Hot Laps

by Shey Stahl

  I sent a few emails out, to which those intended individuals then called me.

  Tell me something here. When you send an email, you expect an email back in return—or at least I do, right?

  This bullshit where they then call you is unacceptable to me. I want to say, “Hey, asshole, I sent you a fucking email because I didn’t want to hear your annoying voice! Just reply back to it.”

  But I didn’t. I needed this job. I bit my fucking tongue. This office shit was really hard work.

  So they called, I was nice and eventually I was able to get back to the more important aspects of my day, like figuring out my plans for tonight.

  Around four, I was counting down the minutes until four thirty when I could leave and just about the time I did, I stood up intending to run home, take a few drinks from the keg in my room and head to the party with Anna. I really needed to relax after today.

  Just as I was intending to leave, there, in my cubicle was the dirty talking engine builder all smirks and sexy hair.

  Gah!

  “Where you off to in such a hurry?” he asked, his voice low and smooth. He looked tired and quite frankly, even sexier as he fought to keep his eyes open.

  “You look tired. I thought by all your dirty engine talking you had endurance?”

  Casten squinted tipping his head to one side. His hand came up as he ran his thumb back and forth over his bottom lip before a smirk appeared. “I am by no means ready for tonight to end.”

  I smiled thinking of our dirty talking earlier and his smirk now.

  His eyes softened. “And where is it you’re off to?”

  I leaned against the side of my desk and pretended to fix my boot. I only did this to draw his attention toward my legs. They were a “deal-sealing” asset of mine from all the years of trying to out run cops.

  “I’m actually heading home to change and then heading off to a party down town.” And then I thought about the Saran wrap on my car and the box knife on my desk. I picked it up and he smiled backing and holding his hands up.

  “Easy there. I was just curious.”

  “Oh, I wasn’t going to shank you or anything. Those assholes over at JAR Racing wrapped my car in Saran wrap.”

  Naturally, he laughed. “Oh, go easy on them. They do it to everyone. If it makes you feel better, I pissed in Tommy’s gas tank before he left,” he said this as though this sort of thing happened all the time. I had no doubt it did.

  Casten smiled, again, his eyes rose from the deal-sealing legs and set some paper work on my desk.

  Oh, he came up here to give me the supply orders. Damn.

  Secretly, I was a little crushed he didn’t just venture up here for the sake of me and my winning personality that had so captivated him earlier. Regardless, he was talking to me though. That right there was a win-win.

  “So this party … you going alone?” he asked with a mischievous smirk.

  “I’m going with my friend, Anna. I’m not sure where it’s at.”

  “Mooresville is a small town. I bet I know that party.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  He too leaned against the side of my desk appearing just as comfortable as he had been with me earlier today. “Well, that depends…” he began. “Where is this party at exactly?”

  Rummaging through my bag, I looked down at my phone to the text Anna sent with the address.

  “9 Victory Lane?”

  His smile widened. “Well, I suppose I’ve heard of the party, after all … it’s my house.”

  Well shit.

  Ladies and gentlemen, tonight just got real fucking interesting.

  Instantly I tried to think of what I should wear. It’s not every day you go to a party at Casten Riley’s house.

  And just like always, I think he heard my internal thoughts.

  Just as he turned to walk back downstairs, he stopped and ran his hand over the back of his neck. “You shouldn’t change. You look great.”

  Skinny jeans and knee high boots it is.

  “Are your friends going to be there? Are they annoying?” I asked, trying to appear imperturbable to his ways.

  “Are you?” he asked me back, straight-faced.

  “Are my friends going? Anna is.”

  “No, I’m asking if you’re annoying.”

  “Well, why would you ask that, asshole?” I acted offended, giving him a glare, and shoving his shoulder back.

  Did nothing. He only laughed. “You asked me.” His hand came up rubbing his shoulder.

  We started to walk towards the door and I sighed looking out at my car.

  “Good luck with that. Hope you make it to the party.”

  Yeah, he didn’t help me cut my way into my Saran wrapped piece of shit car. It took me forty-nine minutes to pull that shit off, and you wanna know where I left it?

  The bathroom at JAR Racing. Filled every toilet with that shit. Someone around here had to clean the bathrooms and it wasn’t me.

  Word around the shop was that the bathroom attendant was whoever lost a bet the week before.

  As I was leaving, I thought of Jameson. Probably because of all his sprint cars in the show room in which I had to walk past to get to the parking lot. “If he invites you to a party, say no.”

  Morally, one would make the decision not to go, right?

  Morally I wasn’t all there. So that decision was fairly simple on my part.

  Wheelstand – A term used in sprint car racing when the front tires come off the ground.

  The last time I threw a party at my parent’s house, it got out of control pretty fast. It started when Lane tried to jump over a fire jump and then it just spiraled out of control from there fast. Mostly because we almost burned down there house.

  But tonight, I was fairly confident this wasn’t going to happen. We had a controlled area for the bonfire and I had hoses on hand should anything get out of control.

  The world knew about that party where the field caught on fire because the video was still on YouTube, thanks to Noah.

  This time we weren’t allowing fucking cameras.

  I had some years on me now and I think I learned what not to do in regards to the party scene.

  “You take that GoPro and shove it up your ass, Cole.” I said to him when I noticed he had one in his hand. Stupid jerk was always videotaping everything.

  “Your parents have security cameras, Casten.” He snapped, irritated. Whenever anyone said anything about his cameras, he took offense. I get it, I do. It’s his thing. He’s really good at it. But his thing has got us in more trouble than I care to think about.

  Shit. Security cameras.

  Nathan, my buddy over at Leddy Motorsports down the street from us, was a pro at that electronic shit. We had that handled. I knew he could disconnect them.

  When he got to the house about seven, I asked him who all he invited.

  He shrugged. “I only invited a couple girls. Anna and Jessica.”

  “I don’t know them.”

  “Who’d you invite?” Nathan hugged Rosa when she walked by, she slapped his ass, something she did to all my friends.

  “No one. Oh, well, Zoey might come but she never said yes or no.” Then I remembered Hayden. “And that new girl from the shop is coming, too.”

  Nathan grinned taking a drink from a beer Rosa handed him. “You fishin’ in the pussy pond at work?”

  “Nah.”

  I roamed the house after Nathan got there and soon after Noah showed up with all the food. We loaded up on junk food and Rosa was now in the kitchen cooking some appetizers for us. Who knew she could actually cook.

  She also supplied the beer for us. No doubt my parents wouldn’t be pleased if they knew Rosa bought us beer but what they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them. It’s not like they haven’t bought it for me a time or two either. I remember getting drunk with my dad when I was only sixteen.

  It’s all about responsibility.

  Yeah, I lacked that for the most part, but usually I nev
er drink and drive.

  “Hey man,” Noah held his keys up in the air. “I’m going to pick up the jelly.”

  I smiled thinking of how that was going to work out. We still didn’t have an exact plan but the goal was to fill the pool with jelly and try to walk across it should it be thick enough.

  It was nearing the time when everyone was about to arrive and when I couldn’t find Cole I went looking for him.

  I wanted to ignore it, but Cole was getting into some harder drugs on occasions and I wasn’t okay with that…especially in my parent’s house.

  When I saw him in the bathroom off the kitchen doing a line of what looked to be cocaine, I had something to say about it. “That shit is for losers, man.”

  It wasn’t the first time I caught him and it probably wouldn’t be the last. I wasn’t okay with him doing it around me. I wanted no part of that shit. Like most kids, I experimented with drugs on occasion but I never kept with the heavy shit. Cole was taking it to the next level and I had a feeling if his mother found out, Cole would be in deep shit. He was petrified of Aunt Alley – as most of us were.

  Cole laughed it off, sniffing and flicking his nose with his thumb but didn’t say anymore and pushed past me to the kitchen.

  “Where’s Charlie?” he asked, looking around for him.

  “At the ER.” I stood next to Rosa in the kitchen tasting everything as she made it. My favorite was the bacon wrapped halibut she always made. Tasted like heaven!

  “What happened?” Rosa seemed concerned, looking to me for an answer.

  “We put spray adhesive on his tools last night and thought they’d stick when he picked them up, or at least be hard to put down.” Rosa smiled knowing where this was going. “But, it didn’t do anything but make his tools look textured so Willie put gorilla glue on a few to see what would happen.”

  “And it got stuck?”

  “He seriously could not get it off.” I popped another bacon wrapped halibut bite in my mouth, chewing slowly. “So now he’s at the hospital.”

  “Poor guy.”

  “Uh, Rosa, two weeks ago Charlie put Kool-Aid packets in your shoes.” I looked down at her green feet. “Your feet are still green.”

  She thought about that for a minute and then glared straight ahead at nothing in particular. “That fucker.”

  Cole and I sat there eating everything Rosa made before she finally gave up and told us there would be nothing left for the party if we ate it all. Didn’t matter to us.

  My thoughts drifted to Hayden and those jeans she wore today. Then I thought about the engine terms I was telling her about. I laughed out loud when I thought about it to which Cole and Rosa looked curiously at me.

  “What’s so funny?” Cole asked.

  “Nothing.”

  I wasn’t sure how tonight would end with Hayden, maybe in my bed, maybe not. I wasn’t planning on it but if it happened, I wouldn’t stop it. Dad had warned me not to sleep with anyone at work because it caused problems.

  And while I’d avoided Olivia for two years now, Hayden was different. She was a lot like me and I dug that.

  But, I wasn’t into sleeping with girls while we were drunk and I had a good feeling tonight we’d both be really drunk. Personally, I think it took away from the experience when you’re drunk and I cared for Hayden. I didn’t want to just treat her like some kind of toy. She was more than that and I knew it right away.

  Then I thought, what if she doesn’t even come tonight.

  The thought depressed me a little and I felt like I was in some kind of wheelstand, controlled by stagger, until I heard the doorbell.

  High Line – This refers to a driver taking the high line, usually the fastest in some cases, and passing cars to do so.

  Those next few hours were probably the most nerve racking hours of my life. I drank six beers, told Adam to go fuck himself for using my toothbrush again and then headed to the party where I met up with Anna on the street. She was late, as usual, getting off work and then she had to pick me up because some of that Saran wrap got under the hood and melted to my engine. Now when I started the car it looked like I was doing burnouts.

  I was feeling something on the way there. I was anxious believe it or not.

  Casten lived about thirty minutes from me and on the way there I got nervous.

  “So what’s with this guy Casten?”

  “What do you mean?” she looked at me, watching my reaction.

  “Who is he?” she turned down a long paved road that was unmarked. Looking at her phone, she tried to make sure she was going down the right road but had no service. “What the fuck is this place?”

  All around us were overgrown grass and thick trees that came up over the road. The sun had set and it made it spooky.

  “This better not be like that movie The House On The Left.”

  My eyes shot to hers with panic. “Don’t say shit like that. You know I hate scary movies.”

  Just about the time I was gonna tell her to turn around, I wasn’t wanting to find out the ending to that particular horror movie, as I was certain I was playing the leading role now.

  As far as I was now concerned, we could go find beer at my place, we came to a security gate about twelve feet tall. It was mahogany wood with polished steel hinges that shined against the headlights of Anna’s 4Runner and had stainless checkered flags crossed in the center. To the left was a black box with a button on it. Surrounding the property was a stone muddy brown wall just as tall as the gate with well-maintained landscaping. Even from the street, it was beautiful and visibly something that should have been on the cover of one of those home and garden magazines.

  We sat there waiting. “Is Batman going to come out?” Anna asked, smiling.

  “No. Batman stays hidden. Alfred does.”

  “Your knowledge of comics scares me sometimes.”

  Just as we began to argue, the gate made a buzzing sound and then started to open.

  We gave each other an apprehensive glance. “Is this the point of no return?”

  “I think we reached that long before.”

  Anna pulled forward and the gates closed behind us. “This is like the time we met up with those hockey players.”

  “How so?”

  “I don’t know. Just similar.”

  She’s referring to the time we were in Charlotte and met up with a few members of the Carolina Hurricanes and did shots of whiskey with them. Their right wing was one hell of a good time that night and knew how to do a slap shot.

  Ah, the memories.

  Anna glanced at me when we pulled up to another long driveway that was marked 9 Victory Lane and had checkered flags in stone on the entrance.

  “Who is this guy again? I know who Noah and Charlie are but how are they related to this guy?”

  “Cousins.” Everywhere I looked, there was beautiful detailed landscaping and trees. Lots of them. “This is Casten’s dad’s house.”

  “That engine builder you work with?”

  “Yes, him.”

  “Is he hot?”

  “Naturally.” I gave her a smile.

  When he got to the door, I had to laugh. Earlier today Olivia warned me that ordinarily Casten walked around half dressed. Now was where I found this statement to be true for Cole too.

  He opened the door before we had the chance to knock. Wearing a pair of khaki shorts, flips flops and a white CST hat, he was all smiles.

  “Hello, pretty ladies.”

  Anna stopped, looked at me and then back to Cole. “Please tell me he’s single?” she slowly looked over at me. “Please! Pretty please?”

  “You’d have to ask him that,” I gave Anna a slanting gaze. “I only met him on Tuesday.”

  “I’m Cole Riley.” He said reaching for Anna’s hand after shuffling his beer to the other hand.

  “Well, shit on a shingle, you know this guy?” she reached for his hand and refused to let it go. I wondered if she was going to take a bite out of him or something. It w
ouldn’t have surprised me one bit.

  “Again, Anna,” I started laughing. “I wouldn’t say I know him, we just met Tuesday. I work with him.”

  Casten appeared at the door wearing no shirt as well. They didn’t wear clothes around here much.

  Not overly muscular, he had just enough to catch my eye. He definitely worked out.

  He had a few tattoos, stars on his hips and the numbers 00 across his chest. I could see he had a nipple ring that I thought was sexy as hell. When he turned to the side, I could see a checkered flag on his shoulder with a number four and a race car. Below it was the words Beast from the East.

  “Hey there, sugar,” he remarked with a smile, mocking our first encounter. “Glad’ya could make it.”

  Anna slapped the side of my head. “If you don’t fuck him, I’ll take him and his cousin.”

  While I stood there squinting at the pain of just being ear slapped, Cole laughed.

  “In that case, by all means, come inside.” Cole said, eagerly eyeing Anna.

  She giggled following close beside him as he led her away.

  Casten, who was still looking at me, chuckled.

  “They seem comfortable?” Just as he spoke the word comfortable, Anna and Cole were comparing nipple rings. Cole, well, he seemed comfortable I brought a friend with me.

  Tonight should be interesting.

  I mingled and I lingered. Close to Casten that was. He was busy entertaining his guests, which happened to be about thirty people. Most of which I had no idea who they were but I knew Casten, and then Noah but Charlie wasn’t around. After that, couldn’t tell you who any of them were and didn’t really give a shit though. I later found out Charlie was at the hospital having a wrench removed from his hand.

  I met Casten’s mom again. Who turned out to be their housekeeper, Rosa.

  She cooked the best quesadillas I’ve ever had.

  “My kids grew up on these,” she said and then started speaking Spanish. “Tiene hijos?”

  “What? Are you Mexican?”

  “Yeah, I’m from Ensenada.”