Page 13 of Tandem

Can we meet in like an hour? I’m still at work, too.

I sighed. “Ughhhh.. half days aren’t so fun if no one else can do anything,” I said out loud to no one but myself. I sat down on the couch, tucking my legs under me, and watched some random TV show for a little bit until my phone lit up again.

Freddie

There is a car meet in Venice Beach, right off Speedway close to the gym, if you guys are all down?

Rosalie

Heck yes! I’ll take my Viper through the car wash on my way!

Jayden

I’m already here.

Tyler

Yo, I’ll be there around the same time as you Rosalie, going to do the same thing.

Hank

You think they’ll mind if I show up in my work clothes?

Rosalie

No Hank, unless you’re covered in mud again and try to touch someone’s car then they might break your fingers lol!

Hank

THAT WAS ONE TIME. It wasn’t even that nice of a truck, anyway.

Rosalie

Sure sure. Anyway, I’ll catch you guys there!

And thirty minutes and one ultra-package car wash later, I was rolling into the parking lot where a pretty decent little car meet was happening. I looked around as I slowly rolled my car down the row, at least forty cars deep. I kept going down the line until I found a space and parked in it. I grabbed a microfiber cloth and wiped a few remaining water droplets off of my Viper, smiling as I admired my car and then looked around at the few cars next to me while I waited for the others to show up.

I waved at Jayden, who was leaning against his car, his hand in the back pocket of a girl wearing tight leather pants and a dark brown cropped leather jacket, who also looked to be at least in her mid-twenties. God, Mom would be pissed if she saw that, and the temptation to snap a photo for sibling blackmail did cross my mind, but I decided against it since he had been so nice to me lately.

Tyler pulled up right next to me in his silver-painted Subaru, and I smiled as he parked, getting out of his car. “What’s up, Rosalie? The Viper’s looking nice.”

I gave him a quick side hug. “Thanks! Just waiting for the rest of the guys. How have you been?”

Tyler stretched his arms in the air and yawned a bit, cracking his neck with a groan. “You know, work keeps me busy. My uncle is so annoying sometimes. I don’t need him to act like a dad just because mine died. Shit, sorry!”

He smacks his forehead with his hand, and I laugh a bit. “It’s fine, Tyler. You guys really don’t have to tiptoe around me anymore. Stevie has been gone for over a month now. I’m okay. Really.”

He stared at me, then smiled a bit. “Okay, sorry. It’s been hard to know what to say to you. I know you were probably the one person kind of close to him besides Freddie. And that boy is always down, so there really wasn’t anything to change around him. I’ll knock it off now.”

I gave his arm a playful punch. “Good! Because I’m not a delicate little flower, and if you keep acting like I am, I’m going to smoke you in the next race and prove to you how stupid you are.”

He laughed loudly, making a few people look over at us. Even Jayden broke off his make-out session to glance over, raising an eyebrow at me. I just waved at him, and soon after, Hank and Freddie rolled in around the same time as each other as we stood there chatting a bit more.

Freddie got out of his car and walked over to us. “Hey, guys.”

I smiled at him when I felt a heavy muscular arm almost knock me over as it landed on my shoulders. “You miss me?” Hank said next to my ear. Well, it was more of a borderline yell, but Hank just always talked loudly. We all began to stroll down the row of cars together.

We paused to watch two completely crazy JDMs roll into the meet. Hank started to laugh, but I thought they were super cool. Giant exhausts stood up from the back, one with a lightning bolt shape and the other with a dual exhaust that was bent to look like a heart. I walked over to them as they parked.