Naked
DISCLAIMER:
I do NOT own any of the drivers in this story, nor do I own NASCAR
((*how I wish*)). I only own myself, Rayvin. Rach owns herself. Avril Lavigne owns the title and the song. I also do not own Living In A Moment - that's Ty Herndon's baby, or How You Remind Me, which belongs to Nickelback.
"I wake up in the morning
Put on my face
The one that's gonna get me
Through another day
Doesn't really matter
How I feel inside
'Cause life is like a game sometimes..."
I sang my heart out into the microphone, trying to put my best into the song. It seemed to be working because everyone in the place was going wild. I glanced out toward the bar. There was my best friend, Rachel with her fiancee Tony Stewart...DeLana and Kevin Harvick...and so many other guys...but the one I was concerned with, my Junior, was staring up at me. Dale Earnhardt, Junior, to be exact. He and I had been friends for a while, talking over the phone, flirting a bit at the races when I'd try and do interviews before and after the flags dropped for 'NASCAR Winston Cup Illustrated'...I loved to hang out with him, Michael Waltrip, Tony, Kevin, and Steve Park. The guys were awesome...hilarious if you caught them at the right moments...And that's what I loved about them. The craziness, the hysteria, and the theatrics of the whole bunch.
I thought back to the day I met Junior...
*
"Dale Junior?" He whirled, looking annoyed with all the questioning. I backed up. "Oh, sorry...if you want to go...go ahead...I'll catch you around later, or just find someone else...You look tired. Great race today, by the way..." I turned to leave and he caught my shoulder.
"Whoa there, little one." His irritation disappeared and a genuine smile appeared across his face. "Haven't you pulled this disappearing act on me before?"
"Once or twice..." I admitted, blushing minutely.
"Well, we can't have that anymore, can we? Step into my office." Junior climbed up the three steps to his trailer, and extended his hands to me. I put my equipment in my leather bag, and accepted his hands. Junior hauled me up without a hitch. "What's your name?"
"Rayvin...Rayvin Miller..."
"Nice to meet you, Rayvin. I'm Dale Junior..." He grinned ear-to-ear and ushered me inside, closing the door behind him.
*
"...But then you came around me
The walls just disappeared
Nothing to surround me
And keep me from my fears
I'm unprotected
See how I've opened up
Oh, you've made me trust..."
I grinned at the thought and came back to reality to find him still staring at me. I winked at him and watched, helplessly, as the rest of the NASCAR crew joked with Junior. I watched him turn a bright red, but he never peeled his gaze from me...It reminded me of the first time that had happened...
*
"Yo, Mikey!" Michael Waltrip slapped me a high five as I entered his garage. "How's the car, buddy?"
"All right. Pushes a bit in two, but nothing to make me worry." He shrugged.
"Nah...you never worry anyway, Waltrip..." I joked and Mikey grabbed me up in headlock.
"Hey, Kid." Mikey released me, and there stood Steve Park.
"Hey, Steve-O...what up?" I laughed.
"You got an audience, Kid..." Steve wagged a thumb at the next garage earlier, and there was Junior. Staring. At me. I gave him a short, enthusiastic wave, my stomach doing flip-flops as the gorgeous blonde driver continued to peer at me. He turned a bright red and turned away quickly, leaving Steve and Mikey snickering behind me. I slugged each one of them on the shoulder before taking off after Dale.
*
" 'Cause I've never felt like this before
I'm naked around you
Does it show?
You see right through me
And I can't hide
I'm naked around you
And it feels so right...
yeah,yeah..."
*
"Junior...wait up..." The twenty-something year old driver turned around and gave me a shy grin. "I'm sorry, Junior. I didn't mean to..."
Junior held up a hand to halt my speech. "Don't worry about it. It's...all right." He shook his head and laughed. "I don't even know why I stared when Steve was standing right there...I know better..."
He raised his gaze to mine and looked at me shyly. I about melted when he looked at me like that. All I knew was that my knees went weak and I felt so vulnerable...like I could agree to anything he asked of me right then.
I think he noticed, but all he did was smile and take my hand in his. "Come with me.I want to show you something..."
I followed nervously, and Junior led me into his trailer. He pulled a worn-out old scrapbook from underneath his bed. "I've never shown this to anyone...but I just felt like showing it to you. It just felt right..." He opened the book and showed me his baby pictures, on up to the last pictures he had taken with his Dad...
We spent the rest of the afternoon looking at and discussing the pictures in that old book...
*
"I'm trying to remember
Why I was afraid
To be myself and let the
Covers fall away
I guess I never had someone like you
To help me, to help me fit
In my skin..."
I watched intently at the display before me : Mikey and Steve teasing Junior, and I nearly started laughing during the song. I knew I hated karaoke before...now I was realizing why...I was trying my hardest to refrain from bursting out into laughter, and barely succeeding.
" And I've never felt like this before
I'm naked around you
Does it show?
You see right through me
And I can't hide
I'm naked around you
And it feels so right...
"I'm naked...
Does it show?
(Naked...)
Oh,oh..
yeah.. "
I had closed my eyes to sing the chorus, and when I opened them, to my shock, the entire gang was staring intently at me. I tried to ignore them, and in doing so, drifted back in my mind to the time when Dale and I shared our first kiss...
*
I had just finished singing my own version of Nickelback's "How You Remind Me," a bit slower-paced and with a bit more feeling put into it, and Junior was looking at me like I was something special.
"What?" I asked, amused at the looks being given to me.
"You have talent, do you realize that?" I laughed. "No, really - not just some wild, crazy, created talent...but a true God-given talent..."
"Junior..." He looked up at me. "Shut up."
It was then that we kissed for the first time, what would become our song - Ty Herndon's Living In A Moment - playing in the background. As our lips met, it felt as if the earth stood still, not just because it was Dale Earnhart, Jr...but because what we shared went beyond passion, fame, or lust. It was true love. I had found my soulmate...I had found the man I was destined to marry...
*
"I'm naked around you
does it show?
I'm so naked around you
And I can't hide
You're gonna
You're gonna see right through
You're gonna see right through...
"I'm so naked around you
And I can't hide,
you're gonna see right through...baby..."
I finished the song and grinned ear-to-ear as the people in the audience gave me a standing ovation. But I didn't care about that. I only cared about the four little words Junior mouthed to me before I jumped off of the stage.
"I love you, Rayvin."
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