“Nothing, Blake. It was nothing.” I grabbed his arm to turn him away. Blake was almost nineteen and I knew he would get in trouble if he got into a fight with Hunter, who was only seventeen.
“No, Tayia. I want this piece of shit to tell me to my face what he was asking you to do.” He stalked forward and chest bumped Hunter.
“Blake! Enough!” I cried while pulling on the sleeve of his T-shirt with all my might, but my fingers slipped, and suddenly, I was smashed between Blake and Hunter as they glared at each other. “It’s okay. Nothing happened.”
“What’s going on out here?” a male voice boomed and I looked up to see it was the gym teacher, Coach Daley. “Jones? Is that you?” Coach said as he recognized Blake. “What are you doing out here?”
Blake didn’t answer and took a step back as Hunter also distanced himself. Coach Daley gave a confused look between both boys and then his gaze rested on me.
“Tayia? What’s going on? Are you okay?”
“Yes.” It was the only answer I could manage.
“Hmph.” Coach Daley frowned. “Well, get back inside or go home. Jones, you graduated last year, so you need p
ermission to be on school grounds.”
“It’s all right, Coach. I’m leaving,” Blake muttered as he grabbed my hand, throwing Hunter a hard glare as he pulled me along with him to the parking lot.
“Tayia?” Jonna shouted from somewhere behind me.
“I’m okay,” I yelled over my shoulder as I let Blake lead me away.
As soon as we were in the car, Blake mashed on the accelerator and we sped off in a screech of tires. When the school was no longer in sight, I turned to him.
“Blake?” I spoke his name in the calmest voice I could manage. I knew him well enough to know it was best to not agitate him more when he was angry. He didn’t get mad very often, but he was hell on wheels when he did.
“Blake?” I tried again.
“Just give me a minute, okay?” He took in several deep breaths as the car started to slow to a more moderate speed. “I can’t believe that fuckin’ guy.” He pounded a fist against the steering wheel. “I knew you were too good for him.”
“Is it true?” I asked quietly.
“Is what true?”
“What Hunter said. Do people think I’m a lesb—”
“What? No! Hell no! Don’t let him feed you that bullshit. You did the right thing.” I nodded although my stomach felt queasy. We rode in silence as I contemplated what Hunter had suggested. I was going to be seventeen in a few weeks and I’d never had a boyfriend. Boys used to ask me out but, I never said yes. I just never wanted to. Eventually, boys stopped talking to me. Hunter was the first guy in over a year to even show interest.
Blake had come to a stop at the streetlight when a car pulled up next to us. I turned my head and instantly recognize Hunter’s black Corvette. When he revved the engine, I knew he was trying to bait Blake into racing.
“Look at this dumb fuck,” Blake grumbled with irritation and shot a quick glance to his right. Hunter sneered back as he stuck up his middle finger. Under the glow of the street lamp I could see that his cheek was still bright red from where I slapped him. When the light turned green, Hunter floored the gas and Blake let him pass by. When we got to the second light, Hunter was waiting for us. Again, he revved the engine, not giving up.
“How long is he going to keep doing that?” I asked while glaring at the Corvette.
“Until I race him. He’s got more horsepower than me and he knows it.”
“Too bad for him this town only has two stoplights.” When the light changed to green, Hunter took off at a more conservative speed, but still made sure to pull ahead of us. When we reached a winding two-lane road, Hunter slowed down forcing Blake to slam hard on the breaks to avoid colliding into the Corvette’s bumper.
“Fuck!” Blake shouted as I screamed and gripped the seat cushion. “Put your seat belt on.”
“What?” I looked down and realized my seat belt wasn’t fastened. “Uh, okay. What are you going to do?” I asked as I secured myself with a click.
“Drive around his ass.”
I gulped and tightened my fingers around the belt. It felt like we were slowing down though I had no idea why. When Hunter realized we were no longer on his tail, his brake lights lit up. The next thing I knew, Blake whipped the steering wheel to the left and shifted gears. Fast as lightning, we were coming up beside the Corvette. Hunter mashed the gas as we approached. Blake shifted again as we sped up until we were about a half a car length behind. Both cars flew through the night on either side of the double yellow line.
“Oh, he’s scared now. Look at him. Yeah, motherfucker!” Blake howled, anger and adrenaline taking over. By the look of things, Hunter was giving it everything he had, as was Blake. However, the Corvette was much more powerful than the Nova. We were coming up on our turn and Blake began to let up off the gas.