Page 54 of Tandem

“What a stupid question. Of course, I want to come!” I got back to finishing the cleanup from spraying Jayden’s car as they walked up the stairs, pushing and shoving each other along the way.

Gosh, it reminded me of high school all over again, only better because we didn’t have to sit in class bored all day before having fun.

I thought they all went upstairs together until Jayden tapped my shoulder, making me jump.

“Yo, Rosalie.” I stopped and glanced over at him quizzically, still annoyed as hell at him. “I didn’t mean to come off like a dick. But just because we don’t hang out all the time anymore, doesn’t mean I don’t care about what you do and what happens to you.” I slowly smiled. So he was just worried about me.

“It’s okay. But you gotta promise me you won’t tell Mom and Dad how old AJ is, they’d freak.” Jayden laughed, it’d been a while since I heard it. “For real! Mom would probably flip the dining room table. Dad might take a tire iron to his back! It’s not that funny, Jay!” However, I knew that wasn’t true, the image ofmy parents freaking out was funny in my mind. I laughed with him as I followed him up the stairs. He slung his arm around my shoulders as we joked about dating older people and life.

Jayden looked around the room while all our friends watched us as we plopped down on the old couch. “Chill, guys, we made up. It’s fine. Now, back to stuffing your faces, idiots.” Everyone let out a sigh, and we all started talking and laughing.

CHAPTER 31

ROSALIE

After we had breakfast tacos,we pulled into the Flywheels warehouse. Following the incident with the guy in green this morning, I needed the adrenaline rush of drifting to shake off the nerves I had gotten from the encounter. As we pulled into the sidelines of the space, I looked out of my windshield.

Dad had taken down the old drift racing course to create a new practice course in the meantime. Leave it to him to always keep us on our toes. There was never a dull moment with him as my father, and he worked so hard. Not only did he own the customs and a dealership, but he still put hours of his time every week into Flywheels.

And Mom supported pretty much every crazy new idea Dad had. Except for him ever building a drag Beetle again, those were off-limits. One night, they were doing some heavy racing down by the LA River when someone started to drive down the wrong side. The racers were flying up, and they crashed into Dad. He was in a coma for two weeks and almost died. He should have died if you saw the photos of the wreck Dad had.

After that, Mom told him she didn’t care what he raced in as long as it was never a Beetle again. That didn’t stop Dad fromtrying to convince her to let him rebuild one every couple of years or so, much to her dismay.

I stepped out of the car and leaned against it, still looking around the warehouse. The walls had also been redone, giving street artists a place to do their art without the cops busting them, which was another thing Dad did. It also kept the place fresh in a way.

There was this awesome, huge mural of drag racers on the back wall featuring Dad’s old black-and-red Viper. I could hear the sounds of the engine roaring in my mind, and the lingering smell of burnt rubber and exhaust in the room never fully faded away. A smile crept onto my face. This life was literally the best.

I sat there, taking in the space and looking at each of my friends while we waited for Hank to show up. He had to make a stop in the city to pick up a few things for his dad’s ranch. He lived where the city met the desert, so he grew up with dirt bikes and four-wheelers, and his dad even owned a monster truck to play in the sand dunes with.

My eyes wandered to Freddie. He was the awkward nerd of the group. He would get all kinds of intense when it came to aerodynamics and slipstreams and such with racing, which was always a bunch of jumbled nonsense to me. I giggled to myself as he and Tyler were in a heated debate about the best JDM cars for drifting.

Tyler’s dad and my mom used to work together before Mom met my dad. Tyler, Hank, Jayden, and I grew up together, so we go way back. He was like another brother to me and had been there through a lot of tough times throughout my life.

“Dude, I’m telling you, there is no way you’re going to convince me that a Honda is better at drifting than my Subaru,” Tyler said as he threw his hand out toward his car. Freddie shook his head in reply with an irritated frown on his face as he groaned.

“I’m telling you there is a guy at the meets who has a decked-out Honda who would smoke your Subaru’s ass,” Freddie replied as he walked over toward me, Tyler hot on his heels. He looked around our group before speaking again.

Jayden walked over from his car after smoking a few drags on his blunt and leaned next to me against my car's hood. The smell of his cologne mixing with the sour smell of weed made my nose scrunch a bit. But it also reminded me of AJ, who always had a small hint of weed on his clothes, too.

Freddie cleared his throat as he came to a stop in front of us. “Can you guys believe we still all make drifting and racing a regular thing even after school?”

We all turned to him and then looked around at each other. I knew what he meant. I shifted from foot to foot. It was rare for friends to stick together like we did once college hit, especially since we had all gone in separate directions.

“Why would that have changed, man?” Tyler asked as he tucked his hands in his pants pockets, leaning back against his car, his face somber.

“I’m just saying, a lot of people after they graduate stop doing stuff like this together like they used to in high school. But not us,” Freddie said as he looked between us. He wasn’t upset anymore and almost had a hint of a smile on his face.

I ran my fingers through my hair, thinking about how to say what I felt in my heart as I looked at each and every one of them.

“I mean… We all love this, right? None of us went out of state to college or anything… and while we might be missing one of our original crew… I don’t ever want this to stop. I want us to always make at least one day a month a day where we get together, practice and race and have fun, and then get food after.” I felt my eyes water a bit as I imagined what life would be like without them. I couldn’t and wouldn’t keep that thought inmy mind. “You guys are literally like my family. So you have to say yes now. Family sticks together, right?”

We all started laughing in agreement. “She’s got a point,” Tyler said as he stretched and pushed off his car.

“Fuck, where is Hank at?” Freddie said, glancing at his watch. He tapped his foot, his energy needing a release just as badly as mine did.

Just then, Hank drove in with a loud backfire, and we all turned and waited for him to park. Hank hopped out of an old-school muscle car, a classic Mustang. “Yo, what’s up?” he mumbled.

“Just waiting on you, man,” Freddie stated as he dapped him up.