I slowly opened my eyes, adjusting to the light around me. I wiped my eyes trying to rub away the sleep and the slumber from last night.

The room that I was laying in was very small, holding only a small cot and a table next to it. The wallpaper on the walls were coming off and the roof corner had a patch of black indicating that the roof leaked. The room reeked of grease and oil. Behind the door, there was a bucket with cloths that needed a good wash.

I sat up straight, wondering where in the world I had come and spent my night. Numerous thoughts ran through my tiny brain all at once and I started cursing myself for getting lost in alcohol. I had put all the blame on the dark liquid which had ruined my life for good.

I had overlooked all the signs and here I was in a strange apartment which smelt like grease. Of course, it would smell like it. After all, I had gone out with the track boys. What else should I be expecting?

Did something else happen along with the liquid session?

I was scared. What was I doing on a school day in another man's apartment when I should actually be at home thinking about the upcoming exams that I needed to face?

Quivering, I slowly climbed down the bed, pushing the sheets away. My cloths from last night were still intact with a few folds here and there. Perhaps I was thinking too much and it was only the last drop of liquid leaving my system.

The door creaked as I made my way out of the room. If the person was not home, I could Uber and get away from the mess.

But he was there, all in his semi-nakedness glory, tossing the bread in the pan. His back was towards me. His hair was disheveled, pointing in all angles as his curls stood erect as if they were electrocuted. His back truncated down to a V shape, covered with his trousers.

I gulped audibly.

"Morning, sunshine!" The devil turned around, chirping so early in the morning.

Robert looked at me smugly, tilting his head towards his right, trying to analyze me with a small smile, which never failed to leave his handsome face. The intense stare that he was giving me, made me look at myself for the first time that day.

I was still dressed in the race suit which he had got me. My pants were still tucked up till my knees and my feet were shoe-free. I smelled of wine, rum and something I couldn't fathom, and I didn't want to start imagining my face and the way my hair stood along with me.

I heaved a sigh at my state and made my way to the couch.

"Haven't you seen enough movies?" Robert asked. I could hear him turn off the stove and the plates clinking as he put his breakfast in them and walk towards where I was. "You are supposed to freak out and ask me if something did happen between us."

I rolled my eyes at him. He was so clichéd. "So that you can act all gentlemanly?"

He laughed at that. He took a seat next to me, giving enough space for me to tangle my legs if I wanted to and placed the bread toast on the small table in front of us. Though he was lean, I could see his abs protruding and the veins popping on his forearm as he leaned to get a toast for himself.

"Even if you didn't ask, I was gentlemanly yesterday. I wasn't ogling at you as you are now." He chewed slowly, looking at me with delight as I turned red under his care. "Here, take this after a bite." He pointed to the glass of water and a tablet on the other side of the table I hadn't noticed up till now.

"What for?" I asked confused.

"Really?" He laughed again. His laughs were just enough to get me on my nerves. I still hadn't forgiven him for things I had endured because of him. "You took four bottles yesterday in one go." He was talking slowly so that I could understand what he was telling me.

"It was only beer." I said, taking a toast from the plate. I had not eaten anything properly for the last two days and I was famished. I took a bite and it felt like heaven. "These are so good."

"In parties like them, they usually mix heroine or cocaine into them just to get them high." He answered, ignoring my comments about the bread. "So, are you sure you are not really hungover?"

"No. I'm fine." I said.

"Wow! I'm impressed." He said, his eyes bright analyzing me every second and estimating my every move. "Not even a slight headache?"

Lily had always been jealous of the metabolic activity of my body. She always became high with two glasses of wine while I could go on for the fifth bottle and still walk straight. She even had the worst hangovers, sometimes lasting for days together as she would complain why I had let her drink so much.

Robert now looked at me just as Lily had looked when I had first told her that I didn't do hangovers. She had let out a loud shriek, telling me that I had to look for alternatives when most of the people took drinking and making themselves high to forget what they wanted to.

"I'm lucky, I guess." I said. It was exactly the same thing that I had once told Lily. "Though I have all the privilege of forgetting and getting high after some huge amount of alcohol in my system, it doesn't leave any after effects for me to suffer."

"I'm jealous." He said, still looking at me, as if I was telling him that I was God himself.

I folded my legs and made myself at home. I took another slice of bread and munched on it. "You don't drink, right? Then what's with the jealously?"

He smiled at that. "Okay, now I believe you that you are not hungover. People usually don't remember stuffs when they actually are."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, hangover Guru, why don't you enlighten me with all the alcoholic knowledge that you have?"

He laughed. I could see his biceps flexing in his every move. To lessen my embarrassment of getting caught again, I looked else where. 

His living room was as old as his room. Scrapes on the walls, a ceiling fan which looked as if it could fall any minute now, a small shelf filled with books, mostly about racing and its techniques and a small couch on which we were sitting and a table - it looked haunted if I were to come here alone. At the right side there was a room, which I assumed to be a bathroom and an open kitchen opposite to it.

"I had been drunk once, at a very small age, and it tasted like piss." He laughed again at the memory, making me turn towards him. "It took me hours to nurse me back to normal."

"Ah, so you don't have a good stamina." I said, with a small smirk. Though I was mad at him, I was still here eating his bread and joking with him as if there was nothing wrong. That alone surprised me.

"Oh, really?" He raised one eye brow at me, mockingly and put both of his hands behind his head, leaning against the couch, flexing his abs. Naturally, my eyes went from his face, down to his chest, watching the rhythmic battle of his strong muscles. "Like them?"

I averted my eyes soon, not giving him enough attention than I had already given him. "No, I like someone else better."

As soon as the words were out, I was doomed with the ugly truth that I had to face yesterday. The confessions and the feelings came back at me with full force, knocking the air out of me. 

I thought it would have been easier to accept the facts and move on, but it was taking more than my strength to get me over it. It was not as simple as I had anticipated it.

Heck, I had to meet him everyday at school and act as if everything was okay and I was doing great, when in reality I was crushing my feelings to make the boy feel fine, just because I had to do my friendly duties.

"Hey, what happened?" Robert asked. Gone was the teasing Robert and was replaced by a concerned one. "You were mumbling something about Nick yesterday."

"Oh, God." I ran my fingers on the tangled mess of my hair, reminding me that my life was just the same, a tangled mess from which it was too difficult to get out.

I had cried so much yesterday that no tears came out, only leaving behind a sore heart and its emptiness. I debated if I should tell him and see if the trick of talking it all out to someone apart from my friend circle would help me move on, just as Dr. Phil once suggested in his shows.

"You said you loved him and you hated everyone." Robert slowly supplied.

I heaved a sigh and got ready to throw the caution to the wind.

"Nick is gay."

"What?" Robert said and the next minute, he was holding his stomach and rolling on the floor laughing. I had mentally prepared a big essay to write to Dr. Phil and tell him he was so wrong and he needed to get a better occupation if he wanted to survive.

But a whole freaking minute later, he steadied himself and took a seat next to me. "Seriously, Scarlet?" He was trying hard to hold back another fist of laughter. "There are so many guys out there and all you choose is someone who can't appreciate the crinkle in your eyes when you laugh."

That sentence made me halt my hand in mid air from slapping him and made me think about it. He was so right. There were many guys who had asked me on a date from the tracks and I had always come up with some reason to get out of it and now, as karma had it, I was the one getting rejected from the only guy I had been pinning.

Robert pulled me closer to him and put his hand around my shoulder. "Look, I understand he's your friend and all, but you should tell him how you actually feel when you are around him. Tell him you need some space till you have gotten over it."

I heaved a sigh. Nick had already thought that he was losing me and I didn't want to confirm his suspicions as true. He had told me that his parents would be mad about it. Shouldn't I be there to support him emotionally when he goes down that lane? 

The poor guy was trying for my sake and he was there to help me when I was down with my Dad's accident. It was the least I could do, even if it meant to grit my teeth to bear the consequences on my part.

"Oh, honey." Robert pulled me against him, hugging me if that were possible in the position we were sitting. "It's going to be fine. You only need some time."

I nodded, placing my cheek on his bare chest. It had been very long since I was consoled by someone and it felt good. All these years I had stood on my own legs, not letting myself lean on, scared that I might get used to it. But now, even if it was for a moment alone, it felt good to have a breather and somehow it was making me stronger.

"When did you know?" He asked as he caressed my hair.

"Yesterday." I mumbled on his bare chest. The voice alone brought goosebumps on that olive skin and I involuntarily clutched tighter.

"Oh, shit! I am really sorry about yesterday. I had no idea." He pushed me away holding me by my shoulders, to inspect my face. "When Brian told me that you took off with Nick when he told he loved you, I thought... well, it was a party. Plus, you weren't at your place or at school and you didn't pick my calls."

I hung my head low. I didn't have to make such a big issue with that small sentence that Nick had said that night. Talking about it out in the loud, made me regret everything that I had done. "I was at home, just didn't want to talk to anyone, that's all."

"I was so mad at you that I wanted to take you across my knee and teach to some race manners." He spoke loud.

"You what?" I asked, taken aback by his words, my cheeks flaming, with anger or embarrassment, I still didn't know.

"Don't worry darling, some day I might." He said with a wink. I wriggled out of his hold and made a disgusting face at him. "So we even?"

"What makes you think that I will say yes?" I asked, challenge etched in my face.

"You know there are ways." He suggested, wriggling his eyebrows. When I still looked at him if he were half mad, he flexed his muscles. I laughed at him and threw a small pillow that was put on the couch.

"Fine," He said, catching the pillow in his hand. "Pizza on weekends is on me. Is that okay with you?"

"Are you spending a lot of time with Dan?" I asked, my brows knitting together in suspicion. "He's the only one who knows about my pizza love."

"The magician never reveals his secret, mi lady." He bowed with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes that made me laugh. "That's settled then."

"I never said yes, Rob." I said, a small smile playing on my lips.

The clock on the wall caught my eye and looking at the time, I was shocked. It said three at noon.

"It's three?" I shrieked and Robert jumped at my sudden outburst. "My school? Friends? And Dad? Oh my God!"

I stood up and made shook my dress free of wrinkles.

"Relax babe," Robert said. "Dan must have informed Ed about you and as for your friends, they will get over it soon. There's no harm in missing school."

"Only you say that." I said. There were about fifty calls and another bunch of voice mails to reach me. I wrote a small message telling that I was fine and had some emergency that I had to attend to and forwarded to almost everyone who had called. "You also missed the track today morning because of me."

"Nah," He said, standing up. "All of them are probably still stoned to get their asses back to work. Besides I had a good company."

"Anyway, I should get going." I said awkwardly. "I'll take a day off today too. I need some break."

"Sure." He smiled.

"Okay." I tucked my hair behind my ear and made my way towards the main door. That was when it hit me. "Um, Robert? Could you drive me home?"

"I thought you would never ask." He smirked. He took a key from the bowl and walked towards me.

"Shirt, idiot!" I face palmed myself thinking how this guy could be so absentminded. "You should have your parents around just for this. If it was my Dad, he would have grounded you for a week at least."

Robert came back with a gray shirt, too thin for the weather outside, but I didn't utter a word. Something was better than nothing.

"It's the first time you have come to my humble abode, babe." Robert spoke smoothly. "I don't talk about my parents on my first date."

I pushed him away. "It's not a date, rat ass."

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A/N: I love writing Robert-Scarlet interactions. Do you like it as well? What do you think of the after effects of drinking on Scarlet? Any of you has such magical powers?