Hobby

I sat in bed wearing nothing but a shirt and underwear. Holding a can of beer in hand whilst I listened to my flat mates whispering outside my door. I clenched my jaw, shaking my head while scoffing, as I stood and went to open the door. They both stood dumb founded, looking at me in remorse as they saw my physical state.

“Cherry, we were gonna come in and check on you-”

“I don’t want an explanation.” I interrupted, looking between the two as they shuffled their feet uncomfortably. “Don’t check up on me ever. I’m fine.”

“We know you are, you don’t ever seem to not be okay, despite everything that’s been happening...” The other spoke, Thomas.

“I’m fine. You don’t need to worry at all.” I replied dryly. The two stood there stunned, in disbelief. Thomas simply nodded and pulled Julie away and down the hall to the living room.

I shook my head, sighing and retreating back into my room. Trouble now was I wasn’t upset or in dismay. I was angry, and bored, and didn’t know what to do to solve it. I tried music; listening to... But it didn’t stop my mind from swinging around to the past few months’ events. In the end I turned it off and tried to watch a movie on my laptop, but this didn’t work either.

Instead I got dressed - slipping on some dark jeans and my socks. I put on my shoes and took my jacket with me, searching for my phone and keys before I left. I took a deep breath as I got behind the wheel of my car. A Honda Civic (Type R, EK9), I proudly own. I kept the radio off, putting down the driver and passenger windows, and drove swiftly down the highway to the recreational centre. I attended on weekends and Wednesday’s. There was a mechanics garage there, along with all the tools. Even a warehouse of spare frames and bodies for anyone’s personal project uses.

On the lower floor there was a library, a cafeteria, a bunch of offices for the admin people as well as those who ran the place. There’s also a music studio. Thomas uses it, though he admits he hasn’t been very successful.

On the second floor, the art studios fill the whole space. That’s where I was heading. It was very late at night. The wind whipped past the car and in through the windows, my hair flew in the breeze as I zipped past cars and swerved through lanes.

I came to the turn off I needed to take, and drifted round an empty round about; before reaching the desolate road en route to the community centre. I pulled into the parking lot, finding a space close to the entrance and getting out. I took a deep breath, locking the car and checking my phone for the time. Almost midnight. Luckily the centre was open 24/7.

I made my way to the elevator, next to the library - as well as a stairwell. I hadn’t been here for a long while. Almost 3 months. I shared one art studio with 5 other people. Only 2 people came regularly and between them they couldn’t keep anything in order and clean. Once I got in there, I immediately found something to do to keep myself occupied. I filled bin liners full of empty paint bottles and tubes, cleaned desks and brushes. Including paint pallets. I rearranged items on the shelves as well as sorting out all of the paper material into colour and size. Not once was I interrupted until I checked the time again. It was nearly 2am.

I folded away the chairs and tables, turning off the light and closing the door behind me as I left for the car. I was about to get in when I heard shouting voices coming from the garage. The doors lifted up to reveal a man leaving, throwing a towel to the floor and taking off his gloves as he reached his own car. A Nissan sports.

He looked at me for a moment as he reached the door and opened it. He looked back to the man he’d left standing in the garage before he sped away. “Hm.” I hummed to myself. Getting in my own car and, too, speeding away. I saw the man in the garage in my rearview, he seemed to watch in anger and regret at something as he was left alone.

I wasn’t tired. I decided I’d stay out and drive around for a while. I picked up a gear as I grew faster down the street. It was a long stretch through a few desolate office buildings before I reached an open countryside - the more scenic route back to my hometown. It was quiet, besides the roar of my engine (as I accelerated) and the purr (as I took my foot off the gas).

Soon I reached town, drifting around another round-about as I reached the square streets around skyscrapers and little antique shops and diners. Regrettably, I scraped past a cop car at around nearly 170 mph. I hadn’t noticed this until their blue and red lights flashed in the mirror and their siren sounded a little louder than the engine - almost impossible.

“Shit. I ain’t slowing down now..” I cursed myself, upping another gear and shredding my way down the street and swerving around a corner to the next long strip of road.

Another cop car was called, which made its way down the road towards me. It was an all-way stop. The cop was coming in the opposite direction, and all ways around had red lights as the traffic light engineers were informed of my speeding - in order to prevent other drivers from being hurt.

To my surprise, as I was just about to reach the middle of the intersection, the same car from earlier reached the middle of it too - going straight across at the same speed as me. My heart raced in my chest as I saw his expression of shock when he saw me.

I had no time to stop. Instead I accelerated and turned the same direction as he was going, before I reached him I pulled the handbrake and turned an e-drift around the front of his car. Our bumpers almost touched as I reached the other side of his car. Our cars faced one another, and in that moment we held a joint look of hopeful anticipation that we didn’t crash.

I swung around 180° and stopped facing the opposite direction that I’d just come. I gasped for breath. I watched as the other car screeched to a stop and the driver got out of his car slowly. I did the same, and the cop cars finally pulled up.

I was first to be cuffed, and then the other guy too. He put up a fight blaming me, but the cops retaliated and revealed they’d been told by the officers in the station that they’d seen him speeding on the cameras too.

We were put into the same cop car. Our cars were taken to the community centre to be picked up tomorrow, both had no scratches or marks. We were being put in detainment for one night and back out tomorrow at midday. On the way to the station I smiled to myself unconsciously, thinking about the burn out marks I left on the road. I hadn’t pulled a move like that for a long while..

However the man beside me wasn’t happy. Though I don’t think it was because of me. I looked over at him a few times, he looked over once, and the look on his face said everything. He was still aggravated from whatever happened at the garage earlier. I guess he’d been speeding out of anger such as I and I’d been in the way as he was just about to be free from the town.

It was just bad luck he got caught up with me and the police. Oh well. It wasn’t my first time. I didn’t know about him. At least I’d stopped him from potentially hurting himself… “You seem used to this,” he stated, breaking the silence in the car.

I looked in the rear view mirror to see the cop looking at the both of us. The other one who was with him had taken my car, and one from the other car had taken the other guy’s.

“Pretty much.” I shrugged, not looking away from the cop. He got uncomfortable and shifted his eyes back to the road - readjusting his grip on the wheel.

“Figures. I ain’t seen no one drive like that. Especially a girl.” He said, I side eyed him - and saw his little smirk as he turned his head to the window.

“I bet you’re shocked that, as a woman driver, I didn’t leave a dent on your frame?” I raised my eyebrow, now looking over at him fully.

“Don’t start you two.” The cop interrupted.

I still stared at the man next to me, he sheepishly gave an apology and went back to looking out the window. I did the same. I isolated myself from the current situation, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath.

Truth be told I needed that rush of fear and adrenaline. I’d spent too long cooped up in my room back at the flat. I could now see why Julie and Thomas were worried. We did have a fourth, Jake. But he hadn’t been there outside the door. He was grieving too.

See we all lost a friend. Two. Though for me it was a friend and a brother. Triston and Mark. Mark was my brother. They both died in a car crash. Quite ironic. I’d been there. But I wasn’t in the same car. There were two other cars that initially crashed, and Triston had been driving the car with Mark inside. They weren’t paying attention and didn’t dodge the wreck in time - getting themselves tangled in with the loose tyres and shrapnel.

The wreck exploded, the force of it pushed my car back as well as taking out shop windows and other cars parked along the walkways. This was months ago. I was still in bad shape, I couldn’t ever admit it to anyone else though.

So in fact, that rush woke me up. It made me realise I was still alive and that I needed to keep doing so to the fullest extent. Because you never know when any day will be your last. Anyway, we handed in our phones and other items in our pockets.

Since the town was small, there was only one big cell for all of those they kept overnight and it wasn’t split up between genders. It was surveilled 24/7, and there hadn’t been any incidents in the past as of now.

We were thrown in and told we weren’t gonna be fined because they ‘couldn’t be assed’.

But we were let off with a warning.

I stood alone in the right corner closest to the bars, arms folded, leaning against the wall. I didn’t look at anyone else who was in the cell, though I felt a lot of their eyes on me. I stared out at the only exit to the outside I could see, down the white hallway to the right of me. I was finding it difficult to breathe, I could still take breaths.. but it was difficult to let them go without any kind of stutter. I guess I was uncomfortable.

One of the others in custody, a man, came up to the bars next to me trying to start a conversation. “Why you in here so late?” He stared straight at me, blocking any kind of way for me to get past and away from him.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” I muttered, rolling my eyes and keeping them in the direction of the hall.

“That’s why I asked,”

I shrugged, leaning my whole back against the wall and facing him without any fear or intimidation.

“Oh I see,” he chuckled to himself, putting his hands in his pockets and taking a few steps closer. “You think you’re untouchable. That I won’t hurt you because you’re a girl?”

“No, I just don’t care,” I replied plainly, not breaking eye contact.

The guy took a while to respond. As he was about to, I pushed away from the wall and got up in his face. There he backed down immediately, falling away and sitting down on the concrete bed - along with 3 others. I shook my head and scoffed.

“What kind of man are you?” I muttered to myself, heading over to the man I was sent here with. He sat, on a chair, in the left corner closest to the bars, leaned over with his elbows on his knees and his fingers entwined in his hair.

“Hey,” I spoke up, sitting down on the floor by the bars.

He looked up at me, his expression dark. He looked as if he hated me.. yet as he saw that I didn’t have bad intentions against him. He nodded at me, and watched as I tucked my hair behind my ear, as I looked to the setting on the other side of the bars.

“I’m sorry if it seemed I was blaming you for us being in here.”

I shook my head in response, “No. In all fairness it is my fault.” I replied, I took a deep breath as I replayed the events and emotions and reasons in my head. “I was in a state of anger. I don’t know..“I tutted to myself.

“Yeah. I uhh.. I understand. I was the same,” he man in front of me finally looked away, biting the inside of his mouth as he was searching for the right words to say next. But he finally found the words as I was just about to speak. “I still kinda am now.

“I’m sorry to hear that. I’m sorry if I made it worse-”

“You apologise too much” he interrupted, looking back at me with a look of irritation.

I became quiet very quickly. I felt my heart sink, I stared at him for what seemed like forever until I finally looked away. I stayed sat on the floor, despite it being dirty, and leaned my back against the bars. This gave me a chance to see who else was sitting in here with us.

In the corner of my eye, however, I could see the man beside me still looking at me - I tried to avoid his gaze yet slipped once. His eyes held a sad, silent apology - as if he didn't know how to voice it.

I ignored him and stared out into the cell.

The man who attempted contact with me still sat on the concrete bed, trying to stay clear of me. As I said there were 3 others; two men and a scared and teary woman.

She sat on the edge, clutching her knees to her chest as she peered down the hall - on and off sobbing. I rolled my eyes, what a wuss…

She was probably worrying about whether or not her father would disown her.

I turned my attention to the other 2, both had dark hair and dark eyes. They both reminded me of Jake. One wore all black, he looked shady as figures. The other wore dark blue jeans and a white, blood stained at the neck, shirt - as well as a bruise and dried nosebleed. At that, I looked back to the man beside him. He sat leaned forward with his hands locked together.. His knuckles were bloody too. Quite the telltale… maybe it was over the girl? But that would make them both very childish.

Well anyway. I closed my eyes for a while, time seemed to go slow. But as I searched around for a clock, i found it was nearly 2am.

Unbelievably I was getting tired too, and since the man I came in with was the only person I knew in here, I sat in the gap between his chair and the bars to attempt to sleep in a spot I felt the most safe - despite the still present risks. Though I prevented his maybe subtly planned suicide, as well as me almost committing a murder; he still seemed to care. I sat for a moment with my eyes closed, but opened them as I felt something being placed over my lap… his coat.

“You don’t need to, really-”

“It’s cold in here,” he insisted, the look of apology still present.

I sighed, taking the coat and tucking it around my legs securely. It didn’t help much against the cold, but it’s the thought that counts right?

“Thank you,” I nodded to him, he smiled and stood.

I watched with curiosity as he gave the chair to someone else standing and came to sit with me on the floor.

“I’m sorry for the way I’m acting,” he admitted, stretching out his legs and laying his hands in his lap. “It’s not your fault, nor because of you. I mean you saw the way I left earlier. My mood has changed or improved.”

“I don’t need an explanation or an apology,” I replied after a moment of silence. I decided to un-tuck the coat and spread it across both our laps - since the coat was his.

“I feel I need to give one as I treated you wrong, I have no right to judge someone I barely know.”

“I don’t want it,” I stated plainly. Another moment of silence followed as he stopped trying to make his apology clearer.

“You’re difficult to approach,” he broke the silence after a while.

I sighed, that’s because you’re walking in dangerous territory. I looked up to the clock again, now it was nearly 3 and I was still feeling ready to sleep. My anger had faded to a calmness, it was evident the man beside me was eager to talk. And this was making things very difficult.

As I took a deep breath, he spoke again. “Are you okay?”

My breath hitched in my throat at the question… are you okay? Not even I knew the answer, it was impossible for someone else to know either.. So the question remains rhetorical. Instead of ’i don’t know’, I just turned my head to look up at him. He did the same; except he looked down - since I was shorter.

I think, due to my silence, he understood.

His blue eyes searched my face for any further indication other than my silence for an answer. I looked away all too quickly, beginning to shut off my thoughts, as I began to grow scared that he might uncover the scared little girl cowering behind the fortress I built. Even just by looking into my eyes.. Who knows what he’d find?

“We’re gonna be sitting here for a while; get some sleep.”