A/N: Yet again, I am writing faster than I anticipated. No idea how long this will continue but...well I hope you guys are enjoying all the quick updates ;)
Happy reading!
angellwings
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: You Can't Catch Me
"Now you can't catch me.
Baby, you can't catch me,
'Cause if you get too close,
You know I'm gone like a cool breeze."
-"You Can't Catch Me" by Chuck Berry
By the time Friday rolled around Lucy was fed up with Wyatt having to walk her to every class. She understood why and she didn't mind having him around, but looking over her shoulder had never been her favorite thing. She had just gotten past feeling like Jonas was watching her every move and now she had to worry about this Tristan asshole? She really hoped going to this street race worked. Hopefully, showing up at the race would prove where her loyalties were.
With Wyatt.
Always with Wyatt.
She was not going to get him in trouble.
She was ready to go back to worrying about Jessica and Jonas. She knew how to handle them. Tristan scared her. Jonas, at least, had a reputation to protect. He had something to keep him from going too far. Tristan had none of that. It made him ten times more dangerous than Jonas. She was not at all comfortable with the never ending stare he focused on her every day at school this week.
Lucy wanted to look like she was trying to fit in at this race so she decided to channel Jessica as she got dressed. Tight jeans, green racerback tank, black boots that stopped at her ankle, and Wyatt's jacket. She hadn't worn it every day that week but she'd come close. Under the weight of Tristan's glare, it made her feel safe.
She tried to make her hair look as careless as possible. With her curls, though, the carelessness was always staged. She kept her makeup minimal. She wasn't going there to impress anyone and Wyatt didn't care what her make up looked like. She knew that for certain.
There was a knock at her balcony door. Lucy looked up with a bored stare, trying to hide her amusement. She let Wyatt in and then chuckled at him.
"My mom's not here, you could have just knocked on the front door," she told him.
"That's not as much fun," Wyatt said with a shrug. "Too normal."
"Is it too normal to go out the front door?" She asked teasingly. "Because we're not going down that way. Not unless you want me to break my neck or a leg or something."
"Would that keep you from coming tonight?" Wyatt asked. He was half joking, she could tell, but she didn't appreciate it.
She snatched up her small crossbody bag and threw it over her shoulder, leaving the room without another word.
"Oh, come on, Lucy. I was joking, okay?" He said apologetically as he followed her down the stairs. "I mean, you know I'm worried about it but I'm long past stopping you from coming. I just don't want you to get hurt, that's all."
"I don't want to get hurt either, Wyatt," she reminded him with a huff. "And I'm nervous enough as it is. I don't need you making that worse."
He grabbed her hand as they reached the bottom of the stairs and pulled her into his chest. "I'm not trying to."
His arms went around her and she quickly returned the gesture before replying. "I've been on edge all week. Tristan hasn't done anything but look at me and still he makes me feel—I don't know, vulnerable. Weak. I don't like it."
Wyatt's arms tightened around her, protectively, and she took a moment to breathe him in. No cologne tonight. Just Wyatt. Freshly clean, slightly woodsy, with the faintest trace of gasoline.
"I don't like it either," he admitted. "I've been too aware of him all week, just waiting for him to try something. I'm worried every minute we're at school. So, here's hoping your plan works, Valedictorian, because I can't stand much more without taking some sort of action."
"What are you going to do? Fight him? He hasn't done anything to justify it and you can't get in any more fights on school grounds. Remember?" She asked as she buried her face in the crook of his neck.
"He's scaring you, Lucy. Am I supposed to just sit on my hands and let him get away with it?"
"That's better than you getting expelled," she answered.
"I'm not sure it is, actually."
"Wyatt, do not get expelled for me."
"Lucy—"
"Or arrested."
"I won't let—"
"Just say 'yes' and move on, please. This is an order, not a request."
She heard his muted laugh against her forehead as he placed a kiss there and nodded. "Yes, ma'am."
After a few more minutes, they pulled themselves apart and left the house behind. It was late and dark, and it only got darker the further they drifted from town. Until suddenly it wasn't, and a pop of bright lights stood out amongst the vacant rural darkness.
She listened as Wyatt took in a slow calming breath. She could feel and see his defensive wall sliding into place.
"Here we go," he said as he drove into the crowd of tricked out cars and parked right in the middle of all of them.
Not wanting to look like the prim snob they all thought she was, she didn't wait for Wyatt to open her door. She usually let him because it seemed important to him, but not tonight. Not here. He gave her a look that indicated exactly what he thought about that and it wasn't good.
She sighed and shrugged as she met him around the front of the car. "Deal with it, tough guy."
He rolled his eyes playfully and slipped his arm around her shoulders. "Come on, let's go find the guys."
None of what she saw on the way to meet Dave and Zach was shocking, exactly, but she'd never seen so much of it up close and personal. There was lots of drinking, lots of smoking, and more than a small amount of snorting. So far she hadn't seen any needles, but she had seen some flashes of unexpected nudity. Some windows weren't fogged up quite enough. She briefly wondered if Wyatt and Jess had been one of those couples, steaming up the windows in the middle of the field, but then banished the thought immediately. It caused a jealous tightness in her chest that she hated.
Plus it left her wondering, for the very first time, if Wyatt was bothered by just how truly innocent their make out sessions had been thus far. Did he want something more from her than she'd given him? And what about her? Did she want more than what they'd done since that first morning in her living room? The image of Wyatt's hands running over her bare skin came to mind and it caused a jolt of electricity to course through her.
Yes, yes she very much wanted that. As soon as possible.
When her silence had gone on too long, he squeezed her around the shoulders and encouraged her eyes to meet his. "You okay over there, Luce?"
"Yeah," she answered urgently, hoping her cheeks weren't as flushed as they felt. "Yeah, fine."
"Sorry, I know this is all kind of…." He must not have known how to finish his sentence. He let it trail off with a wince. But his hand gesturing to the crowd of loud cars and even louder people told her enough.
"It's actually what I expected," Lucy told him with a small smirk. "Just never actually seen some of these things in person. On HBO, sure. In person? Not so much."
He chuckled and nodded. "Got it."
They found Dave and Zach sitting on the lowered tailgate of Zach's truck, beers in hand. Zach pulled one from the cooler and offered it to Wyatt as they approached. Wyatt waved it off.
"Been gone for a few weeks so I got stuck with the first race," he explained with an eye roll.
Zach laughed. "Bugged at not being the main event any more, Earnhardt?"
Without giving it a second thought, Zach offered the beer to Lucy instead. She blinked at it and Zach quickly withdrew it with an awkward grimace.
"Sorry."
"No, it's fine, really—" she cut herself off and blushed in embarrassment. "Just never tried one before. My mother's more likely to offer me a sip of wine than keep a beer in the house, and the Decathlon kids are more the types to steal from their dad's liquor cabinet."
"You're not missing anything," Dave told her with a grin and a wink. "They taste like shit. Or at least Zach's cheap crap does."
"Hey! Budweiser's a classic!"
"Doesn't mean it's actually good," Wyatt offered with a chuckle.
"Yeah, well, beggars can't be choosers. You get whatever my cousin can swipe from my uncle's store," Zach told them both with a roll of his eyes. "If you want to try one, Lucy, now's the time. They're free and not a single person here is gonna judge you if you don't like it."
"You don't have to," Wyatt assured her with a soft smile. "No pressure."
She swallowed loudly and shrugged. "Why not, right? I mean, if I don't like it then I don't like it."
"That's the spirit," Zach said as he opened a can and passed it to her.
She didn't know why this seemed so nerve-wracking. She'd had tequila before at the Decathlon after parties. It was mixed in with other things, but still she'd gotten buzzy, hadn't she? Buzzy enough to let Jonas talk her into sleeping with him. Beer was no big deal. Not any worse than a sip of wine or a Margarita or a glass of champagne at her second cousin's wedding. She knocked back a gulp before she could second guess herself. Her face immediately pinched in disgust as it slid down her throat.
"Bam-Bam's right," she said as she passed the beer back to Zach. "That tastes like shit."
Dave and Wyatt laughed at Zach's crestfallen face.
"Told ya you weren't missing much," Dave replied as his laughter subsided.
Wyatt checked his watch and then reluctantly glanced over at Lucy. "I gotta go," he told her. "Stay here with them, alright? Just gotta kick this new guy's ass, win some money, and I'll be back, okay?"
She nodded and then rose up on her toes to place a pecking kiss to his lips. "For luck."
"I appreciate that, ma'am," he said with a cocky gleam in his blue eyes as held her firmly against him. "But I don't need it. I make my own luck."
He reeled her back in for a slower and deeper kiss and then pulled back with a wink. "Be back in a few minutes. Don't go anywhere, Valedictorian."
"I wouldn't dare," she replied with a grin.
"Here," Dave said as he gently grabbed her arm and pointed to the bed of the truck. "You can see better from up there."
He lifted her easily into the back of the truck and she sat down on the wall of the truck bed. "Thanks, Dave," she said as she sat. He was right. She could see the dirt track perfectly from there. "He's as good as he says he is, isn't he?" Lucy asked the boys knowingly.
They smirked at her and nodded.
"They can't catch him," Zach told her as he sat down next to her. "They all try, but it's no good."
There was murmuring behind them and it was accompanied by hushed snickering. The crunch of dried leaves and gravel drew closer. Lucy was hyper aware of it. Dread filled her senses and she grit her teeth as the overwhelming stench of alcohol finally surrounded them. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Dave and Zach tense too. So, she wasn't crazy. Something was about to go down.
"Looks like Logan and his buddies brought their new little friend. What's your name, babe? I keep seeing you around."
Lucy took a deep breath and turned a cool gaze toward the voice. Tristan. Of course it was Tristan. And he was wasted, by the looks of it. He was also surrounded by a couple of guys just as tall as he was. The three of them wore identical leering expressions.
"I'll tell you what my name isn't," Lucy said as she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. "Babe."
A smirk formed across his lips; however, it looked nothing like Wyatt's. It sent fear through her veins, cooling her blood to the point of freezing.
"Oh, shit, she's got some fight in her," he said with a laugh as he stepped closer to the tailgate of the truck. "I like that. It's always the quiet ones that turn out to like it rough, you know? What about you, Lucy, you like it rough?"
He sneered her name through gritted teeth, emphasizing that he'd already done his homework on her. He hadn't actually needed her to answer his earlier question. She refused to let him bother her. That was his goal. He wanted to ruffle her feathers.
She forced a smile to curl on her lips and then walked across the truck bed to stand on the tailgate. Making her taller than any of the boys around her, with the exception of Zach who stood just behind her.
"One thing's for sure," she said as she held her smile in place. "You'll never find out."
Zach and Dave grinned at her and Tristan's friends let out shocked guffaws.
Tristan's face reddened with anger but his sickening smirk quickly made another appearance. "I don't have to. Get a couple of drinks in that Jonas asshole and he spills his whole life story. Told me all about the supposedly innocent Lucy Preston. You're not actually that innocent after all, are you?"
Try as she might, she couldn't stop her visible flinch or the tears that sprung to her eyes. This asshole knew all about her biggest regret? No. No. Life wasn't that unfair to her. It couldn't be.
"He told me you liked to have your hair pulled," Tristan said as he stopped directly in front of Dave. "That true? Maybe we should test it out in private, hm?"
Dave stood as tall and wide as he could, a veritable wall between Lucy and Tristan. "Back up, man. Leave her alone."
Her throat went dry. She viciously shoved her shaking hands in the pockets of Wyatt's jacket. With just one fact, she knew Jonas had talked. He'd pulled her hair, that was true. But she'd hated it. Only she'd been too insecure to tell him that.
"Why, Bam-Bam? She letting you have a little taste too?" Tristan asked him with a bitter chuckle while he crowded into his space. "Am I the only guy without a ticket to the Preston show?"
This wasn't happening. This wasn't happening. Oh god, she needed him to go away. How did she get him to go away? Get it together, Preston! Stand your ground, don't let him walk all over you like Jonas did.
"Maybe not the only guy without a ticket," Lucy said as she hopped down from the tailgate and tucked herself behind Dave. "But you're certainly the only guy who's banned from ever seeing it. I don't have time for a waste of space like you."
Zach disguised a laugh with a cough and then climbed down to join Dave as her wall of defense.
Tristan's eyes turned violent in an instant. "Fucking bitch. Who the hell do you think you are? You think you can talk to me like that because you're sleeping with Logan?"
"No," she said, ignoring the statement about her sex life. "I think I can talk to you like that because you're a coward who thinks you can control people by making them afraid of you. But you can't control me because I'm not afraid of you."
It was a lie but hopefully she was carrying it off convincingly. She was very afraid of him. Not that he had to know that.
"Not afraid of me?" He snapped. "Then let's change that."
He lunged in between Dave and Zach and wrapped a vice-like grip around her upper arm. She yelped as he jerked her forward, but he didn't get far. Zach stepped forward and slugged Tristan across the jaw, loosening his grip on Lucy. Dave took the opportunity to pull Lucy completely behind him.
Zach and Tristan were rolling around on the ground, in a tornado of fists and kicks. One of the two guys with Tristan ran for Dave, separating him from Lucy. She pressed her back against the truck as the third guy came for her. Hands grabbed at Wyatt's jacket, trying to work their way around her waist. She shoved and scratched and kicked. She couldn't get free. Panic filled her chest and her breathing became shallow. She could hear her pulse thundering in her ears.
She was losing the fight to keep this guy away from her and she knew it. She glanced around for help but Dave and Zach were still occupied. The asshole's hands wound around her waist, under the jacket, and shoved it from her shoulders.
"Get away from me!" She yelled as the jacket hit the ground. But he didn't flinch or even move his predatory gaze away from hers. Just as she felt a hand dip under her tank top, onto the bare skin of her hip, a new voice joined the chaos.
"Get your fucking hands off of her."
The words weren't so much yelled as growled before a fist slammed into the nameless creep's nose. He fell backwards onto the ground with a thud, blood gushing from his face. He tossed one look at the newcomer, and then fled. Visibly shaken.
Wyatt. She knew it was Wyatt, but she was frozen. She couldn't move or look at him. It was too much. It was all too much. His jacket was lifted from the ground, dusted off, and then swaddled around her shoulders by gentle hands.
"You okay?"
The words were quietly murmured against her forehead, but she heard them. She wasn't really sure how to answer him, though, so she settled for a nod and then pointed to where Dave and Zach were still brawling.
"I'm on it," he declared as he walked her toward the cab of Zach's truck. He opened the door and then lifted her into the seat because she couldn't seem to move her own legs. "Lock the door, stay here."
The door to the truck was shut softly and she habitually reached over hit the electric lock. Curiosity stirred at that moment. What was he going to do? How the hell did he plan on stopping this? She twisted in the seat to look out the back window of the truck. Dave's opponent was already laid out on the ground by the time Wyatt approached, but Zach and Tristan were still going.
Wyatt and Dave peeled them off of each other. Dave dumped a beaten and bloody Tristan in the dirt, and then turned to flank Wyatt. There were words exchanged, but she couldn't hear them. Whatever it was led to Tristan attempting to punch Wyatt. Wyatt dodged the hit and then delivered one of his own to Tristan's stomach. Tristan hunched over and fell to the ground. Wyatt hovered over him, but didn't deliver another blow. Again, she couldn't hear what was being said, but the look on Tristan's face was nothing short of terrified while he pulled himself off the ground and sprinted away.
She got a brief glimpse of Wyatt's livid face as he turned. It faded quickly, giving way to worry and guilt as his eyes met hers through the truck window.
So much had happened in the last few minutes that she wasn't entirely sure how to process it. Had her being here made things worse? Or had it simply allowed the inevitable explosion to take place off school grounds? If it was the second option, she found herself oddly grateful.
Maybe she felt violated and betrayed. Maybe she had bruises forming on her upper arms and wrists. But at least she'd managed to protect Wyatt somehow, someway. It was a small thing, but it offered her the comfort she so desperately needed in that moment. Keeping the fight off school grounds meant Wyatt couldn't be expelled. It meant he had a chance to explore his full potential. It meant she got to keep him longer.
Hopefully, this put an end to the threat of Tristan once and for all.
