3 Getting a Grip - Chapter 3

It had been a few days since I had taken Emma on our date, I was listening to some music while studying for biology since I needed to catch up after sleeping through most of the classes. Suddenly I got a phone call from Brayden.

"Yo"

"Wassgood Kaze"

"I'm just studying aye"

"You free tonight?"

"Yeah, I should be, why you ask?"

"Some guys from Speedsters are holding a street event tonight"

"Speedsters? Why does that name sound familiar to me?"

"Probably because you raced them on the highway"

"Oh yeah… WAIT!? HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT?!"

"Oh, Malachi told me. It's also the talk of the underworld right now"

"Underworld? What's that?

"Its just what we refer to as the underground scene of street racing"

"Ah okay okay. Wait why are people talking about the race?"

"They're all saying 'The Lord of the Underworld has returned' which didn't make any sense to me"

"Lord of the Underworld?" I questioned

"Yeah apparently that car and its exact number plate used to rule the Underworld back in the early 2010s"

"Early 2010s? That's when my parents still drove the car around"

"Imagine if your parents were the so-called rulers of the Underworld" Brayden joked

"There's no way that's possible"

I started to plunge myself into deep thought. What if my parents died while racing someone from the Underworld, or what if they were on the run because someone had put a bounty on their heads. I kept coming up with these crazy scenarios, they drove me insane. I couldn't stop.

"KAZE!" Brayden yelled through the phone, snapping me back into reality

"You good? You just started drifting into your own world" Brayden added

"Umm… yea I'm all good. What time did you say this event was?"

"around midnight tonight"

"send thru the addy. I'll see you tonight"

"Woah Woah big dog" Brayden said mocking me

"Slow down, how you gone get there?"

"I'll drive"

"Even after I just told you EVERYONE in the Underworld has been talking about you?"

"They weren't talking about me, they were talking about my car. I'll be fine"

"If you say so Kaze, is it cool if I meet you at yours and we head down to the place together?"

"Yeah aight I'll see you in a few hours"

After Brayden's call, I spent the rest of the day attempting to study biology, but I kept wondering if my parents were these so called 'rulers' of this Underworld. I was in deep thought for what felt like only a moment but I ended up thinking about it for hours. As I realised what the time was Brayden was already outside of my house. I rushed out wearing my black tech fleece tracksuit and met up with him outside of mine.

"You ready Kaze?" Brayden questioned

"As ready as I'll ever be"

And with that, we started to make our way to the event hosted by these so called Speedsters. It was quite a drive but we had fun racing each other on the highway. While we were racing, I kept having second thoughts about going to the meet. I had just beaten one of their goons the other day and now I'm going to a meet organised by them. Anyone with a single brain cell could tell that was a stupid move.

Once we arrived at the venue it looked like something out of the Fast and Furious movies, music bumping, people dancing, and most importantly, sexy cars just lined up with massive turbos or humongous tanks of NOS. I felt as if I had returned home. When Brayden and I had pulled in, I followed him to find a part to park our cars, while we were looking for a spot people were crowding around recording our cars, at first I just thought they were recording Brayden's AE86 since it was such an infamous car. I then realised they were filming my car when someone yelled out,

"The ruler has returned"

Everyone started cheering, an even bigger crowd of people came up recording the car and just going crazy. When we had found a parking spot, I put the hood of my hoodie over my head and rolled a cigarette before exiting my car. Once I stepped out of my car everyone went silent. "Damn do I look that bad" to myself then suddenly everyone split like the red sea and three people wearing all blue started to walk towards me, I recognised one of them as the kid who was riding with that goon in my first street race.

"The Ruler has returned with a new owner," one of them said clapping his hands

"This the guy that beat Pah in the race Kendrick?" The other guys said

"Yeah, that's him."

"So, Ruler to whom may we honour this visit?"

"Umm, who are you guys?" I asked perplexed

"We are the trinity of the Speedsters, and you, my friend happened to beat one of Kendrick's goons in a race the other night"

"Kendrick's goon? Ain't Kendrick 16 like me?"

"Yeah, I am, got a problem with that?"

"Oi, show some respect just cause you got goons don't make you top shit" Brayden calmly added

"Ahahaha I apologise for Kendrick, he isn't the most pleasant person to be around. But you, the new owner of this car. What's your name?"

"Isn't it rude to not introduce yourself first?" I asked

"My apologise, Ruler," He said while bowing

"My name is Dex, the guy who looks half dead is Kev and you've already met Kendrick"

Dex was a tall, built dude. He was about six foot two, with a fade, and had what looked like a scar from a knife on his left hand. Kev, like Dex, said looked half dead and had everything apart from his eyes covered up. Kendrick was about my height but a little more on the skinny side.

"So Ruler, what's your name?"

"My name is Kaze Bushida"

"Bushida? Oh, so you must be the son of the Ruler?"

"Son?! So my father is this so called Ruler" I thought to myself

"What you didn't know?" asked Kendrick

I took a puff of my cigarette and answered him

"What's it to ya?"

"Just a question to the so called Ruler"

"Now now Kendrick play nice, we don't want the Ruler to join the Horned Angels now do we?"

"Horned Angels? That's what that goon said I was, the fucks a Horned Angel?"

"You don't know Kaze?" Brayden asked

"Nah not a clue" I answered

"They are our rival gang you see Ruler" answered Kev

"Just call me Kaze, being called 'Ruler' doesn't sound right"

"Well okay Kaze, the Horned Angels are our rival gang. We've been beefing with them since the early 2000s and your father was against us both"

"Both? You mean my father went up against both gangs!?"

"Yeah he was crazy"

"Where you the reason he passed?" I asked with a cold stare

"What's it to ya?" Kendrick replied getting in my face

"Boy, you better get out my boys face before I put you on your ass," Brayden said defending me

"Brayden its chill," I said telling him to back down

"Yeah that's what I thought, go on listen to your master you bitch"

"The fuck did you just call me" Brayden yelled hooking Kenrick across the jaw causing him to stumble and fall to the ground

"Oi" Kev yelled getting in Brayden's face

I stepped in and gave Kev a solid uppercut to the stomach knocking the wind out of his system.

"Woah Woah, now let's keep calm now" Dex added almost laughing

"If you want to fight we can go outside of this parking unit and have a go on the streets, but we don't fight here. If you have a problem with one of us we can settle it in a race."

Just before we could agree to the race we heard gunshots around the corner"

[BANG BANG]

"YOU SPEEDSTER PUSSIES BETTER GET RUNNING BEFORE BE RUN YALL OVER" someone yelled

A man twice the size of Dex jumped out a GTR and walked up towards Dex putting a gun to his head.

"HAHA caught you lackin' aye Dex," the man said with a sadistic laugh

"Come one Nathan"

"You bet your ass really, we won't forgive the murder of one of our own so lightly"

"Murder!?" I looked towards Brayden

"Come on Nathan, you know we didn't want to kill him"

"That's not what the six bullets all over his body say, now you either say sorry and die or keep ya trap shut and die" Nathan demanded

"Well both seem to have my dying so can I choose neither?"

"You think this is a joke Dex? Huh?"

As soon as those words left Nathan's mouth, Kev was behind him with a gun to the back of his head.

"You even move your trigger finger and I'll blow your head off. You get me?"

Nathan grunted and put his pistol in his pants.

"You calm enough to talk now Nathan?"

"Nah fuck that Dex, if I ain't get to kill you with my two hands imma kill you in a race"

"Oh is that so?" Dex mocked

"Okay so be it, we race tonight boys!" Dex claimed as he lifted his arms,

Everyone on the building screamed "WOOO" "YEAH FINALLY SOMETHING TO WATCH"

"Watch this Kaze" Dex said getting into his car

"You ready to lose your life Dex?" Nathan asked

"aren't I supposed to ask you that Nathan"

Both of them got into their cars and started to make their way out of the parking complex and onto the highway. I wanted to follow them in my car as did Malachi did when I was racing but a part of me knew to stay out of this. This girl wearing short jeans and a supreme hoodie walked onto the highway and waved the two racers down. They both flew off into the distance, they were going so fast that the only thing we could see were the lines of light left by their tail lights. Their cars sounded as if two gods were fighting over the sake of humanity. Brayden called me over and showed me his phone. Someone was following the cars with a drone and broadcasting the footage live! Watching Dex and Nathan race was only comparable to watching King Kong and Godzilla fighting, it was an all out war. Dex would take the lead then Nathan would gain and they kept this up for a while. Then out of nowhere, a cop car was tailing them, as soon as we noticed that Kev got on a walkie talkie and gave Dex the information. Without a second to lose the two cars split onto separate roads and drove the opposite way. After we had seen the cops everyone ran into their cars and started to scramble to the exit. I hesitated a little bit but managed to get into my car and drive off after navigating through a sea of people. Once I was on the highway I booked it back home. Hitting 200km/h down the highway, I had no plans of getting caught by the cops. After freaking out and focusing on nothing but the road I managed to get home where Emma was standing at the front door. "Shit," I thought to myself "What am I gonna tell her". I pulled up onto my driveway where Emma ran up to the car.

"Kaze! Are you okay!?" Emma looked and sounded so worried

"Yeah I'm okay but what are you doing in front of my house at 4 am!?"

"I'm asking the questions here mister"

"Why were YOU out at 4 am!?"

"Were you at a club or were you out drinking with some other girls" She began to spiral

"Emma. Emma. EMMA" I yelled

"I was at a car meet and things got a little heated, I was NOT out with girls" I reassured her

"Promise?"

"Promise"

"Now, why are you at my house at 4 am Emma?"

"Well I was trying to FaceTime you but you weren't picking up so I snuck out and rode my mountain bike to make sure you were okay"

"Oh shit sorry, I must not have heard your calls at the car meet"

I checked my phone and had 50 missed calls! I got out of the car and invited Emma inside for a cup of tea and offered for her to sleep in my room if she was tired since I was too full of adrenaline to sleep.

"Kaze~"

"Yes Emma"

"Why do you smell of smoke?" She asked

"Oh I rolled a cigarette at the car meet, sorry"

"It's okay, just promise me you'll try and stop smoking, your sixteen Kaze! Someone our age shouldn't be smoking at all"

"Yeah I know Emma, I'm trying my best but its become a force of habit"

"Okay, goodnight Kaze"

"Goodnight Emma" I kissed her on her forehead and closed the door to my room and began to make my way to my living room. I sat there and thought about how crazy the car meet had gotten and if Brayden was okay… "HOLY SHIT IS BRAYDEN OKAY?!" I asked myself, we had been separated when everyone was in a scramble to get out of the parking complex. I swiftly rang up Brayden.

"Yo Kaze what's up?"

"You good Brayden? The car meet got real hectic"

"Yeah, I'm all good. How are you though?"

"Yeah, I'm calm, why you ask?"

"I mean you just found out your pops was involved with two what seemed like pretty extreme racing gangs and one of those groups were probably the reason your parents died"

"fuck that shit man, imma bring them both down"

"Woah Woah Woah. Calm the hell down Kaze! DID YOU NOT SEE WHAT I SAW?! HUH, THEY HAD GUNS AND THEY'RE ALSO MURDERERS! YOU DO NOT WANT TO MESS WITH THEM"

"Bro pipe down its too early to be shouting"

"Get your head in the game Kaze! You could lose your life"

"Yea I know, but knowing of those two are the reason my parents died… I can't sit here and do nothing"

"You understand right Brayden?"

"No not really I still have both of my parents"

"Well think about it this way, if someone killed your parents and you had two people in front of you both having an equal chance of being the killer of your parents wouldn't you do your best to make sure the both of them pay for it?"

"Yeah I guess" Brayden responded

"No not 'yeah I guess' Brayden cause I'm really boutta go and settle this shit"

"Kaze what are you talking about, you sound so scary" Emma was standing in front of her with my blanket covering her half naked body

"Shit did I wake you up, Emma? I'm so sorry"

"I'll call you back aye Brayden?"

"Yeah aight bro, don't do anything stupid," he said before hanging up

"Kaze what were you two talking about?"

I took a deep breath and explained everything that had happened tonight to Emma. She didn't know how to feel.

"Oh my god Kaze! Are you okay?" she said throwing herself on my hugging me till I couldn't breathe

"Emma, I'm all good but more importantly could you please not lay on me when your half named? You know I don't wanna do anything to disgrace your parents"

"Sorry Kaze, but seriously you live by yourself, smoke, and now you've gotten yourself mixed in between some rival gangs and you won't even take 'us' to the next stage"

"I'm sorry Emma, but you know I'm old school, even when we kissed for the first time, you remember how guilty I felt?"

"That doesn't matter Kaze, we're gonna be together for a while"

"Yeah, you right. But still, I don't want to have that on my conscience"

"Oh whatever" Emma said before giving me a kiss

I held her there for a bit, bathing in her warm body and the sweet taste of her lips before patting her on the head and telling her to get some sleep.

"Where are you gonna sleep Kaze?"

"I'll sleep on the couch tonight"

"Hmph we could always share the same bed"

"Know to have some shame woman"

"Ah! Woman!?, Excuse you, mister"

We both stared at each other and laughed a little bit.

"Okay goodnight Emma"

"Gnite Kaze~"

I sat in the living room, thinking of my future with that girl when all of a sudden, I hear a loud bang on the door. I look outside the window trying not to be noticed.

It was the cops.