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

Grease 2

Chapter Two

+

"If you're not here to ride, move it or lose it!" Mickey  shouted from the back of another Wild Girl's candy apple red Kawasaki. Stevie whooped and revved her engine while Mickey held on, weaving the bike in and out of the crowd of greasers and their wax-polished hot rods and spit-shining motorcycles assembled at the Gear City reservoir.  There were greasers from all around, from the city and their town to the west, to Axelwood to the south and Santa Violeta just over the state line. The Gear City Thunderbirds were holding court and the Wild Girls had issued a challenge. It was the last of the spring drag races—their call. It was go big or go home time.

Phae hopped off the hood of her car to confront her rival, the new leader of the Thunderbirds, Roshelle Dumas. Roshelle was thin as a rake and tall as an Amazon. She smelled like a new car and looked like a spooked cat. The height was a mirage hiding how small she felt inside.

"We doin' this or what," Phae asked the younger girl. "We called dibs. This is our town, our spot." Roshelle looked to her crew for reassurance. They were stone-faced. Roshelle scowled. "So no, we're not doing this. You can go."

Phae yawned. "And if I don't feel like it?" Her girlfriend was out of town and Phaedra was in the mood for trouble. Nothing boring about trouble.

Roshelle stood to her full, impressive height, her dark brown eyes flashing her anger like Mirse code. "I'll make you."

Phaedra buffed her glossy crimson  nails on her jeans, bored. "Will you?"

Roshelle squared up to her. "Yeah, I will. You wanna go."

"You don't want it with me, baby girl. Take your kindergarten crew and leave the fast lane for the fast girls. Final warning."

Roshelle bristled and hissed, "I don't see any fast girls. Why do you put up or fuck off."

Phae pretended to think it over. "Make me."

"What?"

"I said...make me since you're Miss Big and Bad. Make me leave."

Roshelle growled. 

"Or are you Thunderbirds all talk? On and off the court." Phae looked back at her crew, laughing. "Look at that."

"You want proof-" Roshelle interrupted, skewering the laughter at her gang's expense. She was shaking. Phae thought it was anger. She knew anger when she saw it in the mirror. "Let's drag. You and me, right now. Winner takes all. Loser fucks off."

Phaedra pulled her wavy brown hair up into a messy ponytai with the hairtie she always wore on her wrist. Luckily,  she came prepared. "Good thing I came to ride."

Roshelle  flipped her braid over her shoulder and inspected her red orange talon pedicure. "I hope you came  ready to lose too. I've been dying to beat you since last summer." Since Phae's against Roshelle's big sister had come with consequences Roshelle was still loving with.

"I can't wait to disappoint you."  Phae shooed her friends away from her car. "Meet you at the finish line.  Try not to choke on my dust."

"I ain't too worried about that,"said Roshelle, finally sounding sure. "But you should be."

Phae threw out an arm to keep Stevie from having a moment upside this girl's head. Stevie didn't need the third strike and Phae didn't have the spare change for bail.

"Anybody ever tell you you talk too much?"

"Anybody ever teach you and your crew some manners?" Roshelle sucked her teeth, dark brown eyes reflecting danger like caution signs. "You come on my turf, you better show respect."

Phae whistled. Bold as brass, this girl. Phae could almost admire that. "Respect is earned, baby girl. Ask me how I know."

"Thanks for the offer but I'll pass. I prefer to get my lessons from people who know what they're talking about."

"You talk a lotta trash for a queen with no cred."

"Let's go, then.  I don't mind taking yours since you ain't using it."

Stevie stepped up behind Phae, her hackles raised. "What's that supposed to be mean?"

Roshelle shrugged, a cocky smile tugging at her full lips. "Nothin'."

"Nah, you meant something by it. Why don't you woman up and say it loud? I'm listening. Y'all listening?" Her crew nodded, arms crossed, mean faces on high.

"Momma told me if I can't say nothing nice, I should keep my mouth shut." She let her shiny black-brown eyes drift over the Wild Girls assembled around Phaedra on her side of the reservoir. "Not a thing I can say 'bout y'all that's nice."

"You wanna go?" Stevie growled, popping her knuckles in warning.

Roshelle rolled her eyes, cutting a look to her friend with the ribbon-twisted pigtails and the trademark lollipop. Phae knew her, all attitude and a big mouth. Shit talk was her native tongue. "You know this one, Calisto?"

The girl swung her star-shaped lolly to the right. "Never seen her, never heard of her." The disdain in her voice told Phaedra otherwise. "You important, sis, or just self-important?"

Stevie stepped up, offended on Phae's behalf. "Bet you'll figure it out when I shove my self-important foot up- "

"That's enough, Stevie," Tremaine cut in. "We interrupted a private party. Our bad." She elbowed Phaedra, playing to their crowd. "Our bad, right?"

Phaedra grunted. Tré stayed acting to keep them out of lock-up when she wasn't causing the fights that got them banged up in the first place.  People believed the California surfer girl when they didn't believe the brown girl with devil-may-care smile. Reliable as sunrise and sunset. "Yeah. Sorry."

Roshelle didn't suffer lesser beings breathing her air, apparently. Too bad she was one of them from where Phae was standing.

Calisto cut her a dark look like she could read her mind.  "You done yet? Because I'm getting bored and y'all still haven't gotten to the point."

"Wow, okay. Yo, Dumas, do you race  or are you all talk? And I don't mean your sidekick. You."

"I race," she admitted though it sounded like a question.

"Prove it or lose it, newbie. I ain't got all night."

Roshelle exchanged a symphony of looks with her crew before she conceded. "Yeah, all right. Let's do this."

Buckle up, baby girl. You're in for a bumpy ride