mechbeaut:
-
Excitement was like a drug. Something that filled every part of her body as it coursed through her veins, almost as if someone had injected it into her. It’s the way it brightens her entire being. Lights up her gaze. Makes her feel energized. All the things she’d be hoping to feel after her second or third cup of coffee. Something that she makes a mental note to ask Salem about supplying, either by machine in the old building or by stopping and resupplying somewhere for the fuel the body needs. Either way, she doesn’t waste more time ogling over the old car when he agrees with her. Shopping. That was the agenda for the morning and the reason for being here so bright and bushy tailed before the sun. Another reminder but this one only made her internally groan. Six AM’s were going to be a nightmare that she’d never forget for as long as she lived but maybe, just maybe, she’d forgive them with the right amount of coffee, not to mention, the sum of money he had promised was a good incentive on that front of forgiveness for the lack of sleep she’d be getting soon. Still, even the reminder of the early hours wasn’t enough to drive out the way her gaze shown climbing into the old Chevy. Vintage was one thing, but this? This would never fall out of prime. It was a car guru’s dream even if it could use some work, that hadn’t mattered. The mere fact that Salem owned such a beautiful piece of machinery was almost enough to make Rylan forget that he was probably going to murder her before the job was through.
It’s easy for the girl to lean against the door, gaze directed out the window as the scenery passes by in a colorful blur of greens and browns and sandy shades. The sound of music drifting up from the speaker down in the dash helped her forget everything else around her. It wrapped her in a lyrical blanket of thoughts and ideas of how she planned to approach this entire rebuild of an engine so complicated that even she questioned her own abilities by looking at, but she was confident. She was good at her job, she didn’t have a choice but to be. Being a female in a male dominated work force was almost like signing her death certificate. It was a surefire way of getting unsolicited comments thrown at her every waking hour and for those in the shop only want her to be a display at the front desk, taking money, writing down orders, sending in cars. Most, not all, men feared a woman who come preform a job better than them. It’s why she had no qualms of staying late, grease up to her elbows, but finishing the job without mistakes. At seventeen, she had learned to strive for good and to let their words bounce off of her, but it was younger than that that built her shell. Verbal abuse was no stranger to the young girl, she just learned to deflect it with a hard exterior of armor that kept her safe. After all, words were like rubber and they simply could just bounce off a person and land on the ground to be stepped upon.
“So, do you have any more mechanical surprises to show me later down the road?” She questions for the small talk, even though Rylan doesn’t mind the drowned out silence with the music drifting through the cab of the vehicle, she wouldn’t mind getting to know the man that may or may not be the last thing she’ll be seeing on an unsuspecting night under the moonlight. “I can’t imagine what one of these must of cost or where you even got lucky to find one.” Fingertips glide easily over the frame of the door, down the interior leather of the door panel as she pauses to take another drink of her coffee. Curiosity was no stranger to Rylan. In fact, it helped aide her in many parts of life growing up to this point. Though, it also ended up with her in trouble more than she cared to admit, as her gaze shifts to look at the other just then. It’s still bright from the happiness of being inside such a vehicle but the tiredness is still there and it’s warmth. Her gaze is softened even. “I gotta ask, are you from here? Did you grow up here or something or are you just…passing through, like most people do?”
Salem’s plan had been to drown out any possibility of a conversation by blaring heavy metal as loud as possible, but it seemed that even with the music filling the cabin of the vehicle, the mechanic next to him was still trying to say something. Much to his annoyance, he’d heard her voice cut through the chorus of the song, a pause halting his own response before he reached a heavily-tattooed hand forward to turn the music down a little.
“You’re kidding me, right?” Salem asked, his voice calm as his pale eyes drifted away from the road to briefly settle on Rylan’s features. Judging from the softness of her expression, he guessed that she was serious, although he couldn’t fathom why she was so eager to make small talk with the likes of him. Her question seemed even more absurd, but regardless, he’d humor her. “Alright...” he began, his sentence trailing off into a brief silence.
“No. I’m not from here. Just passing through,” Salem answered, fishing a cigarette out from within the console that was nestled between their seats and proceeding to settle it between his pierced lips. He didn’t speak again until he’d lit it while stopped at a red light. The tattooed male took a long drag from it, his body then shifting closer to the mechanic’s until he was hovered right across her, his arm outstretching to then manually unroll the window next to her. Smoke was exhaled from his lungs then. “Driver-side window is broken,” he explained, a faint grin tugging on his features as he hovered face-to-face with the female for another moment before he retreated back to his side of the cabin.
