8 Second Ride COMPLETED

Chapter 4

  May 21, 2015 

Souix Falls, North Dakota

"Lane!" I jump out of my slumber as I hear Andrew's voice. My neck protests at the sudden movement, sending a shooting pain down my spine. I think he about gave me whiplash.

"What the hell are you doing? Get up! The scores are listed for today. Don't you want to see where you stand?" He says excitedly, peering over the stall door. I give him a glare before I finally just shake my head and sigh. He is so impatient when it comes to the scores.

I get up and dust off my jeans and follow him to the charts. He winks at some of the barrel racing girls as he passes by and they giggle at his antics. I always get the short end of the stick, and they give me the stink eye. 

Bitches. 

You can have him if you want him, I scrunch up my nose at the very thought. I sure as hell don't want him in that way. I hold in the urge to give them the bird as I walk past, not even bothering to give them a second glance. They are never worth my time and most know better than to test me. I gave one of them the beating of a lifetime once for running her mouth. Andrew and two other guys had to pull me off of her. Let's just say she learned a hard lesson in manners and we never did see her around again after that.

"Wow, Lane, you are in first." He shuts up for a minute looking for his score. "Look I'm in the top ten, eighth place. Hell yeah!" He whoops and throws his fist in the air. I roll my eyes. 

I have to love him, he does make things more interesting for me. And helps me forget about Ryan when he's around.

"I think you owe me a drink, Miss Stokes." He grins and I sigh. 

I am in no mood to got to a bar and see him try to pick up some buckle bunnies. It's almost disgusting to watch. I'll never forget the time he was so drunk and picked up a girl with more brown teeth than white and she even had a few missing ones. She was so nice and sweet though. And so very smart. I really liked her. She should have known better. I felt bad for her when Andrew told me what he did. I had never wanted to kill someone more in my entire life.

He had woken up and said he wanted to pull a coyote ugly on her and immediately flipped out, yelling and screaming at her to get the hell out of his room. I can only imagine how bad he had hurt her feelings. I tried to warn her that she was making a mistake hooking up with him, but she swore she could handle herself. After he told me what happened, I wasn't so sure. I could just see the look on her face as she left the room and did the walk of shame. I could even imagine how the tears fell down her face as she cried the minute she got inside her car. It broke my heart that a woman with such a great heart could be treated like garbage. I didn't talk to Andrew for three weeks after that. I couldn't even look at him. To this day I still have a hard time looking at him when I think about what he did to her.

"Let's go then. I don't want to be out all night. You are finding a different ride home, just so you know." I demand hotly, walking away from him.

"What!? No, you are staying out and we are celebrating!" He begs in a whiny voice as he runs to catch up with me.

"Celebrate? Andrew, we have two days left. Anything can happen." I retort. He just rolls his eyes at me.

"You're such a party pooper, Lane." He groans. "Let's just go get those drinks." He throws his arm around my waist and leads me away from the others. All the while I can feel a pair of eyes burning into my back as we walk away.

{*}

It's only ten o'clock and the bar is packed. It's not very big and is a hole-in-the wall type of bar. There is a small dance floor, a jukebox, an old pool table, and a small stage for, what I assume are small bands to perform, if they ever have them. It smells from years and years of constant smokers. It reminds me of some of the bars in Texas.