Revved & Reckless – By R. Snow #2
“Dammit. The whole side of the bumper was damaged. I don’t know if I can get it fixed before the car meet,” I mumbled to myself as I ran my hands over what was once my beautiful, perfect condition 2017 BMW F10 550i. I had sold my original Subaru recently in order to afford it and to upgrade it.
“Okay, so like I said, insurance. NOW!” Avery demanded behind me.
“Nah, like I said, you are at fault. I’m not paying for your car.
Besides, it’s not like Daddy doesn’t have enough money to cover it.
I’m sure you could roll out of the lot today with a new one if you wanted.
” I knew I was throwing shit in her face, but as I glanced back over at my car and saw the damage again, I didn’t care.
“For your information, I haven’t used my parents’ money once since I moved out and landed my job. So no, my dad can’t just ‘bail me out’ of this. So just exchange insurance cards, admit you
were wrong for once in your life, and we can part ways. Then we can go back to never talking to each other again.” Avery flipped her hair over her shoulder and exhaled loudly, clearly exasperated with this conversation.
My brow twitched in annoyance. Avery used to be kind of cool in high school, and then after a dance she turned into a total bitch toward me and I never knew why. I didn’t have time to give a shit about it, either.
Fuck it.
I handed her my insurance card, and she gave me hers in return. Fifteen minutes later, I gave her back her card after I hung up my phone with my insurance company. “There, now get out of my way. I need to get shit done, and this has already wasted enough of my time.”
She rolled her eyes and handed me back my card. “Whatever. Goodbye, Tyler. Try not to hit anyone else on your way home, but the way you drive? Fat chance of that happening.” With that, she went and sat back in her car.
I shrugged as I tucked my insurance card back into my wallet and walked inside the store. I told them I needed to get some paints before I checked out. But just as I was reaching for the last paint color I needed, my hand brushed against a slender and soft hand.
“Excuse me.”
Her voice washed over me, and my heart thudded in my chest. Why did it keep doing that? “Oh, no, you have got to be kidding me. Not you again.”
I glanced into the brown eyes of Avery once more, and my lips were mere inches from hers. A familiar sense washed over me, but as she jerked her body away from mine, it disappeared.
I kept my eyes on her as I reached back down for the paint color, grabbed two cans, and held one out to her. “Here, hopefully you don’t need more than one.”
She eyed me warily, and then took the can from my hand. “Whatever.” With that, she turned on her heel and stomped away down the aisle of the store.
“What’s her major malfunction?” I muttered under my breath. I shrugged it off and made my way to the checkout. She wasn’t up there as I paid for the supplies, and when I walked back to my car with my arms full of everything Kayden needed me to pick up, I glanced around.
She must have already left.
I made my way back to the custom shop, where Kayden walked over as I parked up and I saw him visibly wince when he saw the damage on my car. I got out to start unloading my car into one of the empty mechanic bays.
“I know it looks bad but it’s still drivable, so I don’t think anything major is damaged,” I said as I stood next to him while he ran his hand around the broken bumper.
“Dang, that’s a shame. I can try to get a new bumper in before the meet, but it might not get here in time,” Kayden said, as he stood back up straight and turned to me.
“Hey, even if it doesn’t, I still really appreciate it. Do you need any other help?” I asked Kayden, as I showed him where everything was.
“Well, if you’re handy with some tools that aren’t for cars, it would be great if you could assemble this frame so AJ can swing by tonight and start painting the backdrop.
The kicker is that it just had to be easy to disassemble as well, so I made sure the plans had all that info on them.
Think you got that covered?” Kayden asked as he pointed out the tools and wood supplies near us.
“Yeah, I can do that. It will probably take most of the afternoon. Is that okay?” I asked as I looked over the plans on the bench he had pointed out.
“Yep! I intentionally didn’t book people for this bay so we had it available for this project. Go crazy, and lunch is on me today. I’ll order those parts for you as well,” Kayden said.
I nodded as he strolled around the corner and up the loft stairs to his office.
Time to get to work. I followed the instructions and constructed the frame.
This type of work wasn’t something I did often, but how hard was it to follow some plans and use a few power tools?
Turns out, it was harder than it seemed as lunch came and went and Kayden ended up sending his mechanic Reece
to help me finish it up. The extra pair of hands made the work faster, and we erected the giant mural space before the shop closed. Now it was ready for painting.
“Alright, thanks a lot, Tyler. I’ll see you in a few days for the set up day, if you are still down to come the day before the event?” Kayden asked as we walked out of the custom shop.
“Works for me. What time should I show up?”
“I think a bunch of us are getting there around 8 a.m., so I’ll see you bright and early.
” Kayden gave me a handshake before walking over to his black Dodge Viper with its bold red stripe.
I drove home, going as easy as possible to not damage my car anymore.
I just hoped the part would arrive in time because I really wanted to bring this car.
THE MORNING BEFORE THE EVENT
By the time I had gotten there, a full crew of Flywheels members were bustling around the parking lot of the Hollywood Bowl Amphitheater. I made my way over to where Kayden was instructing a couple of guys setting up stage equipment and gave a wave.
“Hey, give me two seconds, guys. I’ll be right back.
” He walked away from them and over toward me.
“Glad you could make it. If you don’t mind helping AJ and Reese set up the backdrop that’s going to go behind the stage, that would be great.
It’s going on a couple of supports. Be careful, we don’t want to scratch the art now,” Kayden said as he gestured over to where Rosalie’s boyfriend, AJ, and Reese were moving giant pieces of wood around.
“I’ll get right on it.” I jogged over and helped Reese pick up the end he was carrying. AJ could definitely outlift both of us. The guy worked out every damn day.
We worked in silence until we had the entire frame reassembled, then it was time to hang up the pieces that were painted.
“Yo, don’t fuck it up,” AJ said as he lifted one side, with Reese on the other. “Make sure you screw in the right spots.”
I nodded and got up on the ladder, carefully screwing into the pre-drilled holes to attach the panels to the wood frame.
An hour later we had finished, and damn, it was cool.
AJ had spray painted Flywheels in big bold lettering across it and somehow squeezed in cars of all kinds around the word.
He might not be the most sociable guy, but he had some artistic talents, just like Rosalie did.
I have to admit, as different as they were from one another, they kind of made the perfect pair.
“Hey, Tyler! If you’re done with that, do you mind going towards the gates and seeing if they need any help? We were a little short-handed up there this morning,” Kayden shouted at me as he passed by, giving us the thumbs up on the backdrop.
“Yeah, no problem. I’ll go there now.” I walked up towards the front gates, and as I approached, I could hear a commotion going on. Voices argued loudly, and one of them sounded weirdly familiar. As I rounded the corner, I felt annoyance creeping through my limbs as my heart beat faster.
Not her again.
I stopped in my tracks when I saw that same red-headed firecracker raising hell in front of my eyes.
“Oh great, just what I need, another clueless idiot to get in my way,” Avery said as she rolled her eyes.
Be chill. Just find out what’s going on and where you can help, I thought as I moved in closer.
“What’s the problem?” I asked as I glanced around the area. She was standing in front of her broken car, which was full to the brim of items from the back seat to the front passenger seat.
“I’ll tell you what the problem is. These guys say I’m not on the Early Access list when, clearly, I’m here to set up a space. So they just need to get out of my way and let me go and do my job before I get yelled at by my boss,” Avery said as she swung her arm back towards her car.
“You’re really not on it though, and we’ve been told not to let anybody in that’s not on the list. If you have an issue with it, you should probably call your boss.” One of the guys said to her as I came to a stop next to the group.
These dudes have a death wish. If only they knew the headache this girl could give you.
I remembered some instances in school when Avery would do shit to people in school who just really pissed her off.
The best one was when she stole the clothes of the entire football team while they were in the showers and tossed them all around the bleachers.
So they were all hanging out in towels while the janitor had to go out and gather it all up, which took a couple of hours.
“Orrr, here’s an even better idea! You can just let me drive in!
You’ll be able to see me clearly park by my boss to set up our space for the benefit right there.
I don’t see what the issue is? You’re wasting my time, you’re wasting your time, and now you’re wasting this idiot’s time.
” She crossed her arms across her chest and glared at the guy with the list.