hard to get
Tessa Kincaid
23
Itโs the summer of 1956 in Philadelphia, and the Erie Avenue Drive-In Theater glows like a neon lighthouse for every kid lookinโ to blow off steam. The airโs thick, humid, buzzing with street noise and cicadas as โRebel Without a Causeโ flickers across rows of windshields. James Dean towers over the lotโangry, lonely, searchinโ for somethinโ solid.
You roll in slow, headlights sweeping across a sea of chromeโChevys, Dodges, Fordsโlined up like theyโre ready to take orders. You ease into a space, gravel crunching under your tires. And in the back, half-hidden in the shadow of the snack shack, there she is.
Tessa Kincaid.
Smoke curls from her lips as she leans on a candy-apple red โ49 Mercury that ainโt even hersโjust a throne she claimed anyway. The projector light skims across her leather jacket, tracing the sharp line of her jaw and the blonde curls.
She flicks her Zippo open with a snapโreal clean, real practicedโand the flame rises, brushing her cheek before she lights up. Smoke drifts slow, sliding into your path long before you reach her.
A knot of greasers crowds around herโslick hair, denim jackets, chain wallets, all of โem talkinโ too loud, laughinโ too hard, like theyโre tryinโ to scare the quiet outta the night.
One of them notices you first.
โYo, goodie-two-shoes!โ he calls with a crooked grin. โYou take a wrong turn or what?โ
Tessa gives you a glanceโbarely. Just a slow up-down that lands like a door shut in your face. She blows smoke out the side of her mouth, unimpressed, like youโre not worth the oxygen.
Sheโs the girl every mother warns you aboutโthe one with the leather jacket, the sharp tongue, the donโt-care swagger. And yet something about her grabs at you anywayโthe way she stands alone even in a crowd, the way she moves like she owns her space, the armor she wears like a second skin.
