Girls Like Girls | Girls Chase Girls #2 [HIATUS]

Grease Is the Word

Chapter One

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XIA

Slouched in the front seat of her 1967 Camaro SS, Phaedra Barlowe turned to her best friend's camera and growled, "If you wanna be a Wild Girl, here's what you gotta do-"

Mickey cut in from the passenger seat: "You gotta love to ride, love a thrill, and kiss a girl!"

Smooching noises filled the car as the girls in leather jackets puckered up to kiss the air. Xia covered her mouth to muffle her laughter lest she wake one of her relatives and have to explain what she was doing watching videos of gorgeous greaser girls at two in the morning. That one of them happened to be her girlfriend wasn't going to be a point in her favor.

Phae waggled her thick dark eyebrows and winked at the camera, her deep brown eyes glittering. "Don't worry, babe. I'm saving all my kisses for you."

"You'd better be," Xia replied despite knowing her girlfriend couldn't hear her almost 14,000 miles away. She'd been in such a rush to leave for Singapore with her parents she hadn't gotten to kiss the other girl goodbye. She missed her so deeply it ached. Singapore was beautiful and seeing her distant relatives was certainly a treat, but she couldn't deny she'd hoped she would get to spend spring break racing down the reservoir on the back of Phae's 2010 Indian Chief Classic motorcycle, clinging to the gorgeous girl who'd saved her life and stolen her heart only four months ago. Only her parents had had other plans and so had Phae. Here they were, Xia in Singapore and Phae at home doing what she did best-getting into trouble.

Xia typed out a text to her Wild Girl in leather, attached to a selfie of her blowing a kiss.

Wish you were here, hot stuff

Xia <3

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PHAEDRA

"You are impossibly whipped, chica," said Mickey with an infuriating smile. Just because it was true didn't mean anybody should to say it. The girls in the backseat were making smooching noises again. Phaedra's face was turning red, but she dared them to say anything about it.

She finished typing out her text before responding to her friend's goading. "I'm not whipped. I just like my girlfriend. Try it."

"Mmm nah, a girl likes to play the field. You know, keep my options open." Phae used to be all about keeping her options open, but now that she'd found the perfect fit, nobody else compared.

"Can't relate."

Phaedra glanced over the latest text exchange between her and her absent girlfriend, wishing she had the cash and time to hop a plane to Singapore on a few days' notice.

FROM: Xia

Save some kisses for me

FROM: Phae

Every single one. My lips are reserved

FROM: Xia

Better be, badass

"Okay, the heart eyes are getting embarrassing," Mickey said. "Whiiiiiipped."

"Uh huh, you wanna ride or you wanna talk trash?"

"I'm bi, sis, choosing is not on the agenda. I can do both." She and Rabi exchanged a sloppy fist bump over the bench seat.

"That's what's up!" crowed Rabi.

Phae groaned. "Why are we friends?"

Rabi propped her chin on the back of the bench seat between the older girls. "Because nobody else will take you." Rabi Chanh was Mickey's JROTC mentee, her mini-me; she followed Mickey in all things, including shit talking.

"That's a drag," yelped Mickey. "Now where we going? It's eleven at night, I'm breaking curfew, and if I'm getting grounded it better be worth it."

Phaedra, Mickey, and Rabi had been cruising the streets in search of entertainment for hours. Sun City was dull after sundown save for a few clubs that played the same drab bands and a few roughnecks who sold the same cheap beer for too high a cost. They screamed the Runaways' "Cherry Bomb" at the desert night till they were hoarse and growling and then they'd hit the highway to travel from their town to Gear City a forty-minute drive away. Gear City wasn't any more exciting but they had the Reservoir and where there was a reservoir there'd be drag. Webber Wild Girls loved only one thing more than girls and thrills and that was thrills and drag racing.

Oh. And a little bit of trouble.

So when they came upon the Gear City Reservoir just after the midnight and the spot was bumping, throbbing bass booming out of juiced-up car subwoofers, jumbled voices, engines growling, wheels squealing on the asphalt, they knew exactly what they'd stumbled on. And they wanted in.

"Yo Mickey, call T."

"Nnn, ain't she cooling it with her new missus lately." Mickey was always teasing Tremaine about her slightly older girlfriend, calling Zima 'cradle robber' and 'missus' like she was their English teacher instead of a freshman at the local community college. It was only funny 'cause Tré didn't mind it.

"Who cares, call her! Think we 'bout to need to some backup." The Thunderbirds, basically the Wild Girls of Gear City, had got real sharp-eyed when Phaedra flashed her high beam LED headlights from the reservoir high ground. Like maybe they didn't want company and knew what to do about it.

"If I get traumatized by another butt-dial, it's your fault." Tré had a habit of getting a little too caught up getting down with her latest girl and they'd all gotten a few FaceTime messages they could have done without. Phaedra shuddered. She loved her best friend with everything she had but she did not love seeing her topless.

Lucky for all concerned, the Thunderbirds were slow on the ground, just flashing their LEDs back at Phae and lighting up a bunch of foul-smelling clove e-cigarettes down below. They even stopped their dragging to see what Phae and her crew would do. She grinned into the dark. It's nice to be a celebrity. She loved her big reputation.

Tremaine Kilallen, her best friend and girls' volleyball co-captain was nothing if not good for a rumble. Not ten minutes later, the superpowered engine of her 1955 red Chrysler C 300s howled in the night, preceding her like a warning. She fishtailed from the main road to join Phaedra on the embankment. She'd brought reinforcements, a flotilla of leather-clad girls and and nonbinary badasses on motorcycles. Every skin color, every hair color, every shade of attitude on the high-octane color wheel. Phaedra bared her teeth. She loved her crew.

Tré rolled down her passenger window to catch Phae's attention. "You rang, Baby Phae?"

"You ready to party?"

Tremaine tossed back her sun-bleached blonde hair and laughed. "Just point me in the right direction!"

The game was so on.