How To Race

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Finally, Marly let go of her when they were outside. The night air was warm, brushing against her exposed legs like rustling autumn leaves. She pulled her jacket closer, as if the simple act could ward off the chill running through her spine.

The black beast sitting low on the grounds made her lips part in surprise, the warm breeze filling in the emptiness at the hollow of her mouth. She heard Marly gasp loudly beside her.

The Chevrolet Chevelle was longer than what she had seen in her brother's Auto Diesel magazines. It was sleek, impossibly long and black, the color camouflaging into the night's gloom like they were twin creations of the devil.

"She's beautiful," Vanessa said, not concealing the surprise in her tone. This was no normal day where she could carry her pride like her purse, but a completely wayward day. It was a day where she would play illegal like any normal teenager in Baltimore.

The car purred once, and went still, abiding to its master's command. The door of the driver's seat opened and out walked Jared Klyn, a smirk plastered on his flushed face, his hair tousled, wind-blown. He stopped mid way, his eyes zeroing in on the gleaming figure on her right.

"I'm gonna check out this baby." Smiling, Vanessa treaded towards the car. Jared walked in to fill in the missing gap where Vanessa stood earlier. From her peripheral vision, she could see Jared entangling his fingers with Marly's, a faint blush sweeping up her cheek with the simple act.

Vanessa grinned, fingertips trailing the double white lines on the bonnet of the muscle car. "You look beautiful." She refrained from eavesdropping, but the slow wind carried in it the whispers of her best friend's conversation with her one-step-to-boyfriend crush.

Diverting her attention, she took out her phone from her purse.

"Out with friends. Key's in the porch, right vase."

She clicked the blue 'send' button, and the message was sent to her brother. Since the morning incident about Linda, she hadn't talked to her brother. And was planning to stay that way for a long time. She shook her head lightly, clearing away the unwanted feels activating inside her with the mention of her family.

She opened the camera and cringed. The phone flashed a hideous picture of her face, elonged and plump like a potato. She distanced the phone by an arm's length focussing her image and the front part of the black Chevrolet. She pulled her jacket slightly down, the thin black spaghetti strap stark against her tan skin, waves of blonde hair breezing across her face. She gave her signature smile, perfect, white and toothy before clicking the picture. She posted it on Instagram. The multiple 'ping' sound that came with the notifications inflated her bubble, rising her to cloud nine.

"I have never seen you smile that way before."

She was invested in her own bubble that the rest of the world had been erased from her mind. Until, Jared came knocking on the door of her conscience with his petty remark.

"That's the social butterfly for you, Jared," Marly mused, her face brightened by the artificial light of her phone. She looked up and smiled, "Nice pic, girl."

Vanessa winked. "Can we go already? I can't wait to see the new circuit."

*

The car drove inside the dilapidated parking lot, the world turned dark and forbidding, like the ones spoken about it in children's books of nightmares and bad people.

All of a sudden, a bright light blinded her for a split second before it cleared away, and gave way to a large open ground, boys and girls, racing cars revving to the rhythm of loud music. Any prior thoughts of fear, nervousness, and the parental was washed away with the sultry winds rolling through the open windows of the Chevrolet, replacing it with an unintelligible euphoria.

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