Page 38 of Her Sloth

“Can I jump in?” I ask the guy with a blue Pontiac and hand him a hundred bucks.

“Sure,” he says and throws a pouch with the white powder at me.

I open it and throw it onto the plate he has, chop it up, take two, and tell the others to take the rest.

“Have fun,” I say.

I walk past the other cars, looking at the drivers. I’m looking for someone special. Someone who can’t lose well and would walk over broken souls to win.

“Hey,” I hear behind me.

It’s the redhead flag girl, dressed in a very, very short leather skirt, her hair up in two knots like cat ears and a lollipop in her mouth.

“We never had the chance,” she says, holding out a hand. “Nikki.”

I squint my eyes slightly. The coke is consuming my system, and my heart beats quite fast, causing my vision to be very tunnel-y.

“Addy,” I say, taking the hand.

“I heard you kicked Cass’s ass a second time,” she says.

I am slightly taken aback. I figured Cass would have the loss die in silence.

“She told you?”

“No secrets between family,” she says lightly.

“Or rather you annoyed me so much until I spilled the tea,” says Cass, appearing from behind with an arm around Nikki’s shoulders.

“Nikki is my brother’s girl,” Cass says. “Way too good for that dumbfucker.”

“He has his qualities,” says Nikki. I am suprised, because she was definitely on my gaydar.

“Oh yeah? Which ones? Farting louder than an elephant?” Cass jokingly.

A grin fights its way onto my face even though I don’t want to, but it’s the first time all week that I didn’t feel like dread and total numbness.

“Nah,” says Nikki, “He’s just too good at eating pussy.”

I snort out and Cass chokes.

“Ew,” says Cass. “I really liked the version of me before I knew that.”

“If you dish out, you gotta take it,” says Nikki and turns to me. “So, what do you say, in for a race?”

“Which one’s yours?” I ask.

“That one,” she says and points to a green Camaro two behind us.

“Not sure you can handle me,” I say, playfully arrogant.

“Don’t let yourself be fooled by the cute appearance,” says Cass. “That little kitten has lioness claws.”

“Does she?” I ask, teasingly.

“She’s a free climber,” says Cass. “More guts than any of us here.”

“You gotta take me,” I say mindlessly. Completely forgot that I don’t plan to be here tomorrow.