Pedal to the metal

After stuffing my face with all the brunch I can, I lay down on the counter, arms and legs sprawled out, my gut sure to burst at any moment. It's so worth it though. Julie does know how to make a killer brunch. A five-star review from me.

"So," Samantha says softly, bringing a finger down on my gut with ginger care, poking it. "Where do you want to go?"

My stomach grumbles and I push the digit away. Samantha understands what I'm doing and retracts her hand. "There only one place that I want to go to," I announce. "A car dealership ." Odd requests, I know.

Samantha looks at me weirdly. "Why do you want to go to a car dealership."

I roll my eyes and explain. "Because they sell cars."

"Not your size though," Samantha replies. "You'd need to go somewhere special if you'd want to get a car."

"Then let's go to that special place," I say standing up.

Samantha looks at me like I'm insane or something. I know what it looks like and yes I know what I'm doing. "Do you even know how to drive?"

There's the iffy part. "Eh, a little," I say without much reassurance. Samantha raises a serious brow. "Okay, legally, no. drifting and street racing, Yes."

"You what!" Sammy yelps. She leans in closer, too close actually. "You're telling me you know how to drive?!" I nod knowing exactly where this is heading. "You can actually drive!"

"Yeah, it was one of the things I'd do to pass the time in my home town before getting caught by giants, but that was like three years ago," I explain. "Besides it's no big deal."

Does it matter if you really need to drive legally if you can never drive anyway? I think this is her first time hearing a person of my size driving.

"Where did you grow up?" She asks.

Oh, yeah. I did mention my home for a second. Does it matter if I tell her this place? I hardly think Samantha will tell someone that people are living there. She's not someone who'd do that. "It's far. Real far." I'm being vague for reasons.

"How far?"

"Does it matter?" I snap. Gods, the questions annoy me. "The place is probably gone anyway."

Samantha says nothing. She looks hurt and yet I feel nothing, but annoyance and resentment. What makes it worse is that I still haven't apologized for yesterday's innocent. Who cares. She probably needs a tougher skin anyway.

She holds out a hand without warning and I climb onto the palm. Samantha grabs her keys, a purse, and walks silently to the car. I look up every now and then to see if she's still upset. It's hard to tell since her chin is blocking half her face. A sorry feeling fills my heart, but I don't act on the emotions.

Samantha drops me off on the passenger seat and she hops in herself. The car softly rumblings, the metal beast now alive, and she begins to back the car out of the garage. I sit down an wait to be driven to the unknown location.

There is no music, no words, nothing but silence and guilt. Yeah, the question was a little personal and close home -figuratively not literally, that'd be weird or terrible- But, I didn't have to snap at her so badly. Samantha was just trying to get me to open up.

But I don't want to open up on her terms. I want to open up on my own. This is my personal information and she can't just question me like a suspect who's linked to a crime scene.

Twenty minutes of stopping and going between lights make me a pinch green in the face. But I stick it out. Soon Samantha pulls into a small parking lot. I say that because we don't take forever looking for a spot to park in. She doesn't spare a glance when getting out of the car and taking me with her.

She's gentle with her grip around my body.

We stand in front of a small shop that says Joe's real model cars! In swirling letters. How can anyone read this!? I can barely read it. A smaller sign in the bottom right corner of the store window catches my eyes. Tinies are welcome!

I got a weird feeling about this.

The doorbell chimes when we walk in. An old man that looks like Santa Clause is designing an old fashion corvette. Other models sit on racks or in display cases. All the rows are listed in a year.

"Hello there!" Santa Clause greets us with a friendly wave. "What can I do for you?"

Samantha leans on the counter. "Hey, my friend is longing to drive again and she's not in the best mood to wait." She tips over her palm and I slide onto the counter.

"Drive? A tiny already knows how to drive? I've never heard that before." Santa then shrugs. "I suppose there's a first for everyone." He then smiles widely like that dumb Santa grin and sticks out his hand. "The name's Joe. And you are?"

Samantha shakes the man's hand with her own friendly smile. "I'm Samantha Gains and my friend's name is-"

"Caesar," I say flatly.

The man fakes a shiver. "Oh, my. Her tone is cold." He leans down and looks at me. "For a little lady like you, you're pretty fearless."

If you grew up fighting for your life and having to look over your shoulder every minute or so then you'd be just as fearless. That's what I wanted to say but I hold my tongue. Something I rarely do.

"So what model are you looking for?" Joe asks. "I got old, new, fast, slow, muscle, exotic, and just about anything else I can name."

"I don't know much about cars so..." Samantha finally looks down at me. I don't know why but I like it when she's paying attention to me. There's a small fire that is lit every time she looks at me.

"I'd like a 1960s Camaro with a royal blue paint job and white racing stripes," I say. Ever since I saw one from one of my short-lived previous owners, I've always kept that car my head.

Joe's jaw almost comes unhinged. "My... my word. Young lady, you do know your cars. Luckily for you, I've got a perfectly good one in the back. If you want to test it out I got a track in the back."

I look up at Samantha with pleading eyes. She's not quite sure about the idea, but she goes along with it any away. "Okay, we'll check it out."

I throw a fist in the air. "Yes!"

We head to the back room and Joe flips on some lights and a race track with windy turns and cuts are lit up. He then disappears into another room and comes out with the most beautiful car I've seen. A gorgeous shimmering royal blue muscle car. I could have died and gone to heaven right at the moment and be happy.

Joe gently sets the car down on the track and gestures to me. "Enjoy."

My heart explodes when my feet touch solid ground. I start dash straight to the car, but something inside me yells stop and I do. Something isn't sitting right in my stomach and I know what it is.

I turn back to face Samantha who now sitting criss-cross. She looks a little mopey in the eyes. I walk up and pat the tip of her shoe. "Hey, Sam." She pulls her eyes up to me. "Thank you... for giving me a chance."

She blinks and joy fills those pretty golden brown eyes.

I jam a thumb at myself. "Now, check this out."

A few seconds later I'm in the car checking out the features. The black leather, shiny metal, an actual working stereo. A red button next to the steering wheeling must be the on button So I push it.

The metal muscle car revs to life. The sweet sound is like music to my ears. A shadow overcasts the car and I look to my right to see Sam.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" She's worried about me and it makes my heart jump a little.

I swallow it down and give Samantha a two finger salute. "Yep. Just sit back and enjoy the show."

Samantha leans away from the car. I put on the seat belt, grip the wheel with one hand and grab the stick shift with the other. I rev the engine once or twice before letting the beast loose.

The car punches into gear as I begin my lap around the track. My heart is pounding with excitement and adrenaline as I shift gears, drift and almost clip corners.

I howl like a dog to the full the moon. I push the pedal the metal, dying to go faster, but I know the beast has limits and so do I.

When making my last turn and coming up to the finish line, I turn the wheel and drift into it, stopping and facing a jaw-dropped Samantha and broken Joe.

"Did you guys see that!" I cheer hopping out of the car with a large grin. "That was probably my best time to date! It was awesome! And this car! This beauty is perfect! Clean, sleek, and smooth! Man, gotta hand it to you, Joe, you did a fine job with this one. Handled her well."

The two giants just blankly stare at me with open mouths and wide eyes.

"Uh..." things start to get awkward.

Samantha quickly clamps her mouth shut and speaks to Joe. "How much do you want for the car?"

"Uh... uh... seven hundred." The old man sputters. "I've never seen someone drive like that before. Where did you learn to do that?"

"I did some illegal street racing back where I'm from. It's a good time killer." I respond crossing my arms and leaning against the car. I put so much pride behind those words.

Joe frowns and shakes a finger at me. Not the finger, a finger. "Now don't you dare use any of my beautiful cars in one of those nasty races."

"Never dream of miss treating the beast," I say patting the hood of the car. "Never in a million years."

Joe rings Samantha up and the car is stored in a glass box with clamps on the tires that are screwed to the base of the box to keep it from rolling around.

"And come over any time to race ladies! I'd be happy watching a run like that again!" Joe Hollers before we leave.

The car is placed carefully in the back on the floor. Samantha gets in, buckles and starts up her own car.

As she begins to back up, I start to spill my guts. "I want you to know that I'm sorry for being a pain in the ass," I say it flat out. I never apologize much so this could get awkward. "I've just been a huge dumb-ass to you because of your size. You're a real nice person, Sam. It's just going to take time to start trusting someone again."

Samantha looks at me with such gratefulness knowing that I've opened up a little and it's only on the second day. I guess I trust her all more than I realize.

"I really appreciate that, Caesar..." Sam bites her lip, acting a somewhat unsure about something. "Can I ask you something."

I think for a moment. "As long as it's not too personal then I'm okay with it."

"Well... I'm having a friend coming over in a couple of days and uh... is that okay with you?"

I blink. Samantha has already done a lot for me so I see no problem with a friend of hers coming over. Gods, I sound like a parent.

"Sure."