I N C O G N I T O (on hold)

• cars •

"We have to be back before two o' clock," I reminded Karol, climbing out of her 1963 Corvette. "I don't want to hear my mom's mouth."

Her dad was in love with old cars, so he opened a business buying, selling, and trading them. She fell in love with the old Mustang he keeps wrapped up and pretty, but he refuses to let her have it, so she took the Corvette instead.

She rolled her eyes and slammed her car door shut. "Yeah, I know. Can we have some fun now, please?"

I raise my hands in mock surrender and follow her up the pathway. The party is at an old warehouse. It was closed off, with a large gate and chains to make sure nobody tried to get inside.

As we walked through the gate, I only chuckle and shake my head at the bolt cutters on the floor and the broken lock and chain that had fallen beside it.

Originally, the warehouse was going to be torn down and in place of it, a beautiful condominium would be built. People were, or course, behind that idea completely, in love with the concept of having more fancy looking buildings around. And then the plans suddenly fell through. No one exactly knows why, but there was a rumor going around that the construction workers that were inspecting the building found the body of a young woman. She was murdered, and the worse part was that she's only been dead a day or two before they found her.

They were only rumors, of course, it wasn't even put on the news. The city's excuse for not following through with the plan had to do with budgeting.

Ever since then, kids have thrown parties in there. It was some weird thrill for them partying in the place a woman was supposedly killed in.

As ridiculous as that sounds, me and Karol were only there for the fun.

"You think Jake's going to be here?" Karol asked, as we neared the doors. The walls were damn near soundproof, so at most we can only hear the faintest of thrums from whatever song or beat they had playing.

Jake was her on-again, off-again. So far, they've broken up four times and taken two breaks. I didn't really know the difference, but she was very firm about that. Karol was always the fun one, and while Jake appeared ready to be in a committed and stable relationship, Karol was easily bored. She liked being able to flirt with other guys. Don't get me wrong, she loves Jake. It's hard not too—he's literally the sweetest guy when he wants to be. But she was Karol. And Karol liked...everything.

That's not to say Jake was a saint and she's the problem. Their most recent break up was because she found out he'd went out with another girl after they'd gotten into a pretty heated argument. Apparently kissing was involved. Needless to say she was pissed, and told him they were done—for good this time.

We all knew that wasn't the case, but whatever.

I opened the doors and immediately, we were thrusted into the nightlife.

"Well that was a bust," Karol sighed, running her fingers through her hair.

"What are you talking about? You were dancing on tables, you kissed that Eric guy...I'd say you had a good time."

She rolls her eyes and reaches for her keys, thrusting it into the ignition and turning. The car roared to life and she sighs again.

"He didn't show up."

"Who?" At the look on her face, my eyebrows raised. "Jake? You seriously only wanted to go on the off-chance you'd see Jake?"

"It's been nearly a week," she mumbles, adjusting the rearview mirror. "I just—holy shit!"

She turned around sharply.

"What?"

She doesn't reply.

"Karol?" I look over my shoulder to see what could have caught her attention, but nothing was out of the ordinary. "Karol?"

"I thought I..." She trailed off and opened the door, climbing back out of the car.

"Wha—seriously? What's up?" I stare incredulously at her as she look around. "Dude."

"I just saw..." She ran her fingers through her hair and shrugged, climbing back into the car and slamming the door back shut. "I thought I saw someone standing there."

"You mean like one of the people at the party we just left?"

"No. I mean, maybe but...I don't know he looked off. Older. And that party didn't look like his scene. And I mean, it was weird. He was just standing there watching us. Staring."

I laughed. "And you got all that from one glance in a rearview mirror? There's no one there, you're working yourself up. Just your imagination or something. Maybe I should drive; how much did you drink?"

"Not that much. One."

"Let me drive."

"Like hell."

"Karol!"

"I'm good. You wanna watch me walk in a straight line for another ten minutes or you want to get home before your parents do?"

I sighed. "Alright. Go."

"Thank you."

Fifteen minutes into the ride, I peeked at her. She was drumming her fingers on the steering wheel, mouthing along to the words of the song playing on the radio.

"So it's been a week?"

She glanced at me and looked away. "Yeah."

"You broke up with him, K."

"Yeah."

"So...?"

"I thought he'd call. He always calls. But it's been almost a week and he hasn't called."

"You broke up with him."

"Yeah."

I sighed. "Why don't you call?"

"Because."

"Because?"

"Because I broke up with him."

It fell silent.