Girls Like Boys

Benji was already standing outside when we pulled up into the loading zone. He wore a jacket, but I could still make out the collared shirt and name tag pinned to it. He traipsed across the sidewalk in his khakis and Ramsy dropped out of the truck to let him into the backseat.

“You look cute in your uniform,” I said, grinning at him as he sat down. He glared at me and reached to buckle up.

“I’ll look extra cute when I win the race tonight,” he said, sliding into the middle seat and leaning up to the front. “Travis is going to get his ass kicked and then he’ll have to get a job at a shoe store.”

Ramsy climbed back in. “You’re so bitter,” she said, shaking her head at him. “After all this time, you’d think that you would’ve learned how to be a gracious loser.”

I laughed, covering my mouth with my hand, and turned around quickly when Benji pointed his glare at me again. He kicked back as I started the car, putting his feet up on the center console. Ramsy kneed them back down.

“Have you heard from Trav at all today?” Benji asked, sitting forward with his elbows on his knees. “Ry said that he’s pretty much been catatonic. He wouldn’t come out of his room this morning. I thought maybe he would’ve called you or something.”

“Do you think he’s nervous?” Ramsy asked, peering at me. “Or sick?”

Benji answered, “He just gets like this before a race. He takes the entire day to get in the right headspace, or whatever. He’ll be fine once the race is over.”

I pulled out of the mall parking lot and around to the street. From here, it would take about twenty minutes to get back to Travis’s house. It didn’t surprise me that Travis became stoic before a race, but Benji’s question had. Travis hadn’t included me in any of his other race-day routines, so I didn’t expect him to include me in this one either.

I pulled the truck into Travis’s driveway, pulling as far as I could to the left so I wasn’t blocking any of the garage doors so that the guys could get the cars out tonight. Benji pushed on the back of Ram’s seat, rushing her to get out.

“Why are you in such a hurry?” Ramsy asked, slowly unbuckling her seatbelt. “You might want to save all that energy for tonight, speed racer.”

Benji rolled his eyes and reached up to open the door for her. Ramsy made a show of taking as long as possible, so with a sigh, Benji slid over to my side and followed me out. He hopped down after me and slammed the door shut, shooting Ramsy an elitist look as he rounded the front of the truck towards Trav’s front door.

Ramsy got out and roller her eyes at his back.

“Leave him alone,” I said softly as I came around to her side. Benji left the door open for us and I lead Ramsy inside. In through the garage, we hooked a left and stepped into the house.

Ramsy shut the door behind her. “He’s fun to antagonize,” she commented, looking up at the other guys in the room. “Is this place always filled with people?”

I grinned at the group of guys who were huddled around one of the cars. “Yeah, and they’re always obsessing over something.” I turned my attention to them as we walked up, counting heads. “Hey, guys.Where’s Trav?”

Ryan nodded toward the second floor. “Still in his room.”

I glanced that direction. When I looked back, I noticed the looks on a couple of the guys’ faces. It matched the look on Ram’s face as she saw some people she didn’t know.

“Ram,” I said, catching her attention. “You haven’t met everyone, have you?”

She shook her head. “Nope, unfortunately I haven’t been blessed enough to meet the rest of Travis’s brood of car guys.”

Shay grinned from the other side of one of the car. “That could be our super hero crew name,” he said, “‘The Brood of Car Guys.’ I, personally, think we should ditch the ‘Travis’ credit, since he didn’t technically bring us all together.”

“Ramsy, this is Shay Hart,” I introduced, smiling easily at the mid-color brunette. He tucked his hair back behind an ear and reached across the hood to shake Ramsy’s hand.

“I’ve been wondering when we were going to meet you,” he said, glancing between us. “You’re coming with tonight?”

Ramsy nodded. “Cody finally convinced me that we all won’t end up jail.”

Shay laughed. “In that case, I’ll be your pseudo-baby-sitter tonight. Travis basically demands that I stick with Cody all night, so it’s pretty much my job to make sure that you don’t get arrested.”

Before Ramsy could retort, I cut in to introduce the other guy she didn’t know. “Erick,” I said, calling him over from the next car. The blonde turned basically on command. He leaned against the roof of the car, resting forward on his elbows.

“What’s up, Code?”

“This is my sister,” I said, even thought it was pretty obvious. “Ramsy, this is Erick Dayer. He sets up Travis’s races and does tons of other car stuff that I don’t care about.”

Erick pressed his palm over his heart. “You wounded me, Cody,” he said, feigning pain. “I thought that you found me interesting and adorable.” He grinned at me over the roof of the car and raised his eyebrows, waiting for a response.

I rolled my eyes. “Adorable, yes. Interesting, no.” I turned towards Ramsy and addressed the both of them. “Speaking of adorable and interesting, I’m going to see if I can coax Trav out of his room. Are you going to be good down here for a few minutes?”

Ramsy nodded as though she didn’t understand why I’d even ask. “I can handle the boys on my own,” she said. “Go get the man of the hour down here.”

I stepped around her, calling back to Ryan as I crossed the pit to the stairs. “Ry, can you make sure that Ramsy doesn’t kill one of them?” I asked, sending a playful grin towards my sister.

She made a point of ignoring me as I crossed the catwalk to Travis’s room. The door was closed, so I knocked and called out to him before reaching for the handle. “Trav, I’m coming in,” I said, knocking again to make sure he heard me.

I glanced around the oversized bedroom, surprised that he wasn’t in the room. Since the boys said he was up here all day, I continued towards the bathroom and knocked on the door. “Trav, you there?”

“Code? You can come in.”

I frowned. “I’d rather not. I’ll just wait out here until you’re done, okay?”

I heard him laugh from the other side of the door and then, within a minute, the door was open and Travis stood on the other side. He reached out and grabbed my wrist, pulling me in with him.

“What are you doing?” I asked, pulling my arm from him. He leaned past me, brushing against my shoulder as he closed the bathroom door, secluding us in the little room together. He turned back around and stepped into the bathtub in his boots. He climbed down until he was laying down.

I stared at him in confusion. “What are you doing?” I asked, sliding my arms over my chest as he stretched out, resting his arms on the sides of the tub.

He wore an oversized black t’shirt and a pair of joggers that stood out against the white bathtub. He laid down casually, tucking one arm behind his head. Without answering me, he shifted so that he could reach into his pocket. “Do you mind if I have a cigarette?” he asked, pulling the pack out. He grabbed a lighter off the floor.

When I didn’t answer, he looked up to me with raised eyebrows. “What?”

I frowned and stepped forward, taking the lighter out of his hand. “What’s wrong with you?” I questioned, crossing my arms again. “More specifically, why are you laying in your bathtub? The guys said they haven’t seen you all day? Is this where you’ve been?”

Now without a lighter, Travis set the cigarette down. He sighed and scooted up so that he was sitting rather than laying. He brought his knees up and pointed to the open space. “Have a seat, Code.”

“Travis,” I complained, “you have to leave for your race in two hours. Shouldn’t you eat something or fiddle with the car or something?”

“I’m not talking to you until you get in here,” Travis said, offering me a smile. “And not until you give me me lighter back, for that matter.”

“You are impossible,” I muttered, stepping one foot at a time into the bathtub. Travis slid back as far as he could, and crossed his legs, tucking his legs under himself. When I went to sit down, I copied his posture. “So, are you going to tell me what this is all about?”

Travis grabbed the lighter out of my hand. “It’s not about anything,” he said as he lit his cigarette.

I gave him a look. “You usually hangout in your bathroom?” I asked. “This has nothing to do with the fact that you have a race tonight? Are you nervous?”

“No.” Travis shook his head. “I’m fine, really. It’s just kind of a routine.” Travis peered at me as he took a drag of the smoke, then he put it out. He didn’t usually smoke when we were this close together, but tonight was more stressful than usual. “What about you, Code?” he asked. “Anything you want to talk about while we’re here?”

I eyed him, but didn’t push. “Actually, Charlie’s pretty upset with us right now,” I said, shrugging. “We told him that we’re not going home for Thanksgiving.”

Travis frowned and shifted. He wrapped his arm over my shoulder and tucked me into his side. “Why aren’t you going home?”

“Because it’s not worth the drive,” I replied. “It doesn’t make sense for us to drive there, come back four days later, and then head back in two more weeks. We tried to explain that to him, but he’s still pretty mad.”

“He’s your dad,” Travis defended. “He hasn’t seen you for months.”

“You’re not making me feel any better, Trav,” I said, resting my head on his shoulder.

Travis wrapped both arms around me and held me against him. “I just understand how he feels,” he said with a shrug. “When winter break gets here, you’ll be back in Indiana for weeks.”

I frowned, shifting so that I could see his face. “Are you saying that you’re going to miss me?” I questioned, reaching up to grab his chin and pull his face down to me so that he couldn’t hide his expression.

Travis shook my grip off. “You’re saying that you won’t miss me?” he asked, turning his gaze to me on his own. He smiled, knowing the answer already.

“We were talking about you, Trav,” I said, shuffling back so that I could get comfortable. Despite the fact that the tub was larger than average, there still wasn’t much room with the two of us curled up in it together. I pushed off of him so that I could turn the other direction.

Sensing my discomfort, Travis shifted too. He moved so that he was laying back again and pulled me down against his side. The position allowed us both to stretch out. I rested my head against his shoulder and braced my arm on his chest.

“Of course I’ll miss you,” Travis said quietly. “It’ll be weird not having you around all the time.”

I nodded, my cheek brushing against his chest. “I want to see my dad and everybody,” I spoke, “but I hate that I have to leave here to do it.”

“Me too,” Trav said. He slid his arm across my back, his fingers tangling into my hair. “What are you and Ram doing for Thanksgiving? The dining halls are going to close.”

I shrugged. “We’ll survive. We’ll probably just get takeout and watch movies. And if he’s not still mad at us, Wesley will probably convince Charlie to FaceTime us at some point.”

Travis nodded. “You know, you and Ramsy could FaceTime Charlie from my house,” he said quietly. “Ryan will be there, so you’ll know at least two people.”

“You mean, at your parents’ house, with your brother, and Ryan’s parents, and the rest of your family?” I asked, pushing myself up so that I could look at him.

Travis nodded. “I mean, you pretty much just named my entire family, but yeah. We have dinner at my dad’s and just hang out. It won’t be a big deal or anything.”

I considered it and settled back into my spot. “I’ll have to see what Ramsy wants to do,” I said. “I think it would be nice, but I don’t want to leave her if she doesn’t want to go.”

Travis nodded. “I can always bring you food when I’m allowed to leave,” he said, lightly pushing on my forehead so that I’d look up to him. “It’s whatever you want to do, okay? You don’t need to be bummed on on Thanksgiving.”

“Thanks, Trav,” I said softly. “You should come visit me over winter break. I’d come back here, but I know Charlie won’t let us leave until the last possible moment.”

“I’m sure your dad will love that,” he answered. He pressed me forward, causing me to sit up. He pulled his feet back under him and climbed up, standing at full height in the bathtub. Carefully, he stepped over me so that he was at the end of the tub. He reached up to the shelf above the toilet and came back. He grabbed his phone and maneuvered back to his spot.

“Trav, can we please get out of the bathtub?” I asked, making myself smaller as he walked over me. “You still haven’t told me why we’re in here.”

“It’s a good luck ritual,” he answered, shaking his head as he clambered back down. “Hanging out in confined spaces traps all the energy.”

I shot him a look. “Says who?”

He shrugged. “Don’t ask questions, Cody. It’s worked so far. If you jinx it, we’ve over.” He shuffled so that he was sitting next to me and he lifted his phone, opening the internet. “I’m ordering out,” he said without looking up. “You want anything?”

I shook my head. “No, Tristan made dinner.”

Travis grinned, eyeing me before turning his attention back to the phone. “‘Tristan’?”

“Jack’s roommate,” I told him, watching him type in the phone number. He lifted it to his ear when it started ringing and climbed up again. This time he motioned for me to follow him. He got up and reached back for me, helping me out of the tub.

“Yeah, hi. I’d like to order for delivery,” he spoke to the person on the phone, stepping out of the bathroom and continuing out of the room. He stopped on the catwalk and looked down to the pit. “Ramsy!” he shouted, causing me to move to his side. “What’re you doing? Seriously? Get off the damn car!”

I peered down and saw Ramsy shoot Travis a look as she slipped off the hood of one of his cars. “I was just sitting,” she called up. “I’m not even that heavy.”

“That’s not the point,” Travis retorted. “What’re you guys doing? Who let her sit on the car? I’ve got to take that out tonight and I don’t want it all dented up.”

Erick answered his friend, but Travis waved him off, speaking to the food vender again. He rambled off his order for a pizza and then asked the person to wait. He caught his friends’ attention. “Any of you want pizza?” he asked, glancing over the horde of boys. All of them, including Ramsy, nodded.

Travis heaved a sigh. “Fine, then one of you come get the phone. You can bring it back up when you’re done ordering. Tell them I’ll pay cash when they deliver.”

Shay rushed over until he was standing just below the catwalk. Before I could object, Travis dropped the phone from the second floor. Within seconds, Shay caught it and lifted it to his ear, asking his friends if they wanted to split a specific pizza with him. When he got a chorus of ‘yeses,’ he relayed the order to the person waiting on the phone.

“That’s a brand new iPhone,” I chastised.

Travis shrugged. “He caught it.”