All characters appearing or mentioned in this story are 18 years old or older. This story is a work of fiction and any reference or description to actual persons is unintentional.
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If you are enjoying these stories, leave a comment about what you liked or didn't, or things you want to ready more of. I'll take advice into consideration when I'm working out the next parts of the LoP stories.
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January 18th, 1999
By the time my birthday came again, I was expecting a bit more of a to-do about it all. With friends and more than a few lady friends around, I'd thought that some one might have stopped by. However, it was a Monday, the least fun day to have a birthday, so not a lot of folks stopped by. Not a lot being none.
Still, some people called and wished me a happy day. My uncle, some of my skating friends, several girls. However no one wanted to hang out or do anything cause they were busy or had to work the next day.
Not a great start to my 19th year. Still, I tried to stay positive as I went about my day. Starting with my contractor calling me and telling me that my house will be another 6 weeks.
"So, what the hell is happening there," I said. "This is the 6th delay."
"Winter is whats happening," the gruff voice on the other end said. "It's raining here way more than normal right now so work is going slowly."
"Alright," I conceded, "Just do your best then. Thanks."
I also decided to get some tacos for lunch because a taco always managed to make me happy. And it would have, if the taco joint I usually go to wasn't closed.
"What the shit?!" I yelled at the empty parking lot. A worked, Javier, someone I knew in school, came out the back door carrying boxes of taco fixings.
"Hey," I called to him. He tossed the coveted taco ingredients unceremoniously into the dumpster. "What happened?"
"Oh, hey Paul. A new guy closed last night. We told him to hit the lights when he was done but he accidentally turned off the main breaker. Our fridges turned into hot boxes since they're next to the fryers and all our food spoiled."
"Fucking hell," I said. I wasn't the only disappointed would be customer since others were pulling into the parking lot, seeing the sign, and the leaving. I turned and left well.
OK. No worries. I'll just grab my board, hit the waves, and get something from a taco stand by the beach. I drove back to my apartment, grabbed my stuff and loaded the car.
And then my car wouldn't start. Like, at all. No turning over attempts. Only the tick-tick-tick of bad electrical.
Fuck. Me.
I saw Leila pass by and I called her over.
"Hey," she said brightly. Her hair was tied back and she was in her scrubs so she must have been off to work. "Whats wrong," she asked after seeing my face.
"Cars dead," I said.
"I'm sorry. Did you need a ride somewhere?"
"No, I was just going to the beach." I put on my best smile and asked, "You wanna ditch work and go surfing? You drive and I'll buy lunch."
She smiled, leaned in and kissed me. "I would normally," she said, "but I have a proficiency test I need to complete for a class. But next time."
She strolled off to her car before I could try to guilt her about it being my birthday. I watched her leave (a wholly fascinating view) just in case she changed her mind. She didn't.
Taking my stuff back up to my apartment I started going through the list of people I knew who could possibly help me fix my car. I could fix it myself, possibly, but I needed to get to the store for parts. A number of people weren't available, but it was Lauren who had the most promising lead.
"I'd help you if I could, you know to return the favor and all, but I'm at work right now," she explained. "But, I know someone who can help though. She's a real gear head and she helped me recently with my car."
"I'll take it. It's not been a great day for me so far."
"Her name's Rena. I think she'll help. I'll give her a call and have her call you."
Rena...Rena...I knew that name from somewhere but couldn't quite remember it. I knew she went to our school but couldn't come up with a face. Oh well. I'll see her soon I guess.
I thanked Lauren and hung up. I looked around my place for something to eat since my stomach reminded me that it was lunch time. Frozen waffles were the only thing I could hunter-gather in my sparsely stocked fridge, so that was what I had.
About a half hour later Rena called. I explained the issue and she had some ideas. I told her I'd pay for her time and parts, which she readily agreed to. We made an appointment for a couple hours away and hung up. Her voice didn't do anything to assist in placing a face with her, except to tell me that yes, I was indeed familiar with her.
After my waffles I went and skated for a bit until it was time to meet up with Rena. On my way home, rolling through the parking lot, I saw someone bent over under the hood of my car. Swearing that I locked my car door, I wondered if someone was trying to snag my ride.
Seeing a curvy, bent over lower half of a woman told me this was unlikely. "Hey," I said to the woman currently fiddling with my engine. She extracted her self and stood up. Seeing her face sent a zap through my brain to activate my memory.
That was where I knew her from! She lived down the street from me before I left my parents house. We rode the bus from 5th through some of 10th grade (along with 20 others from my neighborhood) until I started driving. She was over half a year older than I was but we were in the same grade.
Taking her in quickly I could see that she had moved on from 'cute' to 'hot damn'. She was average height, average size, with nice legs and small yet firm looking B-cup breasts. Her oval face and blue eyes seemed to only compliment her very wide and full lips. The backwards hat hid what I knew to be a blonde head of hair, and her tight jeans and green tank-top showed off her fit form and very nice arms. Not to mention the fact she didn't feel the need to wear a bra, which was clearly evident and something I tried (and failed probably) to not leer at.
"Hey," she said, smiling back at me. "Lauren told me what car you drove so I just started in on the problem."
"Don't you need the keys? Cause that would be, like, breaking and entering I think."
"No really needed," she said. "I jimmied the door and hot wired it. Or tried to anyways. It looks like your starter solenoid crapped out. Which was due to low power from the battery. Which was due to your battery cables going to shit." She explained this in a very 'this is your own fault' manner. I kinda took offense to it.
"OK," I said genially, "thanks for the assessment. Now what will it take to get it working again?"
"About a hundred in parts and a couple hours. More if you help me with the work," she said.
"Why would it be more if I helped? I'm not a bad mechanic myself."
She tucked in a strand of hair that escaped her hat with a greasy finger. "Because when people help they get in my way, which is what adds time."
"It's my time I'm paying for, so I'd like to see what you're doing and maybe learn something I didn't know before."
Rena looked at me steadily for a moment. Cocking her head to the side, she smiled and said "Fair enough. My rates are $30 per hour so it's your dime to spend."
She closed the hood of the Green Goblin and collected her small toolset. "C'mon. I'll drive us to the auto parts store and we can get this beast working."
And so we went to the auto parts store. Rena rattled off parts and the clerk grunted ever time because he had to move his ass up a ladder because my parts were not for a current model car. In the end, we got what we needed and headed back to my complex.
Putting everything in though was fairly straightforward from the looks of it. Rena took out the battery cables and solenoid, cleaned out some connections, and put everything back to right in pretty short order.
I held the light. Cause that was what she told me I could do. Which was fair I suppose since she was the professional here.
After we were done, the Green Goblin roared to life easily. We went for a test drive around town to charge the battery and got a smoothie from a shop. We got back and I paid Rena for her time, plus some extra.
"It only took me two hours. This isn't necessary," she said. She didn't hold out the difference, instead pocketing the entire amount. She did not look ashamed to do so.
"It was worth it for the work and for the short notice," I said. "Besides, this is about the best thing to happen for my birthday yet, so it's worth it."
"It's your birthday? Happy birthday," she said, giving me a hug. She was warm against me as she hugged me, smelling of sweat and just a hint of grease. It was strangely intoxicating.
"Got any plans," she asked, beginning to clean up and put her tools away.
"Not really. Everyone's busy or will be busy or has to work or whatever." I tried not to sound disappointed, but truth be told, I was a bit.
"Well," said Rena, standing before me again. "If you are still feeling in the generous spirit, how about you take me to dinner tonight? At least that way you won't be completely alone on your...19th birthday?"
"Yes, 19. And yes, dinner with you sounds... intriguing."