Page 16 of Maddox
What gives?
“So, I can’t concentrate right now. Doctor’s orders,” she says while I fantasize about wringing her neck.
“Which doctor?” I rasp, rubbing my forehead.
Is she playing with me? Why?
It’s not like she didn’t go out of her way to pick me up and bring me all the way out here.
“All of them,” she says with a shrug. “Whatever. It’s Friday. I can take you home, or we can go party…?”
“Me?” I blurt and she looks around like a complete asshole.
“Who else?” she barks, and I shrug, glancing at my nails.
They used to be buffed and painted in pretty, pale hues. Now my fingers are chapped from the bleach water at work and the cuticles are growing like weeds.
Do I want to party with her? I admit, I’m curious.
Frankly, I’m looking for a distraction from my life and she’s the only one who doesn’t remind me of the past.
Visions of going home and moldering in that tiny room cross my mind as my phone buzzes against my ass.
Babe, where r u?
Babe…
I’m sorry
I also don’t want to spend the evening reading Micah’s messages because there’s a part of me that still yearns for the familiar. I can’t go back down that road but sometimes I want so freaking badly to be that girl again.
“Fine,” I say, and she pushes back from the table.
With a last glance at my backpack and the knowledge that I should be focusing on my homework, I push the brutal burn of guilt aside and follow her back out to the car.
Once we’re inside, I glance her way while she glares at her phone. “What?”
“Nothing,” she says, dropping it into the console before starting the vehicle.
The pretty Camaro rumbles when she revs the engine, and I stare at the passing scenery as she pulls onto the highway.
I’m probably going to regret this but whatever, if it means escaping the shit constantly swirling around in my head, I’ll take a few more hours of Draven’s mercurial moods.
When Draven heads the opposite direction of town though, I turn to her and ask, “Where are we going?”
“Tracks,” she grunts, and I eye her sideways.
What the hell does that mean?
Before I can ask though, she says, “It’s down by the old park. Buncha dudes go around the track and whoever gets their first win’s money.”
Huh. How have I never heard of this place before?
Oh right, I was hanging with my friends who wouldn’t be caught dead doing shit like that.
It’s not far though and when she turns down a road sandwiched between a group of trees, I lean forward.
Up ahead, I see a series of flashing lights. Once we get closer, I confirm that they’re headlights.
