hello!! while we all wait for chapter 10.1 to be finished (we are so close!), we wanted to share some extras from ch09 to tide us over in the meantime 💌 please enjoy a short deleted dialogue scene and the original ch09 outline below the cut!
Mike doesn’t even have the opportunity to respond before Will is turning the car on again, miraculously doing so successfully without having to ask Mike for instruction.
“Look at that,” Mike exclaims, genuinely impressed, complete with a low whistle. Embarrassingly (for Mike), the car isn’t the only thing Will turned on. “You’re already getting the hang of it!”
Will resists the urge to roll his eyes, because he is also proud of himself, regardless of how small of an accomplishment it is. “Turning the car on isn’t impressive,” he says dismissively, because he is nothing if not humble.
“It’s better than what most people can do,” Mike points out. “Do you think that Lucas knows how to start a manual car? I’ll answer for you – he doesn’t. He’s a loser.”
Will barks out a laugh, a little surprised at the animosity towards Lucas this afternoon. “What do you have against Lucas?”
“Nothing,” Mike says quickly. “He’s my best friend, even if he is a loser who can’t drive stick.”
“I’m telling him that you said that,” he threatens.
“It’ll be nothing he hasn’t heard before,” Mike says, the picture of unbothered. He gestures towards Will's feet again, ready to move on from his Lucas slander. “Anyway, before you let off the brake this time, remember the drawbridge.” He lifts both hands up, mimicking the same model drawbridge he had earlier when he’d first been explaining. “When you’re lowering it back down – releasing the clutch, in this case – you’ll want to do it slowly. Ease off it.” He mimics his words with the motion of his hands, miming the drawbridge slowly lowering down. “Once you feel the clutch engage – and you’ll know when, because it’s almost like the car is biting – then you can let off completely. Does that make sense?”
“Slower release,” Will repeats, nodding his head slowly too, getting into the idea of it “Got it.”
“I don’t want you worrying about the gas pedal at all right now,” Mike continues, wiggling his fingers around his head in a motion that Will translates as: get it out of your mind. “You’re going to let go of the brake, forget the gas pedal even exists for the moment, and peel off the clutch – slowly – until you feel that bite.”
“Okay,” Will says. He clutches at the wheel a little tighter, like maybe the intensity of his grip directly correlates to how well he’s about to do. “I think I’ve got it.”
“I believe in you,” Mike says encouragingly, shooting him two thumbs up.
Will shoots him a small, nervous smile and turns back to the matter at hand. He lets go of the brake, and the car instantly responds, beginning to crawl forward again at what Will considers to be a wonderful, beautiful speed – 3mph. He starts to ease off the clutch, making sure to go slower this time, waiting for the feeling of the bite Mike had promised – but he must mess up somewhere, because the car lurches forward again, coming to an abrupt halt.
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