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Yolanda loved her friends. Truly, but as of the past couple of months she found herself growing increasingly more uncomfortable when she was left alone with Beth and Rick.
They were the most oblivious people she had ever met and at first, she found it amusing but sitting in Pat’s garage waiting for her star-spangled best friend and her stepdad, she only had Beth and Rick to watch as amusement. Technically, they were working on their own things. Beth was working on the finer points of getting an owl sanctuary in Blue Valley while Rick was fixing his mustang.
Or, if they would just be honest with each other, Rick was working on his mustang and Beth was gawking at the way his arms flexed when he would twist something under the hood. When he pushed his hair out of his face with a greasy hand, Yolanda's nose wrinkled but Beth looked so captivated by it she thought she should get her friend a bucket for the drool that would inevitably come if she kept gazing at her crush.
Yolanda sighed quietly as she leaned back against one of Pat’s vintage cars. This has been going on for far too long. Rick would watch transfixed as Beth would talk about the most mundane things. (She loved her friend but how anyone could listen to her ant farm for more than five minutes she had no idea). Beth would never really notice, she was only glad that someone was listening to her strange hobby. In return, whenever Rick wasn’t looking Yolanda had started noticing Beth’s eyes start to wander in his direction and stay on him. Rick was usually so caught up in what he was doing that he never noticed the staring.
Yolanda rolled her eyes as Beth began to bite the tip of her pencil when Rick lifted his shirt to wipe grease from his forehead. They would just be together already if one of them caught on, she was sure of it.
Maybe, just maybe, she could help with that.
She was pretty sure a nuclear bomb could land right outside of the Pit Stop and Beth still would take her eyes off of Rick so Yolanda decided that the best way to do it was the get Rick’s attention. Pushing herself off of the baby blue Cadillac she made her way over to a table that had a bunch of different tools on it. She picked one randomly and picked the place she was going to aim it. She couldn’t be around Rick when the loud metal hit the ground because he would look at her and not at the lovestruck girl.
So, she swung her arm back and forth to get used to the weight of the tool before tossing it. She bit her lip to contain the smile when it landed heavily next to Rick’s foot. She had better aim than she originally thought.
She watched closely as Rick looked down at the tool with confusion and then up to see where it had come from. His eyes immediately landed on Beth who upon being caught watching him let out a small but high-pitched squeak that Yolanda was sure would have all the dogs in the neighborhood running their way, and turned back to the papers that she was supposed to be working on.
Yolanda glanced at Rick to gauge his reaction. His hazel eyes latched onto Beth immediately. He clearly wasn’t drawn in by the sound of the metal hitting the concrete but by the sound of an alarmed Beth. His eyes narrowed ever so slightly as she looked down at her papers without moving. Yolanda and she assumed Rick, could tell that Beth wasn’t doing any work.
At the confused look on his face and the way that Beth was steadily ignoring him Yolanda decided to pipe up, “Beth, what do you think of the progress Rick’s made on his car? I noticed you watching earlier, I had no idea you were so interested in cars.”
She knew her voice was too sweet and innocent as she said it but she could tell that neither cared. She saw the moment it clicked with Rick that Beth had been watching him. They both knew that Beth didn’t really care about cars or know anything about them, and that was with the help of Chuck, too.
Rick smirked as Beth stammered out an answer that they all knew was a lie. “It- ah, it looks good? Definitely better than before.”
“I was working on the engine,” Rick tried to hide a smile but Yolanda could tell that he was pleased with the attention that Beth had given him even if he wasn’t aware of it at the time. “You can’t see it from the outside but it should run smoother.”
“Oh,” Beth mumbled, her eyes darting between the car and Rick.
“I could give you a ride around town after we’re done here,” Rick said, and Yolanda was surprised at how effortless it came out. She didn’t have to push him to say that at all! “I mean if you want to of course.”
Beth nodded enthusiastically, “that’d be great!”
Before Yolanda could give herself a Pat on the back Courtney and Pat walked in with Mike and Jakeem following behind them. Neither Courtney nor Pat noticed the strange air in the room but before Pat pulled out the whiteboard to give them the rundown of what he knew about someone named Mister Bones, Mike looked over at Yolanda with a raised eyebrow to which she only responded with a smirk and a shrug of the shoulder.