Rebel With A Cause

by Ashleigh Neame

“Piss off, freak,” she said in a bored tone. “I’m not interested in you. You know that.”

  “Doesn’t change the fact that we had so much fun together,” he replied cheekily. “And I know you loved it.”

  Kaitlyn scowled as she remembered all those hot nights with Marcus. She had felt so guilty because she was in love with Carter, and they had never officially broken up, but she had no choice. Carter had lost her to Marcus, fair and square.

  “Shall I make everyone bet their girls again?” Marcus whispered intimately in her ear. “I know you’re just dying for some attention.”

  Kaitlyn looked down at the ground as her face coloured in shame. Marcus was right. Carter was always hot and cold with her, and deep down she knew that he would prefer sleeping around. She was better off without him.

  Kaitlyn loved Carter, and wanted to make him happy, but her heart would break every time he looked at another girl.

  “Carter gives me attention,” she snapped angrily.

  “Really?” Marcus’ tone suggested that he knew she was lying. His arms withdrew from around her body and she shivered. “You know where to find me, Katie,” he said, before disappearing into the crowd.

  Carter’s voice came from her left. “What’d he want?”

  Kaitlyn sighed and looked to where Carter was approaching. “Just making the same offer as always,” she said wearily.

  “What offer?”

  “He told me to leave you for him.”

  Carter snorted. “Yeah right, as if that would actually happen. He can’t seriously think girls prefer him over me?”

  Kaitlyn looked at Carter and stared blankly at him. She knew Carter was a ladies man, and cocky, but she didn’t realise he was this arrogant.

  “What?” he snapped, noticing her staring at him. She looked away and shook her head.

  “Don’t worry,” she said. “So, how much is it tonight?”

  “Eleven grand,” Carter replied.

  Kaitlyn gasped. “Eleven?!”

  Carter shrugged, like it was no big deal. “Yeah, eleven G’s. Might throw in some cars or girls again, spice it up a bit.”

  “Isn’t eleven G’s already spicy enough?”

  Carter laughed. “No way. Where’s the risk in that? Eleven grand is tame as! Twenty, now that is spicy. Fifty is even spicier. Might go for fifty if you’re so set against the girls and cars ideas.”

  Kaitlyn sighed. Carter was playing with her, yet again. He knew she wasn’t keen on him betting large sums of his money, especially against Marcus.

  “Ok, girls it is,” she conceded.

  Carter grinned and kissed her cheek. “Love you, Katie.”

  Kaitlyn just rolled her eyes. It really wasn’t worth commenting on. She’d said it all already, and he’d never paid any attention to her before.

  “Ok, guys,” the race marshal said. “Hand over your money and your girls. This isn’t a winner chooses lottery. This is all or nothing.”

  Kaitlyn watched as Carter handed over his eleven grand. That was money that he could have saved, or added to his sixty grand house deposit stash.

  The marshal looked at her. “Kaitlyn, do the honours?” he asked her.

  Kaitlyn nodded curtly and got into position. She watched as the racers got into their cars and started their engines. She saw Marcus wink at her, and Carter’s look of fierce determination.

  Maybe it wasn’t just the money that made him do this. Maybe it was the pride of being the best.

  Or maybe it was just the attention.

  Pulling her hair out of its high ponytail, she shook it out and fluffed it up with her fingers. Carter didn’t even notice, but that wasn’t the point. She wanted to distract the other racers.

  Raising her arms above her head, the newbies revved their engines. It was a common newbie mistake, and chances were high that they would have a bad start.

  Carter’s car blew steam out from the undercarriage, a modification that Kaitlyn had watched him install. Marcus switched on his flashing party lights. Now those were kind of tacky.

  “Ready…” Kaitlyn yelled. She paused for effect. “GO!” she screamed.

  The boys floored it, streaming past Kaitlyn and making a hell of a roar. She turned around and smirked. Carter and Marcus were nowhere to be seen, and one of the new guys had just blown out his engine. Another was just about to lose control of his car.

  Such were the perils of street racing.

  “So, Carter bet you again?” the marshal, Arthur, a.k.a T-Man, asked her.

  “Yeah,” Kaitlyn replied nonchalantly, acting like it was no big deal. “But I really don’t care. I’m getting sick of him anyway.”

  T-Man chuckled. “I should think so. He thinks he’s God’s gift to women.”

  “Not bloody likely,” she scoffed. “Girls only like him because of his rep.”

  “And you don’t?”

  “He was nicer when he was a newbie.”

  “Yeah,” T-Man said quietly after a pause. “They all are.” He grabbed her hand and dragged her over to the sidelines, where they waited with the other girls, his arm never leaving her shoulders.

  What Kaitlyn didn’t know was that Carter was having an internal dilemma.

  He was really into Kaitlyn, and anyone who wanted to hurt her needed the lights punched out of them, but he was getting sick of her. She never left his place, although he knew her house was way nicer.

  Although she put up with his hot and cold moments.

  But he wanted a night off from their relationship. Was that so wrong?

  For years, he’d been a player. Since he was fourteen, it had been a different girl every night. That was four long years of sleeping around. Kaitlyn was his first serious relationship.

  And he didn’t know how to handle it.

  So, selfishly, he considered losing on purpose. There was one girl in his neighbourhood who had been eyeing him up recently, and he quite liked the look of her. If he lost Kaitlyn, that would get rid of her for a night, and allow him to hook up with that girl.

  Only, Kaitlyn would belong to someone else for a night, and he couldn’t trust that someone not to hurt her. There was also the fact that he would lose eleven grand, too. What was a guy to do?

  Fifteen minutes later, Kaitlyn watched Marcus and Carter slide around the corner. Their tyres squealed on the road. She watched as they drifted and revved their engines, mentally blocking out the sound of the crowd. She saw the grin on Marcus’ face, and the scowl on Carter’s.

  They were less than one hundred meters from the finishing line, and time seemed to slow as she watched them come to the finish. She held her breath nervously, waiting for someone to cross the finish line.

  She couldn’t breathe. She felt nauseous. Whoever won the race determined who she went home with tonight.

  Please, she prayed silently. Please, let him win.

  Chapter 2

  Carter won, just as Kaitlyn had hoped. “Yes!” she screamed, jumping up and down. She hugged T-Man tightly then ran over to her boyfriend, who was getting out of his car. She jumped at him and wrapped her legs around his waist, kissing him full on the mouth.

  “Well, this is surprising,” Carter whispered after breaking the kiss. “I don’t think I’ve seen you like this in a long time.”

  Kaitlyn shrugged happily. “I’m proud of you,” she said. “And I just wanted to let all those girls know who you belong to.”

  Carter smirked and she climbed down from around his waist.

  “I almost forgot,” he said wonderingly. “I won, so I get all of the girls now.”

  She snorted. “Like you’d ever forget that little detail, Carter.”

  She grabbed his hand and walked over to T-Man, who was busy trying to control the angry losers of the race.

  “T-Man, can we grab the loot and go?” she asked casually. The other racers growled at her use of the term ‘loot’.

  “Yeah, Katie, in a sec. I’ll take you home in my car,” he replied.

  “No, she can come
home with me,” a deep, accented voice announced.

  “Not fucking likely,” Carter growled. “She’s mine, not yours.”

  Kaitlyn turned around, only to see Carter scowling at Marcus, and Marcus casually leaning against his car and smiling. He looked like he didn’t care that he’d just lost his piece of arm candy to his rival.

  “Oh, but she is,” Marcus replied easily. “You see, unlike you, I actually pay attention to her. When we were together, I paid attention to her, and didn’t even look at another girl. Unlike you.”

  Carter was unconsciously clenching his hands tighter and tighter, until Kaitlyn was forced to unclench them for him.

  “Relax,” she said. “He’s just winding you up.”

  Marcus sighed. “I really wish that were true, but for the first few days, you complained non-stop about this douchebag, and how he wasn’t a good boyfriend. He made you cry, you said.”

  “Shut it, Marcus,” she snapped. “My life is none of your business.”

  “And yet Carter is so willing to cheat on you…”

  She saw red at that. Angrily, she launched herself at Marcus and slapped him, leaving a hard red handprint clearly outlined on his cheek.

  “Wow,” T-Man said, his mouth gaping. “And I thought the guys had it bad. You have some real anger issues, Katie.”

  “Sorry,” she said tiredly. “I just get sick of him and his snobby comments. I’m so over it.”

  He shook his head. “Whatever. I’ll take you home. Carter, enjoy your loot.”

  Carter wouldn’t even look at Kaitlyn as he walked over to his car. He was brooding. He wouldn’t tell anyone, but the things Marcus had implied were true. Carter only paid attention to Kaitlyn when he wanted something.

  She deserved better than that.

  “So, this is awkward, huh?” T-Man asked Kaitlyn as they were cruising along the South Auckland streets.

  “Really? Hadn’t noticed.” She really was overdoing the sarcasm tonight.

  T-Man laughed. “Sorry. So are you going back to Carter’s place tonight?”

  She shook her head. “No way. He wants a night off, he’s got one. And so have I.”

  T-Man looked at Kaitlyn uneasily. “Are you sure? You know how possessive Carter is of you.”

  “I don’t care. Can you drop me off at Marcus’ place please?”

  “Why?”

  “Because,” she sighed. “It’d be nice to have some attention once in a while.”

  “Katie?” Marcus said in surprise. “What are you doing here?” He casually leaned against the door he had just opened a few seconds ago.

  “Uh, can I come in?” she asked nervously.

  “Sure.” Marcus pulled the door open wider for her, and she entered the familiar brick and tile abode.

  “You want a coke, or a milo or something?” he asked her, leading her into the kitchen.

  “Uh, you got chai latte still?”

  “Sure.” Marcus busied himself making drinks for them both, while Kaitlyn jumped up on a bar stool.

  “So what brings you here?” he asked. “I thought you hated me.”

  She sighed. “I don’t hate you. However my parents hate me because of Carter, and they’re really cracking down on me. They won’t let me go anywhere now. So, I was going to go and stay with Carter but now he’s got all of those girls with him…”

  “So, you want to stay here?”

  “Just for tonight, if that’s ok,” she said, taking the hot drink from his hands and sipping quietly.

  “Sure,” he said. “But you know, if you left Carter, you could go home to your parents and be a normal teenager.”

  She shook her head. “I love Carter. But sometimes, I wish he was a normal boyfriend.”

  “Katie, you have to realise that Carter will never be a normal boyfriend. He’s been a player for too long.”

  Kaitlyn shot him a dirty look. “And how would you know?”

  “I know the type. My older brother, Brady, is the same. But then he screwed with the wrong girl and now he’s in Mount Eden Prison for grievous bodily harm.”

  “Grievous bodily harm? Really?”

  Marcus nodded. “He was in love with this girl called Alison, and they were having an affair. Except the girl had a boyfriend and he was so jealous and angry he went after Brady and the rest is history.”

  “Aren’t you afraid of the same thing happening to you?”

  Marcus smiled tightly. “No, I’m not. Because I know that Carter, however much he tells himself he does, he doesn’t really love you. Not in the way that he thinks he does.”

  “That made…no sense,” Kaitlyn replied, staring into her chai latte.

  “Sorry. Anyway, my point is, if Carter really, truly loved you, he wouldn’t want anyone else. And he would be beyond murderous when he lost you.”

  “So you think Carter doesn’t really love me?”

  Marcus looked pityingly at Kaitlyn. “Sweetie, I know he doesn’t.”

  At eight thirty, her phone alarm went off, signalling the beginning of the school day. Angrily, she switched the alarm off and looked around. Abruptly, she realised that she wasn’t in her own bedroom, or even at Carters. Where was she?

  “Katie?”

  She rolled over and saw a half-naked, half Asian hunk lying next to her, with sleepy brown eyes and tousled brown hair. Marcus, she realised.

  “What am I doing here?”

  “You don’t remember? Look down.”

  Kaitlyn looked down to see herself in Marcus’ shirt, and not much else.

  “What exactly happened last night?”

  “What do you think?”

  Kaitlyn started to panic. “We didn’t – we didn’t sleep together last night, did we?”

  Marcus smirked. “You were begging for it.”

  “Oh no.” Her face coloured in shame. “Oh my god.”

  Marcus stopped smiling and gathered Kaitlyn into his arms. “Relax, Katie,” he soothed. “You had a little rant about Carter, said if he got a night off, why couldn’t you?”

  “So we did?”

  “We did. But don’t worry; I know it was just a one night thing.”

  She breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank god.” She moved away and collected her clothes from the night before. She quickly got dressed in Marcus’ en suite bathroom and came out to find him nowhere in sight. She did, however, hear the shuffling of pots and pans coming from the kitchen.

  “Marcus?” she called. “What are you doing?”

  “Making breakfast!” he yelled back. “Is eggs ok with you?”

  Kaitlyn smiled. She knew he was being sarcastic. When they had been together, Marcus had learned that eggs in any form were her favourite. He’d make them at least three times a week for breakfast, right after they’d had a really steamy night, and sometimes just because he wanted to.

  “Eggs are fine,” she said, walking into the kitchen. “Hey, can you drop me off at Carter’s place afterwards?”

  Marcus looked up suspiciously. “Why?”

  Kaitlyn rolled her eyes. “Because I need to get to school, and all my stuff is there. Plus, he’ll probably still be asleep or screwing around, so he won’t need his car.”

  Marcus smirked. “You’re going to steal his car? What a naughty little girl you are.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I’m not little. I’m seventeen fucking years old. But anyway, will you?”

  Marcus smiled. “Sure Katie. And you come back soon, you hear me? You look like you need some pampering.”

  Fifteen minutes later, Marcus was dropping her off outside Carter’s rented flat, with a disgusted look for the house and a sweet smile for Kaitlyn.

  “Good luck,” he said, before driving off. Kaitlyn turned around and despairingly walked inside, hoping that Carter was not screwing a girl in his bedroom, where her stuff was.

  Luckily for her, however, Carter was passed out on the sofa. Unfortunately, he was just in his boxers, and there was a tall, tanned, big breasted, blonde bimbo in
nothing but her knickers and Carter’s shirt, asleep on top of him. Carter never let her sleep like that.

  Sighing, she made her way to his bedroom, suddenly wishing that she wasn’t with Carter anymore. Ignoring the rest of Carter’s house, she walked straight to his bedroom, and changed into her school uniform. She let her red-brown hair fall loose around her shoulders and slashed on her eye make-up. That was enough for the school day.

  Silently laughing, Kaitlyn went into the lounge and grabbed Carter’s car keys out of his jeans pocket. She then left his house, not bothering to lock it behind her. There was nothing worth stealing anyway.

  She arrived at Rosehill College about half an hour later, with ten minutes to spare before class. She pulled Carter’s Evo into a parking space and switched off the engine.

  Here we go again, she thought tiredly. Another life to live.

  The truth was, Kaitlyn hated school. Just like any teenager, really. But she didn’t see the point in it. She was immersed in the world of street racing, and she didn’t need an education, or even a job. Street racers made heaps of money, and she was the hottest girl in the circuit. She could land another racer easily.

  So, instead of heading to class, Kaitlyn texted her friends to meet her on the bottom field, where none of the teachers would see them.

  It was the perfect way to spend the day, really.

  Seven hours later, school was finally over, and Kaitlyn had successfully managed to wrangle her way out of five of her six classes. She was grinning to herself as she walked to the car, but her grin faltered when she saw Carter leaning against it.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked, unlocking the car and throwing her backpack on the backseat.

  Carter shrugged. “Just wondered where my car had got to.”

  She didn’t even bother rolling her eyes. It was such a Carter thing to say.

  “So, can I have my keys back?” Carter asked, holding his hand out for them. Sighing, Kaitlyn handed them back. She really didn’t have a choice.

  “So, why didn’t you come home last night?”

  Kaitlyn ignored him and got in the car. Carter’s mouth flattened into a grim line and he followed suit. As soon as the car was running, he locked the doors and began the long drive home. After five minutes, he asked her again, “Why didn’t you come home last night?”