Nothing to lose

Chapter 4: Mia

Grey came hurdling through my bedroom window, gracefully landing in front of my bed with a light thud just as I was slipping a t-shirt over my head.

"Dude!" I scowled at him. I jumped out of the shower when I heard him zooming down the street, and I knew he would pull up to my house soon. I tried to quickly throw on some pajamas, thinking I could beat him to the front door before he knocked, but he decided to take another route.

I'll never understand why Grey would rather sneak in through the window instead of using the front door like a normal human being. It's not like my dad was home, and if he were, he wouldn't care because it was Greyson, and he's known him forever.

"Sorry. It's not like it's nothing I haven't seen before." He shrugged.

I grumbled, sticking my tongue out at him.

Grey ignored me, taking off his boots and then his motorcycle jacket before putting them in my closet.

He took a seat on the edge of my bed and asked, "What's on the movie list tonight?"

I took in his facial expression. It didn't sound like something was up with him, but he looked way too calm right now not to have something going on in that head of his.

I would ask him, but he has been a little weird since my break up with James. And now there was his breakup with Katrina. It's been a rough couple of days for both of us.

I sighed. "I don't know. Maybe we can finish one of the TV shows that we're not caught upon. Or we could re-watch Stranger things." I suggested. That was his favorite show, and we've watched all the seasons twice already.

Grey opened his mouth to reply but got distracted by a text. While he read it, he sucked on his bottom lip, indicating that he was deep in thought about whatever he was reading.

"What is it?"

He glanced up at me and then said, "Nothing."

"Liar, liar." I poked his bicep before sitting next to him.

"It's not a big deal," he added.

I crossed my arms against my chest. "I still want to know."

Grey huffed out a breath, knowing he wouldn't be able to change the subject until he told me. "Fine. That was O'Malley. He wanted to know if I would come in for a race today. I told him I had other plans."

Grey knew I disapproved of this "hobby," if you could call it that, which was why he usually snuck off to race and didn't tell me about it until the next day when he was buying me breakfast with his winnings. He knew how to butter me up before giving me news or asking for forgiveness.

I was surprised he decided to be honest about it, probably because he had no intentions of going in.

"I thought you were done racing?" I've asked him to give it up a few times, knowing darn well that he wouldn't. Grey was too dang stubborn, sometimes.

And eager as I was for him to get over the thrill of illegal racing, I felt like him speeding around on his motorcycle under the stars with only this path lit by floodlights might be precisely what he needed to cheer up a bit.

Grey goes through phases like this a lot of the time. When he was completely caught up in something, he got obsessed with it to the point where it almost seemed like it could become his life. But then he would try something new, and there he went moving from the old hobby.

Grey liked to experience a bit of everything. He was a lot like his father in that aspect.

Grey's eyes met mine. "You think I'm going to be able to afford new furniture on a part-time warehouse associate's salary?" he asked incredulously.

It was about six months ago when Grey started working at this warehouse on the outskirts of town. He hated every single minute, but he got happy when he saw the direct deposit hit his account.

I couldn't blame him, though. I felt the same when working as a receptionist at the Brantley hotel. Don't get me wrong, it was a nice place, and the pay was decent, but that was nowhere close to the dream job that I wanted for myself.

"I think you should go in tonight," I finally told him.

The corner of his mouth tipped up into a smirk. "Wow. You must really want that new 55-inch OLED TV."

I rolled my eyes. When I opened my mouth to deny it, I realized it was kind of true. If he did win a race today, we would be more than able to afford it. But that wasn't the initial reason I had for telling him to go in.

"Yes, but no. I think you should just go in and have some fun. For one last time." I tried to put extra emphasis on the word "last." Hopefully, he caught the hint.

Grey leaned away from me, feigning shock. "You're giving me permission to go in?"

I nodded slowly. "Yes. But under one condition." I held up my pointer finger in front of my face.

"You want me to take you out for breakfast tomorrow?" he guessed.

"No." That would be nice, though.

"You want me to take you to that nice bookstore in the next town over?"

"No." Damn, I said that too quickly! I was dying to make another trip over there.

Grey kept guessing. "You want me to drop the whole no dating rule until you're out of college thing?"

"Yes! No! Well, I never considered that to be in effect, to begin with, so no." I rolled my eyes.

"It's been in effect for days, actually," he grinned. "But that's beside the point. I'm running out of guesses here, Mia."

I hit him with a combo of sweet talk and cutesy smiles. "Grey," I smiled up at him. "Do you know you're like one of my favorite people in the entire world?" I hugged one of his biceps.

Grey was quiet for a few seconds, but he caught on rather quickly. "Nope. Nope." I didn't see him shaking his head, but I felt it. "Absolutely not." He jumped to his feet, sliding his arm out of my grasp. "I cannot take you with me, Mia."

I frowned. "You've never taken me with you!" I argued. It wasn't like I always wanted to go anyway.

"It's not your kind of place," Grey said as if that would change my mind.

"It's just this one time." I reasoned with him. If this were his last race, he wouldn't have to worry about bringing me again.

"No," he said firmly after considering it for a few seconds.

"Please?" I asked nicely, clamping my hands and shaking them.

"No," he repeated.

"Come on!" I shouted with frustration.

Grey's face became stern, and he deepened his voice. "No," he said stubbornly.

I threw my hands up in the air. "So what are you going to do? Leave me here while you go off to wherever to race?"

He nodded. "Yup. Sounds like a plan."

I pouted.

"Don't do that." Grey turned away from me. "I don't want to bring you, Mia." His voice softened. "That's not the best crowd for you to be around. Anything could happen to you when I'm on the track, and I would never be able to forgive myself."

"I'll be careful," I promised. "I won't go wandering off." It sounded like I might be able to win this one.

Grey tilted his head back and massaged his neck with both hands.

"Greyson." If he was adamant about me not going, there must be a good reason, and I didn't want to push it, but...

"Fine," he grumbled. "You can come." He relented, interrupting my thoughts as he turned to face me. "But you have to please listen to everything I say and just follow my lead."

"YES! OF COURSE!" I tried to bite back my grin, but I couldn't hold it in. "I promise." I squealed with excitement before launching myself at him.

At first, he didn't want to hug me back, but I wouldn't let go until he did.

When his arms wrapped around me, no matter what Grey was worried about, I knew he would always protect me.