"I heard about your date night." Lily whispered in our history class. "So, how was it?"

Some part of me felt that I should be jumping up and down since it was high time that Nick and I went out together. Only the two of us. But a bigger part of me felt that it was all just for the sake of it. It did not melt my heart, let alone those butterflies in my stomach. In short it was not romantic.

"We just saw some movie and ate ice-cream." I added to silence Lily. It was the truth and there was nothing more to it.

Ever since lunch, Lily had been asking me about the night out. I was sure that Nick had somehow managed to leak the information out to her. And he was so going to pay for it.

I made my way out of the class sooner not waiting for Lily to put all her accessories into her bag. There were a lot of things on my mind, rather than gossiping about how bad my supposed date went.

It was Monday already and I was jittery as hell. God knew that I had started dreaming of me racing and failing miserably at it ever since Rob got me thinking about it.

"Hey, come on!" She called behind me, definitely wanting for more information about the so called date. "You are missing out on the details."

I rolled my eyes at that and walked further not wanting to wait for her. I also didn't want to meet Nick or James in the hall way to enhance my embarrassment. Lily soon caught up behind me and looped her arms around mine.

"Fine, don't tell me." She said, still rambling about it. "I'll have my ways with you."

I laughed at that, pleased that she had let go of the topic. "Can we practice our trig this weekend?" I asked, obviously making a lame excuse to change the subject. And with Lily, the topic gelled really well.

"Of course." She beamed. "I'm so happy that you asked it. I wanted to ask you the same thing, but I thought you hated math and..." She stopped in her mid sentence. "Hey, who the hell is that?"

I directed my line of vision at what she was looking at. Shock was the first thing I felt. That idiot!

"He looks so hot!" Lily whisper shouted at me, still not taking her eyes of her new found hot guy. I loosened her grip on me and walked towards that hot guy Lily was drooling on. "Where are you going?"

Robert freaking Hastings was standing with a bunch of girls who were laughing and giggling at his lame jokes. He had worn a black colored aviators and a military shirt which was paired up with a faded khaki pants. 

He really does clean up well when he wants to. Though his hair was cut short, those curly hair fell on his face, making him look too handsome to resist. If I hadn't known him for his ways, I too would have probably stood there gawking at him.

Now, seeing those girls, I felt sad for them.

He had brought a nice red retro convertible. It was not the blood red that scares away the next guy, but it was a soothing red which would want anyone to turn back and glance for a second more. I wondered how he had managed to bring it here, let alone buy it. For all I knew, I had never seen this car in the garage.

When I reached him, he turned his gaze from his precious girls and looked at me. His smile was different from the one he gave those girls and I for one, didn't want to take that into my tiny brain and then fry them over. I gave back a hard glare.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" I whisper-shouted, looking around. The girls still giggled, putting their hand up in the air animatedly. Most of the student body was turning their head towards us. I didn't know if it was the car or the stupid looking guy with the girls.

"Babe! How have you been?"He enthusiastically grinned. "I wanted to see how my favorite girl survives school." He gave me a toothy smile.

If he wanted that, couldn't he have come like a regular guy, not like Tom Cruise, making those poor girls swoon at his feet? And what was with that car? I felt like slapping my face with my own palms.

"Why have you dressed like a clown?" I asked, not answering his questions. "And what's with all this paparazzi?"

"Need to get used to it, honey." He said putting his hand over my shoulders pulling me closer to him against all my protests. He bent a little closer to my ears and whispered, "'cause you are winning tomorrow."

I took a sharp breath at that. Technically, I had to be a pro at these races and each time the word popped up I shouldn't be jumping up with nerves. But that was not the case with me and I was still not used to it.

One of the fan-girl made a brave effort and took a step further. "When am I seeing you again, Bert?" She seductively asked. I had never seen her before and she seemed like a junior too innocent to know the aura of guy-ways that was constantly buzzing around her new favorite Bert. "I like convertibles." She added, quite hesitantly and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

Rob soon took his hand off me and smiled at her. Though the smile was a little different from the ones he usually gave me, no one could notice it. "Soon, love. Why don't I surprise you?"

At that the girl giggled and looked at her friends, too naïve to see through him. I crossed my arms against my chest and tapped my feet on the ground. Another minute of their reckless flirt, I was sure I was going to puke. I felt silly waiting for him. What was I waiting for anyway? I turned my back towards him walking back to Lily.

As I reached Lily, she was still rooted to the same spot with her mouth wide open letting all the evening flies pass through it. "Come on Lil, lets go." I said, pulling her towards her car. "I'll need that ride you always offered me."

Lily was paying no thought to what I was saying. Though I was dragging her towards the parking, her head still pointed at the show behind me. "Who the hell was that?" She mumbled, dazed by Robert's appearance. "And how do you know him?"

I sighed, pulling her away from the source of distraction. Once we reached her car, she stopped and looked at me with all her Lily attention on me. "He teaches me to race." I said slowly letting her absorb the words. "I know him since a month and he's the asshole I've always talked about."

"Oh," Was all she could tell. "Oh, he's coming towards us right now. Oh my God!" She started to hyperventilate, making me wonder from when she became those girls we always made fun of. "How do you know all those hot guys who are so interested in you?"

"Interested?" Rob joined our little girl party. "Who's interested in her?" He wriggled his eyebrows, making me want to pluck them off with only my two fingers.

First he comes to my school dressed like a hippie with a car he cannot afford. He then makes a show and flirts with all my school girls. He further goes ahead to make sure that I knew him and now, he wants to know my love life. He was crossing all the lines today and I didn't know the occasion.

But come think of it, he always seemed weird on days, making it difficult to decipher the reason behind it. As always, I had concluded it as his way of taking the stress off before the big event and this time, the reason was pretty evident.

"Lil, we should be going." I nudged her, who was still gone into the bemused modes of hers.

"Scarlet," Robert sighed, taking his dark goggles away, letting the world see his chocolate brown eyes. "What did I do wrong? I came to pick you up."

"Ha-Ha." I replied. "Good try. I'm not coming with you. The blond seems pretty interested, why don't you go to her?" I nodded my head towards the girl who was flirting with him.

"Awe," Robert cooed. "Don't you think she's jealous?" He asked Lily gesturing his right hand at her, his aviator end pointing towards me. "I'm Bert, by the way. A good friend of hers."

Lily looked at me and then back at him alternatively. "I'm Lily, best friend of hers."

I let a small smile show. Lily was always possessive of me with people who called me as their best friend. She had even fought with me this one time, when Nick had joined our little gang. 

"Sweet!" Rob said, clapping his hands together. "We should get going, babe." He turned towards me, pointing his thumb at the convertible behind him. From the corner of my eye, I could see Lily putting her big-eyes look, as if to tell me that he was actually calling me babe.

"I don't have practice until seven." I whined despite the glare that Robert was shooting at me. "I need to run home before that." I said.

It was a big day for me today. The party which supplied the cup-cakes was today and I had promised that I would be there. Besides, Dad would be home too. I had to cook dinner for him before I got out and all of this had to happen along with the race practice. I was not in a mood to go along with him, just because he was feeling it.

"Sure, I'll drive you there." Robert beamed.

"Lily's my DD today." I smiled sweetly at him. "Thanks, though."

I turned around pulling Lily with me, leaving Robert baffled with my response. I put on a smirk on my face, but it stood frozen when Lily didn't oblige to my pull.

"What do you say if I came along with you guys?" Lily asked, making me squint my eyes at her. When she looked at me she shrugged. "What? It's not everyday you see a convertible and be offered a ride in it."

I rolled my eyes at her. She was right. Convertibles were so costly and their maintenance were handful too. Moreover, we were high school kids and getting a ride on a convertible meant you were from a posh background, which most of us lacked.

"Of course," Robert said at once. "I'll drop you back if you want."

"That's fine, Bert." Lily waved her hands at him. "James has sent his car to his garage. He'll get mine for me."

"That's settled then." Robert smiled at me in victory, making me half glare at him.

All the three of us walked towards the red convertible with half of the school kids watching us with a daze. I knew James had an extra practice session today, but I wondered where the hell Nick Everest was. The last time I had seen him was the cafeteria and then he had vanished completely.

As I searched the crowd that had formed around the car, I spotted him in his car, watching our exchange happen. As soon as our eyes met, he looked away and drove off in full speed, making my stomach twist in guilt. I knew I had done nothing wrong, and we hadn't discussed the things that we said or did, yet here I was feeling accountable.

"Scar, come on." Lily called out to me when I had stood looking at the dust that Nick's car had left behind. I nodded at her and went ahead.

I took the back seat thinking that taking the first one might feel Lily as a third wheel. Seeing me take the back seat, Lily took the front making me gawk at her. She looked at me feigning innocence. "What?" She asked. "I'm going shotgun, any problem?"

I rolled my eyes at her response and huffed behind. Robert gave a low snort at me and took his seat, putting on his black aviators making other college kids jealous of us. I could also see few girls frown at Lily for making it to the front seat next to the hot guy they were ready to worship.

Robert slowly hit the gas and soon we were on the road with the cool breeze hitting us right on our faces. Thankfully my hair was in a pony tail and it seemed to behave for once and not making me look like a dog who had just taken a bubble bath. Lily on the other hand, oh-ed and awe-ed all along the way and finally pulled her hair open, laughing aimlessly.

Robert, who had an amused look on his face, looked at me from the rare view mirror and gave me a wink, and mouthed, 'she loves it'. I shook my head and smiled at that.

"So Lily," Robert started with this small conversation, trying to make her friends too. "How's Scarlet in school? Tell me, does she sleep more or talk more?"

Lily turned around, making her face cover with her hair while making an attempt to throw a mischievous smile at me. "She does both of them equally, but has a talent for not getting caught."

"That's so not true!" I said, nudging her, laughing along with her.

She went on and told how I had slept for the whole period in one of the geography classes I had taken once, and how the teacher had caught me and how I had asked her questions to which she didn't know answers and had finally let me go just to save herself from being embarrassed more.

Robert laughed heartily, shaking his head every now and then, and looking at me and mouthing me, 'I knew it' from the rare view mirror.

"She was just reading the text book for God's sake, and it was boring." I defended on my part and everyone else started out to laugh again.

When the two of them had settled, Lily turned towards Robert and asked him how I was doing in my race tracks. I knew I had not told her much about the tracks and she only knew that I was taking coaching for races. She didn't know about how good I was or how bad I was. 

In reality, if someone were to ask me the same question, I would go blank. So, when Lily so lightheartedly threw the question at him, my ears quirked up to know what my coach had to say about that.

"She's hanging in there." Was all we got and Lily accepted it as a good reply and looked outside the window.

If Lily knew the race language, she would know that it meant that I sucked. I was still hanging on that boundary which will decide if I'm going to fall on the best side or the worst side. It pained me in the heart, because I was doing everything that I could to make sure that I had crossed that boundary to be on the best side and with all that I was doing, I was still not there; I was hanging in there like a dead leaf.

Robert seemed to notice my fallen mood. "How was school, Scarlet?" He asked, trying to ease my mind. Though I told him about how the day went by, the words had made it's point and had pricked the right spot.

The conversation easily went by from school to weather and I was not surprised. Lily was a talker and Robert was a listener. In all the conversation that took place, Robert gave curt answers to the questions he was asked, making Lily stop from asking further. He was very good at not giving out details. He didn't even mention about the race that I was participating in.

"This is me." Lily said. "Thanks for the sweet ride." She put her hand on the dash board, making me giggle at her.

"Oh, my God, Lil" I laughed, getting an angry look from her.

"My pleasure, sweetheart." He said.

"She has a boyfriend." I supplied to Rob, who was ready to make another comment about her. Lily giggled at that and gave us a final wave.

"Sit front, babe." Robert turned towards me. "Now that she's gone, you don't have to fight the urge to not like me."

"Dream on, asshole." I said and made my way to the front seat.

"Yet, you didn't deny it, sweet pea." He smirked, earning a playful hit on his arm from me.

He laughed, and pushed his hair towards his left side, as he started the engine again. We fell into an easy silence, with just the howling of the wind and the rumble of the motor. The ride was smooth, not too fast, and not too slow. 

I lifted my head up to see the sky which was trendily designed by the occasional branches of the trees and the birds flying once a while. The sun had sunk in half creating a blend of orange and yellow in the already navy blue sky.

I turned towards my left to see Robert, who had casually put his left arm on top of his car door, and navigating the steering wheel on his right, with an easygoing smile playing on the tip of his lips. 

His scar which was on his head, very close to his eyes—half of which were covered by his glasses— were now evidently visible, making a hollow shadow as the sun glinted its rays across his face. He effortlessly left the steering wheel, changed the gear and got back to his original position, making it seem all so simple.

"Either I'm very pretty or you are petrified to look at the road." He commented, looking ahead of him. "I'm pretty sure it's the former one."

"Where did you get the car, Rob?" I asked in a low voice. It was a question which was hovering in my head and never found the voice out. I was sure that it did cost a fortune if he did actually buy, but then again, racers like us never had enough money. "What happened to Maria?"

"You are fond of her, aren't you?" He lowered his glasses to look at me in the eye. When I didn't respond to that, he sighed. "It's actually a long story."

"I love stories." I shrugged.

"When I first joined the tracks, I asked Calvin and Dan if I could build cars of my own, using the old or unwanted parts from the garage." He said, looking back at the road. I watched him in wonder. "That's why you always see me in the garage when I am done teaching you."

I was still in awe to make a sound and I just stared at him dumb folded.

"I think Cal and Dan didn't think I would do something like this and they had said yes back then." He looked at me briefly to make sure that I was still listening under that blank stare of mine. "Well, this is my first one." He ran his hand across the hood of the car, sheer pride clear on his face. "I'm glad you liked it."

"Like it?" I almost shouted at him and I swear Rob jumped a little from the impact. "Try love next time. Honestly, did you not see how people were staring at it the whole time you were in school?"

He frowned. "I thought they were ogling at me."

And the big-headed Robert was back just like that. I shook my head in disbelief and cackled along with him. We spent another ten good minute arguing and pulling each other's leg, until Robert said, "Here we are."

That was when I realized that I had not cared where he was taking me and the fact alone scared me. My house was just a ten minute drive from Lily's, yet I had driven with him without any questions for half an hour. I was baffled at my own naivety. "Where are we?" I finally managed.

I took in the surroundings. It was a mall, which had recently opened up. It was an hour drive from our place and Rob had somehow managed to not let me know that he was taking me there. But why was he taking me shopping instead of training me for the race?

"I'm surprised that you never once asked where we were going." He put the words out. He got out of the car, stuck his glasses on his shirt and stretched his arms and legs. I followed suit. "I'm buying you cloths." He announced.

"And why the hell do you want to do that for?" I asked, crossing my arms against my chest. "You think I don't dress well?"

I looked at my dress. I had put on a white shirt paired with a skirt that came up to my knee. It was decent enough for school and work, plus it was comfortable too.

"Ooh, the whiny Scarlet is back!" He made a scared face and then rolled his eyes. "You have a race tomorrow, a first race. And I don't allow my students to attend it in their normal cloths—as if they had just come out of their bed."

"I'm your only student." I said, putting my chin down. I knew I didn't dress very well, but he didn't have to be so straight with it.

"No," he said, putting his arms on my shoulders, stopping me from what I was doing. "You are beautiful, Scarlet." He looked into my eyes in all seriousness and those brown eyes alone made me believe him. "Don't let anyone, not even me, tell you otherwise."

"Then..." I started in a slow voice. "I didn't get any money."

"It's all on me, sweetheart." He smiled, pulling me towards his side, while his left hand locked the car.

I looked at him, jerking him to a stop. "From where did you get all that cash?" It was a new mall and I was sure the rates would be higher. And I was not letting him pay for my accessories. Heck, I didn't even own the cloths that were more than a few grand, all combined.

"Darling, you need to relax." He laughed, pushing me ahead to walk by his side. "I'm going to take care of it all. You are my student and that comes with a bonus. You should feel privileged."

"Cut the crap, Rob." I said, looking at him. "I'm serious."

"Fine." He put his hands up in mock surrender. "I'm selling the convertible today."

I stopped short and stared at him dumb folded. "What the..." I stopped myself letting the information settle in. Was he serious or was he just making fun? It was a wonderful car and the fact that he had designed it from the scratch meant something. Did he not have any sentimental value of any sort?

He laughed at my mixed expression. "Babe, it's no big a deal."

"It is big a deal!" I exclaimed, putting my hands up in the air. "I'm not letting you sell it because you need to buy me cloths. That's not happening." I said, turning around to go back.

He held my wrist and pulled me back to my original spot. "Don't get your hopes up that high." He rolled his eyes at me. "I'm selling the car, either you buy the cloths or not." He shrugged, while I gaped at him. Was he for real?

"Why?"

"I need money, Scarlet." He sighed. "Besides, I know the design and I can make another one."

He slowly, led me to the mall and we passed the security and went in. The cool air of the air-conditioner hit me and suddenly, I felt too cold. I pushed my bag further up my shoulder and held on to the strap, holding the bag closer to me for more warmth.

The thought of him selling the car he had made pricked me. If it had been me in his place, the possessive me would have done everything in my power to hold on to it. But he seemed so cool about letting it all go, not only the car, but the effort that had been put into it.

"Why wouldn't you apply for a patent or something?" I blurted out, as soon as he stood next to me. If he were able to make another one of his cars, wouldn't the person buying it do the same? "Like protecting your design from being copied,"

"You are smart, aren't you?" He gave me a sly look. "Applying for it costs a lot. Did you know that?"

"Oh," I answered.

"Don't worry about it, Scarlet," He said, when he noticed my puzzled expression. "I'm not as dumb as you think I am. I have some cheat codes that only I can crack." He winked.

We all had our own set of problems, for which we tried in our own way to rectify them. It was only a matter of time that the problem settled, then its ripples would start and its effect would spin us right where we exactly started.

"Well, in that case, I'm going to buy all the accessories matching with my outfit too." I gave a mischievous grin and that was good enough for him to get back from his gloomy thoughts.

He tried very hard to make an expression that was full of disgust, but his smiling face deceived him. "I hate that I offered in the first place." He groaned.

"No taking back!" I called out. "Now, which one is the most expensive store?"

---

A/N: What do you think of the ability of our Robert to manufacture cars? I personally think it's cool. What do you think of their interactions? Let me know