Part 2: The Ride

(This is the second part to "The Out Of Town Tuner")

Daniel finally blinked after what seemed like hours later.
When his gaze fully focused, he witnessed the slew of wanna-be's and enthusiasts make the slow haul down the mountain, bumper to bumper, like rush hour for the people of this culture.
Every headlight and brake light flashing the vision that was now burned into Daniel's memory.
He had never seen a race so vividly.
When he stood with the other people, he was always too short to see anything but flashes of cars and headlights and he could barely hear the engines and tires over the crowd.
Beside's that, Daniel fell under the category of naturally incognito.
He was generally shy, which showed in his dark eyes when you could see them past his mousy brown hair.
But this night was different.
The reflecting dance of leaves and headlights, the smell of tires and asphalt, and the sharp lightning second of machine and man taking full advantage of physics.
But beyond that, Daniel felt like in that split second, he had seen into the people who drove those monsters.
Daniel carefully climbed over the guardrail when the line of cars came to a temporary stop, and crossed to the empty side of the road, as no one was driving up the mountain.
Daniel ignored the driver who was yelling something about dirt on his car and began going down the mountain.
Again and again his mind played over the numbing sensation of the two drifting cars.
He was so into the replaying thought that he jumped when a lone oncoming car honked at him.
Daniel only had enough time for a quick step to the left and fell to the misfortune of a pot hole full of water being splashed up at him by the passing car.
He scowled at his luck of being dirty, muddy, and now, soaked. He ringed out his shirt and walked on, nearly questioning now if the whole night was worth it.
Daniel did not have to wait long for something to remind him as to why he came up here.
It was another honk that sounded exactly like the last, followed by one of the driver's stuck in traffic calling out.
"Hey you!" the driver called, but Daniel ignored him, as he didn't want any trouble.
But the driver persisted: "Hey! Do you want a ride?"
At this, Daniel turned around and saw that it was the 240SX that raced earlier, now ironically stuck in the rush of traffic down the mountain.
"Well?" the driver called again.
Daniel hesitated as the all the cars moved forward before coming to a stop again.
"Ummm...sure." Daniel answered, and made the best of his next opportunity to get over to the car.
Daniel crossed to the passenger side before being struck with the realization of how dirty he was.
"Actually I better not," Daniel changed his mind to the driver, "I'll get the inside of your car all muddy."
To Daniel's surprise, because he could not see anyone through the dark black window tint, the passenger side window rolled down.
An older looking girl with reddish-blond hair sat in the seat, and she smiled amusingly at Daniel in response to his concern.
"We have to clean the inside out anyway." She said matter-of-factly, as she stared hard into his eyes, "So it's not a problem."
The girl got out and leaned the front seat up so Daniel could get into the back.
"Jump in."
There were fast-food wrappers and pop cans among other things littering the floor, which was not visible below the garbage.
Daniel caught himself staring, but the girl saved him from embarrassment by introducing herself.
"Oh right, yeah, hi, I'm Paige." she said, and held out her hand.
Daniel went to shake it, but she pulled a switch, and instead pulled him into the car and threw him into the back seat, before sitting down hurridly up front.
"Yeah, I'm.....hey what?! Ow!" Daniel exclaimed as he joined the mess of the back seat.
"Kidnapping again, Paige?" The driver asked loosely as he moved the car forward before quickly stopping again.
"It's not kidnapping if they want to come." Paige started, "Beside's Trevor, he climbed up all that way just so he could have a chance to see you race. So we owe him a ride, he was just taking too long to jump in."
"Heh, I guess." Trevor resigned coolly.
Daniel straightened himself with the rustling of the backseat's garbage. He looked over the driver, Trevor.
Trevor had messy dyed black hair, large gauged pierced ears, and looked older as well.
He held the steering wheel loosely while tapping his fingers to the music he had playing.
Then something struck Daniel as odd.
"Wait, how did you know I climbed up there to watch him race?" Daniel spoke up.
"Because there's no other reason for you to climb up to there." Paige answered.
"No, I mean how did you know I was there?"
"Well because I saw you obviously. Looking all dirty and petty. I told Trevor that if we saw you while we drove down, we'd give you a ride. You must be the only one stupid enough to not drive, it would have taken you hours to walk back down."
Daniel smiled as the car moved forward and stopped again.
"Yeah, like as long as this will take." he whispered.
"Touche." Paige admitted, hearing him.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Trevor agreed. "Well, I guess it's no use keeping this up."
And with that, Trevor honked, pulled into the oncoming lane and accelerated.
Paige laughed of triumph, and Daniel flew back into his seat with a perplexed look on his face, before laughing too.
"Later fags!" Paige yelled out the window as she blew kisses to all the motorists still stuck in the line.
Daniel laughed at her and Trevor smiled to himself as they flew down the mountain.

"So how long have you two been going out?" Daniel asked conversationally as they sat in Walt's, an all-night restaurant that was Daniel's favorite.
"What?" Paige asked, confused.
Daniel jumped shiftily. "Uhh...never mind."
"But what did you say?" Paige asked.
"I was just wondering how long you two have been going out, but it really...." Daniel was interrupted by Trevor and Paige bursting out into laughter.
Trevor brought himself under control first. "Very funny. We're brother and sister."
"Oh...." Daniel sighed, embarrassed. "But you don't look very alike."
And it was true.
"Half, parents met and got married." Paige explained, now having stopped laughing.
"Oh..." Daniel sighed again, feeling awkward.
"Don't worry about it." Trevor suggested as their food arrived, "You're not the first person to ask that."
"Oh okay." Daniel said, feeling a little better.
Daniel watched Trevor dig in, and generally did everything he could to avoid the way Paige looked at him.
Half in disbelief, half in amusement, she stared, with him looking out the window, and Trevor eating.
He didn't know it, but that moment would burn into his memory as something to always remember.