Dedicated to Carine because she's awesome and I'm still fangirling about her reading this story um.

Chapter 4

After all the crazy things my best friend had dragged me into, I wasn't sure I could say I was surprised by the sudden turn of events. I knew, somehow, that whenever Tori Matsunaga was concerned, things were bound to go crazy.

That, however, didn't stop me from wanting to brutally murder her.

Austin and I were both breathing heavily. I could feel my heartbeat thudding against my ribcage from the chase and registered, numbly, that there was a dull throbbing on my ankle. It wasn't as bad as I first thought it was, but it would probably take a few more minutes until the pain disappears completely.

"Where's Tori?"

He raised both eyebrows and let out an exasperated laugh. "Aw, no need to thank me. You're welcome."

"Where's Tori?" I repeated.

"I don't know."

I was about to cross my arms over my chest before realizing that my hand was bleeding. "Shit." I angled my hand to catch some light from the house next door to examine it more closely. It didn't seem too bad—really, nothing but a slight cut—so imagine my surprise when I looked up to see that Austin was inching away from me, eyeing the blood with a repulsed expression.

"Someone's afraid of blood," I remarked.

He coughed. "Yeah? Well, someone was checking me out earlier."

The effect was instantaneous. I felt all feelings of gratitude going down the drain, leaving nothing but irritation. His arrogance was unbearably appalling. I felt like even simply breathing the same air as him was enough to piss me off.

"I wasn't checking you out."

He smirked. "Right."

Annoyed, I thrust my wounded palm closer to him as a response. He jumped away quickly, looking queasy. I mirrored his previous expression.

He continued to glower at me, but he didn't make an attempt to come closer, most likely afraid of my oh-so-scary blood. I checked to see our surroundings, trying to make sure that the coast was clear. Some people were still running and I saw some others being escorted or interrogated by the officers.

There was one officer who seemed to be looking around the place, inspecting any possible hiding places. He was just a few paces away from our tree.

"We can't stay here," he said.

"Don't you think I know that?"

"Just follow me, Red."

"It's Reed."

"Whatever," he said, looking slightly ridiculously as he dropped on all fours in a crawling position.

I wasn't quite sure about that, especially with my already wounded hand, but the officer was getting closer and closer, so I dropped down as well and tried to work out how to crawl when my hand was already gushing out blood (I used the back of it instead).

It was only after I started crawling did I realize how awkward this situation was. In our position, with me crawling behind him, the only thing I could see in front of me was Austin's butt.

And it was a really nice butt too.

I kept my eyes trained on his shoes instead—worn-out Vans that looked strikingly similar to a pair I owned back home—and focused on not making a sound. Somehow, Austin managed to lead us to some bushes until we reached the backyard next door.

He stopped moving without warning, causing me to almost plant my face in his (really nice) butt. He looked over his shoulder, and I almost wanted to yell "I wasn't staring at your ass!" but he wasn't even looking at me. He was looking past me, probably to see if the cops would see us if we stopped crawling and stood up.

He got to his feet but kept himself lowered.

I did too, bending my knees to a crouch, and followed his lead.

We walked in our weird stance in silence for a few moments until we crossed the entire backyard of the next door. Then, he straightened up and stood to his full height. "Lewis and I parked out front. You and that chick probably did too. Come on."

I tried not to scowl at the way he referred to Tori as that chick, but then I realized something I should have realized minutes ago.

"Oh, no. Oh, no. Fuck." I stood up too, holding my uninjured hand to my forehead. "Fuck."

Confusion crossed his face. "What?"

I fumbled for my pockets, feeling a wave of anxiety course through me as the realization dawned on me. "I think I lost Tori's phone."

He lifted a shoulder into a lazy shrug. "Your problem, not mine." He resumed walking.

"I need to find the phone."

"We can't go back there for now, so come on."

His indifference made only made me hate him even more. I, almost unconsciously, reached for my phone in my purse, only to realize something that made my heart drop to my stomach. An image of Tori sliding the small strap of my purse on her wrist flashed in my mind.

"Jesus fucking Christ," I muttered and tried to catch up with his stride.

My ankle was feeling sort of all right now, so it wasn't that hard to match his pace, but I deliberately lagged behind him.

"Hurry up, Red."

"Shut up, Dick."

At that, he stopped walking and turned to me. "Dick? Really? I have a name."

"You call me Red."

He looked at me like I was being impossible. "At least it's just a color, not a fucking genital."

I gave him a sardonic smile. "Uh, yeah, whatever."

---

I continued staring at the pavement, fighting the surprisingly strong urge to rub my eyes to make sure my vision hadn't been impaired over the past few minutes. I refused to register the fact that my car was indeed missing, along with my best friend (who shall suffer a slow and painful death), my phone and my purse.

Rarely were there times when I couldn't think of anything to do. Looking after Tori meant that I should be the responsible one; that I should be able to come up with solutions to all the problems she unconsciously creates as she continued to plow on. But as I stood there, staring at the area where my car should have been, I had nothing.

Tori abandoned me.

"I'm going to fucking kill Lewis," I heard Austin say behind me.

I turned, dragging my gaze to Austin. "I'm going to kill Tori as well. I can practically see her gushing about how she and Lewis are meant to be because we happened to park our cars next to each other."

Until, you know, mine disappeared.

I heaved a sigh, trying to come up with a solution. I didn't have money with me and either way, I couldn't go home without Tori. I wanted to stab her with a serrated knife repeatedly, yes, but I wouldn't be able to sleep knowing she was out there, unsupervised, without me.

"Give me your phone," I told Austin.

He scratched the back of his head. "Phone."

"Yes, Dick," I said through gritted teeth, "phone."

"I don't have one."

I looked at him in surprise, not sure if he was just saying this to get a reaction out of me or not. There was simply no way he could be serious about that. "I really can't be arsed right now. Give me your phone."

"I don't have one." The look on his face was nearly convincing.

"There's no room for this, Dick. Just give it." I held out my uninjured hand, palm up, waiting for him to hand it to me. It was only when he continued to look at me with the irritated look on his face did I finally grasp the seriousness of the situation. "Please tell me you're joking."

He didn't.

"Who the fuck doesn't have a phone?"

"You're one to talk," he pointed out with as much affection as me.

I took in a deep ragged breath and forced myself to look away from him. Times like this, I really wondered why I let Tori have her way. Raking my fingers through my hair, I closed my eyes to fight the headache starting to set in from all the stress the night had caused so far. When I reopened them, I checked my wristwatch for the time.

It was almost hard to believe that it was only eight o'clock. Then again, my best friend just ditched me with some random guy, so it didn't seem too unlikely.

When I heard the unmistakable sound of a car door being opened, I turned to look and saw Austin half-inside the backseat of their car so that his ass was ridiculously sticking out for the whole world to see. Looking away before he could accuse me of ogling his butt, my gaze fell on the empty space where my car should have been.

I realized, once again, that I had absolutely no idea what to do.

Obviously, I couldn't exactly show up at my house and say, "Oh, right, I almost forgot, Mom. I happened to misplace my car," because that would really go over well. More importantly, after incessantly questioning me about my car's absence, she would ask me about the bigger problem here: where was Tori?

I had to find her, even if that meant killing her the moment I see her.

The problem with that, of course, was that I didn't have the resources to actually look for her.

"Red."

I looked over my shoulder just in time for something to hit me in the face. I reached up to keep it from falling and momentary glared at Austin. When I looked down to see what he had just thrown at me, I realized it was a handkerchief.

"Please," he said, "just clean that bloody hand of yours."

I snorted. "Was that a pun?"

In reply to my insult, he reached for the collar of his shirt and started pulling it off, making me take a few steps back.

"Why are you—"

"Some bitch spilled beer on my shirt," he replied just as he finished removing his shirt with ease.

I rolled my eyes and pointedly looked away from his half-nakedness. "How many times do I have to tell you that it was an accident?"

He threw his balled-up shirt in the backseat of their car, reminding me of how this evening started and I was the one who had to do that, and fished out a new shirt. I did the mistake of looking at him, making him smirk again, and it was all I could do not to strangle him so I dropped my gaze back on the ground.

With Tori and Austin getting on my nerves, I really needed to find a new place to hide dead bodies in.

"So," (now –fully –clothed) Austin said, "you're telling me you don't have money, a phone, a car. And your best friend just ditched you."

"Gee, Einstein, thanks for summing up my wonderful night. Why don't you go ahead and rub it—"

"My point is," he interrupted in a voice that paralleled my growing frustration, "what's our plan?"

My thoughts whirred to an abrupt halt. "Plan?"

"Plan. To look for them."

To say I was surprised would be an understatement—and I don't get surprised that easily. I wasn't sure if it was just the exhaustion playing tricks on my mind, because I honestly couldn't come up with an explanation as to why Austin was making this offer.

"Why would you want to look for your cousin when you can just head straight home and forget him?"

He tugged at the collar of his new plain white shirt, looking uncomfortable. "Remember how we said I just got here this morning?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

He squirmed. "I have a bad sense of direction."

Realization sunk in and I couldn't help but let out a small, "Oh." Then, "Ohhh."

Looking more annoyed than uncomfortable now, he wrinkled his nose and looked away from me, facing their car. "Which is why," he said, "I can't go home without Lewis."

There was something about the way he seemed to hate talking about this that made it seem hilarious. Maybe it had something to do with his overbearing confidence and cocky attitude. He seemed so sure of himself and here he was, unable to go home because he had no idea how to.

"See, Red? You don't have to grovel on my feet, because yes, I'll be kind enough to let you tag along to look for them." He started to walk over to the driver's side door of the car but stopped when he noticed I hadn't moved an inch. I was too busy convincing myself that killing him is a not exactly a good idea (which was pretty difficult to do). "What are you waiting for?"

"Are you serious?" I asked him. "We could hardly stand each other."

"If you want me to ditch you here, that's fine with me too," he said with a confident smile.

I snorted. "If this is your way of asking me for help, you're not doing a very good job."

"I'm asking you for help?" He placed an arm over the top of the car, resting his chin without once looking away from me. "I'm not the one without money here."

"Well, I'm not the one who has a bad sense of direction."

"Just get in the car."

"Shouldn't I be driving? I know the neighborhood better than you do."

A sarcastic smile crossed his face. "Nice try, Red. Get in the car."

I scowled, knowing I didn't exactly have other options but to tag along with him, but the fact that he got the last word kind of irked me, so I pretended to throw the bloody handkerchief to his direction. He let out a surprisingly high-pitched yelp and jumped back to avoid it, only to curse out loud when he realized I hadn't even thrown it.

I smiled in triumph.

He glared at me and started muttering darkly under his breath. I tried to fix an innocent expression on my face, dropping my smirk and widening my eyes the slightest bit. He didn't appreciate it. Grunting, he looked away and opened the car door, getting in without so much as another look at me.

I reached for the car door handle, feeling the curve of the smooth surface. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

Somehow, I couldn't shake off the feeling that opening the door and getting in the car with Austin was like opening endless possibilities for the night.

And as if looking for Tori all over the town wasn't difficult enough, I just had to do it with a hemophobic guy who annoyed the shit out of me.

The things I do for Tori.

I resigned myself to the unfortunate circumstances of the night and opened the car door, considering the idea of writing down a list of reasons not to kill my best friend while I was still completely sane. God knows I'd need a physical reminder when I do see her.

Climbing into the passenger seat, I expected the car to smell like gym socks or whatever, but it actually smelled nice. I shut the door and looked over at Austin.

"So, Dick. What's the plan?"

He frowned at the mention of his fabulous nickname but didn't comment on it. "You're the one who knows the neighborhood. Where do you think should we start looking?"

Silently cursing Tori for her unpredictability (along with other things), I contemplated on this thought for a bit. I thought back to our conversations earlier, wondering if she might have said something about her plans for the rest of the night. I wracked my brain, but if she said anything, either I forgot about it or I hadn't been listening. (It was probably the latter.)

If I only knew I'd end up in this situation (or that she would ditch me with some random guy she met), I would have thrown her into our basement and locked her there until I managed to convince her to simply stay home and eat Nutella.

"Knowing Tori, she might as well be anywhere right now," I said. "What about Lewis? Did he tell you any of your plans tonight or something?"

His brows furrowed as he inserted the key on the ignition. When he turned the key, it seemed like the engine was literally crying, before spluttering off a series of whines.

"Is that supposed to happen?" I asked him, eyes carefully trained on the dashboard, like the engine might explode any second now.

"Don't worry, that's normal," he said and turned it again. It took three more tries (I swear the whining became louder with each try) before the engine finally turned on. He turned to me and raised his eyebrows, as if to prove his point. "See?"

I shifted back into a proper sitting position. I hadn't realized I'd unconsciously inched away from the (possibly explosive) dashboard until I relaxed with the familiar sound of the engine running (not-so-) smoothly.

"This car's a dump," I pointed out.

"Do not insult Georgina." He gave me a warning look that was bordering on mocking. "She can hear you. She's very sensitive"

I coughed in surprise. "Georgina?"

He shrugged. "That was exactly my reaction when Lewis said those exact same words to me."

"Georgina," I repeated.

"Glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks it's ridiculous."

I smiled. "Careful, there. Georgie can hear you." I reached for the dashboard with my left hand and soothingly patted it, as if to offer comfort.

He sent me a sideways glance and shook his head, but I could tell he was suppressing a smile.

Maybe this might not be as bad as I thought.

He sniffed, before turning to me with a frown. "Red," he said. I looked at him. "What did you do, bathe yourself with perfume? It smells like fucking marshmallows and it stinks."

Maybe not.

"It wasn't my fault I had to spray more than usual because some dickhead spilled Coke all over me earlier."

"At least I didn't do it on purpose." Before I could even retaliate, he was speaking again. "Can we just get on with searching for those motherfucking idiots? I think I remember Lewis saying something about a band today."

I let out an angry huff and sat up straightened in my seat. "What band?"

"I don't know. Some local band or something." He turned to me. "Any ideas, Red?"

My knowledge on the local music scene happening around Rivermount was limited to tagging along with Tori when this friend of a friend of a friend or something of hers is playing in a band. I wrinkled my nose while trying to think if I knew any local band. "Do you maybe know the name of the band?"

He shook his head. "I don't think he mentioned a name, but he mentioned going to some club or something."

I pinched the bridge of my nose, wondering if it was possible to get a headache from stress. "Maybe we should try some of the clubs downtown."

"Might be a good place as any to start looking."

He shifted gears (I noted, quite resentfully, that it was a stick-shift so I couldn't actually drive it even if he let me) and the car lurched forward at first before settling to a normal pace. I opened my mouth to say something, but he beat me to it.

"Yes, that was normal too," he said. "And do not insult Georgina."

I closed my mouth and frowned as we began to move forward into the night.

---

A/N:

Yaaaay the story's finally going somewhere. Georgina's hella rad and I kind of really like using Georgina for this story hahaha. And I still can't believe the amount of support all of you had been giving me and this story. <3 Thank you so much. 

Also, I have very little knowledge when it comes to cars, so if you know any box-type car model (that's really kind of old) that you think would suit Georgina, feel free to tell me so I can edit it in. :) 

Sam xoxo