It's the end of the day at the lab. Walter is standing in front of his locker gathering his belongings in preparation to leave. As much as he hates the feeling of being under constant surveillance from Gus, he isn't eager to go home.
It's late and he is tired and the silence from Jesse is getting uncomfortable.
"You wanna do something?" Jesse says, finally, breaking his train of thought. Walt isn't sure he's heard him right.
"Do something? Like what?" Walt replies with the least amount of condescension he can possibly amount to.
"Go-Karts?"
Walt stifles whatever bitchy response that comes to mind and gawks at him a little. "Go-Karts? What-"
Jesse shrugs. "Yeah, there's a track down by the Coliseum." He pauses, waiting for a response. "It's pretty fun."
Walter opens his mouth in a grasp for words. What is his excuse?
He fumbles around for something that doesn't sound too pathetic. "No, actually I have some kind of meeting, so..."
Jesse turns toward the other direction and gathers his stuff from his locker, apparently trying to look unconcerned with the blatant rejection. "All right, whatever." he says. Walt cringes at how quickly this conversation has turned awful.
"Rain check?" he offers. Jesse shuts the locker door and heads up the stairs.
"Yeah. Sure."
Walter, surprisingly, feels like shit and reaches for his partner's arm just as the other begins walking upwards.
"Wait, Jesse..."
Jesse takes a few steps before begrudgingly halting and turning in toward Walt.
"Okay, yes. Go-Karts, sure." Walt offers after a blank few seconds.
"What about the meeting?" Jesse's response is more pointed than joking. Walt tells him to forget it.
Jesse is still looking at Walt like he's joking, but makes up his mind and tells him "alright," and walks up out of the lab.
He doesn't give Walt a second glance as he continues toward the door, but Walt follows.
After they lock up and exit the laundry, Jesse stops to smoke and Walt makes a move toward his own car before stopping. "Am I meeting you at this place?"
"Uh-yeah sure. I hadn't thought it through but just...trail me I guess."
Walt nods and waits for Jesse to finish his cigarette. He expects Jesse to start up some banter about how fun and exciting this go-kart trip is going to be but surprisingly, they're both quiet. It's a little uncomfortable but Walt isn't sure what to say.
"It's about like, 10 minutes." Jesse says while gesturing vaguely out toward the street.
Walt decides not to strike up conversation and just nods again, opening the door to the Aztek after Jesse starts getting into his own car.
The place looks like shit. Walt, expecting some kind of elaborate outdoor course equipped with barricades and multilevel tracks to showcase his superior driving skills on, is surprised and pissed when he meets Jesse in front of what looks like a rundown Costco.
"Indoor. Unique." Walter says lamely.
Jesse smiles and walks up to the entrance with him.
"Yeah, whatever, complain while you can but this place? Kicks ass." Walter is skeptical as he follows Jesse into hell.
The place is huge. It's completely deserted besides the two of them and the employee. The guy stamps their tickets, hands them some helmets, and tells them not to kill themselves behind the wheel.
They make their way to the line of carts and Walt picks one at random while Jesse puts an annoying amount of time into deciding which one is the best.
Walter surveys the warehouse while he waits. There's not much to look at besides the long line of unoccupied carts at the front of the floor, and it makes him wonder what Jesse would have done if he had copped out of the offer. Go home and forget about it, probably.
He can hear the echo of Jesse's pacing and Walt feels instantly better about deciding to show up.
"You ready to get your ass beat, Mr. White?" Jesse says, smirking and finally getting into a cart.
"Don't flatter yourself." Walt scoffs, putting on his helmet.
Jesse laughs sarcastically and pulls on his own helmet, telling Walt to fuck off and that "it's on, bitch."