Nothing happened over the next couple weeks or so, and every moment that passed was gone. No progress was made since I was barely even allowed to look at Sacrilege, but it wasn't like I had anywhere better to be.

Sure, I could have headed back to Baton Rouge and hung out with Griffin (whose house desperately needed cleaning at this point, probably), but would that have been any better? When I got fired, I knew there wasn't a damn thing there for me and headed to Vegas.

As I sat with Annie in the kitchen on a Sunday morning, she scrolled through her Pinterest feed on her phone with a cup of coffee on the table in front of her. Every once in a while, she showed me a cute idea she found, then she went back to her phone.

"So how's your college search going?" I asked,

She shrugged. "It's too late at this point. Classes are about to start, and it takes too long to get my transcript, fill out the applications, get accepted. There's just not enough time."

"There's always next semester," I said.

"I guess." She didn't sound too certain, but it was a big change for anyone. If there was one thing I knew about her, she would do whatever she could to preserve her lifestyle just the way it was. But that wasn't how life worked.

And maybe it was too late to begin the process. I didn't know how the hell it worked.

"Just promise me one thing, Katie," Annie said.

"What is it?"

"If I go back to school, you have to as well. You really should get your high school diploma. I know you don't think you need it, but—"

"I can't do that," I interrupted.

"And why not?"

"It's too hard. I'm not cut out for that shit," I said.

Annie set her phone down on the table. "Too hard? You had never driven a robot before, but you didn't think that was too difficult."

"Because that's different. I was barely passing my classes before I dropped out, and at this point in my life, I already know what I want and what I can do." It was a bit of a lie since I had no fucking clue what I wanted, but no one had to know that besides me and the Lord.

"You're a lot smarter than you give yourself credit for, you know."

"Doesn't matter if it takes me sixty million years to figure out what the words on the goddamn assignments are," I said.

"So," Annie thought for a moment, "dyslexia?"

I nodded. "I mean, I can read, but it takes me longer than everyone else to piece everything together. It's not even worth the effort."

"Which explains why you never read any of the stuff Drake and Josiah wanted you to." She let out a sigh. "All you had to do was say something."

"I never thought I'd end up staying here this long." Just as I spoke, someone came into the kitchen, and I looked over my shoulder even though I could already tell it was Drake.

"You did it, Katie. We're in," he said, and before I could even ask what the fuck he was talking about, he put a sheet of paper on the refrigerator with a magnet. "I printed out the email and everything. This is honestly the best day of my life."

Annie giggled. "Is this about that tournament?"

"It's not just a tournament. We got an invite to BattleBots, which is the biggest tournament around. After a few regular fights to determine qualification and seeding, there's a championship bracket of the top sixteen, and the champion wins the Giant Nut," Drake continued.

"A giant nut?" I laughed. "Either I'm really immature, or that's fucking hilarious."

"Like nuts and bolts, Katie."

"Got it, but still, how in the fuck did that get approved? You guys build robots for God's sake," I said.

Annie set down her cup and covered her mouth with her fist before anything, coffee or laughter, could sneak out.

Drake frowned. "Would you just take this seriously for one second?"

How the hell was I supposed to take it seriously? But for Drake's sake, I did my best to keep myself from laughing. "Look, that giant nut will be ours. We'll put it on a shelf right by all of Josiah's clocks."

And when I finally left to go back to NASCAR, I'd take that shit with me and use it to decorate my living room along with my All-Star trophy and everything else I'd win.

"So what are you guys going to do in the meantime?" Annie asked.

"Make sure that everything is as perfect as we can get it, I guess. We definitely can't do anything that could potentially hurt Sacrilege," Drake said.

My worst nightmare. "So I'm not needed until then?" I asked.

"Don't say that. Of course you're needed," Annie said.

"Annie, come on. If there's no driving that needs to be done, you guys don't need me," I said.

She didn't respond to that, and instead, she took another sip of her coffee without looking away from me.

Sometimes Annie needed me to nudge her in the right direction and hold her hand and talk some sense into her, but other than that, what else was I good for? Not much, besides keeping Team Sacrilege afloat financially.

I took in a breath. I couldn't just leave her. Not now.

But one person who remained awfully quiet on the matter was Drake. I took a glance over in his direction, and before I could ask him what was going on in his mind, he spoke up.

"I don't want you to be stuck somewhere you're not happy."

"Where would you get that idea?" I asked. "I never said I was unhappy here."

Obviously there were plenty of times that I was, in fact, unhappy, but that was mostly Josiah's fault. And sometimes Drake. And occasionally Annie.

"Not one thing in particular. Just the overall pattern," he said. "I've figured out that when you're excited, you get quite unruly."

And he was the opposite, who never acted on his own happiness. Besides, who the fuck said quite? We were a robot fighting team, for God's sake.

"I just—" I hesitated. There were about a million ways to word my thoughts, but I didn't need to piss anyone off at the moment. "I'm not focused like you. And I'm sure it's a me problem, but it's the same thing every day here."

No matter how hard I tried, Drake and I were going nowhere, and I was stuck in a routine where my entire life went nowhere. When there was a robot in front of me that I had to destroy, I was in my zone, but other than that, I didn't have a damn thing going for me.

That was it. That was the problem.

Any other time, it would have been easy to just pack my shit up and leave and move on to something new. But these people (or, at least, Drake and Annie) cared about me personally when very few others did. And I was emotionally invested in Annie, and it pissed me off to no end that I wanted more from Drake than he wanted from me.

Something had to change, and fast.

"We haven't had a sense of normalcy since you've come around, Katie," Drake said, and as much as I didn't want to, I believed him. After all, Annie put up with Josiah's shit for six years until I woke her up a little. And for Drake, given that he was struggling with me, I couldn't imagine that he was having much luck with women before I came around.

"Well, maybe I should pick up a new hobby or something. Is sewing hard?" I asked.

"You could learn it," Annie said.

Thank God she had faith in me. She was the only reason I wasn't halfway back to the US.

"Or you could get into robotics," Drake said.

There was no way in hell I could ever figure that out, so I smiled and shook my head. "That's funny. You know I'm not smart enough for that."

"Yeah, you are. It wouldn't kill you to try at the very least."

"I'm driving your goddamn robot. What more do you want from me?"

Drake held his hands up defensively. "Alright, alright."

I almost let a few more words about how all he cared about Sacrilege slip out of my mouth, but I kept it together. Even though I hated it when he treated me with too much care and was far too calculated with his words, I couldn't erupt on him now. We had a tournament in the distant future, and after that, there wasn't a damn thing that was certain.

"Do you guys want breakfast? There's this guy I work with, and all he can talk about is this new restaurant downtown," Annie said. "It's kind of expensive, but we have fuck-it money."

"No, we don't. That's for the robot," Drake said.

Annie laughed. "You're always so high-strung, Drake."

"You are too." Drake looked over at me for a moment, then back at Annie. "Well, you used to be. I don't know what Katie ever did to you."

"She gave us some financial security. It takes a surprising weight off the shoulders," Annie said, and I smiled.

I got a Corvette and some memories out of it, so what better investment could I have possibly made?

"Besides, you should celebrate. Your dream is finally coming true. I'll pay for it," I said.

"You're the millionaire, so you better," Drake said with a slight chuckle.

I sure as hell wasn't as rich as he thought I was, but I earned everything I had. I didn't just inherit it from my football player father, then lose it all by running a combat robotics team into the ground.

Oh my god, I needed a change in scenery. I liked to save my vicious comments for people who truly deserved them, like attempted murderer Tyler Bailey or professional asshole Roger Truscott.

"Should we ask Josiah if he wants to come?" Annie asked.

I shook my head. "He won't even notice we're gone."

Annie smiled. "Probably not, but I'd feel bad if we didn't ask him."

"Yeah, this tournament is just as important to him as it is to me. He's coming with us," Drake said.

The problem with being the new kid on the block was that apparently, the veterans had more say than me.

***

"So if you could sleep with any celebrity, who would it be?" Annie asked.

Waffles and mimosas: did life get any better?

Whoever Annie's coworker was that recommended the place certainly knew his shit. It was a quaint little restaurant with friendly staff who seemed to at least recognize me from somewhere, and until they figured out that I was an American race car driver who got fired so she could go to rehab for her nonexistent alcohol addiction, they were gonna keep the mimosas coming. What a place.

"That's easy. Matthew McConaughey," I said.

Josiah shook his head. "You could literally pick anyone, and you pick Mc-fucking-Conaughey? Oh my god, you're hopeless."

"Hell yeah. He was People's Sexiest Man Alive in 2005," I said. My cheeks flushed, and I wasn't quite sure if it was the mimosa or the fact that he was hating on my choice.

"Yeah, in 2005. Times change, honey," Annie said. "Okay, since that answer sucked, who is the most famous person you've actually slept with?"

"I am, unfortunately, sworn to secrecy," I said. "If it got out, it'd be a PR nightmare for her. Hell, it'd probably be bad for me too."

Annie smiled. "But you can tell me, right?"

"Sure, when we're not in public," I said, then my voice got quiet, "because I love you and that's what friends do. Good friends. Best friends."

She covered her mouth. "That's so sweet of you to say. I love you too."

Josiah shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Why does it feel like the people who helped the least with the robot are celebrating the most?"

"Shut up. The women are talking," I said.

Annie laughed.

"And anyway, doesn't it make you the slightest bit uncomfortable that you're saying all this with Drake sitting right next to you?" Josiah said.

"Nope. He's more than welcome to chime in if he wants, and I wouldn't care if he started talking about his past relationships," I said. "It almost would be a goddamn blessing. Getting any sort of personal story out of him is like pulling teeth with a fucking manicure set."

A hush fell over the table, and I looked over at Drake.

"Sensitive topic?" I asked.

Drake? Being too closed off to make any other relationships work? Who could have ever guessed?

Just as Drake opened his mouth to respond, a woman approached our table with an ugly cardigan despite the fact that it was summer, a short haircut, and a high, nasal voice. "Excuse me, but would you mind not swearing? I'm here with my six-year-old daughter, and I don't want her to hear those words."

"Did you ever consider not raising a goddamn pussy?" I asked.

"This isn't a bar or nightclub or whatever you're used to," the woman said and looked around the room. "Where on earth is the manager?"

"And if it wasn't ten in the morning on a Sunday, that's where I would be. Have a nice day," I said.

"Katie, stop." Annie looked up at the woman. "We're sorry, ma'am."

"No, we're not," I said.

"You're embarrassing us." Drake also looked up at the goddamn Karen. "We're just here to celebrate our hard work paying off, and it looks like someone took it too far. We truly are sorry."

"Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you and your table to leave," a waiter said, and even though I was pretty sure he didn't have the authority, I really didn't want to spend a second longer in that overpriced breakfast restaurant from hell.

"Way to go, Katie," Josiah said.

Like it was my fault.

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

Hi everyone! First, I'm sorry that I took a week off of this book, but I just wasn't feeling like myself for a while. As you all know at this point, I love to make other people smile, and I couldn't accomplish that, so I spent my time trying to make myself smile. Everything has been wild lately, hasn't it? But anyway, thank you so much for your patience, and thank you so much for reading!

How do you think Katie is going to deal with her life staying in the same place?

So since I left y'all hanging for a week with no explanation, I'll tell a story about a "fun" time I had while I was in Portugal a few years ago. So at my high school (where I didn't have very many friends), my Spanish teacher always took the graduating class on a trip to Spain, and when it was my class's turn, we also got to spend a few days in Portugal. Unfortunately, I only knew two words in Portuguese, "obrigada" which means thank you, and "lixo" which means trash. It was part of the reason that when I was watching the news one morning, I couldn't understand that the wildfires on the TV were actually in Portugal and killed a lot of people. But that's a different story.

So one evening, Portugal must have just won a huge soccer (or football, for my non-American friends) game, so after having dinner and plenty of drinks, we went into a sports store where the guy working there gave us free Cristiano Ronaldo masks when he found out we were from the US. Naturally, I was super excited, since my favorite color is free, and to thank him, I looked around at all the cool stuff to buy something, even though I really don't care about Portuguese soccer.

I ended up buying something small (and I'm pretty sure I ended up leaving it at the hotel, but I still have the Ronaldo mask), and when I went to meet my classmates at the front of the shop, every single one of them was gone. I panicked for a second, and when it finally hit me that I was on my own, it took me about half an hour to figure out how to get back to the hotel. I can barely figure out how to get to places in my own damn city, so it's a miracle that I didn't end up dying in the streets.

And that's the story of how my high school classmates abandoned (drunk and directionally challenged) me in the middle of a foreign country where I didn't speak the language! :) Obviously I'm not friends with any of them anymore, but I find it pretty funny now.