25 | Nathans Rules

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The muffled sound of an engine woke me up all at once. I sat up in bed and looked around immediately, barely aware of my surroundings, as the haziness from my sleep induced state began to fade quickly. It took a moment of wide eyed staring at the bookshelves filled to the brim with vinyls to remember I was in Nathan's bedroom. 

It took another moment to remember his instructions before I drifted off to sleep, telling me to come find him in the garage when I woke up. I slowly peeled his sheets off of me and shamelessly inhaled his oddly comforting smell that seemed to wrap around me like a blanket. Almost reluctantly, I climbed out of his bed and stood on his hardwood floors.

My jeans were hanging off the edge of his bed and I grabbed them, but kept Nathan's baggy sweats on instead of changing. The waistband was tied tightly and they were rolled several times to keep them from sagging on my waist, but despite this, they did anyway. Clad in Nathan's sweats with my jeans in hand, I left Nathan's room. 

The muffled sound of the engine grew louder as I walked out the front door of the house and followed the sound to the garage attached to the side of the house. The garage door was drawn up and wide open, leaving Betsy on full display on the left side, beside Nathan's Mustang. Nathan was nowhere to be seen, but for the moment, I didn't care.

"I missed you, Betsy!" I cried when I saw my car, momentarily too wrapped up in the familiar sight of my car to wonder where Nathan was. 

A deep chuckle made me freeze where I stood as a blush began crawling onto my cheeks unconsciously. I turned around and there, lying with his back on a skateboard, was Nathan. His upper half had been underneath his car to work on it, but he had slid all the way out to smirk at me mockingly. 

It turns out that I didn't have time to be embarrassed because I was too busy ogling at the grease stains across Nathan's cheekbones and white t-shirt. His hair was brushed back and I was acutely aware of the sweat lining his forearms that almost made me drool. 

"Are you talking to your car?" Nathan's features twisted into an amused smirk as he gets up and wipes his grease-stained hands on his jeans. 

I regain some composure when he speaks and defend, "Don't act like you don't talk to that beautiful Mustang all the time."

Nathan grabs a dirty rag from the pack pocket of his jeans and swipes it across his forehead and cheeks, but it just smears the grease further across his left cheek. My eyes zero in on the grease stain for a moment before Nathan chuckles and effectively pulls me out of my daze once again.

"Yeah, you're right," Nathan concedes, and I try not to let my relief show outwardly that he still hasn't called me out for checking him out. "Well, Betsy is back and better than ever, so you'll be able to talk to her all the time again."

I roll my eyes but feel a smile tug up the corners of my lips at his playful attitude. "Thank you, Nathan. How much do you want for fixing her up?"

This time, Nathan rolls his eyes, and he waves me off. "I'm not taking your money."

"But-" I stop short when I see the look he gives me and instead feel my lips turn into a secretive smile. "Fine, but I'm going to repay you somehow. I'll buy you ice cream sometime."

"That isn't necessary, Collins-" He starts.

I interrupt him swiftly when my gaze lands back on Nathan's car and I realize he's working on the engine for his race tonight. "Are you putting the boosters in?"

He sighs at my attempt to maneuver the conversation in a different direction, but allows the shit in topic. "I'm working on it now," Nathan runs a hand down his face, smearing the grease a little more, but I focus all my willpower on not looking at it. "They should give me the extra push in the final lap no matter what Fisher does."

 An excited grin graces my lips. "I can't wait to watch you kick his ass tonight."

Nathan's eyes search mine for a moment before he says cautiously, almost with an undertone of malice, "I thought you were going to Brett's party tonight."

"No way," I shake my head. This had all my interest now and, after all, it was kind of my revenge on Nina for vandalizing my locker. "I would much rather see this."

He continues looking at me before a beautiful grin slowly stretches across his lips and I feel my heart flutter in my chest just knowing that I caused it. I felt glued to the spot as my eyes scan his annoyingly attractive face, lit up in one of his rare smiles, and wonder when the hell he got enough power over me to make my stomach flip in my chest just at the sight of a grin. 

"Good," Nathan tries to look somber for a moment and my heart hurts as I watch his smile retreat. "But if you're going to the tracks with me, then you have to follow my rules."

I snap out of my momentary daze long enough to shoot him a wary look. "What rules, exactly?"

He smirks at me, the damn dimple showing up on his cheek, and says, "You need to stay with Asher or Vincent at all times when I'm racing. No wandering off. And if you need to go to the bathroom," Nathan gives me a hard look and I realize he's talking about the time I went with Reese. "Bring someone with you."

"Got it," I chirp with a cheeky smile. "Sounds easy enough."

"Good," Nathan nods once and then his smirk widens. "God, I can't wait to watch Nina and Walker lose all their money."

I smirk this time, too. "Neither can I."

"Especially Walker," He shakes his head in disgust as he continues. "I wish I really fucked him up the night he punched Luke, but this is going to be just as sweet. I'll happily take his money."

My smirk falls and eyes widen the second Nathan utters the words the night he punched Luke. I never knew who was the one to give Luke a nasty black eye and split lip simply because Luke and Cole refused to tell me. But now everything made sense. 

The way Beefy and Meaty- or, Walker and Andrew- told Luke that it "wasn't over" between them when I had broken up the almost fight at Nina's suddenly clicked. They must've gotten their revenge the night at the tracks that I babysat Bennett for Nathan.

Nathan saw the dumbfounded look on my face and his smirk falls. "Luke didn't tell you who it was, did he?" When I shake my head, he lets out a discouraged breath. "Shit."

I let out an equally as discouraged breath and run my hand over my face. There was nothing I could do about it now, even if I wanted to. Luke strictly forbid me from fighting his battles for him, and I had a point to prove that I didn't do that anyway. Now all I could do was watch Nathan take a few hundred bucks from him and take immense satisfaction in it. 

"Whatever," I mutter as I drop my hand from my face and look at Nathan. "Just make sure to win, yeah? I don't want him walking away with any money to his name."

Nathan's smirk slowly creeps back onto his face. "You thought I would lose?"

"Never," I give him an exhausted smile. "I'm going to go home and take a nap before tonight. Keys?" 

He rolls his eyes as he drops my keys into my hand. "You just slept for two hours in my room."

I shrug. "I like naps."

Nathan chuckles as I climb into my car and shut the door. Nathan leans his forearms against the open drivers side window as I turn the engine on and watches me as I grin widely upon hearing the engine turn over instead of spluttering back to death.

I turn to Nathan to show him my massive grin and say once more, "Thank you, Nate. You saved me a couple hundred bucks and a massive headache."

A small smile threatens the corners of his lips. "No problem, kitten."

And, instead of detesting the nickname, my heart actually warms upon hearing it. "But I will pay you back somehow," When he opens his mouth to refuse, I add, "So I'll see you tonight?"

"I'll pick you up at nine thirty," Nathan's voice holds a sense of finality. "You already promised to follow my rules tonight, so don't forget them."

I roll my eyes at him and point out, "You told me to follow your rules, I didn't agree."

To my surprise, instead of getting annoyed by my words, Nathan actually smiles. "It's the same thing." He takes a few steps away from my car. "I'll see you later, Collins. Wear a turtleneck to minimize potential problems tonight."

My cheeks warm slightly as Nathan chuckles at me and I only manage to mumble a lame, "I'll see you tonight."

I hear his chuckle as I drive out of his garage and onto the road. I let out a deep breath when I begin driving away from Nathan's house and feel my heart rate slowly return to normal. There was something about Nathan Rhodes that made my stomach flip and heart race dangerously fast but, no matter how much I told myself to back off, I just couldn't. He was intoxicating. 

I, admittedly, spend the rest of my car ride back home thinking about the certain bad boy who fixed up my car. By the time I finally get home, I'm in desperate need for some kind of distraction from my thoughts. I climb out of my car the same time that Cole pulls in front of my house and wait for them to use them as my much needed distraction.

But when Luke gets out of Cole's car, his brows are knitted in confusion and he asks me, "Who's pants are those?"

It's only then that I remember that I'm wearing Nathan's sweatpants and I wrap my arms around myself self consciously. So much for the distraction. 

"I borrowed sweats from Nathan and forgot to give them back," I shrug to make it seem like it wasn't a big deal and force nonchalance upon my words and posture. 

Luke eyes me carefully as his lips turn into a smirk. "I thought you said that you weren't dating Nathan Rhodes."

"I'm not," I defend quickly and feel my cheeks redden. "We're just friends."

He rolls hie eyes and mocks, "Sure, that's why you've been spending all your time with him lately, right?"

"You spend all your time with Cole," I look between him and Cole innocently. "Are you two dating?"

I watch in utter satisfaction as both of their faces fall and a grin appears on my own. Leaving them there, I begin walking toward the front door, and it takes a moment before they finally begin following me up the driveway. 

"We are not dating!" Cole cries lamely.

I barely turn my head to call over my shoulder, "And neither are me and Nathan."

Luke doesn't recover in time to make another comment before I make it up the stairs to my bedroom. I shut the door, tug on Nathan's sweatshirt that I had discarded on my floor the other night- can you blame me? It's comfortable- and fall back on my bed as I let out a deep breath. Was I really that obvious? Was my embarrassing little crush that easy to see through? 

Footsteps up the stairs interrupt my self-deprivation and moments later, my bedroom door opened. I prop myself up on my elbows to see Luke standing in the doorway with a determined look on his face and realize all his playfulness from earlier had vanished completely.

"You would tell me, right?" He asks seriously.

"Tell you if we stared dating?" Luke nods, and even though the answer was yes, I decide to challenge him instead. "Like how you tell me everything about getting in fights with Walker and going out with Holden to do God knows what all night?"

Luke's face falls as he states blandly, "Nathan told you."

"I guessed," I lie quickly to dismiss the blame.

He sighs and walks over to my bed to sit on the edge of it. I sit up properly beside him, leaving enough room so I can turn to examine him, and look at him expectantly. Luke runs a hand over his face and looks at me with nervousness flickering in his eyes.

"That's different," Luke sighs again, a telltale sign he's distressed. "I don't tell you what I'm doing all the time because I don't want you to think I'm a bad guy."

I frown as all my previous misconceptions about Luke get thrown out the window. "I don't think that you're a bad guy, Luke. And I don't think that anything you would tell me would change that, either."

He gives me a pointed look and mumbles, "You think Holden is a bad guy."

"So?" My brows knit together tighter in a mix of concentration and confusion. "You're not at all like Holden. Just because you hang out with him doesn't mean you're anything like him. I know you better than to judge you by your company."

Luke stares at me with a hard expression for a long minute before his gaze shifts ahead and his jaw clenches. "Holden has been teaching me how to race."

My eyebrows shoot up as I stare at the side of his face and my mind goes blank. Then, a tsunami of questions hit me all at once, but the most important one gets stuck on the tip of my tongue: why do you want to learn to race? Upon the absence of a response, Luke's nervous gaze glances back at me and he takes a deep breath.

"I know you don't want me to race because it's dangerous, but I need the money," Luke explains quickly, completely vocalizing my thoughts.

I hesitate again before speaking. "What do you need the money for?"

This time, he hesitates, and excused, "It doesn't matter." Then he looks down. "I didn't want to tell you because I knew you'd be mad. I also know you're not really into that kind of stuff, and..." Luke glances at me fleetingly. "I don't want you to think differently of me because, well, your opinion means a lot."

My heart broke for him. Luke didn't tell me this whole time because he was afraid that I would judge him harshly for his actions or think of him differently. Even though I didn't really agree with the idea of him racing, or understand why he was doing it at all, I suddenly realized that I had to be supportive of him. Unfortunately, this wasn't something I could fight him on.

Yet, at least.

"I don't think of you differently, Luke," I tell him with a small smile. "I understand."

Relief crosses Luke's features before he wraps me into a tight hug. I hug him back just as tightly, touched that he cared about my opinion so much, and pushing away all the questions that were biting at me. When he lets go, he stands up and smiles warmly down at me.

"So, now you'll tell me if you and Nathan start dating?" Luke asks jokingly to lighten the mood.

I laugh lightly as I'm reminded that his confession was sparked because of telling him something that would never happen in the first place. Despite this, I promise, "You'll be the first person I tell."

Apparently this is exactly what Luke wants to hear, because he flashes me one last grin before walking toward my bedroom door. "Thank you, Lauren."

I just smile back at the sheer emotion lacing his tone and watch as he shuts my door softly behind him. The second there's a door between us, I fall back on my bed and drop my smile. I don't know what bothered me more: the fact Luke was learning how to race from Holden or the fact that he was scared to tell me. 

But things were starting to fall into place. Luke must be paying Holden to give him lessons or something, which explains why Luke paid him the other day. And Nathan must've dropped Luke off in the middle of the night because they were at the tracks when Holden ditched him. But with all of these realizations came more questions. 

The most gnawing one was the question of what Luke needed the money for. I spent the longest time lying in bed trying to wrack my brain for the answers.Our family wasn't loaded, but we surely had enough to live comfortably. We were never worried about money before, so why was he suddenly worried about it now?

Sometime in between staring at my ceiling and giving myself a headache, my eyes shut and darkness consumed me as I gave in to sleep for the second time today.

* * *

"Do you like blue or black better?"

I squeezed my eyes shut as I began to get pulled out of sleep, feeling myself reach a fuller state of consciousness.

"Or maybe gray?" The deep voice continues.

I'm about to open my mouth and tell the person to shut up when he speaks again.

"No, not gray."

My eyes shoot open when I realize that the voice isn't Luke or even Cole: it's Nathan. I sit up quickly in bed and see his back towards me as he sifts through my closet.

"What are you doing in my room?" I demand immediately as I run a hand through my hair, trying to smooth out any kinks from sleep.

Nathan turns around and grins at me. "Morning, sunshine." He's holding two long sleeve shirts in his hands and holds them up by the hanger to show me. "So, blue or black?"

I run another lazy hand through my hair and then rub my eyes to make sure Nathan Rhodes is really in my bedroom right now. When I glance at the clock on my bedside table, it reads nine thirty. I turn back and see Nathan looking through my closet again, but this time he pulls out a skimpy, tight red dress that Stephanie had insisted I needed for my change. 

My cheeks warm as he smirks and holds it up to me. "How come I've never seen this?" Nathan tears his hungry gaze off the dress and it lands on me.

I scramble out of bed to stomp over and snatch the dress from his hands. "Shut up, Nathan." I put the dress back in my closet and turn back to him. "I like blue better but-"

"I like blue better on you too," Nathan says coolly as he hands me the long sleeve blue shirt.

It was a plain cobalt blue long sleeve with a high neckline and, as I mentioned, completely plain. Even though his comment makes my heart skip a beat, I ignore it and look at him in confusion. "Why are you dressing me?"

He smirks as he walks over to my bed and climbs on it before lying back. "I was just giving you a shirt to wear, but if you want me to dress you, that can be arranged."

I stare at him blankly for a moment before letting my head fall into my hands as I groan. Nathan snickers as I walk towards my drawers for pants. As of right now, I was still wearing Nathan's sweatpants and his sweatshirt, and the sudden realization made my cheeks warm.

Apparently Nathan noticed my attire at the same moment I did, because when I passed him to go to my drawers, he perked up a little. I grabbed a pair of leggings and a tank top and turned back towards him to see his gaze on me as predicted.  Nathan smirked a little when I turned to face him and met my gaze easily.

"My clothes look good on you, that's for sure," Nathan semi-mumbles.

I felt on like my body was lit with fire at the sound of his sexy voice complimenting me, and I couldn't even help the smile from pulling up my lips. "Hey Nathan, do you mind leaving so I can change?"

Nathan puts his hands behind his head, propping himself up to look at me while lying on my bed. He smirks at me and says coolly, "I'm good. Go ahead."

And just like that, my smile is replaced with a scowl as I question, "Seriously?"

"Seriously," He drawls, his smirk widens and his grey eyes are wrinkled with mischief. "I don't mind."

I let out a discouraged breath and throw Nathan a disappointed look as I shake my head disapprovingly. I walk out of my bedroom and into my bathroom, only slightly annoyed by the laugh that follows me through the hallway just barely loud enough for me to hear. 

Just to humor him, and because I knew I was the reason we were running late, I pull on the plain black leggings, a tank top, and the baggy long sleeve on. I glance in the mirror and an ugly snort comes from my mouth at the sight of myself.

The shirt was a few inches too long and fell over my body like an awkward plastic bag. I just sighed and ran my

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