Six
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Eyes bulging in horror, my lungs expanded inside as I sucked in a humongous breath. My eyes stayed glued to the rocks on the opposite side of the cliff, watching it get closer to us and I was certain that my face would soon slam straight into it. I tried but I could barely move a finger, benumbed by the impending accident. My body sat immobile on the bike and my hands seemed to have decided never to let go of the clutch for this lifetime. Gripping it as firm as I could, I screamed and went straight for the rocks.
Jay quickly reached over from behind, grabbed the handles over my hands, and quickly applied the brake. With a little screech and maneuvering a quick stoppage that lurched me forward, we came to a halt just in front of the rocks. My forehead lightly touched the cold rock before the rear end of the machine reached down to the ground and pulled me back.
Amazed as my fingers went up to touch the spot on my forehead where I had touched the rock, I gasped out loudly, "Oh my God! That was so close!"
"Was that revenge?" Jay joked from my back and the relevance of the idea made me crack up laughing.
"Yeah. Maybe."
He followed it with a low chuckle.
"Let's try again, shall we?"
"Alright."
Jay maneuvered the bike out of the corner and slowly steered us to the middle of the road, his hands over mine on the grip.
"Just like this," said he. "Slowly. Be gentle with the grip and don't freak out. Just steer wherever you wanna go. Easy."
"Okay."
"Try again."
He let go of my hands and moved back to let me handle the machine once more. This time, I looked ahead at the long, dark road like it was the greatest foe and I was determined to conquer it. With Jay's help, of course. But, this time, I wasn't going to screw it up. With every fiber in my body, I was so up for this shit and I wasn't going to rock it. Cautiously and very gently, I twisted the grip and slowly rolled ahead. The feeling of victory they surged throughout my body after that was immense. I had conquered one new thing I couldn't do.
"Okay?" I glanced at my side, asking for his feedback.
"Yeah. You're doing good."
Encouraged by his remark, I revved up the engine a little bit, ever with caution, and sailed into the night, the breeze stroking past my face. I couldn't keep myself away from squealing in celebration. I had never felt this cool and thrilled about something I'd done. For me, this was so badass.
Way to go, Lola!
When we finally decided to give it a rest, after a series of rounds, up and down, around and about, I was sure my face was flooded with joy and possibly illuminating rays of exhilaration.
"Whooo!" I tossed my hair back and fanned my face after I dismounted from the bike. "That felt great."
Jay gave a calm smile. "We could do this again if you're up for it."
"Really?!"
"Yeah. Why not?"
"That sounds nice. Thanks."
We sat down at the edge for a while again, finishing the rest of the drinks, before we headed for the ghetto where his crowd was. Vanessa and Carli, in fact, all of them, obviously, hadn't expected to see me arrive that the sight of me at the fishing port with Jay had their jaws dropping south. We parked the bike by the road, joining a long stretch of motorbikes, and climbed up the wide deck.
"Willow!" Pascal immediately called out from the deck afar as though we'd known each other all our lives, an air of friendliness brimming in his voice. Then he turned to the crowd to say, "She rode Margarita with Street-Legal."
That seemed to impress the rest of the people there. When they turned to me, they looked ready to welcome me to be a part of them. Except for a particular pair of brown eyes, Antonella, drilling her sour gaze into mine from the distance as if to murder me right then and there. When I met her gaze, she rolled her eyes away from mine and turned to talk to Fabio, who was right beside her, to light her cigarette on his lighter.
"Lola! Come here! Watch this!" Vanessa waved at me from the railing, which was barely two-feet tall.
The crowd was peering down on the water below. Jay and I joined them. Ten feet below, two people were in the water, splashing forward, racing. The crowd up on the deck cheered them on as we watched them slap on a boat floating about 50 meters away in the water and then race back to us.
After about one minute, I recognized the one getting ahead was the one Jay called Al the other day, the kid who was asking for Jay's permission to race. Stroking his arms and hollering, he reached us first way ahead of the other.
"Yeah!!" Jay leaned forward to the water and shouted for him.
"Jay!" He shouted back, moving away from the deck in breaststrokes and throwing his fists in the air.
Jay laughed, shaking his head at the boy, and turned to me, saying, "He's a great swimmer, faster than any of us."
"Wow."
"Jay!" Fabio called out for him from the extreme end at the right.
"I'll be back," Jay said and left.
I watched after him for a while, wondering if he was called because of Antonella's whims. As expected, Antonella immediately had her hands on Jay, placing her fingers behind his neck and asking for a kiss. I hadn't exactly expected this but Jay casually ignored it and fell into a rather clandestine discussion with Fabio who led him away from the crowd. Jay listened carefully while Fabio kept saying something in his ear. Antonella's eyes came for me again and I looked away.
In the next minute, even I fell into a conversation with Vanessa, Carli, and her boyfriend, Grayson.
"Are you starting to get used to Jay's driving?" Grayson asked.
"Not really. But I'm trying. He wasn't that fast today. In fact, it was me who almost killed us both today. He was teaching me and. . ."
"You went out driving with Jay?" Vanessa gasped open-mouth as her hands came on my shoulders, making me face her directly.
"Yeah."
"Wow." She grinned at my face like I had done the greatest job in history. "Where'd he take you?"
"We went up the hill. We just stopped by at the roadside to have a drink."
Carli looked back at her boyfriend and said, "You should take me too to some place like that."
"Nah. I think my car is enough for us," Grayson replied notoriously as his hands reached up for her boobs and Carli laughed, swatting his hand away.
"Hey, where's Jay?" Somebody asked me from behind.
I looked back to see the soaking wet, Al, shirtless, and holding his jacket in his hands.
"He left. He's over there with Fabio."
"Thanks." Brushing back his hair, he slipped into the crowd again and disappeared.
Just as I was about to turn back to my friends, Antonella appeared before me, smoking and blowing the filthy air right on my face. Moving back, I held my breath and tried to wave it off.
Giving an arrogant scoff, she looked me over from the top of my head to my toes and then said, "Aw, girl. Look at you. You sure having the time of your life, aren't you?"
I didn't answer anything at first. She was clearly looking for a fight and I refused to give it to her.
Tilting her chin slightly to the side as she waited for me to respond, she gives a devilish smile and then laughed again on my face as if I was the biggest fool here. "Don't worry. We've seen a lot of girls just like you before. It won't be long before Jay kicks you out too."
With that, the decision to remain quiet went straight out of the window. I refused to accept I was an idiot here and Jay was taking advantage of me, regardless of whether it was right or wrong. I could deal with my own life and I didn't need a certain Antonella going around telling me what people are up to with me.
Taking one step closer to her, I took a breath, eyed her dead in the eyes, and replied, "I think that's up to Jay to decide."
Well, that clearly upset her because the next thing I knew, Antonella thrust her palms forward, pushing me off the railing, and with a scream, I fell ten feet into the water, the sense of falling engulfing my whole body leaving me breathless.
"LOLA!" I heard Vanessa yell behind me. "What is wrong with you?"
I hit the water with my back first and it hurt my arms and neck a great deal when it slapped onto the water. Plunging deep into the cold liquid, I heard nothing for a second or two, the water whooshing past my ears and I twisted and turned. When I could finally gather momentum underwater, I kicked and emerged splashing on the surface of the water. The noise of the onlookers above instantly reached my ears.
Gasping for air and wiping off the water streaming down my face, I panted as I looked up. The water was close to freezing cold down here and much to my anger, I saw the bitch's blonde hair standing out from among the crowd up there, looking down on me with a smirk on her lips.
And then the next moment, I saw Jay push through the crowd and meeting my eyes with a frown on his face. It didn't take him another moment before he yanked off his jacket, handed it to Antonella, and leaped off the deck. I stroked away to make space for him. He hit the water just a few feet away from me, drenching my face with another splash of water.
Brushing back his hair and wiping his face as he emerged from the water, he asked me, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah."
"Did you fall or someone pushed you?"
"Ask your friend, Antonella."
"Nellie?" The frown on his face deepened before he looked away sighing. He seemed to understand what was going on. "Come on. Let's get outta here."
He took my hand and led me to the lowest deck nearby. Elevating his body out of the water with his hands, Jay got out first and then helped me out. As we stood face to face, water running down our body, I realized that my phone which was in my pocket was screwed. I quickly reached into my jeans and pulled out a dead device in my hand.
"Oh, shit. No!" I yanked it in my hands as if to shake it back to life.
Jay too reached into his pocket and pulled out his own dead device.
He sighed, "Well, this is nice."
Regardless of how dead it was, I put it back into my pocket and crossed my arms to brace the cold. That was when I realized my shirt was sticking to my body way tighter than it should and my bra lines were literally screaming to be noticed.
"Shit!" I cursed again as I tried to cover up a bit more and looked around me for a cloth or something but all I saw was water, water everywhere.
Jay took me by the arm and led me wherever he knew we were going. I followed without question since this was his area and I assumed maybe he was trying to get me something. However, we came out to the parking lot, the crowd watching us at a distance. Vanessa, Carli, Antonella, Fabio, and some few guys approached us as we headed for his bike.
"Lola, you okay?" Vanessa asked as she came running.
"Yeah. I'm good."
Handing Jay's jacket back to him, Antonella said, "It was an accident, Jay."
"Oh, sure, it was!" Carli turned to her, pissed, and in a mood to snap her head off if she could.
Rolling her eyes, Antonella scoffed it off, "Come on. Jay, really. It was a mistake."
"Yeah. I know." Jay stepped up to her and took his jacket from her hand. "I know, Nellie. But I brought her here with me. So, you better be nice to her."
I saw Carli and Vanessa both smirk at that, satisfaction hot on their faces, and waiting eagerly for Antonella to say something. She didn't.
Jay came back to me and held my arm again as he steered me to go somewhere else, turning our back against them.
"What is she, Jay?" Antonella demanded behind us stonily. "What the fuck is she to you?"
Jay stopped to look back at her and reply, "No one. She's no one to me. Alright?"
With that, Jay led me toward a row of cars. Hiding us behind one so that the rest of them wouldn't see us, he looked at me on my face and dropped, "Take off your shirt."
My jaw immediately fell open as I flinched away from him. "Excuse me?"
His hard eyes slowly softened as he stared at the astonished expression on my face and swallowed a smile.
"It's wet, Lola. Take it off."
"I can't! I have nothing else to wear."
"You'll wear my jacket."
I sighed. "Look away then."
"Jesus." He rolled his eyes and turned the other way.
"I'm looking at you to make sure you're not peeking at all, alright?"
"Yeah. Right, smartass."
I crossed my arms, gripped the fabric in my hands, and yanked it off. When I saw him again, he too has pulled off his shirt and I lost my breath when I saw his broad back, half of it fully covered in ink. The drawing started from the very hairline of his hair, spanning the entire left of his torso, including his whole left arm, and then slipping beneath the waistline of his jeans. The other half of his body was completely clean of even a dot.
My mouth watered and I swallowed when he wrung the shirt and his back moved, causing the muscles to make a delectable appearance. Gaping at his body, I completely lost my breath while I stood there watching his shoulder blades move, his neck, his shoulders. . .
Sweet Lord. Please.
I stood frozen on my spot spellbound by the sight of his physique, watching him wear his shirt back. And then just as he was about to yank down the hem of his shirt, he stopped abruptly midway through the process as if he'd realized something was off. He quickly looked back at me and I gasped, covering my chest with my shirt.
He narrowed his eyes into mine and said, "You were watching me, weren't you?"
"Of course, not. Look away!"
"You cheated."
"No. I did not. Gimme the jacket."
He stepped closer to me, taking a few deliberate steps. He reached out and held my bare shoulders with his cold hands. A shiver shimmied down my spin and my breath trembled. He positioned me against the side of a car, placed his hands on either side of me and leaned closer, aligning his meticulous gaze with mine. The freezing chill of metal diffused on the skin of my back and I could only imagine his hands on me.
"Tell me. Do you want me, Lola?" He demanded.
His thick eyelashes fluttered as he blinked and I blushed like never before. I could not take how there was barely two inches between our faces. My gaze moved south and the sight of his lips seemed to tear my chest apart. My knees felt weak and standing became such an impossible task. I looked away from him.
He leaned in even closer, searching for my line of sight. I did not look at him whatsoever.
"Look at me," he said in a low voice that dripped like honey from his tongue, hot and velvety.
I breathed and replied, "I need your jacket now."
With a scoff that was supposed to be a laugh, he moved away with an all-knowing smirk, as he grabbed the jacket he'd kept on the roof of the car and passed it to me. I wore his jacket, zipped it up, and wrung my wet shirt. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out my hairband.
"Here." He said. "You might wanna tie your hair."
"Thanks." I took it and managed to tie them up to a bun on the top of my head.
All set, we walked back to his bike. None of our friends were there anymore. I figured they had gone back to join the crowd but we noticed Antonella watching us still from where she was. Throwing his leg over, Jay mounted his bike and I followed behind him.
"Hold tight, Lola."
"Yes, sir."
"Good."
With that, Margarita sped forward. I didn't scream this time. Instead, I hugged him even tighter and placed my cheek on his back, enjoying the ride. It was growing on me now.
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Thank you so much for waiting patiently! Next two chapters are available on Inkitt.
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Love, Hermyne