Ocean (Damage Control 5)

Awesome.

Clutching my phone a tiny bit more tightly inside my pocket, I jog after Ocean’s form.

“Blue!” another guy calls after him. “Changed your mind about racing my cars?”

“We’ll talk later,” Ocean calls back.

Racing?

“Hey, Blue,” a little girl yells, running straight at him, colliding with his legs. He pats her head. “Daddy says can you help fix our fridge?”

“Ask one of Sue’s boys, midget. I don’t have time today.”

“But daddy said you’d cooooooooooooome,” she whines as he gently pulls her off him and resumes walking, his determined, wide stride eating the distance, taking him past a water spigot and a communal toilet to another cluster of trailers.

My heart is pounding. Yeah, this is a whole different world from where I grew up

all right.

I have to sprint not to lose him again, and by the time I see him, he’s opening the door of a dilapidated trailer and stepping inside.

I stop. What am I doing? I can’t follow him inside. He asked me to wait in the car, not spy on him.

We’re not together, as in a couple. I’m not here to meet his folks and see photos from his childhood.

I bet he was super cute, though, I think as I retrace my steps, trying to find the way back to my car. With those denim blue eyes and that soft mouth, and… dark hair? I guess. I’ve never seen him with anything but blue. Taking care of his little brother.

Aw God. I should stop imagining it and hurry. It’s started to rain and it’s cold. I jog down the main road of the park, then stop, not quite sure in the dark which way I came from.

Oh shit.

Mortified, I stop in my tracks. I could wait for Ocean right here. He can’t miss me, on his way back to the car. I mean, this has to be the main road… Right?

If he asks why I’m not in the car, I’ll say I came out to look for him because it was getting late. I’d hate for him to feel bad for no good reason, but I’d feel even worse if I told him I came out to do some snooping.

Then something short barrels into my side, and I scream.

“Shush!” a high-pitched little voice says from the vicinity of my thigh. “It’s me.”

‘Me’ turns out to be the little girl from before, the one who barreled in the same way into Ocean.

She grabs my hand. Hers is tiny and sticky and super strong for something so small. “You’re a friend of Blue.”

“You mean Ocean.”

“Nobody here calls him that.” She tugs on my hand. “He’s Blue, like his hair. He dyed it for the races.”

“What races?”

“The car races. I was very little when he raced the last time. But he’s good, my mom says.”

Right. Car races.

How much more don’t I know about him?

“My name’s Avery, what’s yours?”

“Kayla.” I consider my options. “Hey, I’m looking for the parking lot. Looking for my car. Can you take me?”