Grease Lightning | K.M

Penny for your thoughts

"It's Cynthia", I identified.  All Leo said was "oh", which lowered my confidence drastically. I wondered if this was the kind of conversation I should have in person, but it was too late now.

I wrapped my fingers around the phone cord due to my spiking anxiety. "Is now a good time? We really need to talk", I mumbled. I didn't want the strangers around me to hear.

He huffed into the phone, "if this is about the dance, don't bother. I already know you're here to apologize because you picked that mouth breather instead of me. The guy who hung out with you after you lost your friends. Guess you were just biding time until you didn't need to use me anymore. Congrats on trading up".

I was stunned. There might've been some truth to what he had said.  Although I didn't mention Id lost my friends because of him. "I didn't trade up man. I've been with my sister and Kenickie the past day and a half but guess what, all I wanted to do was ride around town with you in your obnoxiously loud car. I know leaving with him was mean, and I want to explain why I did it.  And I took our friendship for granted, I know that now. Just give me the chance to fix it", I reasoned.

"Fix it how?", he scoffed. I tried not to take his tone personally.

"Just meet me at the carnival tonight so we can talk face to face. I'll buy you a churro". I'd hoped his sweet tooth was enough of a bribe.

My hopes were high when he grunted and agreed, "just don't bring the T-Birds around". I agreed, thanked him, then hung up.

I left the smelly room and found Sandy quickly. "So I was thinking of going to watch Kenickies race in a bit. Apparently it's a big deal for these guys and Danny's really excited about it", she said in deep thought.

I resumed flipping through the racks absentmindedly. "Kenickie didn't say anything about a race", I said. It hurt to know he hasn't told me something he was excited about. But I also couldn't blame him, until yesterday I'd been frozen out.

"They plan it for months and Danny said it's really dangerous. They've been fixing up a car to use in the race too", she said getting excited.

I looked up at her and blinked. "Grease Lightning. I worked on that car too, ya know. I can't believe I wasn't invited", I whined. This felt personal.

"Well it's a good thing that I found this", she says pulls a leather outfit off a rack. "We're going to that race, you're trying this on, and then you're wearing it to punish him".

I eyed her choice skeptically. I was unsure of how far I wanted to go with this. The pants were a tight black leather and equipped with a strong belt. The top looked like a black corset with leather detailing and the metal clasps at the front were used to open and close the top.

After deliberating silently I agreed and took it from her. As we were walking to the girls rooms I spotted a leather one piece off the shoulder suit. I knew it would look perfect on Sandy.

I detoured and went to find a sales associate. "Cynthia wrong way", I heard my sister say to me. I chose to ignore her and continue on.

Luckily it was a small store with not many places to hide. I spotted a woman folding clothes quickly and walked up to her. "Excuse me but do you think I could get that down? And what sizes do you have?" I asked pointing the the mannequin.

She followed my gaze and nodded, "excellent choice. We can't take the display down but what size do you need and I'll check the back?", she said setting her work down.

I tried my best to remember my sisters clothing size and ended up saying a three.

She nodded towards the dressing rooms behind me, "I'll bring it to your dressing room in a moment". I watched her quickly walk to a locked door and disappear into it.

By the time Sandy had helped me into my outfit, the woman had brought Sandy's over. I grabbed it carefully from her and said my thanks. Once she was out of our way I spun back to sandy and all but shoved her into the changing rooms.

"If it's too small suck it in", I yelled to her, not wanting to ask for another size. I felt it was rude to ask twice.

Sandy scoffed a moment later, "It fits like a glove".

I smiled and pulled the curtain open to reveal Sandy touching up her hair. I saw her figure through the mirror and my mouth hung open. "So when were you going to tell me you had all these curves", I accused, feigning hurt.

She laughed at my praise. "How much do we have total? Dad gave us ten dollars and I brought four. How much do you have?", she asked while checking the tag on her suit.

After we pulled all our money together and figured out the costs, we changed and walked up to the front counter to pay.

The lady sat up when she saw us. "This all for today ladies?", she said while ringing up our items. Sandy and I shook our heads and said no politely.

"Oh my goodness", she exclaimed after bagging our items, "I love y'all's accent. Where you two girls from?".

Sandy smiled and pulled out the money. "Australia. We moved for our dads work".

The salesperson pursed her lips in thought. "Well it's nice that you girls are getting a few new outfits. I'm sure our style over here's quite a bit different".

Not particularly, but I wasn't going to correct her. Instead, I nodded and thanked her, "nice meeting you".

Together the both of us hurried out of the store and headed back to the car. If we were lucky, we'd make it in time for the race and the carnival.