Chapter 20 – Jasper
“No!” Lars states as I walk in the garage, “I am not dealing with you if you have that smug look on your face.”
“Hey,” I reply.
“Actually, does this mean you got laid last night?” Lars asks.
“I am not answering that,” I reply, pretending to walk away.
“I’m taking that as a yes. Which is good news for me. That means Otis is going to be slower on the corners.”
“Lars, I’m going to have to burst your bubble, but Otis has requested that we stop our late-night games when there is a race.”
“Seriously,” Lars exclaims. “He’s going to be unstoppable.”
“Don’t you think he needs all the help today?”
“Yes, but…” Lars starts, “it’s only fifth place.”
“But he should have been on pole. That gearbox change pushed him down the pack and now he’s going to have to push harder. This also means that he is going to be exhausted tonight.”
“So you aren’t concerned about his race today, but more by the fact that you won’t be able to get laid tonight,” Lars states with a smile.
“I am not answering that,” I reply.
“That’s it. I am needed by the car,” Lars states, and is still shaking his head as he walks away.
“What was that about?” Otis says, coming over to me.
“Lars is complaining that you didn’t get laid last night, which started because I came in smiling,” I tell him.
“You have been smiling a lot the last few days,” Otis adds with a grin of his own, but I see him looking around the garage. There are minimal people here at the moment, but in ten minutes this place will be a hive of activity.
“Well I am happy,” I confirm.
“Me too,” Otis whispers. “See you after the race.”
“Please, for the love of God be safe out there. You don’t need to do anything stupid. You are still up in the points and leading the championship.”
Otis doesn’t reply, just gives me a smile and walks over to his side of the garage, and I leave shaking my head.
That man is really going to be the death of me, but God, I love him, and now he is going to be living with me.
When I called Kimber the next day to tell her, she had screamed down the line.
The hug that she gave Otis on Friday almost stopped him from racing, and just as we thought, she and Lizzie got on like a house on fire.
“So where are we watching lover boy’s race today?” Kimber asks, coming over to me.
“Everyone will be in the garage,” I say over to her.
“And you?” Kimber asks.
“I will be there too,” I tell her.
“Really?” Kimber says, and I can see that she’s trying not to laugh. Kimber, like Lizzie, knows how much I hate watching Otis race.
“I have had to get used to being in there. I managed to avoid it a few times but then my excuses dried up and I had no option but to join the team. I just stay at the back.”
“Oh Jasper,” Kimber replies, but she is full on laughing now.
“I know,” I groan.
“At least I’m here and you have Lizzie too. We can hold your hands,” Kimber says.
“I’m glad that you’re here,” I say, pulling her into a hug.
“Does Lizzie know about Otis moving in?” Kimber asks.
“Yes I do,” comes Lizzie’s voice behind me, and we both turn in that direction, “And I couldn’t be happier. Well I could be happier but that’s another matter.”
“Oh no you don’t, Lizzie. You need to finish that sentence,” Kimber states.
“Actually no, Lizzie you don’t,” I say over to her.
“I’ll tell you later, Kimber. Maybe we can come up with a plan,” Lizzie states, giving Kimber a wink.
“We should never have introduced the pair of you,” I say over to them, and try to ignore how the pair of them are laughing.
“I think Kimber and I meeting was inevitable. We are family,” Lizzie states. “But look, the race is about to start. We need to get into the garage.”
The three of us move to the back of the garage, and I watch as the team pulls out chairs and lines them up where the car was only minutes ago, facing a tv screen. We all watch as the cars race around the track, getting into formation and building the heat in the tyres.
“This is going to be a good race,” David says, coming over and standing next to me.
“So I keep getting told,” I mumble back to him. “I would’ve preferred him to be at the front of the grid and not three rows back.”
“Otis being at the front is just plain boring. He would just pull ahead and that would be it. At least with him having five cars in front of him, we get to watch him overtake cars. Really race,” David says.
“Fun for you. Torture for me.”
“You would’ve thought that after all this time you would’ve gotten used to seeing Otis hurtling around a track,” David adds, and I’m starting to think that he’s enjoying my discomfort.
“You’re enjoying this way too much,” I retort.
“I personally see this as payback for all the times you have picked on me recently,” comes David’s reply.
“When you two have quite finished. They are about to set off,” Lizzie says over to us.
Both David and I turn to the screen as we watch the lights appear one by one on the gantry, until there are five and then they vanish and the race starts.
Lars has a brilliant start, pulling ahead of the pack, before he gets to the first corner.
I’m trying to spot Otis’s car, but the TV footage is only showing the front cars.
“Otis got a good start,” David says. “Looks like he’s getting ahead of the car next to him.”
“David, I don’t need a live commentary, thank you,” I state, taking my eyes off the TV monitor to look at David.
“Oh shit,” Someone at the front of the garage shouts.
Looking back at the screen I see a car flipped upside down, travelling down the track before hitting a patch of gravel at turn one.
The halo snaps off, causing the car to flip over several times.
Then just when I think that the tyre barrier at the edge of the track will stop the car, it doesn’t.
The car flips into the air one more time and lands behind the tyre wall, lodging between the tyres and a wire fence.
“Whose car is that?” I demand.
“Jasper.” I hear a voice behind me, but at the moment I couldn’t tell you who it was as I keep watching the screen, as the TV commentary starts a replay, and I no longer need to know whose car it is.
Otis.
“Jasper,” the voice starts again, “The race has been red flagged.”
I know that the race being red flagged is serious, but I can’t answer them. All I can do is watch the TV screen. The crash is on replay. Being shown from every angle. It looks like just as Otis was pulling forward, another car swerved and hit his back wheel. That caused Otis’s car to flip.
“Jasper,” the voice comes again.
“What?” I snap, and see that it's Kimber talking to me.
“You and Lizzie need to get moving.”
“I need to make sure that he’s okay,” I say back to her.
“You don’t need to do that here,” Kimber retorts.
I know that Kimber is right. That I need to get moving. That I need to be there for Lizzie. But all I can do is watch the TV screens. I need to know that Otis is okay. That he’s alive. But at the moment there is no movement from the car.
“Jasper.” And when I turn, I see Lizzie standing there, and it’s like she has aged ten years, in just a matter of minutes.
“He will be okay, Lizzie,” I tell her. “He has to be okay.”
“But he was upside down,” Lizzie adds.
“I know.” I need to give her more reassurance than ‘I know’ but I have no idea what to say.
“Jasper, Lizzie,” And this time it’s David’s voice that is calling us, “Come, I will get you to the medical centre. Otis will be taken there.”
“I can’t,” I state. “There is no reason for me to be there.” Not sure why these are the words that come out of my month.
“Jasper, please come with me,” Lizzie asks, “I can’t be there alone.”
I open my mouth to argue again, but I see the fear in her eyes and know that there is no way I’m going to let Lizzie go there alone.
I need to be strong, but the fear that was so clear in Lizzie’s eyes is flowing freely in my veins.
David survived his crash, Otis can survive this, right?
But the halo. The halo is supposed to be there to protect his head and it snapped off.
Otis travelled upside down in gravel. What the hell damage could that have done?
What am I going to do if I lose him? I thought the pain of what Clive did was the worst I had ever felt, oh how wrong I was.
This is worse. The thought that the man I love, more than I ever thought I could love someone, is hurt or even dead is crippling.
“Jasper, come on,” Lizzie states, and I feel her hand on my arm.
“I can’t,” I whisper to her. “What if…” But I can’t finish that sentence. Can’t allow my words to come out of my mouth.
“We need to move,” Lizzie replies, giving my arm a gentle tug to get me moving, but I notice that Lizzie doesn’t respond to my words.
“You go. I will stay with the team,” I say over to her.
Lizzie takes a step closer to me, “Jasper, you will fucking come with me. I know you’re scared. So am I, but that is your boyfriend. He needs you there. Hell, I need you there.” Her words are quiet but firm.
“But…” I start but deep down there is nothing that I can say.
“Lizzie, if you would like to come with me,” a voice behind her says.
“I would like Jasper to come with me, if that’s okay,” Lizzie states. “I would like a friend close by.”
“Of course,” comes the voice, and I know that there is no way that I’m going to be able to get out of this. When I look up to the voice, it belongs to someone I don’t recognise. Where’s David?
Looking around the garage, I take in all the worried looks, but can’t see David.
No one is rushing about. No one is moving.
They are all just looking at the screens.
I know that I should look myself. That I need to try and get an update of what is going on, but I can’t.
I am just too scared to see what is going on.
“Jasper,” Lizzie says my name gently. I turn to face her, and she gives me a small smile.