Treat You Better

10.

My eyes stung as the blinding light forced its way into my corneas, I squinted at the figure pulling apart my curtains. My brother.

"Mike, what are you doing?" I groaned pulling the covers over my head.

"You have work in thirty." I shot up and looked at the clock, seeing that I was late- again!

"Shit!" I cursed, once again finding myself scrambling for my stuff.

"Isn't today, the day of the race?" Mike asked me.

"Yeah, why? You planning of making an appearance?" I responded giving him an unsure look and I stripped from my pyjamas.

"I might kiddo. Are you going to go?" He asked.

"I don't want to but I've got a feeling Ash and Tyler are going to guilt trip me into going." I sighed scrambling around for my shit.

"Ok then, be safe tonight." He says walking out of my room.

"Thanks." I blew him a kiss and ran out of my bedroom, down the stairs and out of the house.

"Don't worry I covered for you." Josh said a little worried look on his face.

"What?" I questioned.

"Is everything ok with you?" He inquired.

"Yeah, why?" I responded, trying to make myself seem busy.

"You're never late Riley and lately all you do is turn up late." He sighed.

"Don't worry about it." I said trying to put his mind at ease, it didn't work.

"Riley." Said Josh, sternly.

"Everything's fine." I smiled and wandered off looking for something to do, anywhere but here. I used to love the silence at work, I used to find it peaceful and relaxing but now all it does is trap me in my own head. I am left mindlessly collecting or stacking items overthinking everything, unwillingly reminding myself of that night, the night I turned into the shittiest girlfriend in the world. Lucas and I have been avoiding each other as much as possible over the past week, trying not to breathe in each other's general direction.

After the world's longest shift, I could finally go home. I kicked off my shoes as I walked into my room and flopped onto my bed closing my heavy eyes. After ten minutes or so I felt a rough tug of my arm.

"Get ready it's time for the race." Ashley said, grunting as she tried to lift my body up.

"I'm not going." I mumbled trying to fall asleep as quick as possible.

"Yes, you are, put on something better than what you're wearing." I opened up one eye and glared at her, unamused by her rude comment.

"That's rude," I flipped onto my stomach, Ashley losing her weak grip on my arm, "I'm tired Ash, I'm not going."

"Yes, you are! You are going to support you boyfriend and I watching someone we care about put their life at risk." I could almost hear the swooning in her voice.

"That's exactly why I'm not going." I laughed sarcastically.

"Look, I know that you don't give a shit about Luke and I know you could care less if he crashed the damn car." I sat up and looked at her, is that really what she thought? "But, I need you here tonight and so does Tyler." Without another word, I stripped of my work close and put on a pair of black shorts and a loose, white, halter neck cami. I slipped on my leather boots and shoved my phone in my pocket, following Ashley out of the door and into her car.

The familiar stench of gasoline and burnt rubber filled my nostrils as I stepped out of the car, people swarming around waiting for the 'big race'. Everyone was buzzing, making bets and drinking. Speaking of which, I could do with some alcohol.