Haley sat beside me with a bit of a depressed and disappointed state. She had a glass of alcohol and her cheeks were a bit rosy showing that she was somewhat drunk.

"Hey there, Haley. You seem to be 'enjoying' the party." I just said mocking her appearance.

She just rolled her eyes at me. "Well at least I am not the one sipping coke in a party." She said with saltiness in her tone. I just smirked and just ignored her remarks. She took another sip from her glass.

"But seriously Haley, what's wrong? You seemed to be excited earlier and now you look like a wet firecracker." Haley didn't answer it immediately and just emptied the glass in one large gulp and she just sighed.

"I really wanted to be at the party and have fun with Dylan. Hell, my parents don't even know that I am out here partying. And guess what happens. Your idiot boyfriend dumps you midway and goes off to flirt with my friends and now that dumbo is drunk as hell to even stand up. Now I am all alone and left to drink myself." She complained and her voice was slurring a bit indicating that she was becoming drunk by the minute." I even brought some swim wear for the pool party for him ." She said while taking out a male swim wear trunks out from her side bag.' Wow, she was really looking forward to this party and Dylan blew it. Talk about the bummer of the year.'

I didn't know how to cheer or calm down the sad girl near me. I just rubbed her back trying to console her. I was sure that Dylan was not an insensitive boy in the series in my past life. Did they start having problems after today's events? I was not sure. This was after all not the world that anyone could predict in its entirety.

"Haley, relax he might not be intentionally being inconsiderate. He's just a bit ...careless. " I said and Haley just rolled her eyes in reply.

"I need to get clear headed, come get in the pool. C'mon take it off and put it on." She tugged my dress and didn't let go until I agreed. I took the trunks from her and went towards the bathroom and got changed into the trunks but I kept my t-shirt on. When I walked back, just in case she didn't feel like swimming.

When I got back, Haley had already changed into her lavender colour bikinis.' Wow...Dylan, you don't know what you are missing.' While Haley wasn't curvy, she did have a toned body and in that lavender bikini, she looked hot. But the hot girl was swaying a bit and looked drunk.

"Well let's get in...", I took off my t-shirt getting a wow from Haley and some girls already in the pool. I just smiled and just pushed a mildly drunk Haley into the pool. Splash. I just followed the suit and just jumped right in.

Haley was angry that I pushed her. She started splashing water at me and I did the same back at her. We started laughing. We even got into a bit of a water fight, and by the end, we were both soaked to the bone.

We had a lot of fun together. We also joined other girls and boys in the pool for a game of polo. I'm not sure how exactly the game works, but it was a lot of fun. We all tried our best to score goals, but we ended up splashing each other more than anything else.

At one point, Haley and I were on the same team. We were working together to pass the ball to each other, and we were doing pretty well. But then, one of the other players threw the ball at me really hard. I dodged it, but it hit Haley in the face as she was behind me. She fell into the pool, and I helped her up while laughing.

She came up to the surface and glared at me. "That's not funny," she said.

"Sure it is," I replied back.

"You are a total dork." She said while puffing her cheeks up cutely in anger.

I couldn't help but smile. She was right. I probably did look like a total dork. But I didn't care. I was having too much fun.

Haley seemed to have had enough fun and we got out of the pool to dry and put our clothes back on. It was pretty late and we decided to get back.

We walked towards her house while talking about a lot of things. Initially the talk was about how she was disappointed with her boyfriend and how he is an idiot. She had some colourful words for him.

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She seemed genuinely happy after a while and was indeed a good company. We just joked about how things were at the school and about my past in texas.

After a while we reached the Dunphy residence and she stopped in front and she just turned to look at me.

"Thanks Miguel, I really needed that... Thank you for cheering me up and walking me back." She said that and hugged me.

I just smiled and just patted her back and when we separated, I noticed how she was having a conflicted look on her face. Before I could process her intentions or what was going through her mind, she just leaned in and kissed my lips.

My mind went completely blank and my heart beats increased. I was shocked beyond words.

That was my fricking first kiss in like two lives.

Her lips were soft and warm, and she tasted like mint and strawberries. I felt my heart start to race as she kissed me deeper, her tongue gently exploring my mouth. I closed my eyes and savoured the moment, my hands moving to her waist to hold her close.

After what it seemed like an eternity of bliss, she separated. Her eyes widened and she looked at me with a mix of embarrassment and desire.

"I gotta go," she said breathlessly.

She turned and climbed up the house's roof and got into her room. She was probably too embarrassed to look back. I had very stupid smile looking at her disappearing back. I turned and walked back with the smile plastered on my face.

I didn't know when I reached back home, as I was still enamoured in that kiss and my mom was not so happy that I was late. She was considering grounding me for a week, but luckily, I managed to coax her with some help from my father.

I went upstairs after the small hassle with the family and just lay on my bed. I was not sure how to feel about Haley kissing me or about Dylan who was still in a relationship with her. But soon my thoughts were replaced by the incoming dangers and boy, that was a bummer. I guess I will figure it out eventually.

I finally managed to fall asleep after twisting and turning for quite a while.

The next day I overslept. It was almost eight when I woke up. The schools were officially closed for the Christmas vacations and that was a blessing in disguise as I really needed time to carry out plans with Dom. But as I was thinking about Dom, yesterday's events came back to my mind. Haley was in my damn mind. ' I can't help but think about yesterday's events .... I need to drop it. It was probably a one-off thing and she was just feeling bad. So, we just kissed and it's no big deal.' I said to myself and was really zoned out.

"Hey, earth to Miguel....are you here son? What are you thinking about this intently?" My mother just snapped her fingers in front of me and it seems that I was really zoning out and my dad was talking to me about something.

"Uhh... Sorry dad, just thinking about some school things...what were you talking about?" I lied and apologized to my dad with an embarrassed smile.

" Well son I was asking you if you are interested in coming with me to the tracks so that I can teach you a thing or two about driving. After all you can take your test next year." My dad said without any irritation.

"Well... Dad, uh when are we doing this?" I asked as I will be hunting Braga and his team down at least a week.

"Well, the next week I will be finally free and we can take the car around for the tracks." My dad said while sipping his coffee.

"Well yeah dad. I will be a bit busy with some works too dad. I will be visiting a friend downtown as part of finding a part time job." I left out some details and made an excuse for my future disappearances. I had to take out Braga before he escapes to Mexico. So, I had to move fast.

My mom was about sceptical about my excuse but she dropped it as my father was convinced. Now all I had to wait for was Dom's calls and his updates.

I was going to call Dom if he didn't call by noon, but talk of the devil. He called me right away.

" The race is today midnight, Koreatown. Do you want me to pick you up?" Dom asked me through the phone.

" Yeah, I will be at yesterday's spot by 11. Let's meet there." I said in a low voice. He just said okay and cut the call. 'Phew, the things are gonna get official today' I thought as I just checked my inventory and decided to do some shadow boxing while mentally prompting the AI to gain access to several related data that I needed.

While I was going through the data, my mom called me to get down and have my lunch. The day was pretty eventless until it was night. I made sure that my parents were asleep and I just got ready and just sneaked out.

After jogging for a while, I reached the rendezvous location and I saw Dom already being there. It seems that he had changed the colour of his car to silver grey.

"You know, kid. Sometimes being too careful can take the fun out of your life." He said with a mocking expression.

"When you have too much to lose Dom, you tend to be more careful." Dom just shook his head and just started his engine and drove towards Koreatown.

I just gave the god some internal prayers to not mess up anything and with Dom's fast driving, we reached Koreatown in no time.

My adrenaline levels were going up. There were cool modded cars and bikes parked along the way and there many men and skimpily dressed hot girls hanging around and some were dancing to the loud music played by the DJ. This was truly the glamorous world of underground racing scene. I covered my face by the bandana as before and got out of the car as Dom parked the vehicle. 'Let the games begin' I thought as I stood in front of the car and spotted Braga playing golf from the top of the opposite building surrounded by his minions.