Always you

- 2 -

word count: 2767
[part 2] ep. 3 - ep. 12

Dom had tried to change the representative once they'd announced the rules of the first race. If he didn't make it to the finish line in less than five minutes and thirty seconds the whole crew was disqualified. Unfortunately for him he didn't manage to get his name off the list.

He looked like you'd expect a beginner biker to look if he had to race against professionals. Which is... not good.

"Don't get too mad. There's nothing we can do. Dom's been training hard so let's just trust and support him," Said June. He'd took it upon himself to soothe the rest of the crew, though the rest of the crew was only Minu. Jay looked like he couldn't care less and Vinny, well he was Vinny.

"Yeah! We're on the same team, we need to trust and cheer each other on! I'm sure Dom will be responsible and do a good job!" Added Shelly. She was taking this whole team work thing way too seriously in your opinion.

"I'll be reading in the waiting room," Said Jay because of course he would. There wasn't a single time you'd seen him not reading. No wonder everyone called him nerd.

"Are you nuts? How could you even read a word at a moment like this? Aren't you worried? With Dom by himself..." Answered Minu. He'd lost all hope of us getting past the preliminaries and it was clear on his face.

"Why the hell are you worried?"

"What..?" And with that Jay walked off. You didn't really care what he did, you barely noticed his presence anyway.

"Is that ass here just to mess around?" Minu looked hopeless.

The crew cheered for Dom as the start of the race was announced. All the team representatives on the starting line took off in a cloud of dust.

You'd seen a couple of bike races online or on TV but you'd never been this close before. Once the riders took off you couldn't actually see them anymore but their faces were plastered on the big screens all around you.

A man was screaming information live in a speaker. People were cheering all around you. It was incredibly loud, you could barely hear anything let alone understand what the hell the others were saying.

You knew monster was fast already but damn. The race had barely started and he was already dominating. You didn't stand a chance... June could scold you for not being hopeful all he wanted, it was hard not to get discouraged.

The race was a lot more intense than you'd expected. Some riders had already crashed creating a less than ideal obstacle which Dom was getting way too close to. If he didn't move soon he'd end up on top of the pile. Fuck. He was way too close.

The screens all switched from monster's sweaty face to Dom. He's screwed. His bike went flying and down he was going.

'Three minutes and nineteen seconds into the race, there has been a collision in zone B!'

Dom had roughly two minutes left to finish the race. He was injured, his bike wasn't even close to him. Everyone else had accepted their fate as soon as they'd crashed.

But Dom got up, and slowly but surely got right back on his bike. His face looked wrecked, his knee looked just as bad. But there he was riding like there's no tomorrow. You honestly didn't have much hope and yet you couldn't help but wish he made it in time.

Everyone was holding their breath, waiting to see what happened, waiting to see if by some miracle team hummingbird would live to see another day.

'One cyclist is riding alone! There is not even a minute left now! It will be difficult for him to finish in time!'