The Race For A New Life

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

In the morning, the water on the roads was almost gone. Everyone agreed it was alright to continue with the race. During breakfast, a few drivers decided to change vehicles. Rae switched the Impala for her Chevrolet MI-RAY, a nice concept convertible. Graham switched driving responsibilities to William and they were now in a sporty Toyota Scion. Grace was also now driving, even though Lacy wasn’t happy with the Dodge Viper choice. Some other teams also decided to switched drivers. With the sun out and a cool breeze welcoming the day, they were all waiting at the checkpoint. Looking forward to what the day brought.

After driving through a couple of states, Rae decided to switch with Darren. She pulled over at a rest area and got out of the car. She stretched her back before walking to the other side of the car and leaning against its side. Taking a minute to enjoy the scenery, Rae strolled along the walkway a few feet. “I keep forgetting how beautiful Maine is”, she said. Darren turned to her, “That’s because you spend too much time in Florida.” “That’s not true”, Rae said as she walked back to her car. “I spend a good amount of time in other states”, she continued to say. Darren looked up at his sister, “Just not Maine, and when you’re free from any schedule. Which is like never.” Rae sat down in the passenger’s seat, and let the suicide doors close. “Yeah, I know I’m too busy to enjoy things like traveling for leisure”, she sighed. Turning over the car, Darren gave her a sympathetic look. “At least you have Graham with you most of the time”, he said. She glared over at him, “We are not talking about this. We don’t have time to talk about this.” He arched an eyebrow at her, “Actually we have all the time in the world.” Giving him a grunt, Rae gestured him to just drive. “I mean it, Rae!”, Darren said as he looked at her in concern. She looked wide-eyed at him, “Drive! Come on, you wanted to drive, so drive!” Darren sighed and proceeded onto the road.

As they were leaving Maine, Darren decided to bring up the topic again. “You could live anywhere. Anywhere in the world, Rae. But I mean seriously, what is holding you in Florida?” When she didn’t say anything, Matt continued to say, “I care about you, Rae, and your well-being. Maybe it is time for a change of scenery for you.” She continued to look out the window as she spoke, “You don’t think that I haven’t thought of that? I want to Darren. Trust me! But I can’t!” “Is it because of Matt or Graham?”, he suddenly asked. There was silence for a few minutes. “It’s mainly Matt, he would follow me. As for Graham, I do enjoy working with him”, Rae finally said. Darren looked at her before looking back at the road, “But?” Rae sighed, “But I don’t know, it’s like I do have feelings for Graham. But I don’t know how he feels about me. You know me, I don’t make a move until I know for a fact everything is okay.” Darren reached over and grabbed her hand, “I know without a doubt that Graham adores you, cherishes you, loves you. Both of you just need to actually talk to each other, okay?” She smiled at her brother, “Okay.” He kissed her hand and released it as he continued to look at the road.

Later that night, Rae was stepping out of the shower at the hotel where the next checkpoint was. She wrapped a towel around her and then wrapped another one to hold her wet hair. Suddenly there was a knock at the door. She obviously thought that maybe it was Graham was coming to check up on her. Wondering why he would do that, she walked to the door. However, as soon as she opened the door, Rae saw that it was Matt. With a feared look on her face, Rae tried to close the door, but Matt barged in and closed the door behind him. He eyed her from head to toe while she started to shake in fear wondering what he would do to her. “Oh, baby doll, if I had known you were in the shower, I would’ve joined you”, Matt said as he took a step closer to her. Rae quickly looked for her robe, but Matt wrapped her up in his arms before she could go get it. “Come on baby, let’s continue where we left off three years ago. Just you and me”, Matt murmured as he started to kiss Rae’s neck. Rae quickly moved her head to glare at him, “You mean the part where I walk away from you? And then live my life in peace?” Matt tilted his head at her, “No, the part where I kiss and love you. Give you what you deserve. And no one will be interrupting us this time.”

Suddenly there was another knock at the door. Rae wanted to go try and get it, but Matt wouldn’t let her go. “Yes? Who is it?”, she asked. “Rae! It’s Graham!”, his voice muffled by the door. “Graham!”, she looked at the door terrified and yet hopeful. “What’s up? What can I do for you?”, she then asked trying to prolong whatever Matt was planning to do. Matt gave a low growl as Rae finished. She looked up at him with fear in her eyes. “I thought I saw Matt walk towards your room”, Graham admitted. Matt then proceeded to put a hand on her neck, covering about half of it. Rae immediately recognized it to be a threat. “N-Nooo! No, no he walked on by, sorry Graham!”, Rae tried to answer calmly. Graham chuckled, “Okay, I guess I’m just seeing things, it’s been a long day.” Rae looked back at the door before speaking again, “Yeah, yeah it has. Get some sleep Graham and I’ll talk to you in the morning.” “Alright, goodnight Rae!”, he said. Rae hesitated for a moment, “Goodnight Graham!”

Rae closed her eyes and waited a few seconds before opening them to look up at Matt. He had a very visible smirk on his face. ”Well done, baby doll. Well done”, he praised. She tried to pull away from him again, but Matt tightened his grip on her and moved them to the wall. Matt’s smirk quickly went away, “Where do you think you’re going?” Rae let out a shaky breath, “Matt, I’m just going to put on my robe, okay? Nothing else. If you want to stay that’s fine. But please let me go!” Matt’s hand on her neck immediately tightened, “No. I won’t let go, and you don’t need the robe or even the towel.” Rae’s eyes widened at his words, “Matt, please don’t. You know how I feel about s*x before marriage. Please Matt! I’m begging you. Don’t do this!” He then proceeded to lift her with his hand on her throat. She automatically started to suffocate. She tried her best to pry Matt’s hand off of her throat but to no avail. “You don’t get to tell me what to do, do you hear me?!”, he growled. Rae tried to speak, but obviously couldn’t. She nodded her response. Immediately letting go of her, Matt turned towards the door. Meanwhile, Rae is coughing on the floor, trying to catch her breath. “Get some sleep, baby doll. I don’t want to be pissed off when I make love to you. Unless you want me to punish you”, Matt growled. Rae shook her head and croaked a ‘no’. “Alright then, I’ll see you tomorrow, baby doll”, he replied. With that he left.

Meanwhile, Graham was leaning against the wall just around the corner from Rae’s room. She didn’t sound like herself. Graham thought that she sounded panicked and terrified. So, he decided to hang back to see what would happen next. As he leaned against the wall waiting, he knew that it wasn’t like her not to answer the door. Thinking back, he knew-KNEW that he saw Matt at Rae’s door. All of a sudden he heard a doorknob move. Leaning over, Graham saw Matt leaving Rae’s room and turning to go back towards his room in the opposite direction. Graham walked back towards Rae’s room, pausing at the window attached to her room, he wasn’t prepared for what he saw or heard. His eyes widened as he saw Rae sitting on the floor crying. His heart ached to comfort her, but then he saw the bruise in a shape of a handprint on her neck. Immediately he wanted Matt’s head on a silver platter, but he knew Rae wouldn’t want the attention tied to that. Slowly he then went back to his room and cooled down, for Rae’s sake.

In the morning, Grace was in the bathroom doing her make-up when her phone got a text message notification. She opened the text to read: “Make-up Emergency. Rae”. Grace gathered up all her make-up and rushed two doors down to Rae’s room. After a quick knock, Rae opened the door and motioned for her to come in. Once the door was closed, Grace asked, “You need a make-up emergency?” “Yeah, yeah I do”, Rae said turning on the light “Think you can cover this?”, she then asked her friend. Grace covered her mouth with her hand, horrified by the hand shaped bruise on Rae’s neck. “Did, did Graham do that?”, she asked, turning her eyes to Rae. Rae looked shocked, “No, no it wasn’t Graham! It was Matt!” Grace grabbed Rae by the arm and moved towards the bathroom. “We’re talking about ex-boyfriend Matt, right?”, Grace asked as she opened her make-up bag and started to work her magic. “Yes, that Matt”, sighed Rae. “He came over last night expecting me to give in to him”, she continued to say. Grace looked up at Rae, “Apparently you didn’t.” Rae sighed again, “No, I didn’t. It also didn’t help that Graham knocked on my door after Matt told me what he wanted.” Grace was almost done covering up the bruise, “I image it didn’t. Knowing Matt, just the mention of Graham sends his blood to the boiling point.” Rae looked in the mirror and saw no evidence of the handprint on her neck. “Thank you, Grace! I mean it. I don’t think that I could come up with an excuse for it”, Rae said with some relief. Grace pulled her in for a hug, “You let me know if he does this again. I mean it!” Rae tightened the hug, “I will!”

During breakfast, Graham grabbed his brother and Darren. They all sat at a table in a corner in the continental breakfast room, so that they could have some privacy. “Okay, so Graham, why did we have to sit in the corner?”, said William. “I feel like I’m in a time-out”, he continued to say. Graham glared at his brother, “Look, what I need to talk about is serious.” William put his hands up signaling his surrender. Darren then chimed in, “What’s on your mind? And please try not to kill your back-up driver.” Graham did a quick look around the room, with no sign of Matt, he continued to say, “I think Matt attacked Rae last night.” Darren about lost it and started to stand up until William put a hand on his shoulder. “What do you mean ‘attacked’?”, said William. “I saw him last night going into her room and so I went to make sure that she was okay. Rae didn’t even answer the door, but she sounded terrified. Like Matt wouldn’t let her do anything”, Graham said. Darren started to get red in the face because of his anger. “After he left, I was standing by her window. She was crying, sitting on the floor in a towel”, Graham explained. William looked wide-eyed, “What kind of bruise and where?” Graham rubbed the back of his neck, “It was in the shape of a handprint on her neck.”

That’s when Darren shot up and started to walk away, intent on finding Matt. Graham and William caught up to him and pulled him aside. “Do you really think that you can take on Matt, Darren?”, asked William. Darren’s eyes had fire in them, “I will do what I can to protect my sister, William!” Graham put a hand on his shoulder to calm him down, “Right now, the only way to protect Rae is to keep Matt far away from her.” Darren let out a sharp exhale, “Okay, okay, okay. What do we do then? Do we tell my folks or what?” William and Graham looked at each other and nodded. “We will tell our parents, alright? We need to try to not bring a lot of attention to this. Rae wouldn’t want all the attention attached to this”, said Graham. Darren nodded in agreement. All three made their way to the brother’s parents.

After having a conversation with the boys, John and Julia were making their way to where the vehicles were getting ready for the race. They both saw Rae checking the engine of her car and stopped. “How do you want to do this, babe?”, John suddenly asked. Julia put a hand on the upper part of his arm before speaking, “Let me talk to her, she might do better talking to another woman.” John nodded and let Julia proceed to walk towards Rae.

Shutting the hood of her car, Rae immediately felt eyes on her. She slowly looked around to see who it could be. But she was relieved when she saw that Julia Travers was walking towards her. “Morning Miss Julia!”, Rae said. Julia wrapped her arms around her, “Good morning sweetheart, are you okay?” Rae pulled back from the hug, “Yeah, I’m fine. Why do you ask?” Waving her hand, Julia continued to say, “Nothing to worry about. Well, honestly, Graham was worried about you last night. So I was just checking up to see if you were okay.” Rae sighed and looked over to see John looking at her with concern. She looked back to Julia and gave a wary smile. “Yeah, yeah I’m good. I’m just tired, I couldn’t sleep last night”, Rae lied, feeling terrible about hiding the truth. With concern across her face, Julia put a hand on Rae’s shoulder, “Alright, well if you need anything, anything at all, just let us know.” Rae nodded and looked over at John. He nodded to her and turned to walk with his wife when Julia walked back to him.

When John and Julia got to where their vehicles were, all three boys were waiting for them. “So what did she say?”, asked Graham. Julia sighed and shook her head, “She just said that she was fine. But I could tell that she was deflecting. But I didn’t see any sign of that bruise that you guys were talking about.” “I’m guessing that Grace helped her with make-up”, said William. Darren and Graham looked at each before both looking to the older couple. “So what do we do then?”, asked Darren. John turned to the three boys. “We are going to make sure that she isn’t alone. Take turns walking with her to her car, her hotel room, wherever. That way Matt won’t have a chance to get to her again”, he said. “But he went into her room. How are we supposed to stop that from happening?”, Graham asked. Julia stepped up to Graham, “We remind her to be safe about this or any situation, okay?” All three nodded reluctantly and went on to get ready for the race.

That day, the race was very quiet. No one talked on the radio. Rae didn’t talk to Darren unless it was necessary. Meanwhile, Darren would send the occasional text to Graham. Of course, Graham would relay the message to William and his parents. He tried to stay close to Rae in the race, but she tried her best to get ahead of him. Rae couldn’t face him because of what had happened. She felt ashamed for what had happened and for lying to Miss Julia about it. So, in the quiet of the car, Rae tried to figure out how she would talk to Graham. But she didn’t want to burden him with her problems, but she also knew that he would want to know the truth. She was grateful when they got to the checkpoint, so that she could go hide in her room.