driver.

one.

01| new car.

The smoke of tires, the chanting of the crowd, revving of engines, backfiring exhausts, the atmosphere so intense it's almost as if you can hear them change gears and hit the breaks as they drift the streets, I can't figure out if it's unnerving or exhilarating to watch.
Street Racing.
The one thing that can't hold Michael back; Michael being my older brother, only by 15 months.

Standing along side my big brother, who has my attention immediately put upon him as he's cursing someone out,
"Maybe if you learnt how to fucking drive you'd still have your fucking car" a chuckle leaving his lips.

"Mike," I say tugging ever so lightly at the sleeve of his hoodie, just so I can get his full attention,
"Can we go home?"

"Come on Zoey, the race is not even close to finished yet" his voice coming out at a whine,
"I promise, we'll go as soon as Morgan does his lap" I nod to Michael's answer even though I no idea when the race even starts or who 'Morgan' is.

"Dude, Did you see that?" Chase, my brothers best friend and kind of mine, comes sprinting towards us, hands being thrown up in victory as he shouts something along the lines of 'C-Dizzle always wins',
"Guess who just won himself a crappy Ford Mustang"

"I'm gonna' assume you" I mumble, not exactly excepting anyone to hear.

"Hey Zo" Chase throws his arm over my shoulder, his happiness radiating through the crowded car park.

"Hi C" I keep my attention fixated on the crowd that's slowly getting larger, Havenmore doesn't have an overly large population.

Havenmore being our small little town here in Sydney, Street racing happens every couple of weeks here, groups of people drive over from all the surrounding towns into Havenmore to compete in the races. All this being hidden in the closed part of town.

Going a couple of years back, almost a century, a legislator agreement was passed to close off the old part of town deeming it unsafe, as it's so old and started crumbling, historical grounds are crumbling, bridges are caving in, roads lead to dead ends, it's the part of town where gang violence and drug deals usually go down but I guess that's what boosts the excitement of the race, the community it's surrounded by.

With these races there's normally high money involved and black mailing deals of some sorts going on, usually just with car trading, but Michael has always told me 'sure, the money is nice but there's nothing better than those 20 seconds of complete freedom' and I'm choosing to believe him as personally i've never been behind the wheel of one of those cars, and I never will be.

"When's Morgan going?" Chase questions Mike, The name immediately catches my attention as it seems to be the only one people seem to talk about here.

"What's the time?" Michael looks at me for the answer.

"1:12am" I look back up at him from my phone, a yawn leaving my lips at the realisation of the time.

"He starts in 3 minutes then, 1:15am, it's his lucky time" Michael looks back to C,
"Then I will take you home but you have to admit, you're having a little bit of fun" Mike pokes my side causing a soft giggle to leave my lips.

This is the first time in months I'd come out to a race with Michael, I wasn't going to come along with him tonight but Mike somehow managed to convince me to come with him. No matter how many times I told him I was happy to stay in on my Saturday night on Skype with my best friend, Addison, listening to her complain about how One Direction aren't coming back from their hiatus while she plays the entirety of the 'made in the a.m' album for the 5th time this week. I mean I love her to death and Louis Tomlinson but she's seriously obsessed. Addie and I have been best friends since second grade when she moved to Sydney from Melbourne, we were put in the same class and ended up as line buddies, from then on the rest was history.

"you can't just lock yourself up in your room all the time," Chase speaks but his attention is fixated on the cars zipping past us,
"You've got to get out there and live a little instead of hiding in that bedroom of yours all the time" Chase pulls me into a side hug, his head resting on top of mine.

"I go out!" I gawk in my own defence,
"I went out just last night!"

"You going out with that little boyfriend of yours for dinner at the local restaurant doesn't count, you're always home by 8:30 anyways" Mike laughs obviously referring to Andrew, my boyfriend.

"Wipe that frown off your face Zo, Morgan is about to drive, you'll like him, he's good" Michael begins dragging me over towards the starting line, A goofy grin on his face as Chase gushes over the four different cars pulling up to the red spray painted line, that's slightly faded, probably due to Sydney's recent rainy weather.

The crowd getting louder as each one of the racers rev their engines, music blasting as a way to drown out the trash talk going down between two drivers, as a guy shouts clearance of police from the roof of a truck, meaning there's an all clear to go.

The music stops entirely as the crowd turns into a hushed whisper, all eyes trained on a thin woman strutting to the centre of the road, flag in hand, something I thought only happened in movies, cigarette between her teeth as she raises the flag slowly and then bringing it down in one swift motion.

Tires ripping up as the cars fly down the street, the audience going nuts, as they're going so fast you can't even see them. Sparks flying everywhere, the smoke in the distance is how you can decipher how far they've already driven in no more then 10 seconds.

"Look at him go!" Chase begins shouting, punching him in the arm in excitement.

"He redid his car mate, he's better then ever," how this works is they follow the map they're given and if I remember correctly, if they haven't changed the route from 8 months ago,  they go all the way down to the end of the street, which is about 12 blocks, make a left to go over the bridge, go all the way down Windrock Avenue, take a left at the train station, going over the the tracks and then follow the avenue all the way back to the starting line, a long home stretch but it gives the races an opportunity to take victory once and for all,
"He'll be done in no more than 10 minutes"

"Not even" Chase shakes his head, crossing his arms in anticipation.

"That's if he's actually good, just because you have a good car, doesn't make you a good driver" I shrug.

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