55- Cheater

Editing in Progress…

Chapter 55

"Oh, no!! The men seem to have finally caught up with Gabriella. And it looks like she in a bind"

Gabriella looked for a way out, but it was no use. They were following her every move. Until suddenly Hugo placed one of his legs on her board and Jake pushed her off it.

Gabriella stumbled off the board. And unfortunately for her, right at the top of the last slide. She rolled and tumbled down the slide. 

"THERE GOES OUR LAST RACER!!! She is really rolling off the slide. Those rocky landslide is definitely going to leave damning marks on her beautiful face!!" The commentator announced.

Gabi pulled the long stick clip that was holding her hair. Those breaking it, it was enough to break her fall as she momentarily did a backflip and landed on the smooth ground. 

And like the commentator had predicted, she fell, and it left marks on her face and arm. Her jean trousers were torn up and blood seeped from the torn parts.

She leaned down, rest her knee. Though it was hurting, she bore with it and caught her breath. 

"At the very least, she wasn't gravely injured. That would put her on suspension like Mark and Theo," Noah mouthed. He inhaled his cigarettes as he glanced at Aban. 

"I WILL KILL THAT KID!!!" Aban shouted, gripping the cold metal barricade.

"Get off the barricade, man!! I won't warn you the next time" The bouncer hollered warnings at Aban as he pointed the stick at him. Aban threw the bouncer a glare at his anger as at its peak to care about some dumb warnings. 

Noah roughly pulled Aban away from the barricade. He began pushing him far away from where they were. "Hey what gives man!!" 

"I am not about to have you. Ruin yourself by yourself! Now for the love of everything holy. Keep calm and kill him after the race"

Aban's eyes widened at Noah's statement, "You are also annoyed at what he did to Gabriella?!" He asked, slapping the right of his chest to happiness that they were both thinking the same thing.

But Noah furrowed his brows and shook his head at him, "I don't know her and she is no different from the others that raced today. And you remember the Jake is your racer, right?" He asked. 

Aban rolled his eyes. He was sure in his heart and mind that after the race, Jake was dead to them, regardless of the results. 

"I don't care. He is off the team, whether he wants to, or not" His declaration was met with a clenched fist against his clothes.

"And on what basis do you plan to kick him out? You know you cannot kick him out without a reason"

"I am kicking him out because I can and because I want to"

"Dude, you are thinking with you prick! You know that?" 

Aban shrugged off his statement like a ball running off his shoulders, "It doesn't matter" 

Even though he knew he couldn't just kick him off the team, he still planned on doing it. He prefers Gabriella for some unknown reason. But he knew couldn't just kick him out without reason. And if he does, he would need to pay the bill for breech in contract. 

Then the next best thing to do if he wanted to kick Jake out was to find a good reason to do so. 

But then he wondered why Noah was acting so fiercely just because he said he was going to kick Jake out, "And besides, why do you care? Since when have you being buddy-buddy with him?" He asked as suspicion played like noise in his eyes. 

Noah sighed and rubbed at the bridge of his nose, "Because you are acting like you're fucking new to the game!!" He shouted, emphasizing on the races as a game. 

And he wasn't wrong. 

It was a game.

It was a game that only cared for the players and the players alone. The rules of the racing ring ‌were more so lenient on the racers than the managers. Because at the end of the day, it was the racers that people come to see, and it was the racers that were the source of entertainment. 

Managers were usually called lechers for a reason. They were known to search for newly born babies. In other words, racers that just joined the areas. They would typically promise them fame and popularity in most parts of the areas.

And that was why it was very unusual for a manager to have more than three racers. But here was Aban with fourteen active racers.

"Have you fucking forgotten that the officials got their eyes on you because of the large number of racers you have? And you want to bring more eyes to yourself by firing Jake for no good reason?" 

Aban groaned as he remembered the amount of questioning he had with the officials, asking why he managed fourteen racers. Some of his racers also told him of how they were also questioned about it. They had accepted them, especially the girls. If he had any dirt on them, he was using it to blackmail them. 

He had just managed to divert their eyes off him for some months, but he knew firing Jake would lead to the spotlight brought back to him again. 

And he didn't want that.

"So you want to keep Jake around? All he does is accumulate debt upon debt".

Noah shook his head negatively at him, "No, I don't want him to stay."

"So what then?" Aban asked, brushing Noah's hands off his shirt, and he began smoothening the wrinkles from it.

"Since the game began, I've had my doubts about Jake and Hugo," he analyzed, with Jake acknowledging his agreement. After all, he had being going off on how weird it had being, even though he personally hadn't noticed anything weird. 

"I think Jake betrayed us"

"AND IT LOOKS LIKE THIS IS THE END, FOLKS!!! AS GABRIELLA DOES NOT LOOK LIKE SHE IS GETTING BACK INTO THE RACE ANYTIME SOON," The camera zoomed on where Gabriella was as she was still in her bent over position, trying to both catch her breath and also stop herself from slipping out of consciousness. She wasn't about to give Hugo the satisfaction of seeing her down and cast fallen. 

Hearing the sounds of a skateboard coming towards her, she immediately straightened herself, bearing in the pain, and she threw Hugo a mocking look.

He stopped in front of her to temple on her faked confidence. But she just rolled her eyes at him as she limped right past him, going to get her skate board. 

He was a child, and she wasn't lowering herself to his size. He really was pathetic. She got to where her board was, and it was still fine and not destroyed. 

Funny how she had expected him to do something bad and unrepairable to the board. She shrugged her shoulders and made her way to the bleachers. As she got there, she had a crowd cheering and praising her. Some even adding how she was a lot better than Hugo was.

And the thing was that, she knew, she was better than him. 

Without a fucking doubt in her mind.

"WOWIE!! LOOK AT THE CROWD CHEER FOR GABI AS SHE RETURNS TO THE BLEACHERS." 

Hugo's eyes deepened as he heard what the commentator had said. 

Why? Why? Why? Just why were they giving so much attention to someone what wasn't even in the race, again? He was in the race, so why wasn't he getting all their attention?

While fighting with his thought, Hugo got distracted and was easily passed by Jake. 

Now that there is no one else in the race and Hugo's skating is as flimsy as a house of cards. He was going to take this and win it in one swoop.

And also, in one swoop, was all Hugo needed to put Jake in his place. As he slammed his legs onto Jake's board. He didn't even bother to look at him as he spoke. "You think I did let you take all the glory? Know your place… You beggar".

Beggar.

That was a befitting word to call Jake after what he did with Hugo before the race.

It was only mere luck Jake could stand back on his feet, as the area where he fell from was not a harsh ground, and he barely had any marks or scrapes to show for it.