Short Track Lovin’ – Chapter 57: Rain Delay Boredom

Chase lets out a sigh as he takes a peak out of the team hauler once again, glancing at the sky. There were still rain drops falling from the sky.

He then makes his way back into the team hauler, pulling out his phone in the process. He checked the radar, only to sigh once again. There seemed to be more rain on the way.

So much for racing that night at Daytona.

Placing his hand on his left side, taking a couple deep breathes, he feels the pain start to make its way back. It had subsided for the most part earlier in the afternoon, virtue of a pair of Tylenol, but they seemed to be wearing off. Combined with being in his firesuit and those ribs being tightly wrapped, he knew it was a combination for pain to brew.

Besides the recent bout with the pain, he had to admit it hadn’t been too bad. He got through Friday night’s Clash practice and Saturday morning’s Daytona 500 practice without any serious issues. Sure, the pain lingered from the pressure on his side in the car, but it was nothing he couldn’t handle.

Popping off the top off the Tylenol bottle as he reaches the lounge, he grabs a pair of the red pills out, before securing the bottle once again and placing it back on the shelf. He then places it back on the shelf, before swallowing the pair of pills with a bottle of water.

“Why don’t you take off your firesuit and let yourself relax?” Rear tire changer Chad Avrit asks from his spot on the other couch. Chase shrugs his shoulders as he puts his feet up.

“Too much work to get it off, unbandage everything and then go through that process again,” he states, which was true. It was a 10 minute process with their pit crew coach to make sure everything was done correctly and accordingly to doctor instructions. “Besides, it’s the boredom that’s causing me to pay attention to the little things. I need something to do.”

“Have you talked to Sarina lately?” Chase shakes his head no, which was the truth.

He called her a couple days after the incident to see how her and her brother was doing, happy that things had gone positively for them both thus far.  He wished them the best, and told Sarina to give him a shout when she felt like talking. She hadn’t returned the phone call yet.

The crew guys had become curious when they saw Chase hanging around the track without her, or going over to New Smyrna to watch her late model effort. It was resulted in him offering a quick explanation as to what happened, which received a mixture of reactions.

“Perhaps that’s how you could spend your time – as you did all of last year,” Chad adds and Chase shakes his head no, once again. For sure he wanted to talk to Sarina and see where they stood with each other; however he didn’t want to push his luck with her. He had done that previously and knew the consequences.

“I’d rather wait till she is ready,” Chase comments as he opens the drawer beneath his couch. “Now, can we watch a movie instead of discussing my love life?” Chad lets out a sigh as he knew Chase didn’t like to open up about details surrounding things with Sarina. It bugged him as it seemed he’d open up with the guys about everything else.

“I still say that you should just get comfy as there’s no way we’re racin-”

“Why don’t we watch both parts of Hot Shots?” The selection was meant by a mix of reactions in the compound.

“Those who do not agree with our driver can submit that they have no sympathy for the current issues of his life and go bug the 88 team,” Nick O’Dell comments as he grabs the movie out of the drawer and opens the package to get the DVD.

“So that’s how it’s going to be?” Chad questions as Nick shrugs his shoulders.

“They say to make someone feel better, you should help out with their requests and make them happy.  If this makes him happy, I say we go with it.”

“Or we could call Sarina and get them back together?” Jared Seate suggests as Chase immediately looks over at the front tire carrier, ready to pounce if needed.

“Okay, that’s enough!” Alan comments as he enters the room.”Jared, Chase will handle things with Sarina as he feels fit. Since the majority voted for the movie, it is being played.”

Over the next couple of hours, the crew became fully engulfed in the movie, laughing at the jokes and shooting puns around the room at each other. They had so much fun watching the first part, they moved onto the second part set for some more entertainment. The laughter got to be so much that they totally lost track of time, not realizing that the race had been cancelled a whole hour ago once the second part finished.

With confirmation in hand, the crew headed out to do their final clean-up while Chase finally undressed, hanging the firesuit up for the night. He then slowly unbandaged himself, biting his tongue at times in relation to pain. He then laid back on the couch afterwards, going through the breathing exercises, hoping the pain would slowly dissipate once again.

It was true that the trail of events over the past year had caught up with him with the fear that he had been through. It was true the recent break-up as it was with Sarina had thrown him off his game. Rather than easily able to focus on the next task at hand, he found himself wondering about their future, wanting to run off to her, worried they’d never make up and a slump of sadness. It had affected him the most at night as he found it tough to fall asleep some times, resulting in times without much sleep.

The past three days, he could count on his two hands how much he had slept.  It was why when his head hit the couch in the quiet room, exhaustion hit him and the breathing exercises meant to simply dull the pain were actually able to relax him more than he had intended, eyes drifting close asleep.

“Chad! Alan!” Jared Erspamer calls out after having checked the lounge and finding Chase sleeping on the couch. He was supposed to be locking up the trailer as they were done for the night.

The crew quickly surrounded the rear tire carrier, a couple smiles forming at their sleeping driver.

“What should we do?” Jared Seate questions as Alan stepped forward first. He reached into the cupboard, grabbing out a blanket and throwing it over him. He then turned off the main light, turning on a small table light before closing the door.

“We’re leaving him there?” Nick O’Dell wonders and Alan shakes his head yes.

“Things with Sarina have gotten him in a bit of an emotional mess, including some lack of sleeping,” Alan starts, as he had found out the truth from Chase on Friday. The pair ended up getting into a personal discussion after Alan had found Chase off thinking about things himself. “This’ll be good for him. If he wakes up, his phone is there and he can get a hold of me. He also knows his way back to the motorcoach lot. Knowing how exhausted he is, he’ll be there when we come in the morning. Come on guys.”

“What about my idea of contacting Sarina if this is bugging him so much?” Jared Seate questions as they head out of the trailer, causing Alan to spin around immediately.

“I don’t want you to mention that again, got it? Chase has spoken with her. They have an agreement, and that entails her making the next move. If she can’t make the next move, then it’s obvious where things lie. And unfortunately, that means that he has to work his way through an unintended break-up that we know will be harder than anything else.  But meddling and making suggestions of that nature does not help so don’t.” Jared easily shook his head yes, accepting, as the group kept walking away from the trailer for the night.