I admit, I've made a lot of stupid decisions in my life. Had even some worse ideas. I'm no fool. I know who I am and what I am.

But this right now, having Gabrielle fucking Perth's arms wrapped around me as she sits behind me with her thighs pressing to mine, might be the worst decision I've made in my life. Worse than the worst.

I curse myself for agreeing to take her for a ride. With me out of all people. But the bastard in me is glad she didn't choose Spider instead. And I also don't want her anywhere around my enemy.

I drive us to the start line and Gabrielle's body gets impossibly rigid behind mine, her arms clutching me so tightly I have trouble breathing. As I rev up the machine, Gabrielle squeezes me even harder. "Ever rode on a motorcycle?" I ask her over my shoulder.

"No," she says against my ear.

Yeah, I could tell that. I put my right hand on her arms, trying to release her tight hold. "Don't squeeze so hard. Try to relax, it'll be over soon." I don't even know why I'm trying to calm her down. It was her idea to ride with me. She probably didn't know what she was getting herself into, but I'll show her.

Maybe it'll keep her away from this place once and for all. It's not for her, anyway. Her soul is too fucking pure to be around people like this.

"Ready?" I call, sending a smirk at Spider, who actually thinks he has a shot of winning.

I hear a, "No," from Gabrielle as I rev up the machine and add the speed. And we go. Gabrielle screams, causing me to wince, her scream ringing in my ear, and her arms tighten again.

I focus on driving instead, trying to ignore the feeling of the girl I should stay away from wrapped around me. Yeah, I'm going straight to hell. And I'm even sure the devil is saving a special place beside him for me.

I drive on the all too familiar streets. As we turn right, the lights disappear and it's just darkness surrounding us now. The sound of motorcycles is loud and the smell of oil and gas is strongly presented. And there's also the smell of excitement and anticipation all around us, making my heart beat faster.

I could drive these streets blindfolded. I know every bump in the road and every rock under my wheels. You'd think it gets boring once you've driven on the same road for so many times, but let me assure you, it doesn't. Because the taste and the sound of the victory in the end still tastes sweet as fucking heaven. It gets me every time.

People cheer for me, drink on me, talk about me. It can't get sweeter than that.

Someone tries to pass me from behind. I swiftly turn to the left so I block his path. He goes right. I go right before him. I don't have to look back to know it's Spider. He's been playing dangerous games with me for a few weeks now. He's feeling a bit bold today, I see, if he's trying to get past me in this narrow, dark street.

He's out of luck, like on any other day. I speed up.

"Oh, God. Oh, God," I hear Gabrielle chant in my ear.

A smirk appears on my mouth. Fucking pure and innocent, I'm telling you.

We near the lights at the end of this street. Spider tries to pass me one more time, but I successfully dodge him and at the perfect opportunity, I speed up and leave him behind us.

Gabrielle lays her head on my shoulder. I try to ignore it, try to shut her out, try to imagine she's just some girl that's riding with me. It's nothing unusual for me to be riding with a girl. In fact, it's unusual if I don't ride with a girl.

It's just Gabrielle that bothers me. It feels weird having her that close to me. I've been trying to keep a distance, trying to get her to hate me. Because I don't want to have her in my business. She would get wrecked in my world. She's too good, although she sure does have claws.

She's getting bolder every day. It's getting harder to mess with her now and it almost feels like she's starting to enjoy everything I say and do to her.

I can't have that.

When we come out in the light, a sudden wind crushes into my body. I welcome it, completely used by it now, but Gabrielle's not prepared for it and she hides her head in my neck.

When I feel her breath on my neck, it makes chills run down my body. I swear to God, I almost crash. Spider clearly uses this in his advantage, using that second of my deconcentration wisely, flying past me.

I grit my teeth together and block Gabrielle out of my mind. She's just a girl. Just a nameless girl riding with me tonight.

I feel her lips a whisper away from my neck.

Damn it. God fucking damn it all to hell.

I'm a millisecond away from losing it. Someone else is already close behind me, trying to get past.

I inhale sharply and a growl comes out of me as I add the gas and we go faster, driving on the winding road. It's not safe what I'm doing, but I've been on this road for so many times, I'm sure I can pull it off and get us first again.

Gabrielle seems content resting her face in my neck. It bothers me. It bothers me fucking a lot, but other than throwing her off the motorcycle, I can't do anything about it.

I just put my focus on Spider in front of me. At a particularly sharp turn, I come really close to him with high speed. I see he's holding back on the gas. I laugh to myself. Fucking coward. And he thinks he could have a shot at winning this?

At the next turn, I'm past him. And soon, we come to the nearing end. I hear Spider behind me, but I left him far behind and I'm not worried about him anymore.

The loud cheering greets me as I drive on the end. I have a face-splitting grin on my face as the people come around me in a circle. "Sin! Sin! Sin!" They chant over and over again.

God, that feels nice.

As I turn the motorcycle off, Gabrielle doesn't seem to know we're still. She's clinging to me for dear life. It makes my stomach clench as the consciousness of how close we are.

This is not good.

"Yo. Little one, it's time for you to get off now. The ride's over."

These words seem to do the magic. She startles as if I just woke her up. She looks around her with fear in her eyes. I move my gaze somewhere else.

She unclasps her hands and unwraps her arms from around my body. I clench my jaw. It felt weird when she wrapped her arms around me, now it feels even weirder when she's unwrapping them.

Fuck, I sound like a pussy.

Gabrielle then puts her hands on my shoulders and tries to get off the motorcycle. She succeeds, yes, but she almost falls over when she lands on her feet. I quickly wrap my hand tightly around her arm, preventing her from crushing on the ground.

Gabrielle puts her hands out, right on my arm to catch her balance. Her face is close, too close than it should be, too close for my liking. So close, in fact, I can smell her breath.

And it smells like alcohol.

I lean my head back. "You've been drinking?" I ask her, searching her face with my eyes.

Her eyes look bloodshot, nothing big, but if you look closely, which I'm doing right now, you notice it.

Gabrielle lifts her chin up in a defying matter. And, damn her, she's still having her hands on me. "So what if I have?" she challenges.

Alcohol makes her even bolder. Noted. I smile coldly at her. "Oh, yeah. It's not like I fucking give a fuck. You can do whatever you want, anyways."

Gabrielle nods, her own smile pulling up at the corners of her lips. "That's right, Alexander." She purposefully emphasises my name and pats my chest with her hands.

The sweet torture. It makes me want to cut her hands off. Not because I don't like being touched by her, but because I'm starting to like it.

Oh, hell.

"And what I want to do now is walk away and ignore you again. Thanks for the ride." She blows me a kiss.

A. Fucking. Kiss.

I grit my teeth together. I want to strangle her.

No, that's not really what I want. But it would make my life easier.

Thank God we're interrupted so I can't do anything I'd later regret. But we're interrupted by the last person I wanted to see.

"Not so fast, skinny ass. You and I – we're gonna have a little chat first."

Sophie. Fucking Sophie. Coming at the right place, just not the right time. God really hates me.

The circle of people around us fell silent and are now watching the two tigresses staring each other down.

Gabrielle puts her hands on her hips. "Mind me asking who you are?"

Sophie cocks her head to the side. "Yeah. Yeah, I mind. Who the fuck are you?"

Gabrielle lifts her eyebrow in a challenge. "What makes you think I'll tell you?"

Gasps are heard in the crowd. Sophie looks around the people, her mouth lifting at the corner in distaste.

Gabrielle seems to start realising where she is too because she looks around her and her face pales. She puts her hand on her chest, her eyes still sweeping around. "I'm going to puke," she says, mostly to herself, but I hear her.

I also hear her voice doesn't sound confident anymore and she looks as if she saw a ghost.

Sophie doesn't notice her state, or she frankly doesn't give a shit, because she continues cold-heartedly. "Anyone wanna tell the poor thing who I am?" Sophie addresses the crowd.

I look around too. Almost everyone gathered around us. They're quiet, craning their necks to hear better of what's going on here. They love drama and they never want to miss it. Who would blame them? I'm curious to see how this is going to go down, too.

The crowd stays quiet. Seriously, no one speaks, not even one, too curious to how Sophie will react, too intimidated by us. Sophie laughs darkly and steps closer to Gabrielle. "Girlfriend. I'm his girlfriend."

Gabrielle stumbles back as if Sophie slapped her. Even her face looks like that. She's shaking her head and tears spring in her eyes. My eyebrows furrow at her reaction. What the fuck is going on?

"No. Not again. Please, not again ..." Gabrielle rambles incomprehensibly. "I ..." She shakes her head.

Murmurs erupt among people now and low laughter can be heard. Something's clearly up. I doubt Gabrielle's acting.

I get down from my motorcycle and go towards her. She's staring at me with wild eyes, shaking her head all the time while the tears start pooling in her eyes. It seems like she's not even here with us, like she's somewhere else in her head.

As I come near her, ready to take her away from embarrassing herself even further, she turns around and starts running. People step aside and let her, keeping their eyes trained on her. But she doesn't look at anyone, she just keeps running.

I put my hands in my pockets, staring after her, wondering what the hell just happened.