The Fine Line (3 page)

My heart went out to him. And I found myself wondering about his life. 

In the basement, the party was already starting.  I could tell it was going to be more of a “get crazy” night than a “kick back” night.  School starting on Monday meant this would be the last party of the summer.

Rock music was blaring.  Nate and Mel were at the pool table starting a game of doubles with Isaac and the girl he met at River Fest, Gavin was at the bar pouring himself a drink, and there were several people around the couches that I didn’t recognize.  I caught Gavin’s eye as we approached the bar.

“Liv!”  Gavin pointed at me. “You want the usual?”

I smiled and nodded, delighted that he remembered my drink of choice.

“Hi Logan.” A girl with a slim but voluptuous figure, in tight clothes and black high-heeled boots up to her knees, ran up to Logan and wrapped her arms around him.  Bright pink streaks around her hairline embellished her long straight, bleach-blond hair. 

“What’s up Chloe.”  Logan simply stated, as if he weren’t expecting an answer from her.  He appeared unfazed by her affection, and went around to the other side of the bar, where he and Gavin knocked knuckles, leaving her behind looking disappointed.  He helped himself to a beer from the mini-fridge, then stayed behind the bar with Gavin and began some car talk.  I concluded that they were friends.  Just as Gavin handed me my drink, his phone lit up.  I walked over to join Mel by the pool table.

“Hey, Liv! I was wondering when you’d finally get down here.” Melody actually winked this time.  Then she leaned closer and joked, “I was hoping it would’ve taken longer.”

My hand instinctively smacked her in the arm, and with a disgusted look on my face, I replied, “Melody!  You know me better than that!”  I couldn’t keep a straight face, though, and we both started laughing.

I glanced over to the bar where Gavin and Logan seemed to be having a heated talk.  Out of pure curiosity, I returned to the bar. 

“Dude, I don’t need to.  I just raced last night,” Logan said, annoyed.

“He wants a rematch, man. You could take double what you brought in last night,” Gavin persisted.

Logan turned to me as he realized that I was listening.  He seemed to be contemplating something as his eyes met mine.  After studying me for a moment, his expression quickly turned to excitement as if he just had the best idea of his life.  Still looking at me, he grinned and said, “Ok, I’ll do it…But only if Liv comes.”

Gavin turned to me with an unsure look on his face. 

“Liv…have you ever been to a race before?” Gavin asked.

Chapter Three

It wasn’t my first time in a muscle car.  Logan held the door for me as I lowered myself into the passenger seat, closing it gently once I was in.  The car was very well cared for.  The vinyl bucket seats were unblemished, and there was not a speck of dirt or dust to be found anywhere inside the car.  The smell of Armor All and vinyl immediately took me back to my pre-adolescent years, and I thought about Adam.  My mind drifted to what he might be doing these days.

Logan slid into the driver’s seat and put the keys in the ignition.  As I watched him turn the key, my eyes caught a little blue button on the steering wheel, but before I could ask what it was, I heard the high-pitched sound of the starter wheeling, followed by a loud, heavy roar and low rumble.  As the car shook to life, I felt a burst of adrenaline rush through my body.  If just starting the car was this thrilling, I wondered what it would be like to drive it.

The dashboard lit up along with what appeared to be a small touch-screen computer monitor in the middle of the dash.  I looked over at Logan.  His eyes were on me, and he had a small mischievous grin on his face.  I wondered if he was getting an adrenaline rush from this as well. 

“You might want to put your seatbelt on,” he said with a smile and that one eyebrow raised up again.  I laughed and politely obliged.

He backed slowly out of the driveway.  It felt intimate being in such a tight, confined space with him, the shifter in the middle of the seats being the only thing separating us.  Once we were on the road, he hit the throttle.  The car lifted to the right, my head jerked back, and I could feel the rumble in the floorboards from the exhaust.  He was going fast.  I wanted to tell him to slow down but it didn’t come out because of the exhilaration I felt.

Everyone but Gavin stayed behind.  He followed us in his own car.  I chuckled as I thought about how ironic it was that everyone but Gavin was partying at Gavin’s house.  Chloe had been incredibly disappointed when Logan left so quickly after he had arrived, giving him a pouty face as he left.  I wondered what their relationship was, but then quickly brushed the thought aside, telling myself that it didn’t matter and that I shouldn’t care.

We approached a gas station packed with what seemed to be twenty different compact cars in the lot, some with their hoods up, many of them looking incredibly flashy.  A group of people surrounded the cars, and as we drove by, a girl pointed to us and shouted something, causing the people to scatter back to their cars and disperse from the gas station, following us to our destination.

We arrived at an industrial park a few minutes later.  The people got out of their cars as they parked, some staying close to us, others going up the road further.

“Stay in the car for a minute. I’ll be right back,” Logan instructed me as he got out of the car.

Clearly, he wasn’t aware that I didn’t take orders from anyone, and I followed him out, causing him to stop at the sound of my door closing. 

“What the hell?” he exclaimed, as he looked at me with a confused expression.

“What?!  You’re not the boss of me,” I so eloquently replied, causing his confusion to melt into amusement.  I giggled at my childish remark.  Didn’t he know I’ve never been to anything like this before?  I wasn’t about to sit, waiting around in a car while there was all this activity.  How boring would
that
have been?

“Alright then,” he replied as he extended his hand out to me.

I placed my hand in his, and we walked over to where Gavin was already in a negotiation with another guy, who looked older, mid-twenties maybe.  The intense, anxious look in the guy’s eyes, along with his constant rocking and fidgeting, hinted to the fact that he was not here for fun. They seemed to finish their negotiation just as we approached.

“Are we all set, Derrick” Logan asked his competitor.

“Yeah, we’re good, man,” he replied.

Logan turned to Gavin for confirmation.

Gavin nodded. “Let’s do it, man.”

Logan shook hands with Derrick then began to walk back to his car, pulling me with him. 

Geez, that was quick. They must mean business.

Logan looked at me for a moment, contemplating something, then smirked and turned around, looking back at Gavin and the man.

“Oh, and Liv’s gonna be the flag girl,” he announced with a gigantic grin.

“What?!” My eyes widened and my heart started pounding. “What the hell does that mean?  What does a flag girl do?”

“Don’t worry, Liv.  It’ll be fun,” he encouraged. “You’re going to tell us when to go.  All you have to do is stand between the cars, lift your hands up above your head, and when you want us to go, drop them down to your sides.” His reassurance settled me slightly, and my panic dissolved into excitement. 

“Ok, fine.  I’ll do it.” I replied with only a slight hesitation.

He pointed to a spot in the road. “That’s where you’ll stand,” he said, then he and Derrick got into their cars.

I stepped into place, facing Logan’s Mustang on my left, and the man’s royal blue Honda Civic on my right.  The drivers revved their engines.  Looking over to my right, the man with his brows deeply furrowed, and a focused, troubled expression, nodded that he was ready to go. 

I looked to my left, seeing the corner of Logan’s mouth turned up as his eyes met mine, and with an expression exuding calmness with a twinge of excitement, he nodded, indicating that he was ready.  Looking away from me and towards the road in front of him, he became more focused but still seemed entertained.

Adrenaline began to course through my veins.  All eyes were on me as I lifted my hands in the air and held them up for a few seconds.  Engines revved.  Then, the very moment that I abruptly forced my hands down to my sides, the engines roared like lions, tires squealed, and the hot wind from the cars as they quickly flew by, gave me an incredible rush.

Smoke and the burning rubber from the tires, combined with exhaust, filled the air as I turned around to observe the race.  But I couldn’t tell who was winning from where I was standing. Cheering sounds from the crowd up the road alerted me to the fact that the race was already finished, and before I knew it, the cars turned around and headed back.

The Honda Civic sped towards me.  Derrick slammed on his brakes five feet in front of me and immediately jumped out of his car. 

“Fuck!” he shouted as he slammed the door violently.  He must’ve lost the race.  He stomped over to a group of women and grabbed one of them by the arm.  “We’re leaving…Now!” he demanded.

“What the hell, Derrick?!” the woman argued, ripping her arm away from his grasp.

His rage toned down but only slightly. “Let’s go,” he said with both hands raised in the air as if to tell her he knew he shouldn’t have grabbed her.  She sighed, seeming to feel sorry for him, as she took his hand and waved goodbye to her friends while getting into his car.

“So, how did it feel?” Logan’s voice came from behind me.

I quickly turned around, unable to hold back the enormous smile on my face, and before I could control myself, I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed his cheek.

“That was incredible!” I gleamed as I stepped back, trying my best to cover up the embarrassment I felt from my impulsive display of affection.  “Congratulations!  You won!”

He let out a laugh, then still smiling and with a curious expression, as if he was trying to figure me out, he shook his head slightly and said, “C’mon, let’s get out of here.”

“What?  Already?”  I asked as we started walking back to his car.  “All these people seem to be here for you. Don’t you want to hang around for a while?”

“I’m not here for them, Liv.  I wasn’t even going to do this tonight, until…”

“Until what?” I stopped and looked directly at him, meeting his eyes.

He appeared to be searching for the right thing to say.  “Until I caught you eavesdropping on my conversation with Gavin,” he teased with a smirk.  “I thought you might have fun with it…and it looks like you did, so my job here is complete.”

“Oh, right, you did this for me...” I contested sarcastically, remembering the look of excitement on his face just before the race.  “I’m pretty sure you had just as much fun as I did.  And I wasn’t eavesdropping!  I just happened to be standing in ear-range.” 

He shook his head and chuckled.  “If I stick around here, other people are going to want to race, and I’m done racing for the night.  Let’s go back to Gavin’s and have some fun.”

I agreed and after saying goodbye to Gavin, who was with a group of men looking under the hood of a red Toyota Celica, we hopped in the Mustang and headed back to Gavin’s house…Without Gavin.

Chapter Four

The party had died down by the time we got back.  Mellow reggae music was playing and only a few people were left sitting in the circle of couches and chairs. Chloe was gone.  Melody, who had always been somewhat of a lightweight, was already asleep with her head on Nate’s shoulder. 

I wasn’t ready to slow down.  The rush from earlier was still in my blood, and I was incredibly disappointed when I saw everyone already kicking back.

I let out a sigh and leaned back against the bar.  Logan looked at me, then the pool table.  Then he walked over and grabbed a pool cue, “Rack or break?”

“Break,” I replied with a grin, delighted that we’d be doing something other than sitting around.

“Oh, really now,” he replied as he eyed me and handed me the pool cue.  “Do you play?”

I shook my head and shrugged with a smile.

I watched him closely as he racked the pool balls.  Attractive would be an understatement.  This man was beautiful and could give any A-list actor a run for his money.  He looked up at me a few times while he racked, his eyes lighting up every time they locked with mine.  Or maybe it was my eyes lighting up.  But whatever it was, it sent a small shiver down my spine each time. 

“Alright, Liv.  Let’s see what you’ve got,” he challenged.

I took the cue ball and placed it just right of the center mark.  After eying my shot, I leaned down, aimed, and made my move.  Two solids and a stripe went in the pockets from my break.  All that practice at the pub had improved my pool game incredibly.  Knowing Logan was watching me gave me butterflies, but I managed to keep calm enough to sink two more solids before missing a shot.

“Impressive,” he smiled.  “Where did you learn to play?”

I told him all about my parents’ pub, and how I cleaned it on the weekends, as he sunk three stripes, making us even.  The game was close until the very end when there was only the eight ball left.  I leaned down to take the shot, trying to block out the fact that Logan was clearly checking me out, and after a moment of calculating, I sunk the eight ball in the corner pocket. 

Applause emanated from the couch area, and I looked over, surprised to see that we had spectators.  Then I turned to Logan, who was shaking his head with a grin, and an expression that was almost…proud.

“Shit!  Liv, we have to go, we’re late!”  Melody shouted as she looked at the time on her phone.  The applause had woken her.

“You’re not driving,” announced Nate as he raised his arm, pointer finger up. “I’ll take you home.”

Mel looked thoughtful.  “Oh, that means Liv will need a ride home, too.”  She was smiling from ear to ear as she looked and me, then at Logan, and I wondered if she had planned this.  “Logan, you’ll take her home, right?”