twelve (jared)

Katie was still teasing Jared about his new “friend” – she even used the air quotes when she said it – on Friday, especially since Jared had let slip that they’d already talked on the phone and texted back and forth a bunch of times, and they were supposed to be seeing a movie together on Saturday. Jensen had the day off, and the Belcourt was showing For a Few Dollars More and High Plains Drifter, neither of which Jared had seen, and in fact Jared wasn’t sure if Jensen was interested in both movies or just one. He should probably find out.

He called Jensen on his lunch break, got the voice mail, and left a message – “High Plains Drifter or For a Few Dollars More? They’re both showing Saturday. Gimme a call when you get a chance.” Katie overheard him and snickered. Jared just rolled his eyes. He didn’t care if she thought he had a thing for the guy.

Later that afternoon he started on a 2006 Chevy Impala, determining that he’d probably have to dismantle it in an attempt to figure out what was rattling around when you turned the air or the heat on. Tom was in the bay next to him realigning a Jeep Cherokee, and Katie was doing a state inspection on an old LeSabre when Aldis bounced through the garage, telling everyone “Go outside right now, you can thank me later.”

( I can’t stop an inspection, Katie protested. )

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total words: 22,159

(the mysterious mr manners' 1924 marmon)

thirteen (jared)

He rode his Harley into town because he could and because it had been a while since he’d gotten a chance to take it out. He’d have to be very careful going home - he guessed he’d be tired and there was always more risk riding at night than during the day, because he was harder to see.

Jared's first motorcycle experience happened when he was thirteen and went to live (and theoretically work) on his grandparents' ranch. One of the guys who worked there had an old Harley chopper, and as soon as Jared could find a helmet (and someone could distract his grandmother), he made the guy take him out on it. The guy was a little worried about what might happen to him if he got his boss' grandson killed, but Jared reassured him that grandpa knew, everything was cool, see, he even had a helmet and had put on a jacket.

He thought it was the most amazing thing he'd ever done up to that point, and in his thirteen-year-old, never-really-done-anything kind of way, he thought it was even better than sex. Sitting pillion on the ranch hand's old Harley, zooming down the road at seventy miles an hour, Jared felt fast and dangerous and grown-up, and like he could go anywhere at any time, without having to answer to anybody. He laughed in exhilaration and swallowed a bug, but he didn't care. And even though he wouldn't even be able to drive a car for four more years, he started pestering his parents for a motorcycle as soon as he got home at the end of the summer.

( His parents both said no. )

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total words: 24,433