And that my friends, is why you should never live in a dream world that involves men that you know you can’t have.

Seeing the tall brunette standing side-by-side with Mason brought the feeling of jealously back to the surface but this time by 100 fold. In some way, I wanted to be just like Samantha. She was beautiful, obviously over 21, and she raced cars—how cool was that? She had so much in common with Mason—commonalities that I knew I’d never have.

The four of us sat on the bleachers, watching as two expensive supercars roared down the racing strip. I was drinking another soda and Caleb and Amanda were sitting to my right, lost in a box of Nachos. To my left, Mason sat staring off into the cars like he had a lot on his mind.

“Your girlfriend is beautiful,” I said to him.

“She’s not my girlfriend anymore.”

“Well, she’s beautiful.” I sighed. “I wish I looked at her.”

Mason rotated his neck slowly towards me and stared at me for a moment. “What makes you think you’re not beautiful?”

“I just… I know I’m not,” I replied and pushed a piece of hair back. “I know I’m not bad looking, but I don’t look anything like Samantha.”

Mason chuckled. “You look fine.” He turned his head back towards the drag for a moment then turned back towards me. “Don’t you have a boyfriend or something?”

I snorted. “I’ve been single for more than a year and a half now.”

“Well, you’re young. You’ve got plenty of time.”

I shrugged and took a sip of my soda. “You know, my ex’s name was Sam too.”

“Pfft… figures,” he said.

We continued to watch the races, and it didn’t look like Mason was paying any attention to the unusual matchup in front of us—a motorcycle against a Lamborghini. I was quite surprised when the motorcycle won the race by a long shot.

I looked over to my side, and noticed that the nacho box that the other two were sharing had disappeared and Caleb and Amanda were holding hands while Amanda had her head leaning on Caleb’s shoulder.

Ugh… jelly.

I sighed and tried to pull Mason out of whatever world he was in so I wouldn’t feel alone. “So what happened with you and Samantha?”

Mason took a deep breath and straightened his posture before he spoke, staring out to the track. “Well, after dating for a couple years, Samantha was randomly discovered by some modeling agency. They liked her look, but it helped that she was also car aficionado… They wanted her to do both runway and fashion shoots for auto magazines.”

“Sounds awesome,” I said.

“Yeah, it was. But they wanted her to move to Europe as most of her gigs would be out there.”

“Oh…”

“It was a big opportunity for her, and it wasn’t my place to tell her to stay or go. I guess I just hoped that she would choose our relationship over the job offer.”

“That’s rough. I must have been a hard decision…”

“It wouldn’t have been a hard decision for me,” he explained. “We were making tons of money from racing at the Bluff—more money than she could make by modeling—and if she really wanted to model, she could’ve done it in LA.”

“Yeah…”

“But,” he added. “Europe called, and she answered. The day she left, it didn’t even seem to faze her that she was leaving ‘us’ behind with the excitement she had to go. It didn’t hurt her the same way that it hurt me.”

“I’m sorry to hear it turned out like that,” I said.

Mason swiveled towards me and paused, his eyes panning my face up and down. “Thanks.” He shifted his head forward and noticed his brother getting close to Amanda behind me. “Those two seem to be hitting it off.”

“Yeah, it seems so,” I said with a low giggle, trying not to draw Caleb and Amanda’s attention toward us.

Mason exhaled and looked back towards the track. Seeing his brother looking so happy seemed to make him even more listless.

I took a sip of my soda and figured I’d make a final attempt at cheering him up. “Hey,” I said.

He turned towards me and widened his eyes.

“Want to know that joke from earlier?”

“Yeah, sure. Tell me.”

“Come here,” I said and wiggled my finger in a ‘come hither’ motion.

When he leaned in close to me I placed my mouth right up to his ear as if I were telling him a secret.

Burrrrrp!!!!!

Don’t judge me. I figured if I couldn’t have him for myself, I might as well jump headfirst into the friend zone.

Mason’s body jolted back in such a surprise that he tethered on the bench seat and then fell off onto the dirt on the ground. His wide eyes and the look of surprise on his face caused me to burst out laughing harder than I could ever remember.

“What the hell?” Caleb squawked, and Amanda lifted her head off of his shoulder and started snickering. We all laughed as Mason picked himself off of the ground and brushed the dirt off his hands.

He pointed his finger at me as he slid himself back into his seat again. “You little trickster,” he said. He was finally gracing me with that beautiful smile again. It looked like my lewd prank had worked.

I laughed and laughed.

“That’s what you call ‘girl stuff’, huh?”

Everything he said only seemed to make me laugh more, and my tummy was starting to hurt from all the pressure.

“Stop,” I pleaded with him, his smile only widening as he saw that I was in pain.

“You know… you’re a real funny girl.”

The roar of a Ferrari and another supercar suddenly pierced through the night air, and the two cars bolted down the drag strip at a rapid speed, capturing my attention away my comical thoughts. The two racers were neck and neck, and I stood up, along with several other patrons, trying to get a glimpse of the winner at the end of the track.

The victor, the Ferrari, was going so fast that it shot a parachute out of its rear to help it slow down at the end.

“Wow,” I whispered. “That looks soooo freakin’ fun.”

“You have no idea,” Mason said. “It’s an adrenalin rush.”

I sighed and sat back down, a smile creeping over my face as I imagined what it was like to sit in one of those roaring engines as it raced down the track.

Mason straightened his back and pursed his lips as if he were thinking hard about something.

“You know, if you want, you can ride with me during the sprints tonight.”

“What? Really?”

“Yeah, sure, why not? Samantha used to ride with me sometimes, so I don’t think it will hurt.”

“Uh… wow. I would love to. Is it safe?”

Mason chuckled. “There’s not very much safe in life that can give you the same rush as racing.” He paused a moment and looked me up and down again. “Wait. How old are you?”

“18…”

“Then it’s up to you. You can ride if you want.”

I took a deep breath before I sucked up the rest of my soda, the sound of my straw signaling that the cup had emptied.

“I’m in.”