Just “knowing each other” was an understatement in all honestly. You hated his guts.

The smell of sweat and heat filled your nostrils as you pulled off your helmet. It’s slick, glossy surface was smooth against the pads of your leather gloves. The tense feeling continued to rattle in your chest, the feeling that’s been keeping you from a peaceful nights rest, from any peace at all really.

Racing, before it had become your profession, had been about drowning out all the muck and dirt of life. When the engine revved and you felt the familiar vibration that seeped and shook at your bones, you could forget about everything else.

Sonny had been exempt from that large pool of “everything* though. He wasn’t something to forget about. Or at least he hadn’t been—not in your younger years when the both of you couldn’t keep your hands off of each other. When the only thing that mattered was riding. Riding with each other, against each other, or…just riding each other on occasion.

But after his crash, things changed. Which made sense. People change when shit happens. They cut you off and push you away to deal with it by their lonesome. That’s what you told yourself at least—it helped you sleep at night.

You itched at your collar slightly, a damp sheen of sweat still hazy around you from your previous test laps. It wasn’t the 90’s anymore, and you had a goddamn job to do.

Recently, Sonny had popped back up into your life like an unwanted zit. You hadn’t seen the man in years, but all the resentment you had bottled up made you feel queasy when he gave you that godawful smile. The one that made you want to punch him in his perfect teeth. Or worse, those baby blue eyes that used to have you swooning.

As you entered the under-head, you saw him, leaning against the wall. His eyes rested in their usual squint, arms crossed over his firm chest. “You’ve gotten slower, y’keep losing focus.” He glanced at you with a slight tilt of his head like an old dog.

He had joined APX less than four days ago, yet he was trying to call all the shots like he owned the place. At the moment though, you were just trying not to snap because he was in your presence.