Double Clutch - Реинхардт Лиз (книги полностью бесплатно TXT) 📗
Saxon laughed. “No. It’s twenty.”
“Oh. What’s he doing?” I watched Jake fiddle with his bike. Was it safe?
“Nervous habit. He’s making sure his fuel switch is on.”
“But aren’t they all on?” There was a dull roar coming from the gate.
“They’ll run for a minute or two if they’re switched off. No one wants to be the dipshit who loses the starting advantage because his fuel switch is off. He’s waving at you.” Saxon’s voice was bland around his last words.
But I had seen Jake’s wave before Saxon mentioned it. I already stood on the bench, waving back like an idiot. “Go Jake! Good luck!” I screamed.
Saxon pulled me gently back down. “Alright, Blix. The enthusiasm is admirable, but he can’t hear you.”
“He knows,” I said confidently. I chewed on some vinegar fries. “You used to race?”
“Yeah.” Saxon winced and rubbed his temples. “But I got tired of the humiliation of getting my ass handed to me by Jake every time we competed. So I just stopped racing and started going to cheer him on. And make bets on him.”
“You bet money on Jake?” I had no idea there even were bets made on these races.
“Always have.” Saxon leaned forward again. “He’s a sure thing on the track. I have close to a grand riding on this race.”
I felt dangerously close to choking on the fry I was in the process of swallowing. “A thousand dollars?”
“Every one of these hot shots thinks he’s gonna come out the dark horse. Not with Jake Kelly on the track. He should go pro.”
The flag dropped and the bikes roared out of the gate. Jake was a few feet in front of every other bike.
“That’s my boy.” Saxon’s slow smile widened. “Got his lead early on, and he’ll keep it.”
I stood with my hand over my mouth, willing Jake to go faster and keep ahead of everyone else who wanted to take his lead.
“Sit back and relax for a few laps,” Saxon advised. He leaned his head back and groaned. “I guess I’m out of the loop for head rubs?”
“Yeah.” I only took my eyes off Jake for a second. “You really are.”
He laughed. “You’re a stone bitch. I mean that in the most complimentary way possible.”
We watched Jake race around the track. He flew over a jump a few laps in and took both hands off of his handlebars.
“Jake! You idiot! Jake!” I yelled.
I think Saxon had been napping. He sat up and his glasses slid off of his nose. “What’s wrong?” he asked sleepily.
“Jake’s just being stupid.” I looked closely. He was holding on again. “He did some kind of stunt.”
“What kind of stunt?” Saxon yawned.
“He took his hand off the handlebars while he was jumping,” I said hotly.
Saxon let out a short, harsh laugh. “Calm down. He was changing the film on his goggles.”
“What?”
“The goggles he’s wearing. They probably have a good inch of mud on them. So he’s peeling the film off so he can see.” He chuckled again. “Don’t worry. Jake loves to win. He won’t do any stunts.”
“Oh.” I felt incredibly dumb. “I don’t really know much about dirt bike racing, I guess.”
“Motocross,” Saxon corrected. “That’s what it’s called. Didn’t you two talk about this before his race?”
I felt a wave of embarrassment when I thought about what we had done so often instead of talking about dirt bikes. Or talking at all.
Instead of answering Saxon, I took a sip of Coke and watched Jake. He was really fast. It was exciting to watch, but a little scary too. It was also really nerve-wracking. I didn’t want him to crash and burn, and I couldn’t take my eyes off of the race because I was afraid that was exactly what would happen the minute I looked away.
“You guys going to the Folly show tonight?” Saxon rubbed his temples hard, and I could only imagine the pain that was pounding through his head.
“Yeah. My shirts are going to be selling tonight.” I was proud of that, and thought I should be. I worked hard on them.
“Well, I’ll make sure I buy one. I like putting my money towards any good charity.”
“Do you have to work hard at being an asshole, or does it just come naturally?” I asked cheerfully.
He grinned at me and took his sunglasses off.
“Saxon!” I kept half an eye on the race and tried to look at his face at the same time. “Seriously. What happened to your eye? And, you know, the rest of your face?”
“I started out being my natural asshole self. Then I worked on it for a few minutes. And this is what I got.” He slid the glasses back on and winced.
“Who did it?” I felt a surge of anger. I couldn’t help it. Saxon might be a deranged lunatic, but I couldn’t help feeling like he was something damaged that needed my protection.
“Some senior who wasn’t particularly happy I was making out with his girlfriend.”
“Was she someone special?” I hoped it might be for a lot of reasons.
“Yeah, Bren. I proposed to her right after she let me feel her up in someone’s parent’s bathroom at a house party. It was magical.”
“Whatever,” I muttered, and turned my full attention back on Jake’s race. If Saxon wanted to purposefully stick his face in front of angry fists, that was his deal.
I made it a point to move far away from Saxon. I got my camera and took a bunch of pictures of Jake. Thorsten had gotten me a really high speed camera the Christmas when we were in Denmark. One of the features was supposed to be that it took really great action shots. It was how I got the one of Mom rocking out to “Yellow Submarine.” But I never had the chance to try it out on an actual sport. I was happy with the results so far, and I was already trying to figure out how they would look on silk screen.
“These are the last two circuits,” Saxon said, sitting up. “Come on.”
We left our seats and went to stand by the guard rails where the bikes flew by so quickly and so close we could feel the heat of the bike engines.
We watched for a minute, and Saxon pointed to the tower where they waved a white flag. “We’re coming on the last lap. He still has the lead, but that bastard on the yellow bike is right on his ass.” And then Saxon did something that shocked me. “Come on Jake!” he screamed. “Don’t be a pussy! Watch your turns!”
“I thought he couldn’t hear you.” I had never seen Saxon get so worked up and excited.
