Suffocation was the first thing I felt when I woke up. My room seemed to be eerily silent and I wondered how that was possible. Breathing was with difficulty and I tossed around to get a wisp of air into my lungs.

But a huge pair of hands held me hostage and I started to panic. Within those anxious moments, I had opened my eyes to see myself pushed into one's chest. The only satisfaction was whoever that was, had worn a shirt. My face faced the hardened chest as its owner shifted and pulled me further towards themselves.

Much to my surprise, I felt my hands wrapped around the unknown person taking a comfortable spot. I vaguely remembered the things that had happened yesterday, especially after the fourth bottle that I had gulped down.

Brian and I were talking. It was much nonsense than anything else. We were mostly laughing all the time to recollect what we were taking about. But I didn't remember anything that dealt with me going home.

What had happened after the drinking sessions?

I pushed the guy who wrapped his hands around me with full force, much again my will, if I may add. Well, with as much force as I could muster, especially the post drunk me could handle. There was a manly groan followed by a curse word before I thought I heard something familiar.

"Babe, come on. It's only eight in the morning."

I was taken aback. If my brain wasn't fooling around with me, I was quite certain of whose voice it belonged to. I craned up my neck, as the wrapper let me lose, to see who had put his viper like grip on me.

Robert-freaking-Hastings.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" I asked, as I sat upright, making myself get familiar with the surroundings.

The first thing that I noticed was, we were covered by a sheet and thankfully we ourselves were covered with clothes. On further inspection, I found that I was still in yesterday's attire, much to my relief.

We were in the hall of the same house that we had partied. It was like a bungalow with huge rooms and a chandelier. I looked to my right and saw that there was the balcony that I had got wasted in, but the bottles were never to be placed.

Lily and James weren't there to be spotted, but there was Brian and another couple lying at the far end of the house. I wondered if that was the guy who owned the place.

For an early hour of eight, the place looked pristine as if it was not used by those numerous sweaty bodies dancing all night. I saw someone in the kitchen mopping the floor and I wondered if the host had called help to clean up the mess that his friends had created.

I turned around to see Nick lying on another couch with a cartoon-ish mustache drawn him. He lay there shirtless and a circle was drawn on his boobs. The circles were connected together by a neatly drawn chain that went further down his vest.

I gasped.

"He let me draw it yesterday." Robert smirked while he yawned and it looked as if he was in pain. "He really does like me. He shouted that he would let me draw on him to show me how much he loves me."

I rolled my eyes at that. It did sound like Nick.

"When are you doing something that wild with me?" He asked, raising his eyebrows at me.

"That's disgusting." I said as I pushed the sheets away and sat down on the couch that seemed big enough to fit another person along with us. "How are you here?"

"Oh, you called me yesterday." He said, his smirk back in action. "Said you needed Rob-time to sleep."

My cheeks flamed with embarrassment. I knew I had drunk more than usual, but I didn't remember anything of those sorts. But then again, what else hadn't I remembered? With anxious hands, I searched for my phone. To pacify my search, Robert pointed on the stool next to the couch and I went to dig in.

There were several text messages and phone calls, but ignoring all that I went straight to Robert's contact to check if I had really called him. There was no log detail. Anger in my eyes, I glared at him for which he only shrugged.

"I'll kill you, Robert." I said, shooting daggers at him. He only circled his hands around me and planted a kiss on my cheek. "Why did you make that up?"

"I wanted to see if you are hungover or not." He said, sitting straighter.

"I've told you before that I don't do hangovers." I said, rubbing my eyes. "But, I must tell you I'm sleepy. I think I twisted my neck or something."

"I told you we should try some different position." He winked and I immediately knew what he was referring to. "But you said this was the best thing and it gave much access to..."

"Fuck off." I said pushing him away. "I get that you are a morning person, so leave me alone."

To distract myself, I picked up my phone to check on those messages and calls. I lost my balance, probably because of the tiny drop of alcohol that was still lingering in my system and I clung on to the table to steady myself.

I didn't look at Rob to see what he had to say about that, but continued my walks. I walked to the other end of the hall, near the balcony. The balcony doors were closed and locked securely now, making me wonder if I was the reason behind it.

I scrolled down the calls to see most of them were from Dan and Dad. I didn't make an effort to check what they had to say. I knew it was some epilogue to the lectures Dan was giving me last night. There were a few texts from both of them, but I pressed the delete button without reading what it held.

There were a few from Lily telling me that they were taking off.

Robert came before we left. Said he would take care of you. Nick was saying same. So keeping in charge of him, we left.

Call me when you get this.

I rolled my eyes when I read that Nick said he would take care of me. It was probably him telling that he would take care of Robert. I turned my head around slowly, making sure that my neck twist and the alcohol effect will be minimum on me.

"Why did you come back here again?" I asked Robert.

I remembered that he had gone off like the wind after getting some calls. He hadn't mentioned that he was coming back here to take care of me. Perhaps there was some goods to be carried to the party house?

"How could I leave my girl alone, especially with that guy?" He pointed towards Brian who was fast asleep, snoring slightly. I hadn't mentioned that we had become friends again and hopefully were not starting another game of vengeance soon. "Last time I checked, you didn't like him."

I narrowed my eyes at him, wondering if he was really telling the truth. Robert only sighed.

"Okay, well it was one of the reasons why I came back."

"I knew it!" I punched the air, but the dizziness came back and I stopped short to steady myself.

"You okay?" Robert asked, concerned. Within seconds he was next to me, guiding me back to our big couch. "Are you sure you are not having any hangovers?"

I nodded my head, but I closed my eyes as I was not so sure myself. "I'm good. I just drank a little too much."

"That was why I came back." Robert's voice was laced with anger and I internally winced at that. "You had passed out with eight bottles around you, Scar! What the hell were you thinking?"

There was a groan from Brian, but he turned the other side and he was out. I looked at Rob to soften his expressions on me. It was hard to take in, especially at an hour of eight in the morning.

I knew he hated drinking and he usually objected me from drinking either, telling me that being a racer, I should take that as an advantage to know more about the opponents. But yesterday, it was only my friends and I had nothing to do with all their secrets. So I had let myself loose and enjoy the night.

"It was a friendly night." I defended. "And my friends were around."

"You mean him?" He pointed at Nick who was smiling in his sleep. "That Brian guy was lying on your lap when I found you."

Really? Oh my God!

But nothing serious or more embarrassing happened, right? Then what was his problem?

"Robert, look." I heaved a sigh. "I'm going through a lot and I wanted, I don't know, some liquid courage to face things. Why are you shouting at me for that? Most young girls and boys drink all the time."

"You don't belong to the most young girls. You do know that, don't you?" He asked, his expression softening. "Anyway, I wanted to make sure that you were okay and hoped that you were following that no drinks policy."

"You want me to say sorry to you now?" I folded my hands and stared at him. "Is that it?"

Robert looked away, the rage in his eyes coming back. "Just thank those genes that you have a quicker metabolism rate." He said, picking up his coat and putting it on himself. "Just wash your face and lets get out of here."

"Where are we going?" He was being so anonymous and I didn't know what he had in mind. Sure I could trust him with everything, but his rage was something that I wasn't used to. Besides, I didn't want to go home yet. "You tell me or else, I'm not moving."

He ran his hands over his hair and looked straight at me. "I got a call yesterday." He started and I nodded my head, asking him silently to continue. "I was called for in a meeting. An illegal race thing."

"Were you fired?" I asked, bringing my hands to my mouth.

"No." He rolled his eyes at me. "There's a race today. Around noon. They wanted me to participate but I got that ticket to you."

"So, I'm racing?" I asked, still not believing him. If I had known this, then I wouldn't have drunk at all. "Why didn't you call me?"

"I came here as soon as I knew there was some race. But you had outdone me like always." He muttered. He threw my jacket at me. "Get going. You need to freshen up, drink coffee and then we are going to race."

I looked around. "What about Nick or Brian?" I asked.

He only shrugged back. "Leave a text. That should do it." He turned back to look at me. "Or if you don't want to race, I can understand."

I glared at him. "I'm going to ace in it and shove it up your ass."

He only chuckled. "Then you need to move your ass, sweetheart."

---

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

I tried it a few times, but it was still not working for me. I was now standing on the edge of the start point waiting for the whistle to be blown. Though my initial fears were gone, I still wanted that push to get started.

Robert had been faithful in giving me those pushes all along. He even came to my pep talk, giving only the best advises that he could think of. Seemingly, it was supposed to be his race, with him playing in my place. But he was a sweetheart in giving up his place for me, just to get me a boost of confidence in playing the illegal games.

Calvin and others were supportive too. Within those few minutes, they had come to me with all their support team to get me going. Except for Dad, of course. He was being the same worrying guy I had seen before the slip-ups.

I had decided that Dad needed to know what I was going through because of him. I had had enough of secrets to be kept and I wanted to put all of them out in the open. Though, I didn't speak to him directly, there were a few tricks that I pulled off to indirectly tell him where I was going to be.

Perhaps, if my fate was written in this race, then I would be spared from that of Ashley's.

I didn't want to mess with that. He had reluctantly let me go with Rob, asking him to keep an eye on me at all times.

It was difficult to let go of all the mistakes that Dad had done, not only to me, but to the other women. Knowing that I might only have a few days to live with the game coming up, I wanted to let myself forgive him.

As I sat in the car, fully equipped about the race that I was participating in, a small voice screamed that it was going to change everything. I didn't know if it was the limbs the race was aiming to change in me, but I knew I had to make sure that I was ready for it.

It was one of the races that Robert had to play, but instead he had nominated me for the post. I knew it was because he wanted me to have practice in illegal races, but the word alone made me shiver, for I had seen a little too much in them.

Robert was supportive though. He had called up Calvin and my whole team was here to cheer on me. Dan had somehow misplaced himself, but other than that, I felt a little confident. Robert had said that it was going to be a little more than the last illegal race I had played in. In short, it was not a plain game.

I had got all the pep talks and warm hugs and even stolen kisses before I came to the tracks, yet my inner peace struggled to keep up with me. Since it was an illegal race and I was nearing the Ashley's race, I thought, I should upgrade my skills.

I didn't know what kind of tricks Ashley would be pulling at me, but I wanted to be prepared. All my races, I had had Robert as my earpiece, but in hers I didn't know if she would allow me to have them. As I pondered over it on the way here, I had asked Robert to take a side-track.

It was not as if I was taking off my microphone and throwing it over my shoulders, but I had told him that I would be switching it off. But ever since he told me that it was not a plain game, my mind struggled to get it wrapped around it. Spirals of what if's floated and my determination to stick to my decisions also wobbled.

As I heard the whistle that indicated the start of my race today, I pressed my foot on the gas and zoom! I was going as fast as I could remember. All the doubts faded and the only thing that I saw was the final destination that I had in mind to get to the winning.

The peace was deafening though. There was no Robert to tease and flirt, but it was all me. The whole idea of me winning the race all by myself was something that I treasured. I didn't want to let it go.

It was only a five lapped race. As I completed the first three, the dangerous zones started. A tiny bead of sweat trickled down my spine as I saw the things that were happening to the other racers. Small pointy objects were thrown on the road around fifty yards ahead of me. Few cars who were ahead of me, tried to dodge it, but their tyres were popped.

Suddenly, in slow motion two of the cars collided and a huge smoke was created around that zone. Another car which went after it, successfully dashed and was consumed into the smoke, leaving me dry mouthed.

I was parched, thinking how those tiny things could cost one's life.

I decided that it was high time I took some advises from Robert. Heck, I didn't know if I survived it and I wanted to make sure that I spoke with him if I was to die in the smoke tonight.

I turned on the microphone and just as I began to speak, a heard Rob's voice. But he was not talking to me.

---

A/N: Another illegal race! Who do you think Robert is talking to? Guess, guess guess!