"So maybe I shouldn't have trusted Soul with finding the escape vehicle."

Soul "Eater" Evans is Maka Albarn's best friend and all, but when she saw the thing he drove up in, she wondered if she should question his sanity.

She dropped her backpack on the ground in sheer frustration. "Excuse me?"

"What?" he asked, clearly annoyed by the question. "I got you an escape vehicle, didn't I?"

"That is not a vehicle," she snapped. "That is a way to die."

Soul hopped off the motorcycle, supporting it with one hand once his feet hit the ground. He was scowling, but it wasn't as if she cared; Soul always scowled. "How picky can you get? It moves, at least. And it moves faster than that Princess Pretty scooter you've got shoved up in your garage."

"Yeah, well, at least the Princess Pretty scooter is safe," she shot back with a vengeance. "Do you want to die before we actually manage to get anywhere?"

"Do you want to get caught before we actually manage to get anywhere?" he countered the way he so often did. And so often pissed her off as well, come to that. "Get on the thing before your whacked out old man finally figures out you're missing, and let's move."

Maka threw up her hands in frustration. "We are finally getting the heck out of Death freaking City, and you wanna do it on something that has caused hundreds of deaths in the United States alone."

Honestly. Boys.

It had taken both of them weeks of planning to be able to formulate a decent plan to get out of their stupid dead-end town. Weeks. And it hadn't exactly been easy slipping that alcohol into her dad's soup so he'd pass out soon enough for her to sneak out. This was the deciding moment. The minute they'd finally be free to do whatever they wanted in life. The minute they left the mess their lives had become behind.

Was she seriously going to let her idiotic best friend ruin it like this?

"C'mon," Soul said in response. "I even painted it red for you."

Maybe it was because it was three AM, and her brain wasn't working. Maybe it was because of the nagging feeling that they had to hurry up and get the heck out of there before someone discovered them. Maybe it was because red was her favorite color, and Soul was fully aware of this, and he was giving her that please-please-please look that meant she'd be destroying his heart and soul if she didn't let him bring the damn bike already.

Whatever it was, Maka sighed.

Reached for her backpack.

And, against her better judgement, got on the bike.

"What're you waiting for?" she sighed to a surprised and delighted-looking Soul. "Get on, loser."

"We're leaving this dump behind."