Painted Lines (7 page)

“Huh?”

“Every
time I turn around there is a camera on me, and a camera man staring at my ass,
so thought I would remove their viewing pleasure today.”

“Okay,
then,” he muttered then went out the door, I followed behind, ready to work.

Once
outside, I found Liam sitting astride his bike waiting for us.  “Did we wake up
in the 90s?” he quipped I just flipped him off and climbed on to Stella.

We
hit our marks and waited for Eddie to come and tell us what we were doing
today, though I had an idea.

“Today
you will be finishing up the pedal cars, reassembling them; you have five hours
to complete them.”

Then
we were on our way. We found our cart in our stall with the parts I had painted
yesterday fully dried.  I went over checking everything making sure it all came
out okay.

“Damn,
Scout,” Kale said staring at the painted pieces, “nice work.”

“Thanks,”
I said going to get my paints and brushes, “not finished yet.”

“What
do you have left?” asked Simon.

“Pin
striping the body, and the steering wheel.”

He
nodded, “Okay, then let’s get what we can assembled and ready.”

I
went to work pin striping the sides of the car, the hood, and the trunk in a
fun design.  Then applying the same design only smaller to the steering wheel,
once I had finished with the steering wheel, the body was done we began to get
it all put back together.

“I
was a little nervous when I saw the neon pink vinyl for the seat,” Liam
admitted staring at the finished product, “but against the black on black color
scheme and hot pink pin striping, it looks bad ass, Harper Lee.”

“You
didn’t do half bad yourself,” I said looking over the car, and noticing all the
mechanics had been cleaned, fixed, and in some instances remade.

“I
love the flat black, and glossy black detail work. Liam is right the pink works
for it,” said Simon.

I
nodded, it did work.  I don’t know why they ever doubted me.

“We
all did good work,” I stated, “now let’s clean up.”

All
three groaned but helped me get the place cleaned up for the day. We had
roughly fifteen minutes left before the day was over, and I was happy with how
it went together so easily.  Now I was ready to go home and get some sleep.

Chapter
12

The
next morning we headed out to the garage. I knew they would be judging the
winner today, and I was nervous.  I wasn’t nervous about losing, I wasn’t
nervous about being sent home today, but what I was nervous about was facing my
father at the judges table.

We
did our normal line up listening to Eddie’s speech about how today was judgment
day, that the usual four judges would be there, and about an additional guest
judge.  I smiled at who the guest judge would be.  One, Micah Peele would be
our guest judge, a premier custom painter.  Micah and I had worked together a
few times, he was a sweet guy, who had taught me a lot, and I looked forward to
seeing him again.  After Eddie was finished, we were set free to wait for them
to set things up.

I
opened my eyes quickly and found Thayne and a buddy slouching against the wall
beside me. It was his teammate’s hand that had brushed against me.  I watched
as his fingers stretched out and brushed me again.  I scowled in their
direction and hopped off the tires.

“Scout,”
Thayne said and I glared at him, “hey what did I do?”

“Nothing,”
I grumbled.

“Uh
huh,” he said doubtfully, “you ready for today.”

“Yeah,
I’m ready for today,” I answered and watched his friend walk off scowling at
me, what was his problem? “You ready?”

“Yeah,
we’re as ready as we’re going to be.”

Huh,
I thought. “Okay,” I said and turned to walk away, he quickly got into step
with me.

“So,
Scout that’s a unique name.”

“Yeah.”

“Come
on, Scout, we have to work together, might as well make the best of it.”

I
bit my lip and looked up at him; he seemed sincere. “You’re right.”

He
let out a breath giving me a half smile “So then your name?”

“My
mom named me and my brother after her favorite authors.”

“So
then you’re named after Harper Lee?”

I
glanced in his direction a little surprised he knew that. “Yeah.”

“What’s
your brother’s name?”

I
laughed. “Uhm, well, we call him Cas, as in Caspian because he hates his name.”

“So
C.S. Lewis huh, I don’t know what the initials mean though.”

I
looked over at him and smirked, “Clive Staples.”

“Oh
fuck that’s harsh, damn, the poor guy.”

“He
was always called Cas or Caspian so he wasn’t picked on as much as he could
have been.”

“Well
he lucked out.”

“Thayne
isn’t exactly normal you know.”

He
bit his lip and that was when I noticed the lip ring he was playing with, I
couldn’t seem to take my eyes off it as he popped it in and out of his mouth.

“It’s
a family name.”

I
made a noise not really sure what it was since I couldn’t seem to get my body
to agree with my brain. My brain was screaming at me to run, and run fast, but
my body, my eyes were glued to that lip ring that kept flashing at me.  I
didn’t usually care much for guys with facial hair, but on him it worked,
outlining his square handsome jawline.  We made it to my stall and I pulled out
the key they had given me earlier to open it up so I could have everything
ready for the judges.

“So
what would you say to maybe going out and having coffee with me after this is
over?”

“Uhm…”
I said focusing on getting the bay door unlocked, not sure what to say to this
guy. I mean, he worked for my father; he was friends with him.  I pulled up the
bay door and there in red paint across the wall were the words
little one
.
I could only stare.

“Scout,
hey Scout, are you okay?” Thayne asked but I ignored him, staring at those
words.

“Little
one, you ready for another round of play?”  “Oh little one, you want it just as
much as me don’t you?”  “Little one, shut the fuck up I don’t like having to
hurt you.”

I
stopped breathing, my heart felt like it was about to burst and I couldn’t stop
staring at those words.

“Little
one, let’s get you cleaned up, huh?”  And a bucket of ice cold water was thrown
on me again, the cuts he had made up and down my thighs stung but I didn’t have
the energy to struggle.

I
heard people yelling around me but I couldn’t understand their words, then I
felt someone’s hands on me and I screamed, fighting them off.

“Ah
ah, don’t fight me little one, or I will make this really hurt.”  Then the
blade sliced through the paper-thin skin of my inner arm and I tried to scream
around the gag in my mouth.  “Like that, do you, little one?  Want me to do it
again?”

Then
everything stopped and I felt the world tilt.

***

I
opened my eyes and quickly shut them against the bright light, pain shot
through my head and I groaned.  What the hell happened and why wouldn’t someone
just shoot me and put me out of my misery?  Or better yet just shoot out the
lights.  Who the hell needed lights that bright?  Then my brain finally clicked
on.  I knew who needed lights that bright.  I moved my arm and let out my
breath in a whoosh, I wasn’t restrained.

I
carefully cracked my eyes open letting myself get used to the light and slowly
opened them all the way.  I moved my head to look around and regretted that
immediately. What the hell had I done?  I realized I wasn’t in a room but a
curtained off area, so an ER.  Okay, this was looking better for me.  Only no
one was around to tell me what was going on, I began racking my brain trying to
remember, then I did and wish I hadn’t.  Those words on the wall in red paint,
freaking out in the middle of the garage, only I couldn’t remember how I got
here.

I
reached up and gently touched my head and found a very large bump on the back
of my head—well, I guess that explained why I was here.  Now how did it
happen?  Just then Kale walked through the curtain and looked over at me.  I
could literally see the tension melt out of his shoulders when he saw me awake.

“Oh
thank god, Scout,” he muttered, “you scared the piss out of us.”

“Uhm
sorry?”

“How
you feeling?”

“My
head hurts,” I whispered.  “What happened?”

“What
do you remember?”

“Uhm
talking to Thayne and opening our stall to find those words on the wall, then I
think I might of glitched, then nothing.”

“Yeah,
you glitched, and the nothing is when you passed out and took a header into the
concrete floor.  Your boy, Thayne, tried to grab you but he couldn’t catch you
in time.”

I
remembered someone touching me and then fighting them off.  “Was it him who
touched me?”

“Yeah,
but you kept fighting him and he lost his grasp, then down you went.”

“Did
I hurt him?”

He
scoffed. “No, you didn’t hurt him,” he said like that was the stupidest
question ever and I guess it was since he wasn’t exactly a small or fragile
looking guy.

“So
what now?”

“Now
you rest, they want to keep you overnight for observation.  You have a
concussion and a good sized knot on the back of your head from where it was
introduced to the cement floor.”

“I
don’t want to stay overnight,” I whined.

“Yeah
well, that’s life, Harper Lee,” Liam said walking through the curtain, “don’t
always get what you want.”

“Fuckers,”
I scowled at them.

I
curled up and closed my eyes.  I was done talking to them for now, my head hurt
from both the knot and trying not to think of those words.

“Going
to pout now, Harper Lee,” Liam taunted.

“My
head hurts,” I murmured.

“Okay,
get some rest, we won’t go anywhere,” whispered Kale.

“K,”
I whispered then fell back asleep.

The
next time I woke up, I heard voices whispering just low enough so I couldn’t
make out what they were saying, only that they didn’t sound happy.

“What
now?” I asked.

“You
have a guest,” Simon growled.

“Who?”

“That
Thayne guy.”

“Okay,
and?”

“And
he could of done this, Scout,” Simon yelled and I winced quickly covering my
ears. “Sorry, didn’t mean to be loud.”

“He
didn’t do this,” I muttered.

“Oh
and you know this how?”

“Because
he doesn’t know,” I replied quietly.

“He’s
friends with him, Scout, you don’t know that,” Kale said.

“Trust
me he doesn’t know,” I said again more adamantly.

“How
can you be so sure, Harper Lee?”

“He
asked me out to coffee.”

“So?”
asked Simon.

“So
he would have never asked me to go out for coffee if he knew.  No one would ask
to spend time with me if they knew what he did to me, and made me do to him. 
They would find me disgusting.”

“Ah
Scout, that’s not true,” said Kale.

“Yes
it is, and I don’t want to talk about it, he didn’t do it.”

“Well
I’m not as sure about that as you are, so he’s not getting in to see you,”
demanded Simon.

I
rolled my eyes. “Let him in or I’ll have a nurse do it while you’re not
around.”

“I
swear to God you are the biggest pain in the fucking ass, Scout,” Simon yelled
then stomped off, more than likely to get Thayne and let him come back.

“You
can be so manipulative, Harper Lee, I like it,” Liam said laughing.

“Don’t
know about that, I just know what buttons to push.”

“Which
is being manipulative,” replied Kale.

“So
how’s the head?” asked a soft, deep voice.

I
sighed, “Hurts.”

“Yeah,
I bet.  So, you doing okay?”

“Yeah
I’m fine.   Thayne, what are you doing here?”

“Well
I wanted to make sure you were okay, you went down pretty hard.”

“Uh
huh and?”

“And
you never told me if we could have coffee sometime.”

I
giggled, “No, I never did, did I?”

“So
how about it?” he asked quietly.

I
rolled over and looked at him, and couldn’t breathe for a moment; he was so
gorgeous.  Why did he have to be friends with that, that monster?  Why did he
have to work for my father?  Why did I have to be broken?

“Thayne,
I don’t date.”

“Well,
that’s okay with me, friends then?” he asked reaching out to shake my hand but
seemed to think better of it and shoved the hand in his pocket.

I
looked up at him and couldn’t help nodding in agreement.

“Friends,”
I whispered and was rewarded with a beaming smile and my heart stuttered.