We finished our brunch soon and quickly called Lily and James to let them know about our plans. 

Lily's answer was immediate and with a yes, she cut the call promising to be at my doorstep in another ten minutes. James took a minute to analyze and then said that he had to see if he was free.

Out of the four of us, James was the only person who thought and behaved like an adult, making sure that we all followed the rules. Now, with him telling that he needed time to think about this, made me roll my eyes at him. I was sure he just wanted some alone time with his girlfriend to get her back to their old terms.

"He's in." I said after listening to the conversation that Nick had put on the speaker.

"Yeah," Nick muttered, putting the phone away. He came towards the dining table to clear the utensils and wash them.

Unlike Rob, Nick was helping me in scrubbing the utensils. He wiped them off with a dry cloth and put them in their right places. Robert only sat at the dining table watching us clean up the place. I wondered if he didn't have any other place to be. Lately it seemed as if he was absconding of work and spending more time here, in my house.

He was still looking at us when we had completed our task at hand and had sat at the couch talking. His scrutinizing stare never seemed to get away from us, as if he was in a drama class closely looking at the ones who were on the stage, ready to point out the mistakes.

"What?" I asked, interrupting Nick from his talks. I had enough of his stares to last a lifetime.

Robert only raised one of his eyebrows at me challenging me to question him further.

"Why are you staring at us like that?" I asked. I folded my hands for more effect. "I mean, I know we are wonderful and all, but this seems a little concerning. Are you okay?"

I smirked in content when I saw his face fall. I was pretty sure that he was not expecting that. It was not even a minute when he had recovered completely from it. But when he started to open his mouth to give me the answers that I so desperately needed, the doorbell rang. For once, I was more than happy to reach for it.

When I rushed to the door, there were two people standing in front of it, having their back to each other. I raised both of my eyebrows in shock and wonder. I had never seen the two fight like this since they fell in love. If this was their case, I wondered what happened last night once we had left Lily to James' place.

"Good to see you too?" I said, waiting for them to respond back.

Lily took this as a cue and dodged in hitting my shoulder in the process. James stood there like a lost puppy waiting for his mistress to give him some command. He tried to reach out for her but held back his words in the last minute. I nodded in understanding and pointed my head towards inside.

"Hey Robbie!" Lily's attention was fully focused on Robert now, clearly trying to make James jealous. "You were so great yesterday. The way you drove with such speed, wow!" Lily seemed like she was under spell.

Nick moved closer to me, his eyes never leaving her. He looked like he had seen a ghost. The poor guy was in shock all this morning. "Is she drunk? Should we stop her?"

Robert, who sat at the edge of the couch seemed like he had got a cobra wrung around his neck and was desperately trying to get out of its hold. The confident guy, the one who had claimed to have made a move on countless number of girls, seemed to have gone into a shudder. He sat frozen thinking that the prey would assume him to be dead and then leave him alone. He looked at me, pleading me to help him out of his little situation.

I turned away. That was when I caught sight of James, who had stood at the door, watching his girlfriend flirt with Robert. When I first saw him, I was expecting him to jump up and down, pulling his hairs out in frustration. But in contrary, he was only standing, his eyes telling how gloomy it was to witness the events that were turning out. I felt my heart tear for the guy.

"Lily, that's enough." I said, sighing. "What's wrong with you?"

"Hey," Lily said, smiling cheerfully at me. She wriggled next to Robert and sat almost on him and put her hands around his shoulders. "I didn't see you there. How are you?"

I rolled my eyes at her. I pulled her away from Robert and to my surprise she didn't protest. I took her to the open kitchen and made her sit on the dining table. "What are you doing?" I asked.

That was when she seemed to have her head back in its place. She hung her head low, telling silently that she was sorry.

"Why, Lil?" I asked. "You know that James loves you to the moon and back, right?"

A single drop of tear fell and rolled down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away. "He told me that I was cheating on him with Robert. I might as well prove him right."

I sat in front of her numbly, not able to believe her words. Lily and James were one of the synonyms for trust and yet James had doubted her.

"He didn't believe me when I told him nothing happened." She continued. "Just because I spent late night with some guy doesn't make me a witch."

I hugged her as she pulled me in for comfort.

"Lilly, I don't think James meant it." I said. "You only spend late nights when he is around and when you spent it with us, I think he was only jealous."

She nodded. "But he didn't have to tell those things to me on my face, you know. I hardly know Robert."

That was when I understood why she was so hung up on one sentence James had told her. The fact that James, out of whole people, had picked up that sensitive topic was enough to prick the right spot.

"You know what, I think I should talk to him." She said after contemplating the matter for a whole minute. "Thank you Scar. I love you so much."

I shrugged in response. After all, I had only said two sentences that she had known for the whole night.

I knew James loved her more than he loved football. I also knew that he was hurting because he had hurt her. The moment he saw her walk in front of him, I could tell that he was expecting her to break up with him for making her go through so much just because she spent a night out with her friends. I saw him gulp when Lily spoke.

"You, me. Outside." With that Lily went out of the house waiting for James to follow her. Like a dragon to his master, he silently followed, pledging to undergo any kind of punishment that came his way.

I sighed. This was the first fight I had witnessed with such drama. Though I knew they would be fine and would be back to being conjoined twins, the tension they left behind was drastic. Nick and Robert were still holding their silence, making it seem like it was a cemetery.

"So, boys, when are we going?" I asked, taking a seat opposite to them. They only looked at each other, silently wondering if I was crazy. I rolled my eyes at them. "Come on, we all know they are going to be fine."

Nick shrugged at me. "In an hour?" He looked at Robert for confirmation. When he gave a whatever expression, he started again. "It's all set then."

The front door opened loudly, slamming across the back wall with a bang. All three of us jumped up in surprise at the noise. Lily and James had just come out from a heated conversation. I could tell that Lily's eyes were red from crying and instantly I knew that it was not yet okay. She wiped her face before she came towards the couch.

"When are we leaving?" She asked, trying to pretend that it was all okay.

"We don't have to do that." I supplied much for her sake. "Let's go to your place and watch some movie. What do you say?"

"No, we are going to the car exhibition!" She started and I knew I couldn't argue with her on that.

No matter what we said she was persistent and wanted to go to the car show. Neither was James backing down. If James was stubborn, Lily wanted to rage a war against it. As decided, we went to the car show, all together. We doubted if the two angry birds would survive if they came together in their car. So, we decided to take mine with Rob as the driver and Nick as shotgun while I was sandwiched between the angry teen.

The car ride was deadly silent, and I knew that we had made a mistake of going together. Though all their fights were petty and soon ended within a few hours, this one seemed to have a greater life span than the rest. I wished I could do something to make sure that they were back to normal.

The car stopped and I could not move from my spot. Unlike me, Rob and Nick took the initiative to get the tickets for us. Even when the two had fought, it was nice to see them get along even if was to save themselves from the drama.

We walked out in a horizontal line with me in the middle. I heaved a sigh when the two were still not talking to each other.

"James, why don't you see what those two are up to?" I asked him. At least then I wouldn't be suffocating in their tensed air. "We will be in the shade till then."

He reluctantly agreed and walked by turning back towards us at every five minutes, as if I was going to murder his girlfriend the next minute.

"What's up with you two?" I asked crossing my arms across my chest. "I thought you talked about it."

"I did and that brainless rag rat thinks I'm just making things up for him." Lily had come back from her crying sessions and was now in the angrier mood. That was better because as far as I knew her, the next mood would be the forgiving mood. "I'm not talking with him at all."

"Let's see about that." I smirked. Robert and Nick came back with James in tow. They had got the tickets in their hands. Robert and Nick were talking and laughing about something while James eyes were zeroed in on us. I gave a knowing smile when James took his spot next to me.

"Hey Rob!" I called out and walked forward leaving the two alone. "Aren't you supposed to teach which car's which?"

"Weren't you angry with me, babe?" He asked when I reached him. I gave him a glare that shut him up for good. "Fine, you are still angry with me."

I smiled at him. He knew me.

"I'm so glad that we are not like them." He said, taking a step next to me.

"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"I mean," Robert cleared his throat, understanding my unsaid words. "We fight all the time, but we don't make such big dramas."

I rolled my eyes at him. "They don't make any dramas at all." I said. "This is the first one since a very long time."

I surveyed my surroundings for the first time since we had come here. With all the Lily-James fight, I had not given much attention to where we were going. And now that I took in, I was so glad that I could come.

There were different varieties of cars from all over the world. Different stalls were put up with a line of cars under their sun protective sheds. Porsche, Audi, Cadillac, Toyota, SUV, Rolls-Royce, Ferrari, Aston-Martin, you name it and you could see it. The colors, the designs, the quality, the smell of leather - I was mesmerized. There were sports car too.

"You need to learn that section well." Nick said, pointing towards the sports section. I didn't realize when he had made his way next to me. "Might come handy someday."

"There might be a few race managers here, so put on your best behavior, Stone." Robert said. It was one of his business tones and instantly I knew that he had spotted some already. "Some might come talk to you."

I nodded my head. After all, my last win was published, and I was sure those managers were sly enough to get the racer's names if they actually wanted to. I personally was a little thrown back when I heard that the managers might know me. I mean, I was still a learning racer and there was so much more in those worlds that I didn't know about.

"Relax, babe." Robert whispered, taking my clammy hands in his. "I'm there with you."

Robert and I shared a weird relationship. We were teacher and student the first second, and flirty college kids the next and angry fighting drug dealers the next. With him, it was too hard to keep up.

"Let's head to the German cars first." Nick said, smiling at me. "Get used to seeing cars before you get under pressure in your car section."

I chuckled at that. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea."

"Is it okay if we leave those two alone?" Robert asked, looking back. Since we had moved forward, those James and Lily had stayed back, too angry to take a step towards us. "They won't kill each other, right?"

"Nah," Nick said, putting his arm around Rob's shoulders to turn him to his front. "Don't worry about them. Exactly twenty minutes later you'll be seeing them laughing together." He smiled. "The last record was eighteen minutes, right Scar?"

"Yes!" I laughed as we walked ahead, leaving the love birds to fend for themselves.

The whole arena which was a few hectares large was like a fair. Since it was a weekend, most of the parents had brought their kids along with them to show them the monsters. A few of them were seeking applications to buy one! There was also a carwash set up and one could also pay to get their cars cleaned.

"Hey look!" Nick interjected, pointing at our opposite direction.

Robert and I turned our head towards what he was pointing just to see Lily and James make up. They were in a heavy kissing session in the middle of the track that was left for a test drive.

"This breaks all records, it's only fifteen minutes!" Nick said laughing.

"You kept a count on it?" Robert asked skeptically.

"You never know when these things come in handy." Nick shrugged.

"Tell me he is kidding." Robert turned towards me. I only laughed at him, shaking my head sideways.

Lily and James soon joined us, as we looked around the cars and the designs. The three boys went together like a military troop, going ahead looking at the four wheel drives while Lily and I stood at the plain old ones, wondering what was new with them.

"I thought you said you would never talk to James." I smirked at Lily, who only blushed harder than she already was.

"Shut up." She hit my arm playful, focussing her attention to the car ahead of us.

"Hey babe!" Robert called me from a distance. "You should come check this out."

But when I looked at him, a girl passed by with short skirts and a top that only covered her chest. Robert, being the ass that he was, stared at her till she passed into one of the tents.

"God, I don't know how this ass-hat became something in this racing world." I muttered while Lily only laughed at it.

"He's a nice guy." She said looking at him. "He truly cares for you. I can tell."

"Yeah, yeah." I rolled my eyes at her, walking towards him. "Enjoyed the view, I suppose?" I asked him with a nice smile.

"You saw that, didn't you?" He gave a nervous chuckle, running his hands over his curly hairs. "I actually wanted to you to meet this guy here." He sure covered up his ass real quick. "He has made this PPT about the stuffs that goes into this Aston."

Robert made the poor guy explain the whole presentation for me once again. Once he had explained it, he also added that we could buy it and he would give us a good EMI plan to get one of them home. He promised to give the brake pads as a complementary if we booked one right then and there.

"Isn't he good at marketing?" Robert whispered, making me chuckle.

"So, you are Scarlet Stone." Someone said and I looked up.

It was a girl, probably in late twenties with short straight hair landing till her shoulders. Her hair was colored - brown at the roots and blonde at the tips. But what caught my eye was her skin complex.

Her chocolate brown skin was stigmatized. I could tell that she had been suffering from vitiligo. There were white patches on her skin, marking their own boundaries on her. Yet, she looked so beautiful and she carried an aura of respect and admiration around her.

"I'm sorry." I said finally finding my voice. "Do I know you?"

I turned towards Robert, for some moral support. When I saw Robert fidgeting a small rock with his gray shoes, I knew that something was not right.

"You haven't told her, have you, Hastings?" She smirked. The features for which I thought I liked her, was now intimidating me. She looked a lot scarier now and I was afraid to make a sound. "Hi, Scarlet, I'm Ashley Mathews. But people call me Ash - I'm sure you must know why by now."

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A/N: Introducing you guys to our favorite antagonist. So, what do you think she wants? Did you expect Lily and James to get back this soon?