Days passed slowly in the Sacrilege House, but time flew by faster than the Daytona 500. I hoped my agent was sorting through potential teams for me to end up with for the next season, but unless there was something big, he wasn't going to tell me until it was closer to the time to make a decision.

It would be easy: I'd follow the money and leave this robot shit show and get my old life back. I could just pretend that nothing ever happened.

We didn't have another robot tournament directly in our sights, but Drake and Josiah had already gotten their hopes up that I was the one piece they needed to solidify their chance at their dream of competing in BattleBots. Pretty much the only information I had gathered about it was that it was essentially the highest level of competition but with an emphasis on the entertainment factor. It was televised, after all, and people loved a good show. Hell, they liked me for the most part.

I wasn't entirely sure when this tournament was supposed to begin, but it clearly was a huge deal in the community. And as more people figured out that I was kind of a big deal in the sports world, Josiah was convinced that they would want to target the fan base I had built up over a few hard years.

Was that a lot of pressure? Sure, but I was used to it. I was the face of female racing up until I had it stolen from me by a younger, classier, cuter face.

Eventually, I'd take it back. All I needed was to get through Sacrilege, and the empire I had built on my name would be mine again. It had to be. Nothing Truscott said was true, I could still drive, and there was no match for what I brought to the table.

Unfortunately, I wasn't a very patient person.

One early August morning, I sat at the kitchen table by myself. Drake and Annie had already left for work, and Josiah was out in the garage tinkering with the robot. Supposedly he was a genius when it came to the fine details of building one, and as long as he didn't fuck up the way it drove, it didn't really matter to me.

The summer weather in Ontario was much closer to what I grew up with in Ohio than the miserable Lousiana ones I suffered through for RTR.

Missing racing was a hell of a lot easier when there was something to do. I wasn't blessed with that luxury, and although I could see it catching up to me, a reminder of how good things used to be was still in my rearview mirror.

I took out my phone and looked up how the fuck I could get a work visa. Anything would have been better than doing nothing. I had been raised better than that.

When my few friends from high school were all getting their first jobs, I was driving every sort of car I could get my hands on, the faster the better. It wasn't long after that I left school to pursue my career even though everyone told me I was throwing away my chance in life. I believed any chance I could create for myself would be better than one that came along from the road everyone took, and I still wasn't sure if that was the right decision. The problem was that now I didn't even have a high school diploma, not that it would have been a guarantee for me anyway.

"Katie," Josiah said and poked his head into the kitchen.

I looked up from my phone. "What the hell do you want?"

"Has Drake told you anything about," he hesitated for a minute, "anything?"

I shook my head. "I don't know what you're referring to, but he hasn't, and even if he did, I probably would be a bitch about it and wouldn't tell you."

"It pains me to admit it, but I think we're more similar than we are different," he said and took the seat across the table from me.

"No, we're not. I'm only an asshole sometimes. You are every second of every day."

He smiled. "You're a nightmare to work with, but you have your good points. And you know, ever since you came around, Drake's been so fucking enthralled with you that I think he's forgetting what's really important."

"What? All he does is talk to me about the robot. I've been trying to get him to open up to me, but I swear, he loves Sacrilege more than anything."

"Look, Katie, I'm not blaming you, so there's no need to get defensive."

"Sounds like you're blaming me."

The sun must have come out outside, and the rays that peeked through the window brightened the table and the flowery centerpiece that Annie put together with some of the stuff from the craft store where she worked.

"Then that's your problem, not mine," he said, and he stood up and headed back to the garage.

"I can assure you that Drake still cares about the team more than he cares about me. That's for sure," I called after him, but I didn't entirely care if he heard me or not.

For someone who was so concerned that I'd just end up hurting him, Drake surely had his heart somewhere else just as much as I did.

But as each moment passed by slowly, I kept thinking about how I could pass that time. I needed somebody or something to keep me out of my own head, even if not many people thought there was much going on in there.

I could always get another tattoo. Or I could dye my hair, pierce something, text Tyler just to see what would happen, buy some ice cream, or get drunk by myself for no reason at all.

All of those were solid options, and I grabbed my keys. I'd make up my mind in the car.

***

"What in the hell did you do to your hair?" Drake asked as soon as he saw me when he got back from work.

"Don't talk about it. I hate it," I replied.

I never really strayed from my normal dark brown shoulder-length hair, but one hair salon appointment later, the ends were an ashy gray. Maybe it was my skin tone that made it look different than the picture I saw, but it was done and I would just have to live with it.

Extensions would have been a better option. What the fuck was I thinking?

"It's cute, Katie. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise," Annie said.

"Hair grows out, anyway. I guess I'm just glad that I didn't get another tattoo." I smiled.

"Oh, I have to tell you this really funny story from work." Annie grabbed my wrist, and every important system in my body shut down. I forgot to breathe until we ended up in the kitchen by ourselves.

"You okay? When a girl starts dyeing her hair, you know she's really going through some shit," she asked.

I nodded. "I'm fine, Annie. I just wanted a change, and I'm sure that I'll eventually get used to it. I thought about going blonde, but fortunately, I decided against it."

And it wasn't a lie; I needed to do something to keep myself from going through some shit.

"Wait, what about you?" I asked.

"We're not talking about me right now. I don't entirely believe you, but I'm not sure you're capable of lying," she said.

I was definitely capable of it, but I never had to when I was with Annie. She wouldn't judge me for an unflattering truth.

But before I could give her any reason to waste her worry on me, I gave her a smile. "Thank you for checking in on me though. There are so many people who never bother to ask. It's really just you and Griffin."

She nodded. "Well, you do the same for me."

I headed back for the living room, and before I could even pass by, Drake stopped me.

"I didn't mean anything bad about your hair, so I hope you didn't take it that way. I was just surprised, that's all," he said.

"Don't worry about it. It'll take me a second to get used to it too," I said.

"Well, I think it's pretty." He brushed my hair out of the way and kissed my cheek. "Would you want to go out or something tonight?"

"Like a date?" I smiled. "It's about time. I was just beginning to think that you didn't really like me."

He rose his eyebrows. "Really?"

"Uh, kinda. I mean, this kind of went nowhere for a little bit, and I know that you've been busy, but I still—" I trailed off since I didn't really know where I was going with this point, but Drake nodded and waited for something more from me. I just shrugged. "I don't know. The last person I dated was an asshole, so I guess my expectations are all fucked up at this point."

"Then I guess I'll just have to give you a new set of high expectations,"

"You better," I said with a slight laugh, and he headed into his room to change out of his work clothes.

I didn't even know what the hell his job was, but the beautiful thing about dates was that he had to tell me that. It was the most basic personal information in the entire world.

And if that damn robot came up once in our conversation, I was going to be pissed. Just like how I was much more than just a famous hot chick, Drake was a hell of a lot more than just Sacrilege.

------------------------------------------------------------

Hello everyone! One, this chapter is kind of short and unedited, so if you see any mistakes that got past me, please let me know. Two, thank you so much for reading! I seriously appreciate everything you guys do for me.

So for today's question, if you suddenly won a bunch of money, what would be the first thing that you did with it?

I don't even know what I would do. I would probably just buy something simple like some snacks or something. It would definitely take a while for it to sink in that I had a bunch of money. And I wouldn't tell many people either. I'm not nearly that trusting haha.