Street Dreams

by DJDJ

Chapter 10: The Beast

When the lights flashed green, I pressed the gas and dumped the clutch. The drive wheels screamed in protest until they could find grip on the road. My heavy feet gave Soarin an early advantage, I just clenched my teeth harder, and revved every ounce of power my engine would give before shifting up. I felt a wicked smile spread across my face, but it was all too brief, I’d only clocked just over a buck fifteen before I reached the finish line, which in my adrenaline high I was only vaguely aware of. I was even less aware that less than half way, I’d caught up with and passed Soarin.

Soarin and I both ground to a halt, then pulled over to the side of the road. Flash meanwhile had pulled up and parked along with us. I stepped out of my car with that manic grin on my face, Soarin looked pretty happy for a loser. “Yo what you running under there anyhow?” He called out to me.

“That’s what we call 40 pounds of boost where I come from. That’s some stage three right there boy.” I replied as we caught each other’s hands and jabbed each other’s shoulders.

Flash was slowly wandered up to us, hands in his pockets. “Looked like baby was on the bottle to me.” He said accusingly.

I turned to Flash, my smile sank into a grimace and I took a few steps in his direction. “Whoa whoa you better not be being for real right now.” I warned him.

Soarin desperately stepped between us and started running his mouth, “Hey man he didn’t mean nothing just chill out be cool be cool-”

I pushed Soarin out of my way and cut him off, “Nah nah nah, you say what you got to say.” I pointed at Flash and stepped forward more aggressively. “Come on!”

Flash took his hands out of his pockets and started walking slowly in my direction. “You heard me you dirty rotten cheater!” He called out to me.

We came within inches of each other, still wound up on an adrenaline high, I shoved him hard as I could knocking him on his rear and continued my advance. “Y’all must be dumber than you look, you know I don’t spray.”

Flash sat up and glared at me “Everyone knows now you know. The kind of cheater YOU are, smooth move lying to Applejack.” He smirked, which only served to enrage me.

I grabbed him by his jacket collar with my right hand “Oh so that’s whats up, that’s what your girlfriend Sunny Smiley Face told you?”

He answered saying “Cafeterias not as private as you thought.” His smirk grew, he was making my blood boil, all I could see was red, so I started repeatedly punching his orange face with my left hand. Soarin tried to pull me off but I just hit him in the jaw on one of my up swings.

As my hand came down for another blow, Flash grabbed my wrist and along with the momentum of my attack, he yanked me to the ground beside him. In the heat of the fight, neither of us were paying attention to our surroundings, we had only been grappling for a few seconds before the street was lit up with strobing red and blue lights, which snapped me out of my bloodlust very effectively.

I was standing on the sidewalk leaning against a building with my hands cuffed behind my back. Flash was cuffed standing against his car, when I saw him spit blood, I gave him the same cocky smirk he gave me earlier. The officer who caught us was talking to Soarin, who to no one’s surprise wasn’t locked up like me and Flash. I could tell he wanted to bust us for racing, but since he had nothing on us, he just locked up me and Flash and told us to “cool off”.

Reluctantly, the cop unhooked Flash and me and told us all to go straight home. Which of course we didn’t do but we did go our three separate ways. I decided to stay out a while longer driving aimlessly, the earlier race and beat down had calmed me down and exhausted me so eventually I did return home.

To my relief, my dad was in bed, I went to the bathroom and got a good look at myself in the mirror. I only had a couple bruises on my face from my scrap with Flash, nothing that wouldn’t fade by morning. My left hand however, my beating hand, my knuckles were smeared with blood. I wasn’t very sure how much of it was mine or his. Regardless, I washed it off revealing scratches where my hand had made contact with Flash’s teeth. I sighed and wrapped my hand with gauze and boxing tape then retired to my bed for a long night of dreamless, restless sleep.

The next morning I got up earlier than my dad, I had a leisurely breakfast and as I was sipping some orange juice, he walked into the kitchen. While he started preparing his own breakfast he tried to strike up some conversation. “Hey.” He started.

“Hey.”

“Whats going on Son?” He asked curiously, instead of accusingly.

I raised my glass to him and took another sip, “Breakfast.”

“You’re not looking too good. Want to tell me whats on your mind?”

“Not really.” I finished my drink

He set everything down on the counter and stared at me. “Come on, let me help you. You’re not in this by yourself anymore.”

I looked up at him skeptically, I wanted to tell him something, but instead I only answered “I got to go to school.” I picked up my bag which was sitting next to me and headed out the door.

At school, things were worse than ever. Everywhere I went people were giving me strange looks, Flash was right, the cafeteria was not very intimate. Lunch could not come fast enough, I grabbed my soda in my left hand and opted to spend my lunch hour outside in the courtyard. On my way out one of Applejack’s friends, Sunset Shimmer found me. She was headed for the cafeteria most likely to sit with her friends, but she turned to follow once she saw me. “Hey,where you going?” She called out.

“Whats it to you?” I shot back, glancing over my shoulder to get a brief look at her.

“Shouldn’t you try to go apologize, talk to her, say hello, anything?” She pleaded. My shoulder collided with the door leading outside and with a mighty shove it flew open.

I sighed “I don’t know what cafeteria you were in yesterday but I gotta be the last one she wants to talk to.” I picked up my pace hoping she would leave me alone, she only kept up with me. I spotted a bench and decided to sit down instead of trying uselessly to ditch Sunset.

When Sunset sat down beside me, I could see her face flush with worry. “I don’t know a lot about love, but I do know that Applejack really did love you-“

“Yeah, she DID love me. I remember.” I snapped at her.

“She STILL loves you, she wouldn’t be hurting so much if she didn’t. Even before, it was obvious! The way you two looked at each other, and the way you were always holdings hands. It was like you two came out of a fairy tale!”

Sunset made a good point, and I really didn’t want to admit it. Mostly, I couldn’t stand to face AJ and see her so heart broken by my own neglect. I clenched my soda can with both hands and I guess Sunset was looking, because I could see her recoil and put a hand up to her mouth. “What happened?” She asked, grabbing my left wrist to get a better look at my scarred knuckles.

I pulled my hand from her grip and glared at her. “Don’t worry about it.”

She looked at me with concern. “Was that…you know…” I looked at her impatiently and gestured for her to finish her thought. “…you and Flash?”

I huffed and shook my head. “Here I thought y’all was broken up, now you can’t stop talkin to each other.”

“W-what?” She asked, her expression overcome with confusion. I shook my head and rolled my eyes. She shook her head to snap herself out of her confusion. “I know you’re heartbroken too, I can see it.” I looked away impatiently, Sunset groaned at me and stood up, hands on her hips ready to tell me off. “I’m just trying to help you two resolve this, even if you can’t be together again, you’ll at least be friends by the time we’re done.” She huffed and stormed off back to class as the bell rang.

The final bell rang and I joined the rest of the students on our march out the front doors. I spotted my car in the parking lot and made straight for it. Among the sea of fleeing students I spotted AJ’s cowgirl hat, which made me freeze in my tracks. I watched as she climbed into her big brother’s truck, I was frozen in place until they disappeared from view. I had strong feelings of longing and regret. At that moment I felt a hand on my shoulder, I turned around reflexively to see Adagio.

“What do you want.” I spat at her with an unforgiving glare.

“I just-“ She started.

“Oh you just need me to take you racing. Keep you three hungry girls off the street? Yeah right.” I snapped, turning back to walk away.

“Wait…” I heard Adagio call to me, I didn’t wait. I made my way all the way to my car, I was just about to get in until Adagio caught up and slammed my door shut. I crossed my arms and glared at her impatiently. She took a deep breath and looked at me sternly. “I meant what I said.” I rolled my eyes and opened my door, Adagio immediately shut it again. “I really like you, and I-“ I opened my door again, I really couldn’t stand to be talking to her right now, but she was persistent and shut my door on me again. “I will NOT be ignored!” She raised her voice as she grabbed both my wrists. I pushed her away breaking her grip on me and climbed into my car before she could stop me again. When I drove away, I left her in a cloud of my tire smoke.

When school let out, I took to the freeway to drive as fast as I could as long as I could weaving through traffic at a buck thirty. After a few hours, as the sun was touching the horizon, it was time to turn back if I wanted to hit up Luna Drive and earn some cash.

I rolled up on the familiar scene, loud engines, loud stereos, and loud drivers. Then I spotted one of the reasons I’d bothered to show up tonight, the Wonderbolts. I parked next to Spitfire’s car and approached the group of them huddled together talking among themselves. Soarin was the first to see me, he reached out to me and our hands met enthusiastically. When Spitfire turned to see me, we did the same.

Spitfire’s face lit up when she saw me, I guess she really wanted to drive with me. Before anything else, I had to get one thing straight. I saw a bruise around Soarin’s jaw and held my hand out “Hey man, that’s my bad,” I gestured to his jaw “you know that punk got to running his mouth I just seen the red man.”

Soarin took my hand again and smiled “No worries we’re straight.”

Spitfire interjected “Speaking of, about time someone put him in his place.” Spitfire jabbed my shoulder smiling.

“It’s like that huh?” I asked.

Spitfire huffed. ”That fool goes around talkin all kinds of smack. It’s all talk, ain’t never even seen him around here, probably too busy with that boy band to walk the walk.”

“Arite for real, so whats up we gonna bust a move out here or what?”

“We,” Spitfire gestured to herself and the other Wonderbolts, “are gonna ‘bust a move’.” She imitated my voice, then reached into her pocket. “We know you can keep up, if you want to tag along,” she took her hand out of her pocket and presented me with a silver lightning bolt pin, identical to the ones the others wore. “offer still stands.” She winked at me.

I smiled coyly and snatched the pin from Spitfire and fixed it to my T shirt. “More like leadin the pack. Let’s bounce y’all.” Cheers were cheered, high fives were exchanged.

Past midnight, and we had spent the night racing each other and others. Cash changed hands and of course, I walked away with fatter pockets. It was time for everyone to scatter, normally I would have bolted about an hour earlier, but I was rolling deep now and we would leave as a pack. As we were about to head out, someone called out to me. “Wait wait!” the voice was annoyingly familiar. I knew what was about to happen so I saved her some time and shut the door on myself. I turned around to see Adagio approaching me.

“Fine.” I blurted as she approached me. I reached into my pocket and counted out a grand and threw it at her. “There, you got what you wanted, go home.”

She collected the scattered bills and clutched them to her chest. “Please, I want to talk to you.”

I folded my arms and leaned against my car. “So talk.” I demanded.

She was about to say something, until she saw something that worried her. She took my left hand and examined it. “What happened to you?”

I halfheartedly tried to take my hand away but her grip on it held. “I can still drive if that’s what you’re trippin on.”

Adagio opened her mouth to answer but was cut off by a high pitch wail. My gaze snapped down the street, I could see flashing red and blue lights at the other end of the street and impulsively stuffed Adagio into the back seat and took off as fast as I could. “What in the world is going on?” She asked confused.

“Occupational hazard. Buckle up.”

“What?”

“Ain’t you never drive with me before? Seatbelt, buckle your seatbelt, it’ll save your life.” I answered as I navigated the sea of scrambling cars. In the back seat, Adagio fumbled with the buckle, once I heard the click of her seatbelt I turned off into an alleyway. While most of the other drivers were making a break for the next intersection, I doubled back in the alley behind the shops. When I hit an intersection I turned onto the street leading away from Luna Drive and the police rolled right past on the street behind us. Adagio had turned around to watch the red and blue cross the intersection. When it was gone, she turned back around and sat down.

“How did you know what to do? You haven’t lived here that long, and I’ve never seen the heat show up like that.” She asked, with a particularly quizzical expression.

“That’s cus we always bounce before they crash the party. Wonderbolts taught me this trick.” I replied, watching her through my mirror. “Sit tight they told me about a RV for when this happens.”

She scrunched her face in confusion. “RV?”

“Rendezvous.”

I pulled up behind a gas station where the other Wonderbolts had already set up shop and were hanging out. After all the greetings Soarin addressed me, “Man I was wonderin if you’d got caught on us.” He joked.

I smiled back and we shook hands “You know it takes more than a traffic jam to catch a Wonderbolt. Feel me?” The group cheered and laughed high fiving each other.

“Truth man truth, so whats up we were about to hit up the freeway do some rollin starts.”

“Nah G, I just wanted to say whats up, let you know I slipped the cuffs. Hey I’m gonna bounce right quick I’ll catch y’all later.” I shook hands and said my goodbyes.

When I returned to my car, I sat down in my seat and saw Adagio in my mirror, still in the back where I left her. She was sitting patiently looking nervously into her lap. “You’re still here.” I grumbled.

“You’re…kinda my ride.” She shrugged without looking up at me. I turned around in my seat and stared at her skeptically. She looked up and caught my gaze, then quickly looked away.

“You got your own self out here, y’all can make your way home.” I reached over my seat and cracked open her door. “Kick rocks already.”

She sighed “Sunset Shimmer brought me here.”

I sat back down in my seat, impatiently waiting for Adagio to quit making excuses and leave. “So call her.”

“I tried, she hasn’t been picking up since everybody scattered.”

I bumped the back of my head on my headrest in frustration. I decided to turn around, close her door, and take her home. “Arite, I’ll take you, but I don’t like you.” Adagio sighed, with disappointment and relief.

On the familiar way home, I had to ask her, “How come Sunset bringing you out here? I never seen her hit up that joint.” I glanced at Adagio in my mirror.

She looked up “She knows what happened between us and Applejack. When I told her my side, she said she wanted to help,” I sighed in frustration but let her go on, “and when I told her you wouldn’t give me the time of day, she said we could catch you at the races.”

On the way back to Adagio’s house, I had to ask, “So what you tell Sunshine to get her to take you to me anyhow?”

“I told her the truth.” She answered, she was about to continue before I interrupted.

“I’ll give it to you, you a good liar but ain’t nothing Sunset can do gonna make us three buddy buddy.”

Adagio gritted her teeth and shouted at me. “Stop!”

I pulled over and turned around in my seat to look at Adagio, “Stop what?”

“Stop being such a pain and listen to me for a few minutes!” She fumed at me, baring her teeth.

I sighed and stepped out of the car, I walked around to the other side and got into the back seat with Adagio. I crossed my arms and said to her calmly. “Say what you want, I won’t say nothing.”

Adagio closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. When she released it, she opened her eyes and gazed into mine. “I know what I did was…wrong, but I really do you know…like you. I didn’t even realize it until you took me to the beach. When Applejack started demanding answers from us at lunch, I would just say anything to have you for myself. I didn’t realize how much it would hurt you.” I sat back in my seat and stared at her waiting for her to continue. “I showed up at your house on Saturday to sweet talk you into coming back to us, but you were just so sweet to me all day, more than ever and when you told me about your mom, and I saw how much she meant to you, I even sort of…hurt for you. I never lost anyone like that before, for as long as I can remember it’s just been me and the girls.” Her voice had started cracking as she held back tears from her cheeks. “Say something, please.” She leaned in my direction. “Please.” She pleaded.

I glared at her furiously, after a moment, my expression softened, I was still angry with her, but at least I could put my hand to her delicate cheek and say to her, “I understand.” She pressed my hand to her cheek and we had locked eyes. I don’t know how long we were sitting there, but eventually I got her in the front passenger seat and took her home.

We stopped in front of Adagio’s house, she had a soft smile on her face as she held my chin and planted a soft kiss on my cheek. “Thanks for taking me home, and for letting me pour my heart out over your back seat. It felt…nice.”

I showed her a halfhearted smile and waited for her to get out. When she opened her door, she had about climbed out then turned back to me and said. “Do you want to…stay with me?” She asked hopefully.

“I like my couch a lot better than yours.” I grumbled.

Adagio sat back down and turned to face me fully. “I mean, with me.” She put a hand to her chest.

“Give me a minute.” I mumbled. She nodded and climbed out closing the door behind her. I watched her saunter up her porch to the front door where she waited for me.

I looked down at the floor and saw the film strip AJ had found in my sun visor, the one Adagio and I took at the beach which she had sealed with a kiss. I picked it up off the floor and held it to my eye level. Just then I flipped down the passenger visor to look at the picture of me and AJ I had tucked away. I had to take a deep contemplative breath. Adagio was waiting, I felt like her feelings were true, but I wasn’t sure if this was the right thing for me. My engine was still running, I could get away before she could stop me. I took the picture of me and AJ down from the visor and held it in my free hand. Maybe me and AJ could still be together, but if I choose to stay with Adagio tonight, what we had could be gone forever.

It was a tough call, but I made up my mind.

Comments

[Summer Dancer]

No, no, wait, who did he choose? Come back! Oh, and also, I lost it at Sunny Smiley Face. That's a new one

[DJDJ]

6033512 I'm curious, who would you have our little hero here end up with?

[Summer Dancer]

6033826 Applejack, of course!

[Golden Flare]

6033826 Applejack

[saloony78]

6033826 DUH THE HOT AJ. SHE'S WORTH EVERYTHING.

[titan1995]

6033826 Applejack, on account that she's not a manipulative bitch

[OuijaSilverstar]

AJ kept him out of trouble and it looks like because of their pasts, they belong to each other. It was seriously wrong for Adagio to break that good thing to pieces. He should choose to go with AJ; they deserve each other.

[Harms Way]

Nothing like a good ol' cliffhanger to keep us in suspense. Excellent chapter my friend!