and through the door we could see clothes flying all around. "Y’all better get your bags packed because we about to have a sleepover at Tristan’s!"