Painted Lines

by Brei Betzold

  Then we were off. I went to check the schedule; we were painting in three hours. I could do that, we had an hour in the paint booth. I went to our stall to let the guys know. Then I checked over the body, when I was happy that I wouldn’t have to putty any small dents, I focused on finishing the seat.

  I quickly finished the seat, glancing over my shoulder, I found cameras trained on me, and rolled my eyes. It seemed that I was a popular target, since every time I turned around I had cameras focused on my ass. I looked around and saw my team was hard at work, so I decided to begin taping up the car for painting, marking out my design. I was planning on a simple flat black paint over the car, then add flair in other ways.

  “You bringing the steering wheel in with you?” asked Simon.

  I looked down at the newly fabricated steering wheel and debated between a few ideas. “Yeah, I think I am.”

  After I had everything taped up, I had about fifteen minutes until our allotted paint time. I loaded all the parts that I would need onto a cart, as well as a few items I needed from my personal stash. With only an hour in the booth, and no real dry time, it really was the best plan to keep it simple. I was going to do only the bare minimum in the booth then tomorrow add on to what I had completed.

  I wheeled my cart to the painting area, when I got there, I found one of the judges and a production assistant standing outside the door. I parked the cart and stood waiting for my time slot. I dug into my pocket and pulled out my MP3 player, and started searching for the playlist I wanted. Finally, it was my turn, I rolled the cart into the room popped in my ear buds then went to work moving items quickly, finding the paint I had requested waiting for me. I was working in five minutes. I started on the shell of the car, a quick drying primer, then moved on to the steering wheel, and other small parts that needed to be painted. Once I was finished with them, I went back to the shell and found it dry enough, and went to work getting the flat black paint evenly coated. When I was happy with that, I switched colors, to my one accent color and sprayed the smaller parts.

  I had chosen to use only two colors in the booth to save time, after I was finished with the smaller items I checked the shell and decided it was as dry as it was going to get for my final step. I had decided to use a glossy black as an accent color. It wouldn’t show up easily unless in bright light or in the sun but would look wicked cool. I quickly laid the lace I had cut into a strip where I wanted it, then sprayed it slowly with the glossy black. I went to the other side of the car repeating the procedure, once finished I took a step back, happy with how it was turning out. I quickly changed it over to the final step a clear coat over the smaller parts, carefully removing the lace then spraying the car, I nodded turning everything off.

  I pulled the ear buds out of my ears and glanced up at the clock, three minutes left and I was finished with this part. I turned towards the door and found Thayne standing there watching me which startled me since I never realized anyone had walked into the room.

  “Hey,” he said acknowledging me but not taking his eyes off my pedal car.

  “Hey,” I replied wondering how he got in here, and what he wanted.

  “So what exactly are you doing here?” he asked gesturing at the car.

  “Uhm painting it,” I countered sarcastically.

  He looked over at me, and I realized he had the most gorgeous grey stormy eyes. They had a dark blue circling them making them resemble storm clouds on the horizon. I let out a startled gasp tracing his strong square jaw with my eyes following his facial hair that curved around accentuating it. His brown hair had natural red highlights that set off his amazing eyes. Simply, he was beautiful only in a sheer masculine kind of way and he was not for me. I cleared my throat and forced myself to look back towards the car trying to remember what I was doing before I was sidetracked.

  “I realize that, smart ass, but what exactly?”

  “Uhm a lace pattern,” I mumbled trying not to get ensnared by those eyes again.

  “Huh, never seen that before,” he retorted I glanced up quickly to find him looking at me oddly.

  I shrugged trying to ease the tension in my shoulders and look unaffected with him standing there staring at me. “It’s not done often anymore.”

  “Well I look forward to seeing it when it’s done.”

  I nodded and looked back towards the door, wanting to escape this odd conversation.

  “I’m sorry about the other morning, I was out of line, it’s just that Tris is or was our leader, and we’ve been having issues since he’s not here.”

  “Understandable,” I muttered, “but not my problem.”

  “No, it’s not, at least not that I am on a team full of jack asses.” I could tell by the look he shot me that he did think it was my fault though that his fearless leader wasn’t here.

  “Yeah, well my time is almost over I need to find out where the drying room is.”

  “K, well, see you around.”

  I nodded walking past him, I realized he was tall, taller than me. I nearly snorted, everyone was taller than my five foot two size. He had to be over six feet tall though. If I was interested in guys, he would be my type. I mused, if only he wasn’t friends with the devil.

  I found out where I was to put my things so they could dry then helped move them over and headed back to my stall, thinking about Thayne, and his grey blue eyes.

  There wasn’t anything for me to do after I had finished painting, so once I got back to my stall I pulled the pillow and blanket I had brought in the other day and curled up in a corner away from everyone else and to take a nap. My meds caused me to be drowsy at times, forgetful at others, I had learned how to deal with the drowsiness by power naps, and the forgetfulness was a work in progress. I was nudged awake, and quickly hopped up helping the guys put everything away for the day and locking up the stall.

  After hitting up the pharmacy, I went home where we all had a lazy evening. Cam had cooked and I had kidnapped her son. It was nice to have a quiet evening, but I missed Saul. He had left at some point during the day. After dinner I curled up on the couch, my head lying in Kale’s lap while he played with my hair. With my feet in Liam’s lap, I nudged him until he rubbed them for me. Between the two relaxing motions, I drifted off to sleep quickly.

  “No, please stop, Tristan,” I cried out as his fist came back down hitting my chest, I felt as the breath whooshed out of me. “I said to shut up,” he yelled at me once again. I closed my eyes and bit my lip, tears streaming down my face as I tried so hard to stay quiet. My mouth was pried open and he shoved something in then I heard a rip and he stuck tape over my mouth. I whimpered and choked around the object in my mouth. “If you can’t stay quiet then I’ll make you,” he growled. I kept my eyes tightly shut. I didn’t want to see anymore; I didn’t want to watch him. A burning sensation then intense pain started, I tried to struggle, but it was pointless, my screams were muffled. My eyes flew open, and I found him with a knife my dad had given him for his sixteenth birthday. I started shaking my head no, and watched as he sliced into my leg once again. Over and over he cut my inner thighs. After a while, I couldn’t struggle, I couldn’t make a sound, then I was gone floating in darkness no longer feeling or seeing what he would do to me next.

  “Scout, come on, wake up,” I heard yelled at me while being shaken. My eyes flew open and I realized my hands were being held by Liam, my legs by Kale and a frightened Simon standing over me gripping my head.

  I stopped fighting immediately, just a nightmare, not there anymore I said in my head over and over trying to keep myself in the here and now. I took a deep breath, and let it out slowly and the guys let me go.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered, my throat sore so I was most likely screaming yet again.

  “Nothing to be sorry about, Harper Lee,” Liam said.

  I nodded and looked away to wipe the tears from my face, “How bad?”

  “Not bad at all really,” Kale answered.

  “I’m okay now.” />
  “Want us to sleep with you?” Kale asked.

  I did want them too, but I didn’t want to admit it and look weak. “Move over, Harper Lee,” Liam ordered climbing in beside me, Kale climbing in on the other side.

  “You okay?” asked Simon.

  “Yeah,” I said wincing a little at how raw my throat felt.

  “K, night, Scout.”

  “G’night Simon.”

  I snuggled into the warmth of their bodies surrounding me and slowly fell back to sleep.

  “You look like shit, Harper Lee,” Liam said when I finally made it into the kitchen for my morning cup of coffee.

  I flipped him off and slowly drank my ambrosia, savoring the first taste of coffee in the morning. In my opinion it is almost a religious experience. I took my coffee with me to the bathroom and went about getting ready for what today had in store. I was finished and ready to leave after twenty minutes. I wore what I normally wore: beat up paint covered jeans, white racer style tank top, black combat boots also covered in paint, only this time I added a flannel to the ensemble.

  “Cold?” Simon asked concerned.

  “No,” I said, “just wanted something to cover my ass.”

  “Huh?”

  “Every time I turn around there is a camera on me, and a camera man staring at my ass, so thought I would remove their viewing pleasure today.”

  “Okay, then,” he muttered then went out the door, I followed behind, ready to work.

  Once outside, I found Liam sitting astride his bike waiting for us. “Did we wake up in the 90s?” he quipped I just flipped him off and climbed on to Stella.

  We hit our marks and waited for Eddie to come and tell us what we were doing today, though I had an idea.

  “Today you will be finishing up the pedal cars, reassembling them; you have five hours to complete them.”

  Then we were on our way. We found our cart in our stall with the parts I had painted yesterday fully dried. I went over checking everything making sure it all came out okay.

  “Damn, Scout,” Kale said staring at the painted pieces, “nice work.”

  “Thanks,” I said going to get my paints and brushes, “not finished yet.”

  “What do you have left?” asked Simon.

  “Pin striping the body, and the steering wheel.”

  He nodded, “Okay, then let’s get what we can assembled and ready.”

  I went to work pin striping the sides of the car, the hood, and the trunk in a fun design. Then applying the same design only smaller to the steering wheel, once I had finished with the steering wheel, the body was done we began to get it all put back together.

  “I was a little nervous when I saw the neon pink vinyl for the seat,” Liam admitted staring at the finished product, “but against the black on black color scheme and hot pink pin striping, it looks bad ass, Harper Lee.”

  “You didn’t do half bad yourself,” I said looking over the car, and noticing all the mechanics had been cleaned, fixed, and in some instances remade.

  “I love the flat black, and glossy black detail work. Liam is right the pink works for it,” said Simon.

  I nodded, it did work. I don’t know why they ever doubted me.

  “We all did good work,” I stated, “now let’s clean up.”

  All three groaned but helped me get the place cleaned up for the day. We had roughly fifteen minutes left before the day was over, and I was happy with how it went together so easily. Now I was ready to go home and get some sleep.

  Chapter 12

  The next morning we headed out to the garage. I knew they would be judging the winner today, and I was nervous. I wasn’t nervous about losing, I wasn’t nervous about being sent home today, but what I was nervous about was facing my father at the judges table.

  We did our normal line up listening to Eddie’s speech about how today was judgment day, that the usual four judges would be there, and about an additional guest judge. I smiled at who the guest judge would be. One, Micah Peele would be our guest judge, a premier custom painter. Micah and I had worked together a few times, he was a sweet guy, who had taught me a lot, and I looked forward to seeing him again. After Eddie was finished, we were set free to wait for them to set things up.

  I had figured out that this show was what Cas called the hurry up and wait game that he played in the Marines. I now understood his frustration. I pulled my MP3 player out of my pocket and hopped onto a stack of tires. Popping in my ear buds, I pulled up my classical playlist and hit play. I leaned back, closed my eyes and let the haunting melodies of Trois Gymnopédies by Erik Satie take over me. I nearly fell on my head when I jerked at the feeling of a hand brushing my arm.

  I opened my eyes quickly and found Thayne and a buddy slouching against the wall beside me. It was his teammate’s hand that had brushed against me. I watched as his fingers stretched out and brushed me again. I scowled in their direction and hopped off the tires.

  “Scout,” Thayne said and I glared at him, “hey what did I do?”

  “Nothing,” I grumbled.

  “Uh huh,” he said doubtfully, “you ready for today.”

  “Yeah, I’m ready for today,” I answered and watched his friend walk off scowling at me, what was his problem? “You ready?”

  “Yeah, we’re as ready as we’re going to be.”

  Huh, I thought. “Okay,” I said and turned to walk away, he quickly got into step with me.

  “So, Scout that’s a unique name.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Come on, Scout, we have to work together, might as well make the best of it.”

  I bit my lip and looked up at him; he seemed sincere. “You’re right.”

  He let out a breath giving me a half smile “So then your name?”

  “My mom named me and my brother after her favorite authors.”

  “So then you’re named after Harper Lee?”

  I glanced in his direction a little surprised he knew that. “Yeah.”

  “What’s your brother’s name?”

  I laughed. “Uhm, well, we call him Cas, as in Caspian because he hates his name.”

  “So C.S. Lewis huh, I don’t know what the initials mean though.”

  I looked over at him and smirked, “Clive Staples.”

  “Oh fuck that’s harsh, damn, the poor guy.”

  “He was always called Cas or Caspian so he wasn’t picked on as much as he could have been.”

  “Well he lucked out.”

  “Thayne isn’t exactly normal you know.”

  He bit his lip and that was when I noticed the lip ring he was playing with, I couldn’t seem to take my eyes off it as he popped it in and out of his mouth.

  “It’s a family name.”

  I made a noise not really sure what it was since I couldn’t seem to get my body to agree with my brain. My brain was screaming at me to run, and run fast, but my body, my eyes were glued to that lip ring that kept flashing at me. I didn’t usually care much for guys with facial hair, but on him it worked, outlining his square handsome jawline. We made it to my stall and I pulled out the key they had given me earlier to open it up so I could have everything ready for the judges.

  “So what would you say to maybe going out and having coffee with me after this is over?”

  “Uhm…” I said focusing on getting the bay door unlocked, not sure what to say to this guy. I mean, he worked for my father; he was friends with him. I pulled up the bay door and there in red paint across the wall were the words little one. I could only stare.

  “Scout, hey Scout, are you okay?” Thayne asked but I ignored him, staring at those words.

  “Little one, you ready for another round of play?” “Oh little one, you want it just as much as me don’t you?” “Little one, shut the fuck up I don’t like having to hurt you.”

  I stopped breathing, my heart felt like it was about to burst and I couldn’t stop staring at those words.

  “Little one, let’s get you cleaned up, huh?” And a bu
cket of ice cold water was thrown on me again, the cuts he had made up and down my thighs stung but I didn’t have the energy to struggle.

  I heard people yelling around me but I couldn’t understand their words, then I felt someone’s hands on me and I screamed, fighting them off.

  “Ah ah, don’t fight me little one, or I will make this really hurt.” Then the blade sliced through the paper-thin skin of my inner arm and I tried to scream around the gag in my mouth. “Like that, do you, little one? Want me to do it again?”

  Then everything stopped and I felt the world tilt.

  ***

  I opened my eyes and quickly shut them against the bright light, pain shot through my head and I groaned. What the hell happened and why wouldn’t someone just shoot me and put me out of my misery? Or better yet just shoot out the lights. Who the hell needed lights that bright? Then my brain finally clicked on. I knew who needed lights that bright. I moved my arm and let out my breath in a whoosh, I wasn’t restrained.

  I carefully cracked my eyes open letting myself get used to the light and slowly opened them all the way. I moved my head to look around and regretted that immediately. What the hell had I done? I realized I wasn’t in a room but a curtained off area, so an ER. Okay, this was looking better for me. Only no one was around to tell me what was going on, I began racking my brain trying to remember, then I did and wish I hadn’t. Those words on the wall in red paint, freaking out in the middle of the garage, only I couldn’t remember how I got here.

  I reached up and gently touched my head and found a very large bump on the back of my head—well, I guess that explained why I was here. Now how did it happen? Just then Kale walked through the curtain and looked over at me. I could literally see the tension melt out of his shoulders when he saw me awake.

  “Oh thank god, Scout,” he muttered, “you scared the piss out of us.”

  “Uhm sorry?”

  “How you feeling?”

  “My head hurts,” I whispered. “What happened?”

  “What do you remember?”

  “Uhm talking to Thayne and opening our stall to find those words on the wall, then I think I might of glitched, then nothing.”