Nothing can ruin my high tonight.
It’s my birthday, I graduate tomorrow, I finally found the confidence to wear a skirt, and Atlas is going to let me drive his car.
I hear the last car on the track race past us right as we get to Atlas’ black Maserati. He turns to me, theadrenaline shining in his eyes just as surely as it’s shining in mine. “You remember what I taught you?”
I shove him backwards and open the driver’s side door, immediately sliding into the leather seat. “This is where the student becomes the master, love. Get in if you don’t want to be left behind.”
He shakes his head, but I see the small smirk on his face. He loves this. He loves showing me his world.
I haven’t been able to get a lot out of Atlas when it comes to his childhood or his family. All he’s really told me is that his mother is a saint, but his father is the shit on the bottom of the devil’s hoof. I’m not stupid, though. No twenty-year-old owns cars like this, knows about races like this and has at least four guns hidden in his vehicle.
The man I love is into something dark, something criminal. I haven’t decided if it’s bad that I don’t mind.
No, the only thing I don’t like about Atlas is the tension between him and my best friend.
Even today, on my birthday, I had to split the day between time with Kortez and time with Atlas. Kor took me to the museum in the next town over, followed by lunch and a trip to my favorite art supply store. Atlas brought me to the illegal street races where it costs ten grand to even start your car.
I don’t understand why they hate each other. I mean…in theory, they’re complete opposites – but they’re more alike than either of them realizes. They both carry the weight of the world on their shoulders, and they feel like they have something to prove to themselves. Both of them are too generous for their own good. Both of them love with their whole heart.
Kor may love me a little differently than Atlas…but he loves me all the same. I used to think Kortez was the man who I would spend the rest of my life with, God knows I’ve been in love with him for longer than I thought possible, but he never even hinted at the possibility of reciprocating those feelings.
Atlas never made me question his intentions. From the first night, he showed me he was interested with his eyes and claimed me with his words. It’s been like that for the last two months.
The thought of them never getting along bugs me more and more the longer I think about it and my eyes shooting over to Atlas as I pull up to the starting line. “Why don’t you like Kortez?”
I hate how fragile my voice sounds right now. I don’t know what I’ll do if they never get over this hatred for each other. I need them both. Maybe that makes me selfish.
Atlas sighs, his eyes looking out over the track clearing for my race. I know who my opponent is, and I’ve seen him race a few times. I’m not worried.
“It’s not that I don’t like him. Actually, I think he’s a good guy. He works hard and he’s loyal to you, that’s all I could want for the woman I love.”
His words don’t make any sense, and I tell him that.
His bottom lip is pulled between his teeth and bit before he sighs and releases it. I’m transfixed by the small dot of blood pooling to the surface, but before I can lean over and kiss the hurt away, he’s talking again.
“He’s everything you need, and everything I’m not. He’s safe,Reginetta.He sees you kissing me and he loves you anyway. The only reason I’m angry with him is that he’s never told you how he felt and he let you go on this entire time thinking he didn’t want you as his.”
His words send my heart beating through my chest and my head shaking. “Kor doesn’t want me like that,Atty. He doesn’t love me like that. He would have told me if he did.”
Atlas turns to look at me; his eyes shielded with pain. “Would he, though?”
I nod, my hands tightening on the wheel. “Yes. We don’t keep secrets from each other.”
Atlas grunts and motions toward the track. “Get ready,Reginetta.”
I turn my eyes to the track in front of me, one hand on the shifter and one on the wheel as I wait for the girl in front of us to wave her red bandana. I can’t drop the conversation, though. “Kortez doesn’t love me.”
The girl in between my car and my opponent smiles, her crop top rising up her waist as she raises the bandana.
“Do you love him?”
The bandana drops to the ground, and I slam the car into gear, the car roaring with power as I push the accelerator and immediately jump a few feet ahead. “It doesn’t matter.”
Atlas whoops in the seat beside me and I can’t help but to smile as his car continues to speed up, losing the red Porshe behind us. Tires squeal on concrete as I turn the wheel to go around a post somehow still standing in the middle of the illegal racetrack.
“You’ve got him, Eve! Keep going!”
I do as he says, pushing the petal down to the floor and screaming with excitement as the car crosses the finish line. I spin the car around, smoke coming in through the windows as I look out the windshield to see the Porshe just now crossing into the end zone.
