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"I can't believe I'm doing this." Julie said out loud to herself, shaking her head as she locked her apartment door. Her cowboy boot's heels clicked as she went down the stairs. She opened the Falcon's front door and faced the black Mustang, parked right in front of it.

Billy's tall figure leaned against the door, while he smoked a cigarette. By the time he caught Julie's eye, he tossed it away and blew the remaining smoke off with a smirk. She seemed pissed off and he enjoyed every second of it.

"Hey." She locked the front door and pushed the keys inside her pocket.

"Come on." He motioned for her to get into the car and she walked to the other side.

Yesterday, Billy showed up to see how she was after the attack and she still upheld the attitude. His new theory consisted in not to confront, but to unleash it. And what best strategy than to dare her? If there was a better one, he didn't know, the only thing that mattered, it worked. If all went well, he was sure he'd win that bet tonight. He dared her to stay alive while spending a night with him.

"You gotta be kidding me." She laughed amused.

"I'm not." He shook his head lightly.

"What a freaking cheap excuse to spend a night with me Darley! Of course I can stay alive."

"You don't know me nor my life. It's alright to be scared. If I were you, I'd think twice before accepting it. "

"But you're not." She placed her hands on her hips. "Alright then. A night it is."

"I'll pick you up at 8 pm, be ready." He stated and walked away without a goodbye. He couldn't hide the big smile, playing on his lips.

Now, both sat in his car, heading to God knows where. Julie's heartbeat sky rocketed, but she managed to hold a calm expression.

"So… where are we going?" She asked casually.

Billy smirked. "You nervous?" She laughed sarcastically, which answered his question. "To the Office."

"The Office? That's pretty pathetic, you know. Couldn't you think of a more creative name for the place where you and your little friends gather?"

He rolled his eyes in response and Julie chuckled. This was going to be interesting. What she didn't know, Billy had already set up the whole thing. Joe, Bodie and Spink would show up occasionally, since she had already seen them, but the others would play a different role in this game. He wanted to see how she reacted while facing the fake gang confront. He finally parked the car in front of a hospital, abandoned a long time ago. Despite its advanced age, the building itself was somewhat conserved.

"Be my guest." Billy opened the door for her, acting the gentleman.

Julie stepped inside, already analyzing the place. She had a disgusted expression on her face. The place had trash around, badly painted walls, new graffiti covering old graffiti, even worse illumination and some kind of smoke floating around. "Cozy." She ironically muttered, just loud enough for him to hear. Considering the great majority of people, especially girls, would turn around and give up on the idea by just seeing the place, she rose in Billy's esteem.

The sudden loud noise of metal pipes hitting the ground freaked Julie, making her jump while holding her chest. It being part of his plan, Billy stood still and laughed at her, earning himself a rather cross and suspicious glare.

"Hey there Hottie." Joe appeared from where the sound had come from. A cheap imitation of his brother's smirk playing on his lips.

"Hey there little brother." Julie recomposed herself and greeted him, realizing she still didn't know his name.

"Joe." He said as if guessing what she was wondering about.

"Nice hiding-place."

He chuckled. "Feels like home."

"Your definition of home is pretty messed up… but I guess that's your problem, right? So, what we gonna do?" She looked over at Billy.

"Get the boys." He ordered Joe "Lets go for a ride."

Julie massaged her temple, not believing she was among these crazy thugs. They raced along the streets in the black Mustang, she sat in front with Billy, while Joe, Spink and Bodie yelled like mad dogs on the back seat.

"Why the hell are they yelling like that?" She yelled at Billy so he could hear her, he laughed.

"To let people know we're around."

Julie shook her head just as Billy suddenly hit the brakes, tossing everyone forward. A car like theirs, but with switched colors, was parked in front of them.

"Stay in the car." Billy stated seriously at Julie, before he and the boys got out. Not caring about it, she did as she was told. "What the fuck you doin' here?" He yelled at the Latino looking guy, who stood in front of the other car.

"Fucking waiting for you Darley!" He yelled back before showing off a silver gun. Julie's eyes widened.

"You've always been a fucking coward."

"What? You wanna set this the old way?" The guy tossed the gun to his friend beside him and got his fists up. "Come on Darley, ya afraid little pussy?"

"Like hell." Billy flew on the guy's neck and within a second, all the guys were caught up in a fight. Julie got out of the car, there wasn't anyone left, but she felt like she should do something. Just then, someone grabbed her by her waist. She managed to spin around and face whoever it was. She had never seen him, and he came for her again.

Billy watched as Julie started to kick Tommy's ass. She was too busy to notice that Billy and his crew, who had been fighting each other in a fake gang confront, were looking on. She did a good job by herself, so Billy motioned to Heco to go help Tommy and scare her a little bit more. Heco came close but stopped dead in his tracks when they heard gunfire. Not unusual around this area, but it was too close and they all froze on the spot.

"Is this part of the plan Billy?" Joe asked his big brother before a line of seven men appeared down the road.

"Take Julie and get the fuck out of here Joe." He stated quickly. "Bodie!" His faithful friend came running to his side. "It's Rawson." Bodie didn't need further instructions.

"What the hell is happening?" Julie asked Joe as he got near her. Tommy had released her and joined Heco, running to Billy's side.

"Get in the car, we gotta get the fuck outta here."

"That guy is part of your gang?!" She pointed at Tommy, her jaw hanging half open in disbelief.

"Get in!" Joe ordered again. He walked back to Julie, still standing, and grabbed her arm.

"Too late for that." A voice said and both looked up. A guy had a gun pointed at them, Joe tried to reach for his but the guy shot somewhere near his foot, making him jump and all heads turned in their direction. "Don't even think about it, pal. Hand it over." Reluctantly, Joe did as he was told. "What about you, sugar?"

"She has no weapon." Joe spoke in her defense.

"That, I'm gonna have to check by myself." He smirked.

Billy faced his rival with deadly furious eyes, way beyond being pissed off. These guys were ruining his plans with Julie and Billy Darley wasn't the kind of person who you would like to bump into when angry as hell. But neither was Rawson.

"You put those stinking hooves on me and I'll fucking castrate you." Julie angrily spitted. The guy didn't believe her and approached further. Without as much as a signal, Joe grabbed the hand in which he held the gun, while Julie punched her assailant into his stomach real hard. Joe twisted his arm, the guy let go of the gun and kneeled on the ground, hissing in pain. Joe finished the job by kicking his head and knocking him unconscious. He grabbed the guy's gun and handed over to Julie.

"Know how to use it?"

She nodded but stepped back. "No. I'm not gonna kill anyone."

"It's for your self-defense, take it!"

Jamie ran to where they were, under Billy's order. "Get in the car you two and drive away"

"I ain't leaving like a scared fucking rabbit Jamie!" Joe protested.

"Billy told you to get her out of here, so do it!"

There was no time for further argument as an open fire began. Some hid behind the cars, others stood still, firing back, some did both. Two men from the rival gang were already down on the ground and Dog got hit in the leg, which didn't stop him from shooting.

Julie felt trapped. She really didn't want to use the gun, but she still held it in her hands, just in case. Now she hid, scared shitless, and reminded herself why she had to stay away from these guys.

The gunfire actually didn't last long. Four guys and Rawson himself made it out alive, Billy's whole crew and him were alive and scratch less, except for Dog's leg. Bodie and Joe drove off to the hospital as soon as the streets were safe. The others would get rid of the bodies and Billy had the uneasy task to take Julie home. He couldn't help but feel guilty to have put her in this kind of situation. None of which was supposed to have happened, she shouldn't have seen this.

She sat on the street, leaning her back against the car and staring at the asphalt, a gun lay beside her. Billy kneeled by her side and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, she was slightly shaking.

"You alright?" Obviously not, but he couldn't think of anything else to say. She didn't answer. "Come on." He got up and extended a hand at her. "I'll take you home."

She ignored his extended hand and got up without his help, which he had already half-expected. Her total silence, he did not expect..

"Take me somewhere else." She finally spoke, about half way to the Falcon.

"What?" These were her first words in a while and he got caught off guard by her request.

"I don't wanna go home now. I must wash my hands."

He looked at her, puzzled, before he finally got what she meant by washing her hands. Watching all that and sort of also being part of it, had made her feel dirty. Long ago he stopped feeling this, so long that he didn't even remember when.

"Ok." He worriedly glanced at her and took her to the only place he could think about.

"Are you feeling better?" He handed her a glass of water, which she accepted.

"Yeah. Thanks." Julie took a sip, the shock and adrenaline slowly faded away and her normal self resurfaced. "You got a nice place, though it needs some painting."

Billy smirked as he sat on a chair, facing the young woman sitting on his couch. "You think so?"

"Yeah. You should go for… green, maybe?" He pulled a disgusted face. "No? Hmm…Blue?" He shook his head. "Oh, I know…" He raised his eyebrows full of expectation and Julie smirked. "Pink." Billy groaned, making her laugh.

He took a deep breath before speaking, this wasn't easy for him. "I'm sorry you had to see all that." He never apologized, let alone apologize to a girl.

"You play that?" She changed subject by pointing at his old guitar, laying on a far corner of the room. That got him kind of grumpy, she didn't pay attention to what he tried to say, or maybe she didn't want to.

"Used to, long time ago."

"Why did you choose this?"

"This what?"

"This life."

"I didn't. I was pushed into it."

"Can you take me home?"

It was impressive how she could switch subjects out of the blue. Billy cleared his throat "Can't you stay a bit longer?"

She shook her head. "No."

"Why?"

"Because I don't want to." He didn't know if he should feel shocked or angry towards her sincerity. Maybe both.

"Julie, don't remember this. That was an accident."

"That is your life."

He sighed, totally frustrated, she was right. "Let's go." He grabbed his keys and both fell silent.

"Thanks for the ride." She quickly said before opening the black Mustang's door. Billy grabbed her arm, as gentle as he could, before she could disappear on him.

"Will you forgive me and forget that?"

"I can't forget what you are." She looked into his eyes and he loosened his hold on her arm. She closed the door and walked around the front of the car. Billy didn't take off, he waited for her to get inside safely. "Just for the record." He looked up at her. "I am still alive." She smirked before closing her door.

Billy chuckled. She was.He thought how she'd ever be interested in him after this evening. He looked to the upper part of the building, where her apartment should be, and caught her staring at him through the window. She was only there for a fraction of a second, enough for their gazes to lock, then she was gone.

Fuck, this was only supposed to be a fucking ordinary bet. He'd sleep with her, catch the money and prove himself to his friends. But he'd just realized one important and disturbing detail, something that wasn't supposed to happen at all: he got lost into this. It was too late to simply let it go, he already cared about her.

I was moving at the speed of sound

Head-spinning, couldn't find my way around it

Didn't know I was going down, yeah, yeah…

Where I've been, well it's all a blur

What I was looking for, I'm not sure

Too late, didn't see it coming, yeah, yeah….

Then I crashed into you

And I went up in flames

Could've been the death of me

But then you breathed your breath in me

And I crashed into you

Like a runaway train

You will consume me

But I can't walk away

Somehow, I couldn't stop myself

I just wanted to know how it felt

Too strong, I couldn't hold on, yeah, yeah

I'm just tryin' to make some sense

Out of how and why this happened

Where we're heading, there's just no knowing, yeah, yeah…

Crashed - Daughtry