Ride Home To Me

Chapter 20

As it turns out, being done with high school is a little more anticlimactic than people make it out to be. For the whole summer I just go between working and hanging out with the team. By the start of July I'd learned enough stuff to take some shifts working in the garage on the cars instead of spending all my time in the office, which turned out to be really fun. I even convinced my ma that I wasn't really ready to go to college, and since I had a pretty solid job and a good place to stay, she finally relented. So when September came, I just continued to work in the garage, and learn how to drift with Dom and Letty.

Somebody snaps me out of my thoughts by wrapping their arms around me from behind as I'm bent over the engine of a car. I recognize Dom's strong arms and shriek in surprise as he lifts me up into the air.

"Dom what the hell!" I slap him and laugh when he puts me down. "What's that all about?"

"Happy birthday Gabi," he grins. I groan.

"Okay, when did my ma tell you," I huff.

"This morning when I was heading out. She was there with my dad. Mentioned something about it being the 14th so she was getting off early and bringing cake for your birthday," he said, ruffling my hair. "Gabi it's your 19th birthday, we should be celebrating. Why didn't you tell us?"

"I don't like attention, you guys should know this by now," I whine, slapping his hand away and turning back to the car.

"Wait, you're 19 today?" I hear Letty ask.

"Oh great," I mutter. "Uh, yeah."

"Yo Dom, it's been long enough yeah? Let's go tonight," she grins, leaning against the hood across from me. Dom grins and claps her outstretched hand, laughing knowingly at me.

I pause, looking up at them. "What...?"

"We're takin' you to the races."

•-•-•-•-•

Once we have dinner and cake, Leon, Dom, Letty, Vince, and I hit the road. I sit in the same car as Letty and the boys each take their own. When we get there, the crowd swarms Dom and the team as soon as they step out of the seats. This ain't like the lowkey high school racing, though, Letty was telling me. You can make big money here. I take a step back to let the drivers place bets and get it started. To my surprise, though, once they finish giving Hector the money to hold everyone just gets back in their cars and waits around. I plop back into the passenger seat with Letty.

"What are they waiting for? Why aren't they going to the track?"

Letty smirks at me. "'Cause they're waiting for the police to clear away from it."

My jaw drops. "They're racing on the street? Isn't that illegal?!"

She only grins at me, and winks. Right then we hear Leon's voice over the walkie talkie on the dash.

"Aight we got an empty area let's move!"

The thought of this street racing being illegal both scares and excites me. Letty isn't racing tonight so we pull over to the side and help block the side streets.

The racers, Dom included, pull up to the starting line. A girl in a tank top and some shorts walks out to the middle of the street holding a red flag above her head. On the count of three, she brings it down to the floor and the racers are off. It's only several blocks through the city, but as they disappear into the streets and come back around the last few seconds feel like an eternity. This one punk that's falling behind activates his NOS and pulls ahead of Dom. I smirk and start laughing to myself.

"Too early," I mutter.

Sure enough, at the last second, Dom pulls ahead and crosses the finish line first. The crowd goes crazy cheering and I find myself and Letty joining them as we jump out of the car and run over to him. He's taking the money from Hector and once he sees me he gives me a high-five before handing me the stack of money and asking me to count it. I take it from him, freeing his hands to wrap around the waists of two ladies that come walking over. I roll my eyes and turn to Letty.

"I know you said you can win big at these things but shit man," I scoff at her, looking at the bills in my hand.

"Should be 10K in there, there were five racers and each bought in at two thousand," she grins, tapping the stack.

"So how much have you won from these illegal races," I smirk.

She shrugs. "Couldn't tell ya. It usually goes into the garage mortgage or I burn it on car parts anyway," she giggles. "We're gonna get you out there next time though, don't worry."

"Me?!" I whip my head up from the stack of bills. "I've never actually drifted before, Let. I'd lose all my shit."

"Aw come one, girl, I've seen you. You got some skills. Don't worry hermana, nobody buys in big for their first race anyway. And Dom and I will keep taking you out to practice."

I grin and return the money to Dom. When Letty and I get back in the car to head back home, she speaks up.

"We should do something next week," she says.

"What do you mean?" I ask, frowning in confusion.

"Well isn't it one year next week?"

"One year...?"

"One year since you moved here, tonta," she slaps my arm.

My jaw drops. She's right. As of next week, it'll have been a year since my ma and I pulled into a driveway five houses down from 1327 Kensington Rd. and I met the team that changed my life.

"Why's it feel like so much longer and so much less at the same time?" I mutter.

She scoffs. "Yeah, I know. Maybe cause you're already stealing my t shirts and sleeping in 'em like I'm you're fucking girlfriend or something," she teases. I laugh nervously and punch her lightly, turning to hide the heat in my cheeks. By the time we get home, it's around 12:50, but Mia and Tony have already gone to bed. No one else is tired, though, and my ma is working a double at the hospital, so we grab some beers and head to my house. The team finally starts crashing from both exhaustion and the drinks, so I grab blankets and pillows and let the boys just pass out in the living room while Letty and I head upstairs.

"Hey Let," I mumble into my pillow, the alcohol giving me a spurt of brazenness.

She hums in response from her spot next to me.

"What do you do when you fall for someone that has no chance of liking you back?"

She looks up at me.

"Why? You got a crush?"

I nod, giggling, then feel a wave of sadness wash over me.

"She's straight. And I'm trying to get over her man, but I just can't," I sigh.

Letty takes my hand and squeezes it comfortingly.

"Who is it? Do I know her?"

I giggle again. "You do. But I'm not telling."

Her jaw drops. "Gabi! Tell me!"

"Shh shh! You'll wake up the boys!" I hiss, smiling giddily and putting my finger on her lips to quiet her.

"I don't," she yawns, "I don't care. Ain't nothing that can wake 'em up now until they get up themselves."

I can tell she's fighting to keep her eyes open, and when she yawns again I barely manage to stop myself from giggling. Against what the small rational voice in my head tells me, I reach out and softly stroke her cheek.

"Go to sleep Let," I whisper.

I can't shake the way that she looks at me in that moment, when she smiles and makes herself comfortable under the blankets. Yawning, she gasps out, "Okay. But don't think you're getting off that easy girl," before passing out completely. It doesn't take long for me to also fall asleep, and nothing could have woken me up if it wanted to. However, there was one moment in the middle of my sleep, where I could feel the figure next to me moving into my embrace and wrapping an arm around me. I was still too asleep to do anything, but I knew it wasn't a dream. And even in my hungover, unconscious state, I still managed to smile.