Downshift (Skid Row Kings #1)

by Winter Travers

All the driving around they did? Oh my God. Luke was with Ginny. Ginny was with Luke. The person who had made my life a living hell for four years was now dating the guy who I if I admitted, I had feelings for. I felt my stomach roll, and I got the same feeling I use to get when I would walk into school and saw Ginny standing by my locker, waiting for me.

  Recognition dawned in her eyes, and I knew she figured out who I was. “Violet Barnes?” she said with disgust.

  Luke looked over his shoulder at her, surprise on his face. “This has nothing to do with you, Ginny.”

  “Seriously, Luke. I can’t believe you let your sister hang around scum like Violet. I thought you were trying to better yourself, not hang out with trash.”

  And there was the final blow. My keys fell out of my hand, and my heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest. Luke and Frankie both turned to look at me, pity in their eyes, the same look I always saw when people looked at me in high school. They felt sorry for me, but they never helped. Ever.

  I bent over, grabbing my keys, tears blurring my vision, as I grasped them with a handful of dirt. I stumbled back to my car, a sob escaping my lips, and I knew it was only a matter of minutes before I lost it.

  I wretched my door open and fell into the car, stabbing the key into the ignition. I closed my door as I started the car and threw it into reverse. My wheels spun as I stomped down on the gas, gravel flying. The car lurched forward as I shifted into drive without waiting for the car to stop. I spun the steering wheel, fishtailing as my tires tried to grip the driveway.

  I thought I heard someone yell my name, but I didn’t care. Escape was my only thought. After all these years, Ginny Marco could still tear me down with just a couple of words. I dashed the tears out of my eyes trying to see the road.

  The sooner I got home, the sooner I could fall apart like I needed to.

  =_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=

  Chapter 8

  Luke

  “What the hell is your problem? I can’t believe you talked to her like that.”

  I had no idea what the hell just happened. I was so pissed off at Violet and Frankie for not telling me where they were going, and now I felt like the biggest douche in the world.

  “You don’t know her. She doesn’t have any family. How could you stand there and attack her when you have no idea who she is?”

  Tears were streaming down Frankie’s face, and I felt like an even bigger douche.

  Fuck.

  “All he did was tell that piece of trash the truth. She is nobody.”

  Frankie growled and flexed her fists at her side. I had never seen her be so protective of someone before. “I have no idea who the hell you are, but if you’re dating Luke, you deserve each other. You’re both assholes.” Frankie stormed into the office, banging the door shut behind her.

  “Hey, baby, don’t worry about those two,” Ginny said, coming up behind me and wrapping her arms around my waist. “I can make you feel real good,” she whispered into my ear.

  I pushed away from her and spun around. I had no idea what the hell I was thinking when I had agreed to go out on a date with her. “You need to leave.”

  “But you promised we would go on a date,” she pouted.

  “I did, but I was fucking stupid for agreeing to it. I don’t want to go out on a date with you. You may look good, but the way I just saw you treat Violet, I know you’re not someone I want to be with.”

  “You’re dumping me over that piece of trash,” she cried, outraged.

  “We weren’t anything to begin with, Ginny. I’m sorry I agreed to go out with you.” I walked around her, but she reached out, grabbing my arm.

  “Please, just give me a second chance,” she pleaded.

  I shook off her hand and stepped backward. “You don’t deserve a second chance, Ginny. You didn’t deserve the first chance I gave you.” I walked into the office, closing the door behind me.

  “What in the hell did you do to piss Frankie off?” Mitch asked, walking down the stairs.

  “Yeah, dude, she is fucking pissed off. I’ve never seen her slam doors and shit around like that before,” Kurt chimed in.

  I ran my hands over my head and closed my eyes. “Fuck,” I whispered.

  “Yeah, fuck is definitely the right word to use right now.”

  “I went to pick her up from the library, and she wasn’t there. She ended up going out to eat with Violet and didn’t tell me.”

  “Wait, so she saw you waiting for her to pick her up and she instead went with Violet?” Kurt asked, confused.

  “No, I was fifteen minutes late picking her up, so Violet told her she would give her a ride home but they stopped to eat first.”

  “And you’re pissed because…” Mitch waved his hands in front of him, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

  “Because she didn’t tell me where she was going. All she needed to do was send me a text letting me know where she was going, and it wouldn’t have been an issue.”

  “Yeah, but would you have gotten the text message? You already said that you were late to pick her up, what did you expect her to do? She got offered a ride from someone she knew. I think that’s better than expecting her to sit in a deserted parking lot waiting for you to remember to pick her up.”

  “It’s not my damn fault I forgot to pick her up!” I roared.

  “Then who’s fault was it? It’s not Frankie’s and it damn sure isn’t Violet’s. She was just trying to be nice. Should she have texted you, yes? But they didn’t because they figured you wouldn’t even realize they were gone.”

  Mitch walked over to the mini-fridge behind the front desk and grabbed three beers out. “There isn’t much to do, brother, besides apologize.”

  “I don’t think an apology is going to be enough with Violet. While I was out there talking to them, Ginny came out and called her a piece of trash and that she was scum.” I felt sick just remembering the look on Violet’s face at Ginny’s words.

  “Like Ginny Marco is some prize to be talking about people like that,” Kurt said, shaking his head. Ginny had been after Kurt for a while, but he had always turned her down.

  “So what the hell happened after that?” Mitch asked, popping the tops on the beers and handing them out.

  “Violet left, Frankie yelled at me, and I told Ginny to leave.” I grabbed the beer and took a long pull off of it.

  “Well, at least, you had enough common sense to tell Ginny to leave. What the hell were you thinking going out with her?”

  If I was honest with myself, one of the reasons I had said yes to Ginny was because I knew Violet didn’t like her. I had been thinking about Violet these past weeks, and I was pissed I couldn’t get her out of my head. “I wasn’t thinking.”

  “Looks like you made quite a mess you need to clean up, big brother,” Kurt snickered at me.

  I think that was an understatement. Not only did I have to get Frankie to forgive me, but I also had to somehow explain to Violet why I was such an ass. Let’s just say groveling and apologizing were not my strong suit.

  “I’d work on Frankie first. Just tell her you fucked up. She has to forgive you, you’re her brother.” Kurt finished off his beer and tossed it in the trash.

  “I’m more concerned about Violet. Maybe I should just let her be. I fucked up enough, I don’t need her to hate me even more.”

  “That’s an option,” Mitch agreed.

  “The question is, big brother, are you OK with Violet hating you?”

  “Touché,” Mitch murmured. They both headed out to the garage, leaving me alone to figure out what the hell I was going to do.

  How could I have been so wrong about Violet? When Ginny had talked to her, it was like I could see her just retreat into a ball and cower like a dog who had been beaten before. God dammit I had fucked up.

  I slowly walked up the stairs, trying to figure out what the hell I was going to say to Frankie. Yes, she should have called me, but I was also at fault. I had been so
good the past weeks picking her up on time, but with Street Wars only four days away, I was down to crunch time to get the car running the way it needed to be. I completely lost track of time and didn’t look at the clock until it was too late.

  As I passed the kitchen, I grabbed one of Frankie’s favorite grape sodas out of the fridge and figured this could be some kind of peace offering. I walked down the hallway, tempted to duck into my room and talk to her tomorrow, but I didn’t. The closer I got to her room, the louder I could hear her music playing. She was into the indie shit like Violet was. They really did have a lot in common.

  I knocked on the door and waited for a response. “Frankie, can you let me in?” I called.

  “Go away, Luke. I don’t want to talk to you right now.”

  “We need to talk, Frank. I messed up.”

  “Maybe you need to think before you speak next time. I can’t believe you said those things to Violet and then you let your damn girlfriend treat her like she was nothing.”

  “Can you please open the door so we can discuss this face to face.”

  I heard her get off the bed, and the door swung open. “I don’t have anything else to say. I always thought you were one of the good guys, Luke. A little too distracted by your car, but still good. You’ve proven what a jerk you are tonight.” She left the door open and walked over to her desk and turned her computer on.

  “I’m sorry, Frankie. I was just worried that I had no idea where you were. I was terrified you had started to walk home, and something happened to you.”

  “And whose fault would that have been if something happened to me? Yours. You wanted to have custody of me so bad when Mom and Dad died, but now you act like I’m just a nuisance.”

  “God dammit, Frankie,” I mumbled. I walked into her room and sat down on the bed. “I don’t think you’re a nuisance. I just seem to mess up a lot, and I don’t know how to fix it. I’m sorry I forget about picking you up, I don’t mean to. I have five alarms on my phone to go off when I need to pick you up, but today I left my phone on the counter out front while I was working on the Charger, and I didn’t hear it.”

  “Whatever, Luke. There’s always an excuse.”

  “Frankie, I swear on my life I will try to do better and never forget to pick you up again. I know it must feel like I don’t care about you when I forget to pick you up, but that’s not the case. I’m just a fucking idiot sometimes.”

  ‘More like a jerk,” she mumbled under her breath. “I can’t believe you talked to Violet that way. I don’t know why the hell you would think that about her.” Frankie whirled around, her arms crossed over her chest, glaring at me.

  “I wasn’t thinking. I just… that’s just the vibe I picked up from her.”

  “How the hell would you get a vibe from her in the five minutes you’ve been around her.”

  “I’ve been around her more than that, Frankie. When her car broke down, remember? Well, we went out to eat after the store. It was just the way she talked about things that made me feel like she felt she was better than us.”

  “You’re so wrong about her, Luke.” She sat down in the computer chair and spun around. “I don’t really have anyone to talk to anymore, not since Mom died. It was nice just to have Violet around to talk to.”

  I figured that was why Frankie and Violet got along so well. “I’m going to talk to her.”

  “She’s not going to talk to you. Did you see her when she left? Your stupid girlfriend landed the final punch when she called her scum. I doubt I’ll ever see Violet again.”

  “Ginny is not my girlfriend. We were just going to go on a date. I never should have agreed to it in the first place. I always thought she was an evil bitch, and I was right.” I laid back on Frankie’s bed and put my arms behind my head. “I really fucked up with Vi, Frankie.”

  “You know you’re the only one who calls her that?”

  I looked at Frankie and smiled. “I did it to annoy her before.”

  Frankie laughed, and I was thankful she didn’t seem so pissed at me anymore. “I really hope she lets you talk to her, Luke. All she’s really seen from you is jerkiness. I know that’s not you, though.”

  I really wasn’t a jerk. I mean, I was a definite hard ass, but not a jerk. It was just that the first time I had met Vi, she just came off as bitchy. But maybe that was just her shyness that I took the wrong way. “I need to run the car after work tomorrow. I’m going to have Mitch pick you up from the library. I’m going to talk to Vi when she gets out of work tomorrow.”

  “I hope you don’t mess it up anymore, Luke.”

  I laid my head back down and stared up at the ceiling.

  Me too.

  =_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=

  Chapter 9

  Violet

  Three bowls of chunky monkey ice cream, a bag of Twizzlers, and four chocolate chip cookies sat in the pit of my stomach, making me regret every bite. “Oh God,” I moaned, tipping over on the couch. “Why did I eat all of that?”

  I had decided to take a personal day from work and gorge myself on every shitty thing I could find in my fridge and cabinets. It was a successful gorging at the time, but now it was sitting like a lead balloon. “Need to get up, move around,” I mumbled. This was another weird thing about me. I tended to talk to myself when I was alone, which was quite often.

  I rolled off the couch and stood up, hunched over. It was a quarter to seven, and I hadn’t left the couch all day except to get more food. I was still in my purple pajamas with yellow bunnies all over them and my fluffy white slippers. My personal day had turned into a wallowing in self-pity day.

  Once I stood up straight, I didn’t feel like I was going to explode, but I was still very full.

  I had woken up this morning with swollen puffy eyes, and the feeling of my heart ripped out. I kept playing over and over in my mind the things that Luke had said to me.

  I had never in all of my life thought that I was better than anyone. And the whole family comment confused me even more. When had I ever said that family meant nothing to me? Sure, I didn’t have any family left except for a stray aunt or uncle here or there in different states, but I still knew and felt that family was the most important thing in life. I envied the fact that Luke had two brothers and Frankie. I had always begged for a brother or sister when I was younger, but my parents decided that one was enough. When they had died, I felt the pain of not having a sibling even more because I had no one left.

  I walked into the kitchen and dropped a K-cup into the coffee machine and filled the reserve with water. I grabbed my favorite cup down from the cabinet, stuck it under the spout and hit the power button. I wasn’t going to discuss how many cups of coffee I had today. It was way more than a human should consume. I apparently went on a food and coffee binge today.

  Here I was, twenty-seven years old and I was still eating my feelings away about something that had happened to me in high school. Some things just never changed.

  Ginny Marco had made my life a living hell from the age of thirteen to eighteen. I never understood why she picked me out of the whole school to humiliate and bully. Yes, I was overweight in high school, but was that really a reason to be a raging bitch to someone?

  There were so many things that Ginny had done to me it was hard to remember them all. A big dousy she had done to me one time was pull my pants down in front of the whole school. Yes, I was pantsed, and it is even more humiliating than you think. I could still hear everyone laughing at me as I struggled to pull them up and run out of the gym at the same time.

  The coffeemaker clicked on, and the nectar of the gods began to flow out. Sweet, sweet, coffee.

  Just as the cup filled to the top, there was a pounding on my door. Who the hell would be coming to my house? I never had visitors besides the very few occurrences that Mr. Bernard had made the trek up the stairs.

  I walked to the door and listened, trying to figure out who the hell would be at my door. I peeked through the peephole and ju
mped back. “What the ever living fuck was Luke doing here?” I whispered.

  “Vi, it’s me. Open the door. I need to talk to you.” I shook my head no, unable to talk.

  Luke was the last person I expected to see on the other side of my door. He had very distinctly told me last night what he thought about me. There wasn’t anything left to say.

  He knocked again and tried the door handle. Thankfully I had remembered to lock the damn thing this morning when I had ducked out to get my newspaper.

  I slowly crept back over to the door, careful not to make a sound and put my face back up to the peephole.

  Damn Luke looked good today. He apparently was not wallowing in self-pity as I was. He had both hands braced on the door, leaning on it. He was looking directly into the peephole, and I could swear it was like he could see me.

  “Vi, I’m really sorry about Ginny and the things I said to you yesterday. I wasn’t thinking straight. I was worried that something had happened to Frankie.”

  Well, I guess I could understand that, but did he really have to say what he did and then let his girlfriend attack me? “That’s no reason to talk to me like that. You don’t even know me Luke, but yet you basically told me I was the worst person you’ve ever known.”

  “I’m sorry, Vi. I don’t know what else to say. I really messed everything up with Frankie and you. Can I please come in so I don’t have to stand in the hallway looking like I’m talking to your door?”

  Uh, shit. I looked down at my clothes and knew there was no way in hell that Luke was coming in with me looking like this. “I’m not dressed.”

  “It’s seven o’clock at night. Are you in bed or something?”

  Um, more like in the middle of wallowing in self-pity. “I just got out of the shower.”

  He looked down at the watch on his wrist and shook his head. “I have to be on the track in an hour. You think you could be ready in fifteen minutes?”

  Ready? Ready for what? “Um, what exactly am I supposed to be ready for?”

  “I thought maybe you could watch me run the car a couple of times and then we could get dinner.”