¡Flashback¡
"And your name would be?" A soft mocking voice whispered next to her ear.
A younger Jaylen whipped around in surprise while stifling the squeak that threatened to break out of her mouth. She had been looking for her friend Nolan, a scrappy good hearted kid that she met a few days ago, but soon got sidetracked watching the neon green, blue, and yellow motorcycles zipping through the narrow streets in an uncoordinated race.
Jay blurted the first name that came to mind. "Hannah," introducing herself to the stranger. Her voice shook slightly, her heart still beating fast. She stuck out her hand to the man that she assumed had asked her name, as he was less than an arm length away.
"Ah that's too bad, I was hoping you were that Ross girl Nolan's been nonstop babbling about for the last few days." He smiled effortlessly, lighting up his eyes. The man had caught her in her lie, yet seemed not to be bothered by it.
"Oh uh um, ya Ross...Jaylen Ross." She blushed.
"Haha it's alright, I don't look like the most trustworthy person around." The man replied as he rolled his eyes.
He was right though, she thought. He looked older than her, but by how many years she was unsure. A thin scar ran from the underside of his jaw and disappeared somewhere behind his left ear. Curly brown hair fell into light hazel eyes. Those eyes held a spark of mischief. A charmer, that is what this man was. He wore a black Pink Floyd t-shirt that was tight enough to reveal a well fit body underneath and paired with snug tattered blue jeans.
"Well are you going to stare at me all day Bella or do you want to come into the loft? That friend of yours should be inside." He said tilting his head to the side and quirking an eyebrow.
"Shut up and my name is Jay," she grumbled bristling past him in an effort to quell her embarrassment and started walking toward the garage she assumed to be the loft.
She heard him loudly clear his throat behind her.
"It's this way kiddo," he clarified trying his hardest not to smile. He jutted his thumb in the opposite direction of where she was headed before turning around to walk toward the correct garage. "And I spent a few years in New Orleans when I was a kid, tends to slip out once in awhile." He threw a knowing look over his shoulder at her, "I'm Southern, not stupid."
"Um ya I knew that," She jabbed a finger at his retreating back. "Hey! wait...you haven't even told me who you are." Jay growled as she tried to dodge cars and people to catch up to him. He was already starting to get on her nerves.
"Everyone calls me Patch," he bragged while looking over at Jay who had just caught back up with him.
"Patch?" Jay scrunched up her nose. "Ha! That sounds like my dog's name!"
He chuckled darkly. As they arrived at the entrance to the loft, he rested a calloused hand in the middle of the door, preventing them from going any farther and fixed Jaylen with a hardened glare. "Ya little one make fun of it all you want, but it's just a nickname. As to how I got that nickname-" he pulled at the bottom of his fitted black shirt with his other hand.
"Uh, hey now we're in public dude and I just met-" Jaylen started to protest and shot up a hand to shield her eyes.
Patch used his hand that had been on the door, to spin Jaylen back around to face him. "Chill, I'm just showing you my scar is all."
And as she looked closer, she saw what looked like lightened birthmarks criss crossed with other scared lines along the plains of his stomach.
"Motorcycle accident," Patch confessed leaning back against the door as his voice became solemn. "Had a skin graph over most of me torso, legs and the backs of arms, thought I wasn't gonna to make it."
Just as Jay felt bad for him and thought of saying something nice to cheer Patch up, a thump sounded from the other side of the door. "Hey Idiot get off the f-ing door!" An angered voice demanded from the other side of the wall.
"Whoops," Patch smirked lazily, his mood flipped like a switch as he edged away. A resounding humph was heard from the door before a scowling kid tried to open it again. Jays eyebrows shot up, behind the door stood a boy who couldn't have been more than fifteen. This couldn't possibly be the loft, she questioned, this boy was too young to be involving himself with a crowd who was known for illegal street racing. His white-blonde hair was lazily pulled back in a sloppy bun on the top of his head so that a few unruly strands cluttered his face. Big rimmed glasses enlarged his green-blue eyes, while freckles splattered every part of his face.
"Oh it's you Patch, I should have known!" The scowl was instantly gone and replaced by a wryly grin.
"Gray, dis Nolan's new friend that he's been talkin about, the racer one. Ross, this is Grayson Peters, our computer genius/the most awkward human being y'll ever meet."
"Dude! So not cool, I-I I'm not th-that bad, come on, it's so not cool to-to trash people like that-"
"Hey! Gray, right?" She pulled the kids attention to her and away from Patch, "It's alright, I'm awkward too!" Jay flashed a smile in another attempt to distract the distraught looking kid.
"Come on now lovebirds," Patch snickered as he cupped a hand around Jay's shoulder and slung his other arm around Grayson, "the gang's all here and waiting on us."
The thrumming of music reverberated throughout the building as the three walked further into the hallway. Jay could tell they were getting closer to the source. She could faintly feel the vibrations through her fingertips as her hand skimmed the wallpaper. She briefly wondered how often their neighbors called the cops because of the loud noise.
Taking a sharp right and two more lefts, the hallway suddenly opened up to a large main area. It looked like a cross between a garage and an old living room. You could almost draw a line in between where the few scattered cars were parked began and where the couches, tables, bar, posters, radio system, and colored rugs were shoved against the far wall. Here was where everyone was gathered.
Grayson roughly jerked out of Patch's grip and raced over to a small group gathered around a bright candy red Evo. A redhead kid turned around as Gray squeezed past him. His eyes found Jaylen and his mouth quirked up into a shy smirk of recognition before pulling away from the group.
"Well look who finally decided to join the party," the redhead boomed while sauntering over to where Patch and Jaylen stood. His loud voice could even be heard over the pounding music throughout the the building, causing the other people to turn around in curiosity.
Not use to being the center of attention, Jay's checks flushed red as she tried in vain to hide herself behind Patch. He laughed and playfully wrapped a muscled arm around her waist, pulling her forward towards the group and the redhead.
"Hey do you know a Hannah?" Patch jokingly called to the approaching redhead.
Jay threw Patch the nastiest look she could muster while Nolan scrunched his forehead in confusion at the random question.
"Uh no, I mean I probably have ran into two or three, oh there's that one on tv who does the whole switching between a pop star and a normal girl thing but a specific one doesn't come to mind. Why do you ask?"
"Oh no reason," Patch scoffed, leave it up to Nolan to take a simple joke and turn it completely around.
Nolan turned back to Jaylen, who had an awed look on her face while she curiously gazed around the room. "Love at first sight huh?" Nolan knocked his shoulder with Jay to get her attention.
"What!? In love with h-him?!" She hastily jabbed a finger at Patch. "Oh heck no! You've got t-ta be kidding me!"
Nolan bent over clutching his stomach laughing, causing Patch to walk away grumbling something about not appreciating real men.
"Oh no, I was talking about the loft!"
"Well...this is awkward." Jay averted her gaze to the floor and started working on smudging out a scuff on a part of the tile.
"Here," Nolan coaxed tugging Jaylen over to the group of people that Grayson and Patch had both disappeared into, "let's introduce you to my family."
"Wow Nol, our relationship is moving so fast." Jay deadpanned.
Nolan in turn just huffed causing a piece of his hair to flip into his eyes.
There were six people including Patch and Grayson still gathered around the stylized red Evo. Patch, of course, was seated in the middle on the hood of the car. A skinny girl Jay could only assume was a racer chaser snuggled into his side. She glared at Jay like she might snatch Patch from her at any moment.
"Down Kitty Kat, dang girl she's good I promise!" Nolan snickered, amused at the girl's instant mistrust. "Guys this is Jay." He announced.
A rough looking man with black tattoos twisting and swirling up and down his arms like vines stuck his hand out. His eyes caught Jay's, they were a light glacier blue that seemed to laugh at her. He wore a simple dark gray v-neck with black cargo pants and had a Royals ball cap twisted backwards on his head.
"You must be pretty special then, Skits never brings a girl back to meet us. But it's nice to meet you anyway, I'm Cam."
Cam's hand encompassed hers as they shook.
"Ya back at you." Jaylen responded.
Nolan groaned. "Ya ya ya guys lets not make a big deal of this please." "Anyway Jay, this is Kat", pointing to the girl who was still glaring at her, "and her brother Max."
Max was the one slouched on the other side of Patch. If anyone could pull off the cookie cutter normal boy look, it was this kid. For the second time that night Jay desperately wanted to know how these people all came together. Max nodded his head in Jays direction.
"Not much of a talker?" Jay whispered to Nolan.
"Haha naw, him and Kat just take a while to warm up to strangers."
"You don't say." Jay mumbled.
"And I'm Danny, by the way, as it seems Nolan has a habit of forgetting the competition." A very tall guy stepped up in front of Jaylen.
"Competition huh? You'd have to be pretty damn amazing then," Jay laughed.
"Haha more than you know sweetheart." The guy in question winked. Danny had that good boy look. He had dark hair that was an awkward length. It was too short to place in a ponytail but long enough that it got in his eyes. It seemed to flop over his head like a frat boy's. Dark long lashes that any girl would have been instantly jealous of encircled wide green eyes that fixed her with a piercing gaze. His skin was the perfect color of a dark tan that Jay guessed was completely natural.
"Well now that the stupid intros are over with, what are we going to do?" Max interjected throwing a look over his shoulder at Patch.
He grinned. "What else? We show little Miss Ross here how we race."
A genuine smile appeared on Jaylen's face. For once in a very long time, she felt like she belonged.