Race With a Heart
Chapter 66: Definition of Friendship

Chapter 66: Definition of Friendship

"What a sweet boy," smiled Jack ending the call and sending a text message. "Oh, Steve, I didn’t know you were here." Jack feigned surprise as he knew perfectly well that his colleague had entered the locker room and was now at his locker. After all, he did this show for him.

"No problem," Paxton replied grimly.

He did not do too badly on the track today, but he was not happy with the training. He usually turned up better times. This time he himself felt that something was wrong with his steering feel.

Jack suddenly darkened.

"What’s happening?" he asked Steve. "I want to lead you to white passion by pretending to be in a romantic relationship with your boyfriend and you don’t even notice. My joke didn’t work out at all. "

"Sorry"

"No, don’t make fun of this way, or I’m really going to get anxious."

Lambert used the wrong time in his speech. He was already worried.

After talking to Martin, Jack planned to tease Steve a bit and call Kevin, letting him know that the young mechanic had a business with him. Now, however, looking at his friend, he came to the conclusion that there were more important matters.

Lambert looked more closely at his colleague. Paxton went about his business at his locker without paying attention to him. He looked as if his thoughts were having a serious problem.

Jack tried to guess what it was? Unfortunately, there were too many possibilities. Steve was a complicated and secretive person, so he could be worried about anything. The memories of Hannah and his remorse might have gotten to him. He might be worried about the upcoming race or brooding over the previous one. He might have had problems with the new sponsorship situation or with greater popularity than before. Or he might have had some problems with Martin.

"I thought it was going well between you two lately?"

"Between who?" Steve asked. If he had thought about Martin, he would have surely found out who Jack was talking about.

"Never mind ..." Jack sighed. However, he did not intend to quit. "The problem is the articles on the web?"

Paxton finally started paying attention to him.

"Jack, what do you mean?" he asked as if he was actually trying to understand.

"You are absent, deep in your thoughts so I thought maybe there is something you would like to talk about?"

Steve looked at him for a moment, then smiled sardonically.

"Even if I had a problem, do you think I’d go with him to you?"

Despite his tone, Lambert did not take offense. After all, he had known Paxton for a long time.

"Why not? I am versed in most of your problems. We work together so we can discuss work-related matters with no problem, and I’m friends with Martin, so... "Jack paused on purpose, letting Steve figure out the rest.

"Thanks, but I don’t have anything I want to talk about. I just thought about today’s training. That shouldn’t be a problem, huh? "

"It should not. And it isn’t. " Jack confessed, resigned.

His intuition told him Paxton had lied to him. Lambert, however, had no right to interfere with Steve’s privacy. After all, he was dealing with an adult, experienced man, not with an immature child. Yes, there are times when even the greatest sage and the oldest old man need advice or moral support, but no one appreciates the advice they did not ask for, especially if it comes from someone they don’t like. Jack was self-aware and self-critical enough to know that he wasn’t one of Paxton’s favorites. Steve was probably the only person who had not succumbed to Jack’s spell so far.

Well, maybe there was one more, Jack sighed softly. It was Don. Alston pretended to be friendly, but he was a bad actor and couldn’t fool Jack. Lambert was convinced that the boy, if he could, would be up to something against him in revenge for Martin’s last-day situation, but at this point they were all too busy to play any kind of retaliation. Anyway, Jack could unfairly judge Don on the basis of one incident. The boy had shown a one-time madness, and so far nothing indicated that the situation would be repeated. Maybe it was only a temporary blackout?

Anyway, whatever, Jack reminded himself. At that moment, another driver was worrying him.

"Steve, why do you always push away the hand I extend to you? It’s not like I want to enter your life with dirty shoes. You can’t blame me for that one all the time. "

"For what?" Paxton asked, confused.

"See? You don’t even remember! Tell me honestly, why don’t you like me so much? "

"It’s not that I don’t like you. I like you. Some. You’re just too loud. "

"I? Am I speaking too loud? " Jack was surprised.

"You are everywhere, you interfere in everything, you keep joking, you constantly tease. You are the life of the party. It is a pain. "

"So ... Actually, it’s not that you don’t like me, just my behavior?"

"Exactly. You must have noticed that I avoid people, I don’t like going to parties. You act the opposite. "

"Hey, it’s not like I party all the time!"

"But I don’t need to be part of your circle of friends and have thousands of friends on social media. For me, one true friend is worth a hundred times more than a thousand pretend ones. "

"I’m not pretending ..." Jack felt a little offended.

"That’s why I like and respect you, but friendship is about more than just liking someone. True friendship is selflessness and boundless trust. "

"So I’m self-interested you can’t trust me?"

"Can you tell me what this conversation is for, anyway?" Steve clouded up again. "We are colleagues, do we have to be buddies or even friends? Aren’t you fed up with them without me? Can’t you stand that someone isn’t your buddy? "

"Alright, alright," Jack backed out. "I understand."

Steve’s words were harsh and somewhat unpleasant, but Paxton was a little right. It is impossible to be friends with everyone, and someone who is not your friend is not necessarily your enemy. He could have conveyed it in a slightly nicer way, however.

Well, Steve wasn’t even nice to Martin, and Jack didn’t want to teach him manners.

But he understood one thing very clearly - if he really wanted to be Steve Paxton’s friend, he wouldn’t get this friendship for free. He will have to work hard for it.

At this point, he thought of Martin and his hard work to deserve Paxton’s love. The boy, in the name of the love he felt, sacrificed a lot, even a large part of his dignity. In his heart, Martin thought it was worth making some sacrifices. Jack agreed with him completely. Yes, it’s worth it, it’s definitely worth it if the love object is worth it too. That was exactly what Martin saw, and Lambert cheered him on with all his heart. But was Steve worthy of Jack trying to be his friend? His true friend?

Paxton had finished dressing and left the locker room. Jack watched him go.

Steve was sullen, rude, and withdrawn. Sometimes he acted like an unbalanced brute. However, he was basically an honest and pure guy who closed himself off from others, so he was very lonely. Jack knew about Hannah and Paxton’s guilt. He had met Steve almost two years after the accident and remembered being fascinated by his dark eyes. Lambert didn’t know if Steve had been the same before the girl’s accident. He thought not. Sometimes he saw Karl Walton, Steve’s only friend, sighing heavily for something that had been irretrievably lost. As if he missed the Steve he had known from his earlier years.

The man who had endured his friend’s unhappy fate so hard could not be abad. However, he might not be ready for a new friendship, which is why he pushed everyone away.

Jack didn’t know what it was exactly, but there was something dark and alluring about Paxton. Something really interesting. How good is it to have interesting friends?

Winning this man’s friendship is certainly not going to be easy, but the most rewarding thing is hard work. It is the effort that makes it worth having something.

If Martin can fight for Steve’s love, Jack can fight for his friendship.

Steve had a heavy heart. He didn’t understand why? Nothing had happened in his life that could have caused his condition, yet he felt depressed and anxious.

Today in training it did not go as he expected. There was no real reason for this. Nobody upset him, nobody made him sad. Everything was going well, actually. So why?

Steve couldn’t answer his question. He didn’t even know if his anxiety was due to his unsatisfactory track performance or if his training was so poor because he had anxiety in his heart?

The season started intense and hot. Steve had no more work to do in preparing for the race, but he had a whole new job that he didn’t understand or knew yet, and which were a bit against his nature. Now he had to smile at sponsors, put a video of an ad in his plans, and that was something he really didn’t want to do and would never have made up his mind if it wasn’t for the fact that the stable really needed money.

Another change in his life was the void left by Hannah. For over three years, the girl was extremely deep in his life. He visited her often. He would come to tell her about beautiful things, read her poetry, play music, but sometimes also complain about some difficulties. He never talked about anything really serious, he didn’t want to upset her, but the words ’in training today didn’t go as I wanted’ he could safely tell her. At this point, Steve really felt the need to visit Hannah, so he bought a bouquet of white flowers, especially asking for roses and pyrethrum, which maybe did not go well together, but were the young girl’s favorite flowers, and went to the cemetery where she now rested.