The Fast Lane [gxg]

Machine Gun Kelly

It didn't take long for Maze's casual mention about the bridge to Bryan to spread through the ranks of their friend group. It started with Josie overhearing them, since she had been talking to Kass, who was sitting a comfortable distance away from Maze—the other side of the chaise lounge, that is.

Josie relayed it to Brielle, who casually confessed how she had always wanted to spray paint her initials on the bridge (a subtle yet obvious flirtation device that didn't quite float the way she wanted it to). Brielle admitting this reached Amelia's ears, who immediately shrieked, "So are we going to the bridge tonight or what?!"

Maze grimaced the second Kass slowly twisted around to glower at her. Bryan slapped a hand over his face.

Thus... was how Maze and Kass found themselves on the railroad tracks leading up to the bridge surrounded by their friends.

They had ditched their cars half a mile away, down the tracks and down the road in the parking lot of a park Maze distinctly recalled watching cross country races at in high school. Now, though, it was a prime pitstop on the way to vandalizing the bridge.

Maze and Kass lingered behind the group, who had run off with Kass' spray paint can. Neither of them spoke, and Maze was content with that—if she wasn't so guilty for getting everyone else on board with this, that is.

Maze spared an uneasy glance at Kass, who walked with her hand in her pocket, her eyes on her phone. She didn't look up until Bryan approached them with a smokey, grassy blunt from Josie pinched between his fingers.

The end of it prickled to life with bright orange ashes as Bryan took one last drag from it. He breathed it in, holding it in his lungs as he held the blunt out to Maze, who took it. Kass rose an eyebrow at her as smoke curled through Bryan's teeth.

"Not exactly an athlete anymore," Maze said as she put it to her lips.

"Never stopped you from drinking alcohol," Kass said, and Maze resisted the urge to laugh. The smoke was warm in her chest, and she felt it permeate, prickling her esophagus until she released it.

She grinned at Kass, smoke pushing underneath her teeth. Kass waved the smoke aside as Maze laughed. She turned her head away to cough, and Kass took the blunt from her.

Bryan dropped an arm around Maze's shoulders, swaying her to the side. Maze smiled, holding onto Bryan by the back of his hoodie as her friend said, "I'd like to congratulate you on your marriage."

Maze laughed. "Oh, thank you," she said, teasingly.

"Yes, and I didn't come over here just to pass the metaphorical torch, no no," Bryan went on, and Maze grinned at Kass, who rolled her eyes off to the side and away from them. "Oh really?"

"Yes, really."

"So what was this all about then, might I ask—"

"I know, I'm getting to that part," Bryan said. He slapped a hand above Maze's chest and gave it a few, firm pats. "I came here to submit my resume to be your best man at the wedding so I can give a speech on what a dumbass you are."

Maze cackled with her entire heart. She slapped Bryan back on the chest and said, "I appreciate the sentiment, but I'm not accepting applications at the moment."

"Fine, then I'll just say it off the record then—"

"No, no, you really don't—"

"But I must," Bryan insisted, and when Maze slapped a hand over his mouth, it turned into a cat-fight, slapping-fest in which Bryan smacked her over the mouth right back and Maze swatted his hand away. They duked it out until Maze half-tripped over a plank of wood on the railroad and if it weren't for Bryan having her in a half-Nelson, she might have face-planted.