Page 2 of Send It

Lincoln

The ride home from a race is usually peaceful, but Reiss and Colson are still in celebration mode. Sometimes we do races alone, since Reiss and Colson both know how to drive this big rig and we’re all getting older now, but it’s nice to have mom and dad on this trip.

Colson’s parents are in Alaska. His dad raced professionally with mine but when he retired, they started travelling for his mom’s job. She’s a marine biologist and is currently doing a whale study.

So now Colson spends most of his time at our house, or at his alone. It’s kind of sad for a twenty year old really.

His grandmother lives in town, and he spends a lot of time at the nursing home visiting her. She fell last year and never really recovered.

I want to ask when his parents come back, but right now I’m busy giving him the silent treatment, because fuck him.

My dad speaks up, breaking the tension filled six hour ride home. “Colson, is there any damage to your bike from Lincoln slamming into you?”

I internally scoff, of course he didn’t see what happened. He just assumes that it was my fault.

“Nah, sorry about that. I was blocking for Reiss but I didn’t know it was her.” He smiles back at me, my dad’s eyes focused on the road. “Her bike looks worse than mine.”

I want to stomp my way to him and wrap my hands around his throat.

“I’m sure we’ve got the parts around the shop to fix it, don’t worry about it,” Dad says.

Aggravated, I get up from the couch of the toter home, and make my way to the back, posting up in one of the bunk beds. I can’t stand to be around them anymore.

My phone rings, and the screen fills with a picture of my best friend, stuffing her face with a taco.

“Hey, Stassie.”

“Girl, please tell me you kicked your brother’s hot ass.”

I roll my eyes. All the girls love my brother, it’s gross. “Nope.”

“Damn, girl. I’m sorry.”

“No,” I quip. “I didn’t train hard enough. I’ll work harder.”

“You work harder than anyone I know, you train every day.” She argues.

“I need to be better, I can go faster.”

She doesn’t argue with me and we talk about the weekend, and her many many boy problems until finally she takes a breath, “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow. I think we’re both working the same shift at Lakeside.”

Shit.

I totally forgot about my summer job. We’ve worked together at the marina’s restaurant for three summers straight. Yeah, it’s a job and we make good tips but it’s also fun. We know the regulars, and on the weekends it’s the local “it” spot.

“Yeah, I’ll see you then.”

Ending the call, I roll over in bed, pulling the band of my shorts down to inspect my hip. Sure enough, it’s a nice little mixture of purple and blue. Testing it, I take my finger and push down, wincing.

The door to the back room swings open, and Colson steps inside. I replace the band trying to hide any sign of weakness, but he catches me.

“Is that from today?”

Sitting up in the bunk against the wall, I make eye contact with him. “What do you care?”

“You need to ice it,” he demands. “And you need to take some ibuprofen.”

“Stop telling me what I need, Colson. You need to stop being a dick.”

“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he says. “I would never hurt you on purpose baby Bane.”

My blood boils. I’m seventeen years old, hardly a baby.

“Stop calling me that.”

“I’ve called you that for years.”

I cross my arms, “I’m not a baby anymore.”

His mouth tilts into a smirk, “That’s debatable with the way you are acting.”

“With how I’m acting?” I argue. “You wrecked me on purpose, Colson. That is so fucking childish.”

“Or smart,” he quips. “You aren’t ready for amateur nationals and you know it. One more year maybe, but I did you a favor, Linc. You think that bruise on your hip is bad? Try racing with those guys, the best in the nation, and see how you look when you come off the track.”

“I’m not some weak little girl, asshole. I can handle myself.”

He leans over me on the bed, caging me in with his arms, his nose nearly touching mine. “You couldn’t even handle me.”

I feel a heat in my chest with how close his lips are to mine, and I can smell his damp hair, still wet from the shower. A perfect mix of peppermint and birchwood.

It’s Colson.

Footsteps approach and he pulls away quickly, straightening himself on the edge of my bunk.

“What are you all doing?” Reiss asks, raising his brow, “Please tell me you aren’t arguing again?”

I love my brother but damn he is a nosy mother fucker, and he hates feeling left out. When we were kids he did the same thing, he’d never leave me alone with Colson.

Looking back, I don’t know if it was because he was jealous or if he was afraid of what might blossom between us. There were moments, believe me, beautiful moments between Colson and myself but none that ever amounted to anything sexual.

“We’re not arguing. We aren’t doing anything.” I growl, pulling my phone back out and continuing to scroll.

“Whatever is going on between the two of you, can you knock it off? My best friend and my sister can’t hate each other. It’s weird.”

“I don’t hate him,” I snap. “I just think he’s turned into an arrogant asshole.”

“And you’ve turned into a delusional baby,” Colson throws back.

“That’s enough!” Reiss growls. “You two are ridiculous. Come on Colson, get up here and leave her alone.”

Sneering at Reiss, he stands up and follows my brother back up front with mom and dad, leaving me here to reel about what just happened and how close Colson’s lips were to mine.

So close that he could have kissed me, he could have easily leaned down and placed his lips against mine.

But he didn’t.

He could’ve said he was sorry.

But he didn’t say that either.

This was Colson and those words were likely something I’d never hear come out of his mouth.