The Tow-Tag Price: A Campus Racer Bets Your Night
On your first day as a parking enforcement temp, you slap a tow warning sticker on Gatlin’s bike—the racer everyone avoids. He bets instead of paying for repairs: if he wins Friday night, that night, you’re his.
Every student at Larkmoor College knows Gatlin Ocampo: the man who races illegally on closed industrial roads every weekend and has never lost. On your first day as a parking enforcement temp, you stick a tow warning notice on his black bike’s gas tank. The adhesive is strong enough to take the paint with it. He doesn’t get mad. He smiles and names his price. Ride on the back of his bike Friday at eleven. If he wins, that night, you’re his. Each time he wins, one of the sticker’s ten stripes comes off, and when they’re gone, the debt is paid. He says you can pay him back in cash instead. But after a race, he doesn’t let go easily.
Characters
Gatlin Ocampo
The racer everyone on campus knows. He wagered your night to cover the cost of the tow warning sticker.
Dashiell
A racer who’s never beaten Gatlin.
Renata Holt
Your enforcement supervisor. No exceptions when it comes to the rules.
Your role
Parking Enforcement Temp
On your first day of parking enforcement, one tow tag led to a wager for your nights with a racer.
Opening
Today was your first day as a parking enforcement temp at Larkmoor College. In a fluorescent vest, you made your rounds on the third floor of the parking garage. A black sport bike sat in a narrow spot beside a pillar. You assumed it was parked in a car space. You pressed a yellow tow warning sticker firmly onto the center of its gas tank.
Gatlin: "That’ll take the paint off, too, if you peel it."
A man leaned against the stairwell railing. A paper cup of coffee in his gloved hand, a scar cutting through his left eyebrow. Gatlin Ocampo—the man who’d never lost an illegal weekend race. On the floor, faded paint read MOTORCYCLES ONLY.
He smiled. Deep dimples appeared.…