Back in childhood shelter

Two weeks have passed since that unusual evening. It was unusual because I didn't go to such fancy bars, and I also socialized with a different type of people. Just a normal bar down here or some street races or when one of the evenings was in the arena. Just my enviroment. Like today.

Yuki has finally decided to let his loved ones know that he is still alive, so we met up with Mali after he visited his family. But Jasper was still a bit out of the reach. The last time I saw him was like a six years ago and haven't heard of him since then. And Arno was almost unreachable.

"This place is still the same," Yuki stated as we entered our childhood shelter. His words wasn´t really right because Mali´s plants and flowers took over this entire place. And everything was under the dust.

Looking at the dilapidated couch, I dismissed the idea of ​​sitting down. All that was left for me to sit on was the table or just to lean on whatever was in there. Since I wasn´t in here for a long time I took a look around.

"How´s your granny?"

Turning my head, I looked at Yuki who was just examining one of the old boxing gloves. Thinking about my last family member who died not that long ago, I answered: "She´s cold, I think."

Yuki gave me a confused look as he rised his brows. Obviously the meaning of my words didn´t reach him so he gave me a silent question. But before I could answer an ant came from the boxing glove in Yuki´s hand which made him twitch in surprise. That made me and Mali, who was examining her "art", laugh for not a short time.

"She died four years ago," I answered when I finally stopped laughing.

Yuki´s eyes instantly widened: "Oh,... I´m so sorry."

"It´s okay. It´s not like you killed her or something," I shrugged to which Mali cleared her throat as she heard my words and I just grinned at her. After all, what I said was nothing else but a truth.

Thankfully Mali quickly started paying an attention to her long-forgotten flowers again. Or maybe she used to come here to take care of them, even after we stopped coming here as a group. Who knows. I really had no idea what she was doing except that she was a tattoo artist, her apartment was about as green as this room and that she was in a relationship for a few years already.

"Rayne, are you goin´ to that tonight´s race?" asked Mali suddenly. I nodded and she asked another thing: "Do y´all think that we can meet Jasper there?"

I shook my head: "I've been there a few times already and I have never seen him. Didn't he run away from here by any chance?"

That case seemed possible to me. He had quite a lot of arguments with his father, so he could have just packed up and went away. And if he disappeared from this planet, I might never had a chance to see him again. Or he's doing something that made him want to erase us from his life. After all, we didn't know about Yuki either until recently.

"Are you goin´ too?" I asked Yuki. He was thinking for a second. I knew that he had duties, but he had the day off after all. He could be free until the evening, right?

"Good," I said and dusted my hands. There was a pile of dust everywhere and it was quite uncomfortable. I then headed for the exit while saying: "I still have some work to do until the evening, so bye for now!"

So with that short goodbye, I went out of the building through the broken window again and then climbed down the ladder, which was in even worse condition than a few years ago. In the end, I slowly made my way through the familiar streets to the garage, where a new piece was waiting for me to repair.

When the evening came, I felt happy that I could finally close the business. I walked over to the garage door and pressed the button on the wall to close it. And I didn´t forget to go out of the door and turned the sign off so that it was clear to everyone that it was really closed.

I went back and took a quick look around. Only Chris, who was cleaning after himself, was still here. Other one went home already a while ago, so I went to the office after asking Chris to turn off the lights when he´ll be leaving.

In my office, I sat down into my armchair behind the metal desk and with a deep exhale I leaned back into my seat. While closing my eyes, I decided to enjoy this peace with the music that played here every day to make the day in the garage somehow better.

As planned I was going to go on a race tonight. But it wasn't like I was just going to see it as some kind of a watcher. Actually I was one of the competitors. A few years ago, I would have thought it was impossible, but when Zayd offered me to race for him, I thought to myself why not. After all, I also have some income from it. Even if I don't win.

After a few minutes, I finished the boring paperwork and went to the opposite room, where I started getting ready. First of all, I changed my clothes into something maybe a little more comfortable and at the same time suitable for tonight. Kind of race suit with a dark grey jacket over the upper part as it wasn´t very warm outside and because I liked this image more.

Then I went to the small kitchen to get something to eat. And by a chance I met Chris there, who was looking through the cubboards. He must have been surprised by my arrival, because he flinched and almost dropped the white mug on the floor. Not a very enthusiastically, he then turned to me with it in his hand.

I shook my head at him and went to the fridge, which was half empty, so I didn't have much to choose from. Even so, I thought for a moment about what I could pull out before grabbing a package of some meaty stuff. Confused, I turned it over to examine it. But there was no name anywhere so I asked Chris: "Whose is it?"

The named one shrugged his shoulders and started making his black coffee as he put his mug into coffe machine: "I think Hideaki brought it. But he's vegan or something so…"

"Vegetarian," I corrected him and looked at the tiny glowing clock on the wall. The numbers showed that it was quite late for anyone to have caffein, but I chose not to say anything as it was not my business, anyway.

"Yeah. Well, you can probably have it."

With a nod I opened the package. Then I took out the pan in a not very nice condition. No one had the guts to buy a new one anyway. However, it was still usable so... why throw it away. I started sautéing the meat pieces and then threw some greens on it. I smiled at my creation and tossed it on the white plate. Then I turned to sit at the couch and put my drinner od the table and to my surprise Chris was still here.

"Is it good?" he asked when I started eating to which I nodded. I had to admit that it scared me a little at first, but in the end it worked. After a few seconds, Chris started to talk again: "I guess I'll come and see the race."

"Who's gonna look after the little one?" I looked up from the food with a question. Chris had a four-year-old son. He had a wife who could theoretically look after him overnight of course. But she loved these races from what I knew so they probably planned to go as a date.

"He'll be sleeping at my parent´s."

I nodded in understanding. Here, I kind of always pushed the family figures out of my mind, when I actually never really had them myself. Besides, Chris never talked about them much. I only heard a little when one of them had a birthday or once in a long while when he took his wife to drink with us.