65 Blacktop Obsession
"Hey Kaidyn, how you doing, girl? How's the arm feeling?" Brian asked, walking in the dining room. He stopped and looked at the table. There was a bowl of lemons, a salt shaker, a few cans of coke and all her books spread out over the table. It was quite the sight.
"I'm okay. How's your Skyline running?" She asked, her head buried in her book.
"A little rough, honestly. I gotta work on a few more things." He said, sitting down in the chair beside her.
"I miss working on cars. I need to work on fixing mine up but I can't until this stuff is done." Kaidyn rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, you'll get it done soon. I'm sure." Brian nodded.
"Doubt it. I can't have my car, my phone, a computer or anything. I can't even use my resources on this stuff." She threw up her hands, exasperated.
"Aww, come on, Kaidyn. You're smart, you don't need that to get this stuff done." Brian grinned.
"Not really. I am stuck. I've been at this all morning." Kiadyn blew her bangs out of her face, feeling discouraged.
"Come on, you got this." Brian encouraged her. "I know you do. I have heard how smart you are." He said, shaking his head with a grin.
"Finding a sinusoidal Function of each of the graphs and evaluating limits are not my strongest points." Kaidyn frowned, struggling with it. She hated math.
"You got me there, girl." Brian laughed. "Can you take a quick break so I can look at your hand?" he asked.
"Sure, it's a little sore today." She admitted. "I don't even know what I did. And Idk why my face is more bruised than it was before." Kaidyn admitted.
"You tripped on the stair banister the other night. You were so wasted." Brian said, shaking his head. "I don't know how you were able to drink so much and not be hung over the next morning. Props." Brian nodded, trying to distract her.
"Oh that must be why I hate stairs." Kaidyn said, giving Brian her arm.
"Does that hurt?" he asked, touching it and feeling if it was swollen. She winced a bit and pulled back.
"Are you a doctor?" Kaidyn asked, curious.
"Pfft. No, I am not that smart. I used to be a cop and we had a lot of training." He said, looking at the wrist a bit more. She wasn't really reacting as he was feeling around, much to his relief.
"Interesting." Kaidyn said.
"Not really." Brian said, wrapping the arm back up with the ace bandage. "Hurting since I touched it?" he asked, looking her in her eyes.
"No, it's good." Kaidyn said, grabbing a lemon and sprinkling salt on it and then eating it.
"Has Rome seen you eat one of those yet?" Brian grinned. She shook her head.
"He can't stand to be around sour things so make sure you eat one around him." Brian's eyes twinkled mischievously.
"Thanks for the inside info. I am definitely gonna work on that. Do you think I can ride in the Skyline when you get it fixed? I miss being in the cars and racing." Kaidiyn asked.
"As long as Shayde okays it, I don't see why not, But only if she says it's okay because I know she knows what's best for you." Brian said.
"She would never have to know." Kaidyn tried to bat her eyes at him.
"Girl, I got big blue eyes too. Those won't work on me anymore. I know how you work now." Brian laughed.
"Ugh." Kaidyn folded her arms. "Can you read this paper and tell me if it sounds okay?" She asked. Brian leaned over to read it.
"You want me to get Han? He's probably better at this stuff than I am." Brian said, shaking his head.
"Nah, he's so annoying when I need help. He is napping and I am letting him sleep." Kaidyn smiled devilishly.
"I am not the smartest person to be doing this kind of stuff." He admitted. "But I'll take a look. Whatcha got?" he asked, hoping Carter and Shayde weren't going to be upset that he was helping her instead of Han.
"Sure, that is why you were a cop who made detective right?" Kaidyn asked, blinking her eyes at him sarcastically, her chin resting on her hand. "FBI at that." She added. She had done her research on him.
"You are too smart, Kaidyn" he shook his head. "It's probably a good thing you can't have a computer," he joked.
"Hurtful. I miss being able to order stuff online and being able to play games and other stuff." She said wistfully.
"Uh huh, I bet that's what you miss." Brian agreed, rather sarcastically as he read over the paper. He put it down and looked at her. "You sure it's not the hacking?" he teased.
"I admit to nothing" She scoffed.
"Right." he nodded. "You know how good this is? Like seriously, Kaidyn, you should really think about writing for a career. I am impressed." He said honestly.
"Wow, thanks." Kaidyn said, shocked he was so impressed. "You really mean that?" She asked, not sure if he was just being nice or if he really meant that.
"I'm serious. You and Jesse are so smart." Brian said, knowing she would consider that a compliment since she thought so much of Jesse.
"I miss Dom and Jesse." She sighed.
"Well, maybe once you get your work all done and get through these classes we can give them a call and check in on them." Brian said with a shrug.
"Can I tell you a secret?" She asked, looking around.
"Sure." Brian said, not sure if he should be worried about what she was going to say.
"I am almost done. I have been working super fast since this morning. Han was right, I just didn't want to do it." she admitted, chewing her lip. "If you tell him this, I will kill you." She pointed at Brian, making him laugh because he could see a bit of Carter in her right then.
"I won't say a word. I promise." he held up his hand like he was swearing. "I'm really proud of you. I will definitely see if Shayde will let you do a few runs in my skyline with me." he said, making her smile.
"That would be so cool!" she nodded, so excited her eyes were sparkling.
"I'm gonna leave you be so you can get this finished up if you are good. I'll be over there on the couch just holler if you need me." he got up, happy that she was about to be done. He knew this would take a lot of stress off of Shayde.
"Hey Ro! Want a lemon?" Kaidyn asked as Roman walked by.
"Hey girl..A what?" his face made Kaidyn giggle. She got up and took the biggest lemon slice she could find to him.
"Aw hell nah, girl. Get that nasty ugly looking thing away from me." he said, inching away from her.
"Come on Romeyrome pimptastic1234 you know you want one." Kaidyn held it up to his mouth. He pointed at her accusingly.
"That's not fair, you can't give out my password and not get it right. I got one of those exclamation things in there." He said, clearly offended. This made her howl with laughter. She waited until he opened his mouth and she shoved the lemon in by standing on her tiptoes.
"Oh Hell no, girl it's on now." He spit the lemon out. "Oh, I'm gonna get you. It's on now, Missy." He yelled, taking off after her.
"You have to catch me first. RomeyromePimptastic exclamation sign." She yelled, making him chase her faster.
"That's below the belt and not nice, KAIDYN." He said, shaking his head. She kept dodging him and when he'd get close she'd turn the other way. "Yeah, you best run. I got you, you stand no chance." he warned, looking for her. "Where'd you go? I will find you." He said, walking into the dark pantry area.
"Boo!" Kaidyn jumped out at him and then ran.
"That's ….not ...funny...Blondie! " he yelled, again taking off after her.
"Tej! Tej! Help me!" Kaidyn burst into Tej's room, screaming.
"Whoa girl, I'll help you anytime, but what are you doin?" He asked, watching Roman run up the stairs. Kaidyn stood behind Tej, giggling and out of breath.
"Protect me?" She asked, holding onto him from behind.
"Yeah, I'll protect you. " He nodded. Roman came running in and Tej stepped up between him.
"Give me the girl" Roman said, using his hands to talk and motioning to give her to him.
"Not my girl, you need to find a different girl, Ro." Tej grinned, shook his head. "When she wants to make it official." He looked back at Kaidyn. "I got you, Babygirl." He promised.
"Hand her over, Tej." Roman shook his head, folded his arm and almost pouted.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Nah, Bruh, we gotta settle this because you ain't getting past me. What'd she do anyways?" Tej asked.
"Put a disgusting ass lemon in my mouth. I am still tasting that sour shit." He complained.
"Get outta here, man." Tej snickered, shaking his head.
"I'm keeping my eyes on you, Blondie. You gotta leave sometime." Roman warned, backing up and pointing at her.
"My hero." Kaidyn grabbed him from behind, hugging him. He turned around to hug her back.
"Anytime Babygirl. Anytime. If he messes with you, you let me know." He promised, looking her in the eyes. "So now that you ran to me and I got you, can we make this official or we still gonna play this cat and mouse game?" he asked, looking down at her and in the eyes.
"You sure you can deal with me?" Kaidyn asked, looking up at his eyes, not sure if she wanted to know what he would say to that.
"I can deal with you all day, every day, Babygirl." he promised. She leaned up and kissed him on the cheek.
"Then it's official." She smiled.
"Yeah." He said, giving her a hug and kissing the top of her forehead. "Come on, let's go show him how to eat some lemons and really bother him." Tej laughed, putting his arm around her.