8 Second Ride COMPLETED

Chapter 8

May 22, 2015

Souix Falls, North Dakota

"Laina. Wake up baby." I feel a hand gently wiping the hair out of my face. I groan and smack it, making a loud crack when I make contact with their skin. I hear them let out a deep chuckle not long after.

"You better get up or I will smack that pretty little ass of yours." He means every word of it. I open my eyes to see the cocky grin on Ryan's face.

I sit up with a scowl and swing my legs over the side of the gurney.

"The scores are up if you wanna see." I nod with a yawn and he takes my hand.

I follow him to the charts to see our score totals so far.

Scanning the board I see that I end up with a total of 181.1 and Ryan has 178.3. I am in first and Ryan is in second for the time being.

Not many of the guys say anything to me. They hate when I get better scores than them, it hurts their pride I suppose. I've even gotten into a few fist fights with some of them over it. More like me hitting them for their smart ass mouths. I cannot take the sexist comments they sometimes spit out.

One thing is for sure though, tomorrow, I will have to ride like my life depends on it if I want to beat Ryan.

"Lane, you going to the bar tonight?" Andrew asks me putting his arm over my shoulders as we walk to our vehicles. I could feel Ryan giving him the death glare but Andrew is too oblivious to even notice it. Or he just doesn't care. I'm thinking the latter.

"I don't think so. I'm not feeling up for it tonight." I state with a dreadful sigh.

"Come on they are having some line dancing and karaoke." He begs me like that will really change my mind.

"Well in that case, definitely not." I laugh, shaking my head.

"Fine party pooper." He pouts and walks off.

"That man is to annoying for his own good." Ryan grumbles, wrapping an arm around my waist. Typical jealousy.

"Annoying as he may be, he was there for me. Through everything." I felt him flinch at my words.

"When did you meet him?" He asks curiously.

"A month after Paisley passed away." I reply. He didn't say anything else after that.

[*]

Here we are standing in front of a bar called Legends. You can hear the country music blaring over the speakers before you even walk in the doors. It sounds like one hell of a party is going on inside. Why do I let Andrew talk me into this crap? He begged me for an hour until I said I would go. I just couldn't take it anymore. He was driving me insane.

Such an annoying butthole. And I am the stupid idiot that always gives in to him.

Then there was Ryan. He wasn't going to let me go without him being right by my side like the obsessive man he was.

"Let's get this over with." I grumble as Ryan opens the door like a gentlemen, allowing me to make my way inside first.

This bar is way bigger than the one we were at last night. It's almost as big as a night club.

The smell of cigarette smoke and alcohol hits my nose as Ryan, Andrew, and I walk through into the huge crowd. Andrew is gone in the blink of an eye. Only took him fifteen seconds this time.

Ryan holds onto my hand tightly leading me through all the drunken individuals. He finally stops when we get to two other men and he starts talking to them.