The challenge made Lance's lips twitch. His smile lost its free and confident appearance. He looked from Alex to the giant screen, then back at Alex at the side of the car, and forced his smile to regain its earlier flair as he replied with deliberate casualness:
"I'm poorer than you. Why would you want my money? Let's just watch the race."
Saying that, the blond turned back to the screen.
Looking at his childhood friend seemingly determined not to turn back to face him, Alex grinned and tempted like a devil:
"I'm not wanting yours, I'm giving you mine. You sure you don't want it?"
The corner of Lance's eyes twitched. Far from being convinced, or even tempted, those words became the cement of his determination. Alex laughed, in conjunction with Tyler behind him, and clenched his fist over his empty cup.
He crushed it, crumpling it into a tight, wrinkled ball, then looked around, and fixed his gaze on a target behind. There was a bin a dozen meters away, against the wall at the bend which he had glided out from not long ago. Leaning away from the dark car slightly, he flicked his wrist. The ball left his hand, cut through the air with a whistling sound swallowed by the noise of the venue, and passed straight through the opening of the container.
Tyler had seen all of Alex's movements, and the result made his quiet eyes flicker with interest. A rather irregular sphere with a weight of barely a dozen grams should not have been able to travel such a distance while cutting through the air, much less reach its destination with so much precision. It should not have been possible with such an ungainly shape, not with the drag it should have caused.
*Vroom~ Vroom~*
At that moment, things were ready on the track, and the countdown started. Everyone turned to the screen, and a deep smile appeared on Alex's face, seeing the two pilots side-by-side on the display along with their cars on the track, and the countdown.
All of Ron's attention was focused not on the path forward, but on the side, on the Lamborghini and the one inside. Seeing that, Lance paused, then facepalmed, suddenly feeling too ashamed to face Alex.
He finally understood the source of the latter's confidence, especially when he saw the smile on the famous actress's face, a restrained smile radiating a kind of confidence a mere pretty face could never have, much less show. And that smile, accompanied with a headtilt, was directed at Ron, plainly hooking him with its seductive attractiveness, like an invitation, a challenge, a magnet, so much so that he seemed oblivious to the tension climbing up as the countdown was reaching the end.
As Alex smiled and Tyler let his lips curl discreetly at the edge, a voice came over:
"How about I rise to your challenge, cousin?"
The voice came cutting through the noise with a mocking lilt to it, piercing through the amused atmosphere of the small group of three with a feeling of self-importance.
Even without looking over, the trio knew who the voice was coming from. Lance raised his head, and indeed, Kris was walking over, accompanied by the ones he arrived with, his previous gloomy and dark look replaced by calm confidence.
As Lance frowned, Kris came to a stop a few steps from the group, and fixed his gaze on Alex:
"What do you think, cousin? Dare to bet with me?"
"Sigh…"
Arms crossed while leaning sideways against his ride, Alex sighed, and lowered his gaze from the giant screen. He faced his 'cousin' who he had been ignoring since his arrival, but without managing to muster much interest, much less the same intensity as the pale blue eyes across. Instead, he looked tired, exhausted:
"Kris, if only you could be a bit like your father."
Kris's mouth twitched, and he sneered:
"What? Without mama's skirt, you have to bring up my father? A coward like always, aren't you?"
"Really, Kris?"
Alex gave his cousin a deadpan look, then shook his head before any response could be thrown over, though this time, he did hold back his sigh:
"Alright, tell me, what do you want?"
However, while Alex was relenting, Kris could not bring himself to feel happy. The tone of the words was like an adult placating a kid to calm his restless spirit faster. It was so dismissive that it grated him in the deepest part of his gut, making him grit his teeth as the self-importance his smile was carrying slipped away like sand.
He took a deep breath, and forced out through his teeth:
"I bet on Ron. If he wins, you compete with me, with our car collections on the line. Do you dare?"
He spoke without looking at the screen behind him, all his focus riveted on Alex. And his words seemed to sound the start of the race, a race that a muffled laughter from the side preceded:
"Pfft!"
The sound came from Lance, soft, but piercing nevertheless, with the mockery it carried. Kris's head snapped toward him, the intense look he had been facing Alex with turning into a murderous glare he didn't bother to hide, or even tone down.
*Beep~!!!*
Right then, the tension that had tightened around the neck of the crowd like a noose finally snapped with the end of the countdown, and for the competitors on the track, it was their leashes that had snapped, the gates of hell that had burst open. Then… all hell broke loose.
*VROOM!!!*
*SCREECH~ VROOM~*
"Wow!!!"
"Booh!!!"
"Oh, damn!!!"
"She got him!!!"
"Damn you, Ron!!!"
"Yeah, damn you, Ron!!!"
Kris didn't have the time to explode for the offense. The shouts that rose above the others made his heart skip a beat, and he abruptly spun around.
Looking at the screen, his face fell and all the confidence he had before coming crumbled down to the ground. He was just in time to watch Ron scramble behind Sharon Kenner trying to catch up to her Lamborghini after letting her take the lead right from the start.
He didn't have the time to care about Lance's ridicule anymore, as his expression turned ugly.
"No matter. Anyway, you have never had good eyesight to begin with. After they are done, I will compete with you, okay? I won't even change my car, this one will be enough."
The generous words didn't sit well with Kris. Instead, they made him grit his teeth and clench his fists as he imagined the dismissive headshake that accompanied them.
Taking a deep breath, he turned sideways and spat out:
"I will show you what your arrogance can cost you, Alex."
No more affected tone, no more sarcastic 'cousin'. With a quiet snort, he walked away, never looking back, not even when Lance started laughing.