Chapter 7: Too Much To Drink
A week later after the accident, a depressed Speed was out of the hospital and now standing in his Father's garage talking to Sparky. Before the accident, Speed was mad but now he was just plain sad.
Sparky was trying his hardest to cheer his friend up. "Come on, Speed," the young mechanic said with enthusiasm. "Let's go out. There are women out there waiting to meet us."
"I don't want to meet anyone," Speed said totally uninterested.
"Come on," Sparky said practically begging him. "You can't have no social life for the rest of your life."
"Why?" Speed said staring at the Mach 5.
"That's it," Sparky said aggravated. "Let's at least go for a ride."
"I don't feel like it."
"Speed, that's it. You're coming," Sparky said pushing Speed into the Mach 5. A few minutes later, Sparky was driving because it was obvious that Speed had no desire to, which was weird.
After riding around for about a half hour, Sparky pulled up to the old Sport's Bar, with a new name.
"What are we doing here?" Speed asked aggravated.
"As your friend, it is my duty to cheer you up," Sparky said getting out of the car.
"No," Speed said not moving. "I don't like this place."
"Come on, Speed. It has new owners. Let's try it out."
"I don't want to," Speed said still not moving to get out.
"Speed. I can't believe that you're going to let a girl do this to you."
Speed looked back at Sparky. Sparky didn't know that Speed blamed himself now for losing Trixie, and Speed wasn't about to admit it. Because of this he got out of the car acting like he was ready to meet someone new.
Once in the bar, Speed was instantly approached by a girl. He had no interest in her but to show Sparky that his social life was fine, he began talking to her.
Sparky was relieved and satisfied so he left Speed and the girl when he recognized someone else.
As Speed and the girl tried to make conversation, he found himself very bored with her. She wasn't adventurous like Trixie. When the girl began asking Speed what some of his winnings were, he began to assume she was money hungry.
Sparky ended up being separated from Speed for about an hour because he was still talking to the girl he had met before. When he was finally away from her, he started to look for Speed. That's when he saw the girl that Speed was with earlier and asked her where his racer friend was. She said she had become sick of hearing Speed Racer talk about some other female so she left him at the bar by himself.
Sparky looked and sure enough, Speed was sitting on a barstool by the bar with his head down.
"Speed," Sparky said walking up to him.
Speed lifted his head and opened his eyes, which were very red. "Sparky," he said pulling him by the arm to sit down next to him. "Have a drink," he said waving to the bar tender.
"Speed. You don't drink, and I don't want a drink because it's obvious that I will be driving home,"
"Then you drive, and I'll drink," Speed said drinking the last drop that was left in his glass; his voise slurring.
"What happened?" Sparky asked. "You were talking to a pretty girl."
"I want to talk to Trixie, not her," Speed admitted.
Sparky smiled, "I knew it. I knew you still have a thing for her."
"Have a thing for her! I love her!" Speed expressed just before dropping his head back onto the bar.
"You love her?" Sparky asked surprised, his eyes almost popping out of his head.
"I want her back," Speed said raising his head off the bar again. "I'm going to call her right now and tell her."
"Speed. She won't even recognize your voice if you call her right now."
"Where's the phone?" Speed asked turning his head to look around for it.
"Speed. What are you going to tell her?" Sparky asked wishing he could tape Speed and play it back for him the next day.
"I'm going to beg her to come back to me," Speed said standing up and then falling to the floor.
Suddenly someone was helping the racer up, but it wasn't Sparky.
"Racer X," Speed said smiling while patting him on the back.
Racer X sat him back on the barstool. "Speed. You're drunk."
"I'm not driving," Speed said still smiling and making the Masker Racer wonder what the heck was going on. Speed wasn't a drinker.
Sparky knew he'd better say something, "Racer X. I didn't know you hung out here."
"I don't but I saw the Mach 5 here so I stopped. I know Speed doesn't normally hang out here either."
"Uh...It was my idea," Sparky admitted rubbing the back of his head.
Racer X looked back at Speed and said, "Looks like he liked the idea."
"Racer X. Help me to the phone," Speed said putting a hand on his shoulder. "I have to call her."
"Who?" the Masked Racer asked and then he guessed it. "Trixie?"
"Yes. I want to tell her that I love her, and I want her back," Speed said so seriously.
Racer X smiled wishing for a minute that Trixie could hear Speed. "Speed. You are too...messed up right now. Call her tomorrow."
Sparky folded his arms and said, "Tomorrow he'll be sober, and he won't do it."
Speed then turned to the bar and put his head down once again.
"I knew he was having a hard time getting over her," Racer X said shaking his head.
"Yeah. I guess I did too and they say the truth comes out when you're drunk," Sparky said looking at his drunk friend.
Suddenly, Speed lifted his head and said, "I'm going to put the hurting on Jake." He stood up only to fall down again.
"It's more like you're putting the hurting on yourself," Sparky said with a laugh.
Speed was still mumbling when they helped him up. "She thinks I want Gem and I don't," Speed said upset but then got what he thought was a brilliant idea. "Hey, maybe I can set Gem and Jake up."
"We got to get him out of here," Racer X said.
"No. Wait. I need to sit down," Speed said pulling away from them and managing to balance just before sitting back down on the barstool.
He was about to call the bar tender till Racer X said, "I swear if you order another drink, I will throw it in your face."
Speed began to laugh hysterically, then his head was down on the bar again. "I miss her so much."
"Hang out with us and forget about her for a little while," Sparky said as he and Racer X sat down by Speed again.
"Forget about her?" Speed asked lifting his head. "I haven't stopped thinking about her since we left Egypt."
"You mean Europe," Sparky said laughing.
"I don't want to hang out with y'all anyway," Speed said. "I want to be with Trixie. Did you know she flies?"
Racer X looked at Sparky and said, "I swear this boy is going to make me start drinking tonight."
"I'll get your mind off of her," Sparky said standing up and going to the jukebox. He played some rock song and then Speed and he sat down at the bar singing it. Racer X just sat back and watched them.
Soon it was hard for the Masked Racer not to laugh because the next couple of songs that came on were about break ups. Speed sang them loudly as if he had written them. Some of the songs were, "She's Gone", "She Used to Be My Girl", "One last Cry", "Baby Come Back," and "What Kind of Fool Am I."
After the songs, Speed was more depressed and said, "I need another drink."
"No," Sparky said spinning Speed's bar stool around making him face away from the bar. Unexpectedly a pretty girl named Alexis, walked up to Speed and said, "I know who you are and I've been watching you all night. It's time I do what I've been dreaming about." She put her hands on Speed's face and anyway but gently began kissing him.
Sparky's eyes opened wide as he wished he was Speed.
Racer X shook his head wondering how Speed would react to this in his condition.
When she stopped kissing him, she asked, "How was that?"
Speed looked back at the girl seeing three faces instead of just one and said, "I'd much rather kiss Trixie."
Totally insulted, the girl slapped Speed hard enough to knock him off the barstool. "Jerk!" the girl exclaimed just before walking away as Sparky laughed at Speed again.
"I'm going to repeat myself," Racer X said to Sparky. "We need to get him out of here."
They then lifted Speed off the ground and headed out the door.
Once outside as the cool air hit him, Speed said, "I feel horrible."
"Drinking way too much does that," Racer X said just before turning his head to Sparky. "Sparky. How could you let him get out of hand?"
"I didn't know," Sparky said innocently. "I was talking to some girl I knew for about an hour and then I found him like this by the bar."
"Let's just get him into the car," Racer X said not in the mood for an excuse.
"Hey. This seems kind of familiar. Doesn't it?" Sparky asked Racer X.
"Yes," the Masker Racer said knowing just what Sparky was talking about.
"You practically carried Trixie to the car when she was drunk," Sparky said forgetting that Speed didn't know about that.
"Racer X," Speed said lifting his questioning face to him. "You took Trixie out and got her drunk?"
Sparky burst out laughing as Racer X said calmly, "No, Speed. I did not take Trixie out."
"It must have been Jake then," Speed said sounding aggravated. "Sparky. Take me to Jake's so I can kick his ass."
"You couldn't kick anyone's ass right now," Sparky said as they put Speed in the passenger side of his car.
"Sparky," Racer X said closing the door. "Make sure you get him home safely."
"I will," Sparky said again wondering why the Masked Racer always seemed to be worrying about Speed.
"Racer X," Speed said before the Masker Racer turned to jump into the Shooting Star, "If you go out with Trixie again, tell her I miss her."
Racer X smiled and said, "Speed. If I see her, I promise I'll tell her you miss her."
"Okay," Speed said watching as Racer X pulled off.
Speed then looked at his friend Sparky. Sparky knew Speed would say something nice about the Masked Racer, like he normally did.
However, he pointed to Racer X's car and said, "I'm going to kick his ass if I find out he kissed Trixie when he took her out."
Sparky shook his head laughing. "I need to get you home before you start thinking I kissed Trixie."
"You what?" Speed asked; his eyes wide.
Sparky changed the subject and said, "Look in the sky! It's Trixie."
"Where!" Speed asked looking for her plane just before he passed out.
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The next morning, Speed woke up on the floor in his bathroom. He got up slowly not remembering the night before. "My head," he said looking in the mirror to see a small cut on his face and what a mess his hair was. He then walked into his den to see Sparky sleeping on his sofa.
Speed threw a pillow at him and then said, "Wake up Sparky."
"Hey," Sparky said just after the pillow hit him.
"I feel horrible," Speed said rubbing his head. "I can't believe I drank that much. I don't even like to drink."
"You did last night," Sparky said with a laugh.
Speed gave Sparky the look of death and said, "My back hurts, and I have a cut under my eye. I don't remember anything about last night."
Sparky sat up smiling. "Well where do I start? Let's see, your back probably hurts because you fell a bunch of times and...some girl slapped you in the face. I'm guessing her ring cut you. The three of us over all had a good time."
"The three of us?" Speed asked wondering who the third person was.
"Yeah. You, me and Racer X," Sparky said yawning.
"Racer X," Speed said appalled because Speed had always looked up to him. "Racer X saw me drunk?"
"Yeah," Sparky said thinking the look on Speed's face was hilarious.
"I can't believe this!" Speed said upset. "Where were we anyway?"
"At that new Sport's bar on the highway, you know the old one with the new name?"
"Yeah, and I'm afraid to ask what else I did," Speed said sitting down.
"You told Racer X you wanted to kick his ass."
"What!" Speed exclaimed standing up again.
"Well not exactly. Don't worry," Sparky said. "He didn't hear you."
"Why would I say that?" Speed said as his head pounded.
"You thought he went out with Trixie, which he didn't."
"Trixie," Speed said calmly as he longed for her once again. "Why would I think Racer X went out with her?"
"Speed you were pretty messed up."
Speed touched the cut under his eye and said, "You said a girl hit me. Why and who was she?"
"I don't know who she was, but she just started kissing you."
"Kissing me?" Speed asked not liking the idea of kissing a total stranger. "Was Trixie there?"
"No," Sparky said seeing the relief on Speed's face.
"Why did this girl hit me?" Speed asked confused.
"Because you basically told her you didn't like kissing her," Sparky said like he was crazy.
"She must have wanted to kill me," Speed said imagining it.
"She slapped you hard enough to knock you off the bar stool and on to the ground."
"What?" Speed said embarrassed. "Racer X saw that?"
"He helped me help you off the floor," Sparky said loving the look on Speed's face.
"I don't want to hear anymore," Speed said sitting back down on the sofa.
Sparky wondered if he should tell Speed that he said he loved Trixie but then he decided not to because Speed might really freak out.