"It takes great courage to see the world in all its tainted glory, and still to love it."

~ Oscar Wilde.

But it wasn't meant to be.

I collided with a figure who stepped in between Tobias and me, making me falter in my step and come to a screeching halt.

Natalya.

"Hey, there sexy. You're quite the show-stopper, aren't you?" Her back was towards me but I could tell that she was either batting her eyelashes at him or exposing her cleavage or both to seduce Tobias.

"Do I know you?" Tobias' stoic nature took over, the friendliness in his eyes evaporating within seconds.

Ha, bitch.

"No, but you won't forget me once I'm done with you." Her fingers slithered up his chest and over his shoulder sensually.

Did she just...?

I felt my rage bubble inside my veins but I tried to contain it.

"Not fucking interested," Tobias growled, his indifference morphing into a wild kind of anger.

Before she could make any further advancements, Tobias stepped away from her, clearly uncomfortable by her forthcoming behavior.

That's my boy.

He ain't yours, girl.

"Woah, woah, woah, easy." Andy tried to simmer Tobias down by pulling him towards himself.

"Oh, don't be such a tease," Natalya said frustratedly, earning a glare from Tobias.

Melaine and I exchanged a look, clearly weirded out by her. 

"Take a hint, Natalya." I found myself sneering rather bitchily.

Piper scoffed, ready to march off, but not before muttering, "Ugh, I can't believe he really is gay."

My eyes widened, hoping to God that Tobias hadn't heard her. Melaine, however, managed to catch on. She whispered, pulling me close to her, "Did she just--" I cut her off by slapping my hand over her mouth and shaking my head vigorously.

"Come on, let's move it." Andy ushered us to get into the car, "We'll celebrate tomorrow, bro," Andy said to Tobias.

Tobias responded with a curt nod before swinging open his car door. I moved towards the back seat of Andy's car when Melaine swatted my hand away from the handle. 

She turned to Tobias, who was already in the driver's seat of his car, and asked, "Tobias, can you please take Ariel home?" I tugged at her arm but she continued with a pout, "Andy and I have to go to my parents' house to pick up some things and it's getting late so we might just crash there."

Breathe.

Tobias nodded in response, "Sure."

Melaine shoved me away from her, but not before whispering with a teasing wink, "You'll thank me later."

I awkwardly climbed in, fidgeting in my seat and picking at my nails as we sped out of there. Cruising down the deserted streets at night had become something rather comforting for me, there was tranquillity in the darkness but with Tobias beside me, it was nerve-wracking. 

Out of nowhere, I turned to Tobias with a frown, "I have a question." He nodded. "How can a '67 Impala beat a GT-R? I mean, it's just a little odd. Unless you gutted the entire eng..."

He gave me an impressed smirk, his thick eyebrows rising slightly before explaining, "I stripped out the original engine a few years ago, rebuilt her using modern parts." When he caught my gaze, he continued to explain, "Upgraded the engine to increase horsepower, making it rev to a higher rpm. Added larger cylinders to amp the torque. Removed and replaced a whole lot to make it lighter. It took a lot of work but she's a beast now."

It was the most I had heard him say without becoming cold.

And it was beautiful.

"Damn, and to think I've driven her?" I whistled, "I must be lucky." He gave me an odd look like he couldn't understand something; like he was confused.

"What?" I asked, looking over both my shoulders, perplexed. "Tobias, what is it?" I shot him a concerned stare, "Please tell me it isn't a cockroach or something..."

"It's you."

All it took for my cockroach fear to vanish were two words. Two trivial words, yet they were more meaningful than any other. Pure. True. Vulnerable. A real, unadulterated smile graced his already enticing lips and my heart gave away.

Fucking breathe.

He shook his head, averting heated his gaze and masking his smile. A wave of pure ecstasy traveled throughout my body as my eyes tore open, widened with shock.

"It's you."

I looked out the window, a blush reddening my cheeks. When the familiarity of Jim's diner came into view, I cleared my throat. I wanted to ask what we were doing here but refrained from doing so, my mouth opening and closing like a fish.

When we stopped at the drive-thru, Tobias turned to me, "What do you want?"

I bit my lip before speaking, "Just..." You. "...loaded fries."

For a moment, he eyed me suspiciously since I didn't resist him paying for my meal. With a stoic visage, he turned to the voicebox to order, "One double melt beef burger, a coke, and loaded fries."

Moments later, a young waiter stuck his hand out of the pick-up window to hand Tobias the brown paper bags. Instantly, I stuck my hand out through Tobias' window, leaning over him to hand the cashier money before Tobias could.

"You won your race, it's the least I could do." I smiled at him, straightening in my seat.

"Fine," he grumbled.

After parking nearby, he rummaged through the bags to dig out all the items, placing them between us on the seat and discarding the bag in the foot space. I lifted the loaded fries, opening the packaging to reveal their cheesy goodness. Without hesitation, I attacked them, forgetting where I was and who I was with. After my initial hunger subsided, I glanced at Tobias who was devouring his burger as hungrily as I was.

"Do you want some?" I politely offered a cheese-laden fry.

He stared at me intensely as I raised the fry towards his mouth. He finished chewing his bite before swallowing and leaning forward to take the fry from between my fingers.

Breathe.

I suppressed a shudder and retracted my finger quickly to grab another fry, tossing it into my mouth, licking the creaminess of the cheese off my finger in the process. He pushed the last few bites of his burger towards me, reciprocating my gesture, but I shook my head with an apologetic smile. 

He shrugged, going back to eat it, "Suit yourself."

"It's just that I don't particularly like beef patties in burgers," I explained truthfully as he flicked open his can of coke.

"Oh?" He sounded fairly amused. "So, you don't eat burgers?"

"No, I eat chicken burgers," I corrected him.

"What the hell are chicken burgers?" He cringed.

"The one's with the chicken patty..." I trailed off.

He rolled his eyes, "Beef burgers are the only real burgers, the rest of them are knock-offs. You're honestly missing out, little mermaid."

"Yeah, trust me. I'm not missing anything, racer boy." I snorted before adding, "It's actually a really funny story." Tobias looked up from his final bite as I smiled, turning on my knee to face him. 

After tucking a lock of hair behind my ear, I continued, "So, basically, my mom absolutely loved Burger King beef burgers before I was born. Like obsessed. But..." I titled my head sheepishly, "...when she got pregnant with me, she would l-literally puke her guts out whenever she would s-smell beef patties, let a-alone eat them." I explained through giggles, pausing to catch my breath as Tobias watched me with a smirk dancing on his lips. 

"She couldn't eat them until some seven, eight years after I was born," I concluded my story.

"Damn, you weren't kidding when you said you didn't like beef patties." Tobias teased, swallowing his last bite.

"Hey, everyone's bound to not like something." I chuckled, playfully hitting his arm. I suddenly became nervous and began rambling, "I can't wait to have a baby. And dress it up and just you know experience the whole pregnancy-childbirth thing." When he stared at me with a blank face, I averted my gaze, "Sorry, T.M.I."

"I doubt I'll ever have kids. Or a wife. I don't really think anyone can keep up with me. Even if some girl was dumb enough to fall in love with me, she'd be hella unlucky." His voice was so truthful like he was speaking from his heart.

"What, why? Why would you think that?" I furrowed my brows.

"'Cause I'm not the nicest person, in case you haven't noticed." He chuckled bitterly.

"You're being too harsh on yourself. You're nice to me." I tried to defend him.

"Yeah, well, let's see how long that lasts." He scoffed.

After a few minutes of silence, Tobias fiddled with the music player while I gathered the wrappers to stuff them into a bag. The sound system erupted, vibrations spreading throughout the car, overtaking the sound of my thumping heart. The windows clattered, music reflecting off the glass and engulfing the innards of the car. I recognized the song as Tokyo Drift by Teriyaki Boyz. It efficiently set the mood considering the way Tobias began driving. A shiver crawled up my spine as I clutched onto the door handle for support.

Breathe.

As we cruised down the wide road at fifty-five miles per hour I could feel the colossal influence of the car, its power tugging at me like a magnet. Roughly four thousand pounds worth of American engineering. A slight touch from Tobias and it leaped forward making me feel like I was on a roller-coaster, ready to plunge downhill. It was a car that sneered at speed limits and Tobias was destructively testing its bounds. My eyes studied the speedometer as the red needle flew past ninety-five miles per hour.

I intently observed him, inspecting his every movement as I gripped the dashboard with one arm and the seat with another, hoping I wouldn't soar out the windshield as Tobias made sharp cuts and zoomed past the corners, the car swaying from side to side. With every thrust of the pedal to the floor, I could feel the car dramatically shake. One hand clutching the manual gearbox, Tobias expertly shifted the stick from the second gear to the third.

Hot damn.

His orbs enveloped by the darkness of the night, flickering between the rearview and side mirrors, hastily cutting through the cars traveling alongside us. His left hand was grappling the wheel firmly, his knuckles turning white reflecting just how tight his grip was. 

"Tobias!" I sang, my voice unsure. 

He turned his head briefly to smirk at me. My eyes shone with exhilaration, adoring every solitary second I spent in the sanctity of his car. Tobias licked his lips devilishly, glancing at me once again. 

"Hold on tight," he warned me before the purring of the engine intensified, as the car neared full throttle. 

The car violently jerked as Tobias shifted into the fourth gear. I bit down on my lower lip, adrenaline pumping through my veins as the music bellowed and the car sped past one hundred and fifteen miles per hour. As we approached the roundabout at high speed, Tobias suddenly released the gas pedal to transfer the weight to the front wheels of the car, initiating a drift as the rear tires lost traction.

He calculatedly over-steered while maintaining control and driving the car through the entirety of the turn, coming back around to where we began. The fries I had just consumed circled in my stomach, threatening to creep upwards.

Don't throw up.

Breathe.

Inhale. Exhale.

The next obstacle Tobias faced was a narrow turn into a tight street, steering the car to the outside of the turn on the approach, pushing the car's weight to the outside wheels. Swiftly he piloted back into the turn. When the car's suspension kicked back in, the weight shifted so quickly that the back end flicked out to initiate another immaculate drift.

The roaring engine slowly simmered down as the car swerved and came to an impressive halt after forming a perfect circle. "And that's what I call a Tonut," Tobias said with a smirk, his lips twitching as he boasted with pride, making me forget all about the bile rising in my throat.

You're okay.

Just breathe.

I was taken aback to see him so overjoyed and found myself saying, "I can't believe you just did that." 

I was awestruck.

"Someone sounds impressed." 

His playful gaze connected with my bewildered eyes, but the euphoric glimmer faded from his orbs when a black SUV shot past us; mere centimeters away from scraping my side of the car. My eyes enlarged with shock while Tobias' immediately darkened with burning rage, shooting darts at the moronic driver. 

"Watch where you're fucking going," Tobias sneered, turning down the music. "Let me teach this fucking degenerate a lesson." He spat furiously while accelerating.

Uh oh. That's not good.

"Tobias, I don't think that's a..."

Within seconds he was tailing the car, flashing his headlights and blowing the horn to signal his aggression. The silhouette of the driver seemed to be that of a man. 

"You like that mother fucker?" Tobias growled as he knocked the front of his bumper with the back bumper of the SUV. 

He changed gears, steering the car towards the right, coming parallel with the SUV. He hard-pressed down on the gas, jerking the car forwards bringing us inches away from overtaking him. I felt my stomach clench as the speed enhanced my nausea.

Fuck. Please don't puke.

Enveloped by the darkness of the night, all I managed to see were the driver's pearly whites that formed a mischievous grin like the Cheshire Cat. It was as if the driver had a death when he pointed his middle finger at us offensively. As we surpassed the SUV, Tobias intentionally reduced the speed by releasing his foot from the gas pedal, not leaving any space for the driver to overtake us. I let out a shaky breath, swallowing to subdue how sick I was feeling.

The SUV, however, kept honking from behind us. I turned around in my seat to look at the man's face. Tobias' proud visage made me break into a smile, feeling slightly better as the car maintained constant speed without any twists and turns. I gulped before whispering, "That was epic."

When I felt my bile rise, I slapped a hand over my mouth, "Fuck, I'm going to be sick."

For a split-second, time slowed down.

The mind-numbing echo of shattering glass was the last thing my ears comprehended before everything became dark and faded away.

----

Beef or Chicken Burgers?

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Love, Ari