Moonlit Dancer's Diary

June 14th, 2013

The night’s warm as per usual for this time of year. In fact, I’m not even sure you could really call it night. It’s some ways past 8 PM but there’s still a bit of that deep blue in the sky, lingering as it refuses to die out to the darkness of the late night. It works out better for me to be honest; there’s more time to get on the road and do a few runs spending even more time with my current obsession. She’s beautiful, honestly. I stare at her through the windows of a local burger place as she’s parked just across from where I’m sitting between a dark green NSX and a 90s Tacoma pickup. It’s mesmerizing, hypnotizing, whatever else I can think of. Nothing can compare to it.

“Hey. Heeeeeeey. We’re talking to you.”

My girlfriend’s voice manages to snap me out of this state. As of late I’ve been just gazing upon that car whenever I get a chance to simply admire it. Needless to say it’s been getting on her nerves just how obsessed I am with that thing.

“Yeah, hey. Welcome back,” she says, rolling her eyes and sighing to herself as this kind of thing has gotten pretty common, “we were just asking if you were gonna join the group this weekend at Linda’s place for the barbecue. Her cousins wanna throw something for her birthday, just a chill get together like we usually do.”

“Hm...” I keep my gaze right on that shining silver RX-7 outside. “Mhm. I don’t have anything to do that day.”

Lately Julia... my girlfriend by the way, did I say that already? Has been trying to get me to drive less than usual. Before like, maybe about a few weeks or so, we’d basically hit the canyon passes up north every Saturday. Sometimes it’s just to keep us sharp, sometimes there’s a crowd where we usually meet up and we do some races, but for some reason she’s been a lot more worried about my driving lately. I mean, maybe I overdo it sometimes and wipe out but other than that I haven’t really noticed anything different myself. Maybe Julia’s jealous of my precious little thing.

“That Mazda’s really got her wrapped around its finger, huh?”

...oh, I forgot. Jeff, Julia’s older brother, is also here with us. They help run their dad’s garage: Jiang Tuning Co. She’s basically lived her whole life around the one thing I can’t get enough of. My mom and dad have been insanely apprehensive about me getting even a tad bit close to anything that even looks a little bit sporty, so you can see why I’m so excited to finally have something to call my own.

“Ugh, yeah, thing is I’m so worried about her. You seen her when she starts driving that thing? Something’s possessing her when she’s behind the wheel... I told you that car was bad news.” Julia shakes her head, sipping on her straw and looking somewhat paranoid. It wasn’t so long ago that she was hyped as everyone else about this new car. You’d think a ghost visited her at night and told her something, but seeing as we both sleep together nowadays I probably would have seen it too. Honestly I’m kinda getting worried myself here with how she’s acting, but I honestly really don’t know what for.

“Nah, nah. You know what it is? It’s just her getting comfortable; it’s when the driver and machine connect with each other perfectly. Find something that suits your driving style perfectly, you feel like you’re a god. That’s how it was like with my old Evo. Shit, that Mitsu was on rails. I hate I sold that car... you remember who I sold it to, Julia? Some dude from Long Beach? White dude, all decked out in swag shit. Thing’s probably on bags and stanced out to hell now.” Jeff laughs and shakes his head, taking a bite out of his fries. Usually, Julia’s just as laid back as Jeff. Both carefree, not giving a single fuck about literally anything going on around them.

“This is different. Risa drives like she wants to kill herself, I swear to god. Can we somehow like, get her to kick it back a few notches?”

I widen my eyes at that remark. Okay, I’m pretty sure if I were driving anything like that I’d be in a guardrail already. In fact even when I do overdo it like I said before, I still feel like there’s even more grip to be found. That car’s something special, but maybe the way it’s set up gives it that impression.

“Jeff’s right, though. I feel like this one suits me the most so far.”

Jeff flashes a wide smile, clearly we’re on the same wavelength.

“But still, Julia... maybe you got a point. I guess it’s easy for me to overdrive if I feel too comfortable, so I’ll try and give myself more room for error. I don’t wanna wreck her when I barely just got her, right?” I sigh gently, looking into her eyes and letting out a smile. Her gaze darts away for a moment, before slowly coming back my way. She lets out a gentle sigh as well as she downs a nod.

“It’s natural I suppose... promise me you’ll take it easier now though, yeah? It’s gonna be a pain in the ass to replace the body work on that car just because of how much that kit costs. Keep that in mind next time you drive that RX-7.” Julia laughs it off, immediately easing up and looking towards the car as well. “Would be a shame to see such a pretty car written off. Still though...”

“Hm?”

“I might be going crazy... but something’s off about that car.”

We both kinda stare at it for a little bit. Jeff does too. He immediately laughs, nudging his sister in the side with his elbow.

“Hah! Come on, you’ve been reading too many of those ghost story blogs recently. Nothing to worry about.”