Kim barely slept at all that night. She couldn't get him out of her head. She was dreaming about memories of him. Them the night they met, the next day at the pizza parlor, and then again at the restaurant.
She then remembered the first time they kissed, then the second, and the third... Kim awoke again with a stir. Her body was covered in a cold sweat. She wiped the sweat off of her face and walked into her bathroom.
She splashed cold water on her face for the third time that night. Kim sighed and looked at herself in the mirror. She could barley tell her tears apart from the water running down her face. Kim shut her eyes as she shut off the faucet to have her ears become filled with another sound.
Kim's eyes opened up wide. Her instincts ran over the engine, 'That's an engine. It's a 2.2...no, a 2.4 liter engine. An inline 4, turbocharged. Between 290 and 300 hp. It's a Silvia engine. An S-13...a 240?'
Kim ran to her window and opened it up quickly. She looked across the road. There it sat. The street lights shone off of the metallic black paint job. She looked at the driver who only looked like a shadowy figure. A tear fell down her face.
The car turned and screeched as it began a donut. After a half donut, the tires countered and the car drove down the road. Kim watched as the taillights disappeared. She saw his brake lights as he drifted around a corner.
Kim sighed, "He used you and you still love him. Why?"
Kim turned around and fell down onto her bed. Her head was dug into her pillow, but she could still hear herself crying. She wiped her tears off of her face as she heard her phone begin to vibrate.
She brought her phone to her ear and spoke with a raspy voice, "Hello?"
"Kim? Are you ok?"
She nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine. What's up?"
"Umm, Oh yeah! I got a call from Bakersville Muscle. They want to race tonight at ten. Tom made sure the lake was gonna be clear."
Kim had forgotten about the race. She shook her head to clear it out, "Yeah, whatever."
"You don't sound to excited to beat Tom after what happened."
"I'm just not in the mood."
"Get the team together and meet me at the lake for eight to go over some things."
"You got it bitch, see you then."
Kim smiled lightly, "Bye bitch."
Kim hung up the phone and sighed. She walked over to her drawer and pulled out a pair of jeans and a large sweatshirt. She quickly dressed herself and went down to her kitchen. She left a note for her mother saying that she had to leave early and she'd be back that night.
Kim walked outside after putting on her leather jacket. Kim looked at her red 911. She smiled, "Ready to go baby?"
Kim slid into her driver's seat and started up her 3.6 liter power house. She revved her engine twice and put the car in gear as she pulled out of her driveway. She accelerated around a right hand corner and then headed towards Willow's Hill.
Kim parked at the top and looked down it. She knew this road. This was her road. Before her, there wasn't anyone racing touge on this mountain. Now she could barley get it to herself.
She began her downhill run slowly. She was only going 75 as she powered through the first light, right hand turn. She sped up to ninety by the time she hit the first set of hairpins.
The first hairpin was wide but tightened up quickly. The second two were very tight. The road widened up again but then tightened around the next sharp right/left combo. Kim accelerated down a straight that landed her at another set of hairpins. She drifted through them quickly.
Kim felt water on her cheeks. She was driving to try to make her stop being emotional. She wanted to push her car so that she could forget about the world. It wasn't working.
Kim accelerated harder and faster. She slid around a sharp four turn combo. Her car's grip was at its limits as she took a wide hairpin turn. Kim's foot was floored on the accelerator as she sped down the mountain towards the S-curve.
Kim quickly downshifted and slid wide around the corner. She used the inertia to drift the second turn and then powered down the straight. Kim couldn't tell how limited her tire grip had become.
Kim entered the next turn with an extremely limited amount of tire grip. Kim four-wheel drifted around the corner, despite the fact that she had attempted to two-wheel drift.
Kim sighed as she felt like she was going to slow. She shifted into sixth gear and kept pressing her way down the mountain. She accelerated into a light, left hand corner like she always would.
The car's turning force combined with the high speed sent Kim into a full throttle spin. Kim let off the throttle and lightly tapped the brakes trying to regain control before she got to the next hairpin.
Kim tapped on the brakes again and felt the car slide back into place. Kim sighed and heel/toe downshifted as she entered the hairpin. She slowed down to second gear and then powered out. Kim began to upshift again.
Kim got back up to fifth gear before she hit a sharp, right hand turn. She handled the turn in third gear and then accelerated outward. She then accelerated towards another set of hairpins. Kim accelerated through the hairpins, downshifting one gear for each of the three turns.
Kim hit a long, left hand turn. She pulled her E-brake at the apex of the turn to induce a heavy oversteer. Kim slid around the turn and then accelerated towards Willow's famous hairpins.
These corners were 4 steep hairpins that involved tunneling underneath the previous turns. These corners were first two corners were extremely wide and long, involving the ability to hold a very long drift. The second two were tight, but still long, meaning they needed a sustained drift that didn't have much room for mistakes.
Kim shifted up to sixth gear and headed towards the first hairpin. She downshifted into fourth gear and powered through the corner, Kim's exit speed was high as she shifted up to fifth gear as she accelerated towards turn two.
Kim downshifted to third gear on this turn and used her E-brake to maintain the drift. Kim then accelerated down a slightly longer straight. She entered the turn going too fast to handle the turn.
Kim turned into the turn and heel/toe downshifted. The turning force combined with her braking sent her into a high angle drift. The 911 sat on it's limit of lateral adhesion. They wouldn't hold up through another turn, but Kim wasn't paying attention. She just wanted to forget. She wanted to forget about him. She didn't want to think about him ever again...
"Why won't you just get out of my head!"
Kim entered the second turn using a feint drift and her limits of lateral adhesion were broken as she hit the apex of the turn. She began to spin once again and the narrow road gave her no room to correct. She couldn't correct. She couldn't see through her tear filled eyes.
She hit her rear bumper on the guard rail and caused her car to 'jump' as it reversed back to face the road. It slid out again and did a five-forty as she got on the accelerator again. She didn't notice the wheels were facing straight and she sped into the guardrail.
She broke through it as she slammed on the brakes. Her front end started to slowly slide over the cliffs edge. Kim pulled up on her E-brake and the car stopped sliding. Kim gently opened her driver side door and stepped out of the car slowly. Kim backed away from the edge of the cliff and looked at her car. The front tires hung over the edge.
Kim grabbed her cell phone out of her pocket and called Jess. It rung twice before she answered. Kim explained what had happened and Jess said she'd come up in a bit with some help.
20 minutes later, Kim saw a red Eagle Talon driving up the road followed by a black Chevy S-10 that had two stickers on it. One said 'Black Metal' and the other held a 'Blak Nite's' insignia on it.
Kim cringed at the sight of the Blak Nite's insignia. She was somewhat relieved to see Kevin get out. Jess ran over to Kim, "Are you ok? What the fuck happened?"
Kim shook her head, "I entered the corner too fast, then I spun twice before accelerating right through the rail."
Kevin looked at the car, "I can get it off the cliff, then I'll go get the garage's truck and we can take it to my shop."
Kim nodded and watched as Kevin connected a cable to her car and pulled it off of the ledge. She then waited in Jess's car as Kevin left and came back quickly with his tow truck. He hoisted it up and then Kim and Jess followed Kevin to the garage.
Inside, Kevin hoisted the truck up onto the hydraulic lift. Kevin looked underneath the car and sighed as he looked over at Kim, "The cliff cut into the muffler and it snapped the fuel line. Besides that its body damage, but I think that you might have damaged your intercooler on impact."
Kim sighed, "How long?"
"Labor would only be a couple of hours, but it would take me at least a day to get the needed parts."
Jess looked at Kim, "You have your race against Tom on the lake tonight. What the hell are we gonna do?"
Kim sighed and bit the skin of her thumb, "I don't know..."
Jess sighed, "Would you race the Talon? My TSi has 310 hp."
Kim sighed, "I wouldn't be able to get used to the 4WD in time."
Kevin said, "We'll, you could take my old MR2. It's drift ready and N/A like your Porsche, but it only has 220 hp."
Kim shook her head, "My power wouldn't be able to compare with Tom's. Face it, I'm screwed."
They all sat or leaned as they spoke about options with nothing coming to them. Kim had to race Tom. She couldn't lose twice. On the other hand, if she won, she would have to see Nik again as they raced. She couldn't race him at full capacity because of what happened...
"What about the M3?"
Kim looked over at Jess, "What?"
"Did you ever sell your M3?"
Kim shook her head, "No, but the car isn't exactly in prime condition."
Kevin asked, "What's wrong with it?"
She sighed, "It's in my garage, the bumpers off, the muffler is off, the intercoolers out, the dashboard is out, the tires and brakes are off, and then paint is all gray because of the base coat."
"How long to think that would take to put back together?"
"I don't know, a few days by myself."
Jess asked, "What if we helped you?"
Kim shook her head, "I don't know, maybe. The thing has 300 hp, plus my suspension upgrades. Who knows? It might hold up."
Kevin nodded, "It's settled then. We'll attach the wheels at your place, and then bring it here with the tow truck and you guys can bring the smaller parts with the TSi. Agreed?"
Kim and Jess nodded, and sure enough, that's what happened. When they got to the shop, Kevin fixed the brakes and called a friend of his to do a paint job for cheap. Jess worked on the dash as Kim worked on the intercooler and muffler.
After three hours, the car was taken to the paint shop. Kim ate, or rather watched Kevin and Jess eat, lunch. She sat and stared out the restaurant window. Why couldn't she stop thinking about him...?
"So why were you crying this morning?"
Kim looked over at Jess, "I wasn't crying..."
"Yeah you were, so why?"
"Men."
"Mr.240 and you? I thought you guys were good."
She sighed and picked up her glass of sprite, "I just put some things together and found out he was just like every other guy."
Kevin laughed as he choked back a curly fry. Jess looked at him, "What was that about?"
He shook his head, "Nothing, it's just I've never heard 'Nik' and 'Just like every other guy' in the same sentence before."
Kim sighed, "He was using me, plain and simple. No one would want to start a relationship they knew would only last a week and a half."
Kevin sighed, "I guess Nik's name is no one then. That sounds exactly like something he would do."
"So he would only want a small relationship with no emotions?"
"Nope, it wouldn't matter to him if you lived on Pluto and he lived on Mercury, he'd try his hardest to make it work."
"That's insane."
"Once again, that's Nik. He has this thing about girls. If he thinks he's found the right one, he'll do whatever it takes to hold onto them. He's insane like that."
"So what are you saying?"
"What were you told?"
"This guy asked me why Nik would start a relationship when he was leaving in a week."
Jess looked at Kim, "What guy?"
"Tom."
Jess sighed and smacked Kim across the face. She looked at her, "Tom equals normal man. Normal man equals 'wants to get in your pants'."
Kim nodded, "I knew that, but it was a hard situation to over look."
Kevin paid the waitress before he said, "You have to look past your normal limitations and find a higher level of thinking. Nik used to say 'higher level of driving', but I think a slight augmentation might make things seem more understandable."
Kim sighed and followed them out to the restaurant and over to the paint shop. The car had been finished and now shone with it's original red paint. Kim smiled and stepped into the car as she turned on the engine and heard it roar to life. Kim revved it a few times to get a feel for it.
Kim looked at her clock. It clearly read 3:30. She looked at Jess, "I want the whole team at the lake for 8:00, not a minute later."
Jess nodded, "See you then."
Kim put the car in gear and pulled out of the parking lot. Kim accelerated hard around a ninety degree corner and felt her suspension hand the corner with ease. Her and this old thing might still win, if she could focus...
Nik lay on his bed staring at his ceiling with an odd gaze. He had been staring at a bug that had been flying around for almost 2 hours now. It just kept buzzing and buzzing and buzzing.
Nik then heard footsteps. He looked at the blond haired thing in his door way and asked, "What?"
Al walked over to his brother and handed him a plate, "Mom got pizza, I brought you up some pepperoni."
Nik took the plate, "Thanks."
He sighed, "Some people stopped by to see you." Nik looked towards the door as Mei and Kevin walked in the house. Nik smiled and sat up, "What the fuck do you assholes want?"
Mei smiled, "Tonight is my last night with the Monte Carlo. I figured we should give her a good send off."
Kevin nodded, "Yeah man, come on. This might be my last night to run with my old team."
Nik sighed, "I really don't feel like driving..."
Mei sighed and stood up, "Too bad dickey lets go."
Nik sighed and rolled over onto the floor. He got up and picked up his keys as he followed Mei and Kevin out of the house. Alex followed and stepped into Kevin's old MR2.
They all started up their cars and pulled out of the driveway as they headed towards the lake. The line was Kevin, then Mei, then Al, then Nik at the rear. Nik drove along as he rested his elbow on the window and his head in his palm.
They started there run fast as Kevin powered along the wide left and then accelerated towards the right/left combo. Kevin drifted hard and watched as Mei caught up to him. Al was still trailing, but he seemed happy to be in a powerful car.
Nik slid around the corners at low speeds, using his E-brake do induce oversteer. Nik wasn't driving very hard. He was thinking about Kim. He just kept thinking about it. They soon entered the high speed section. They all tandem drifted through the right/left combo. They all long slid around the 75° corner and then went towards the V-turn. They took it lightly and then powered towards the start/finish line.
Nik looked ahead as he saw the MR2's blinker light come on. Nik followed the cars into the lot and they were soon surrounded by the many cars of spectators. They all walked to the starting line as they saw a guy counting down from 5. Nik's eyes watched the Blue Stealth and the Red M3 pull off the starting line.
Nik sighed, "I guess Toms racing."
Kevin nodded, "Yeah, Kim's M3 is holding up pretty well."
Nik's eyes widened, "WHAT?"
Hey, sorry this took so long. I got more hours at work, so I've been busy. I've also been learning how to drift on GT3. I got in a little typing during my usual work hours. (Midnight-whenever)
Anyway, I hope to get the next chapter up soon. I've been contemplating on where to take my story from here and I've got some interesting ideas. They'll all come out in time. Till then, Gohan gaitei wo doko desu ka?