Dedicated to @roastedpiglet bc omf her comments are life idek they make me want to cry from happiness thank you so much <3

Chapter 6

I was tired.

Since we couldn't exactly go with just one liter of gas for the whole night, we had to go bring Georgina to the gas station either way to fill her up. I saw another sneak-peek of the redhead on Austin's wallet when he pulled it out to pay.

 I tried not to look at it, of course.

After the walk we had earlier, I realized that Georgina, despite being kind of old, was better than having to travel on foot.

It was a quarter past nine when we actually made it back to one of the clubs we'd been circling earlier. The Sluggers was, as far as I knew, the club Tori preferred over the others. When I asked her why, a few months ago, she said it was because it didn't seem as sketchy as the others. It was also the only live music club, which meant that if Lewis mentioned a band and a club, I figured it might be a good place to start.  

"You got a fake ID?" Austin asked me as soon as we found a decent parking space.

I gave him a look. "Uh, is that even a question?"

He mirrored my look. "Do you ever just answer with a simple yes or no?"

"Yes, I have a fake ID," I hissed through gritted teeth. "It's right here in—" I cut myself short. "Fuck. It's in my purse."

We contemplated on this one for a moment, until we both decided that I was going to stay here and he can go in by himself to ask around.

"Keep Georgina some company," he told me right before leaving.

I wasn't exactly comfortable with letting him leave and go in the club alone. God knows what an idiot like him would end up doing. I wouldn't be surprised if he somehow decided to stay there for a drink or two, abandoning me altogether, but I shrugged the nagging feeling in the back of my mind off.

"If you're not back within five minutes, I'm going to fucking spill blood all over Georgina," I warned him.

Even just the thought of it seemed to repulse him. "You really don't want to do that."

I shrugged. "Five minutes."

"It might take longer," he argued.

"Five minutes."

He gave me a flat look. I simply looked back. His face reverted into his default scowl-y expression. "I'm not going to fool around, so lay off."

I still couldn't shake off the feeling that letting him leave alone might not be the best idea in the world, but it wasn't like there was anything I could do without my purse. (I really wanted to kill Tori.) I thought longingly of home and my jar of Nutella, checking my wristwatch. It was 9:17 already and I could easily be lazing in my room watching Sherlock.

He hadn't been gone for long when I decided sitting around doing nothing was boring. I almost even said "So, Georgina, just you and me now" but fortunately stopped myself. Austin's idiocy must be rubbing off on me.

It was a horrifying thought, so I quickly shrugged it off and decided to snoop around the car. I reached for the glove compartment—it didn't open as easily as I thought it would (Georgina must be old)—so when it fell open, I was glad to see that it wasn't empty.

There were a few CDs lying among random things. There was an empty M&M wrapper and a book. There was a receipt from 7-11. Nothing interesting. I took the book out, a dog-eared copy of a Stephen King novel, and flipped through the pages.

I stopped when I came across a page with what seemed like a picture. I took it snapping the book shut, and unceremoniously tossing it back into the glove compartment. I was too busy staring at the picture of Lewis and Austin, wearing identical grins with each other.

It was taken on a beach, if the waves caught frozen in the photo was any indication.  Both of them were squinting into the camera, so I figured it must have been sunny when the picture was taken. They were probably around two or so years younger than they were now.

There was something that seemed different with Austin in the picture. Here, it felt like there was no trace of the scowl-y guy he was now. It felt like I could practically feel his vibrant energy emanating from the photo.

To be honest, he seemed like a completely different person.

I fished the book out of the glove compartment and opened it to a random page. I replaced the photo back and gave it one last look before snapping the book close and putting it back in the glove compartment.

I shut the glove compartment after a little bit more digging but found nothing interesting.

Sighing, I couldn't help but feel the boredom settling in. I dug through the coin case and found nothing but a few cents.

I twisted in my seat and looked over at the backseat. I saw Austin's beer-soaked shirt balled up—similar to the one in my car—right next a black backpack. For a second, I considered digging through it, but thought against the idea. Other than those, there was nothing else in the backseat. Slightly dismayed, I looked down at my watch.

It had been six minutes since Austin went in. The corner of my lips pulled down into a frown. I looked to the direction of the Sluggers lazily—only to bolt up in surprise at the sight.

Austin was running full-speed towards the car.

Confused, I looked past him.

There were three guys running after him. They all looked big and brawny, their running almost rhythmical. They reminded me, vaguely, of the way the quarterbacks on Zombie Tsunami.  They were athletes. It was a no-brainer. They were fast and judging from their built, they were probably strong as fuck.

And they were out to get Austin.

I tore my eyes away from the three guys. They seemed intent on kicking Austin's (admittedly sexy) ass. I looked at Austin, who was looking back at me with a wild look in his eyes. I wasn't sure what I had to do. I didn't want to get my ass kicked, but I didn't want to leave him or something.

Then again, I had no problems with leaving him to fend for himself, but he had the car keys and money and I wouldn't have anywhere to go, so I resorted instead on watching him run and pray he'd get to the car before any of the guys could reach him.

"Run faster!" I yelled through the windshield, not even sure if he'd hear.

Fortunately, he was a fast runner. It wasn't just his long legs either. He almost seemed as athletic as the guys chasing him. He probably played some sport that involved more speed than strength.

He skidded to a halt once he reached the car. He fumbled for the car door and immediately got in. He was already jamming the key through the ignition slot even before he could close the door.

"What the fuck did you do?" I yelled at him and watched as he turned the key. Georgina whined. I looked through the windshield, seeing the guys get closer.

"Fuck, Georgina, not now." He tried again, shooting a quick look at the guys.

I could feel panic starting to set in. "Georgina, please. Please, please, please."

Georgina wailed one last time before the engine started running. The guys were just a few feet from us.

"Drive, drive, drive."

We lurched forward and shot out of the parking space with a speed that forced that pressed me back into my seat. I shrieked when Austin almost ran over one of the guys. He, however, seemed unfazed by this.

"Fucking come back here, you pussy!" I heard one of them shout from behind us. When I turned to look back, I was relieved to see that they stopped running. They didn't look too happy, but all I could think of was how glad I was that we weren't being beat up by them.

I let out a sigh of relief, my heartbeat starting to slow down as we pulled into the main road.

I shot Austin a glare. "What was that?"

"That gave me a heart fucking attack," he said, still trying to catch his breath after all that running.

"I sent you in a club to ask questions and you come back with three demon spawns hot on your trail, looking ready to pulverize your sorry ass," I pressed, turning almost completely to him to let him know how serious I was about this. "What the fuck did you do?"

"It's not important," he said.

"It is." I braced one hand against the dashboard and the other on the headrest of my seat. I continued to glower at him. "You can't even go inside a club without stirring up trouble."

"I didn't want it to happen." His eyes were completely focused ahead.

"Then how did it happen?"

I didn't even know where we were going (knowing him and his poor sense of direction, he didn't either), but I was too infuriated to point this out. We'd figure it out later.

"It just did," he replied and slowed down a little, looking back to check if some random car was following us or something. Much to our relief, there wasn't. (I wasn't sure I could handle a car chase.)

"Things like that don't just happen," I snapped.

"Look, they were ganging up on some girl, okay?" he snapped right back. "I was about to take a piss, but the bathroom was locked. I heard something inside, so I might have kicked the door open and found them circling around a girl, all right? What was I supposed to do?"

I blinked. There was no telling if he was simply making this up, but when I looked into his brown eyes, there was something that seemed to tell me he was being completely honest. Falling silent, I settled back into my seat and looked away from him.

He didn't say anything more.

Calming down and feeling slightly guilty for being so mean about the whole thing, I took a deep breath and said "How was the girl?" without looking at him.

It took a few moments before he replied. "She was kind of drunk senseless, but she was fighting against the guys."

I focused my gaze out the window, deliberately not turning to him. "So, um... what happened?"

"Well, um, at first they kind of tried to talk me into not bothering them." He still seemed to be catching his breath, but he continued anyway. "'We're just having a little fun, y'know what I mean?' one of them said. So, uh, I punched him."

I couldn't help but turn to him then. "You punched him?"

"They were about to fucking r@pe some girl. You can't expect me to just stand there and let it happen," he said, slightly defensive. He was right, so I shut up. "Good thing they were all kind of drunk too. And they weren't exactly smart so it took a while for them to realize I was already pulling the girl out with me. I managed to shove her into some random woman before running."

"And they chased you."

"And they chased me."

There was a moment of silence as we both let this sink in. Honestly, I didn't peg him as someone who would do the things he'd done so far—giving that bread to the homeless man, saving a poor girl from possibly getting r@ped.

I thought back to the start of the night. We hadn't exactly been on good terms, but it didn't stop him from helping me get away from the cop chasing me.

"Uh," he said, breaking the silence, snapping me from my train of thought. "Where are we?"

I shook myself out of the slight trance I'd fallen into to look out the windshield. I squinted in the darkness. Both of us had been so preoccupied arguing and it took me a moment to make out our surroundings.

"I'm not exactly sure," I replied. I looked out my window, but saw nothing but a wide field. We'd probably driven to the edge of town. "Make a U-turn. Let's drive back."

He slowed down and turned the signal blinker on. He waited for two cars to pass by before making the full turn. Somehow, my eyes fell on his hands as he turned the steering wheel multiple times. I noticed, in the lack of light, that the knuckles on his left hand had slight cuts.

He even took it off the steering wheel when we were back on track, shaking it out a little with a wince.

"Is your hand okay?" I asked him.

He grunted out a response I didn't quite understand. I thought about his reaction when he as even did as much as look at the blood in my hand earlier. His knuckles weren't that bad, but they still had a few specks of blood from the cuts.

"Honestly?" he said. "Punching him hurt like a bitch."

I gave out a snort of laughter. "Did you see them? They looked like fucking Hulk. All of them. Minus the, uh, green skin part."

He laughed. I wasn't sure what made us both end up laughing together. All the excitement from our great escape was starting to die down. Maybe we were both just relieved because none of our asses were pulverized.

"So," I said.

He raised an eyebrow. "So."

I started rummaging through the white plastic bag with the stuff we brought from the convenience store. I took out the Pringles, sour-cream flavored, and jutted it a bit to his direction as if to ask permission to open it. He nodded.

Popping the lid open, I ripped off the paper on the top of the can, and reached for a piece.

"Were you able to ask anyone in the club about the idiots?"

His face brightened. "Oh, shit, I almost forgot about it. You know, after all the Hulk business. But I asked the bartender if he'd seen an Asian girl with a dude, and he said yes."

Surprised, I turned to him. "Really?"

"Yeah. He said they didn't stay for long." He frowned, a crease forming between his eyebrows. I think he was trying to remember something. "He said they saw them talking to a group of people before leaving."

I frowned. Maybe if we hadn't ran out of gas, we would have caught up with them. They must have arrived at Sluggers after we stopped staking the area around it and stayed there during the time we'd spent trekking to and from Georgina and the gas station.

"I can't believe we missed them," I all but moaned out, burying my face in my hands. "We missed them."

"You're blaming me." It wasn't a question. "Look, I said I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry."

I removed my hands from my face and drew in a sharp breath, exhaling with as much vigor. "Okay, fine."

"I think we may have found a new lead, though," he said, sounding a bit hesitant. "The group of people they were talking to. I asked the bartender to describe them a bit. He looked annoyed about all the questions, but I think he had the hots for me"—I rolled my eyes—"so he told me anyway."

"And?" I prompted.

He was chewing ever so slightly on his bottom lip as he tried to concentrate. "He said, uh, what was that? A group of three guys, two girls."

"Did he tell you what they looked like?" Maybe if I knew, I could narrow down the list of people Tori was friends with. Unless they were Lewis's friends, which would make it harder since it didn't seem like Austin would know them anyway.

"One of the girls had purple hair?"

My heart lurched. There was only one person I knew who had purple hair. "McKenna Davies."

"You know her?"

I scowled.  "I hate her."

This, of course, didn't seem to deter him. "You hate everyone."

"I do not," I said. "Turn left here."

"Uh, yes, you do." He spun the steering wheel to the left. "Where are we going?"

"Back to Sluggers."

He briefly turned to me with a look of horror. "The three Hulks are there waiting to kick my sexy ass."

"We have to ask McKenna. Tori might have told them where they're going." Even if it didinvolve having to go back to the Hulks and talking to one of the people I'd hoped to God I would never talk to after graduation, it was worth a shot.

"Red, the Hulks." He spoke with emphasis, like he was trying to stress out the point to let me know the sheer idiocy of this idea. "Have you forgotten about those steroid-injected vicious... creatures waiting to rip me apart?"

I waved him off. "We'll figure it out."

"My sexy ass, Red. Think about my sexy ass."

"I am mentally gagging."

"You're just saying that because you weren't the one being chased down by those—those demon spawns," he said indignantly, but continued driving back towards Sluggers anyway. "People have died from getting beat up, you know."

"Look," I said, "they might not even be there, you know?"

"Might," he pointed out. "Have you seen the way they—"

"Well, do you have other ideas?"

He fell silent for a while, looking like he was trying not to squirm, before giving out a low groan and moaning something about his "sexy ass."

By this time, I was getting tired of Paramore playing on repeat, so I reached for the glove compartment to look through the other CDs there. Really, I shouldn't be surprised that they actually used CDs instead of an iPod or phone or whatever. Georgina wasn't exactly modern, so it didn't exactly come off as odd.

I found a Secondhand Serenade album, which, frankly, seemed depressing to listen to, but it was either this or ABBA. (Yes, there is an album of ABBA here, and if I was being sexist, I would be questioning Lewis's sexuality.)

"Why are you the one driving anyway?" I asked him as the thought struck me. "I mean, if Lewis was showing you around, why do you have the keys?"

It was nothing but a curious question, really, though something about it seemed to strike him to the point that the expression on his face shifted, not unlike the way it did before, but only for a second. "I'm a better driver."

I couldn't tell if he was lying or not, or simply just deflecting the question, but it wasn't exactly my business, so I backed off.

"This McKenna," he said after a while, "why'd you hate her?"

Just the mention of her name was enough to send me shuddering, making me wonder why I'd been able to breathe the same air as McKenna Davies all throughout high school. Maybe that was the reason I still haven't strangled Austin. I had enough time practicing self-control with McKenna.

I closed my eyes and heaved a sigh before reopening them, trying not to think too much about the McKenna issue. I was stressed enough as it was. "I really don't want to talk about it," I replied when Austin sent me another probing look.

He seemed curious, if the look he was giving me was any hint, but he shut up and didn't ask me.

For around two minutes, we were both silent in the car. We both just sat there, watching the field beyond the window roll by. Closing my eyes, I rested my head against the cool glass of the window as Secondhand Serenade blasted on the stereo with a semi-depressing song.

Then I felt Georgina slowing down.

My eyes snapped open, immediately turning to him with another accusing gaze, thinking we'd run out of gas again or something that required us to be stuck in the edge of town where civilization lay kilometers ahead.

Before I could say something, I realized he was slowing down on purpose, his eyes trained on something ahead of us.

I followed the direction he was looking at and saw a car parked on the side, with a guy and a girl standing beside it.

"Austin," I said cautiously. I knew by then that he had some sort of helping gene that compelled him to help anyone—and I knew where this was going. "They're strangers."

"They might need help. Roll down the window."

Georgina, of course, had those manual windows where you had to turn those knob thingy to open the window. It also didn't open all the way down, getting stuck like something was lodged. Austin didn't seem to think that was anything weird so I didn't force it for fear that I might damage it (even further).

"Hey," Austin called out.

There was little light where we were and I couldn't see them clearly, but I was at least glad that they didn't have axes or chainsaws or whatever dangerous thing they could use to murder us.

"Your car broke down?" Austin yelled.

The guy seemed slightly taken aback, but he leaned closer to the window, placing a hand on top of the car as he crouched down to get to our eye level. "Hi. Uh, no, it's, uhh, we have a flat tire."

I suppressed the urge to groan, knowing full well that Austin wouldn't just drive off. I focused instead on studying the guy, looking for any signs that he might be a serial killer and we were falling into their trap or something.

He seemed pretty normal. He had jet-black hair and was leaning closer on being lanky, so I wasn't sure if he could deal permanent damage. (To be honest, after our encounter with the Hulks, everyone seemed pretty harmless). I looked at the girl standing behind him. She didn't look dangerous either.

I heard Austin's door click open. My hand shot out to grab his arm instinctively, to stop him from possibly getting murdered, but he turned to me with a pointed look and shook me off before leaving the safety of the car.

"Looks bad," I heard him say, slightly muffled from inside the car. "You got a spare?"

"We don't," the girl replied. "And our phones are dead."

I wasn't really surprised when I heard Austin say, "Need a ride to town? To get some help or something."

I suppressed a groan. It wasn't that I had anything against helping strangers, but if it got us killed, that would be a different story. I wasn't exactly the type to trust people so easily.

"Oh, no, we don't want to impose," I heard the girl say, shaking her head.

"We insist," Austin said. "Really, we do."

Of course, we do.

I tuned them out as they tried to work out whether or not they're simply just going to leave the car there or whatever. I think they might have decided to just push it more to the side to get it out of the way, and while they weren't exactly okay with leaving the car unattended, leaving one of them behind to guard it didn't seem like a good idea either.

As they tried to work it out, the girl approached my window. She leaned down so that we were eye level, her blonde hair framing her face effortlessly. I tried to arrange my expression into a friendly one.

"Hi," she said, "we're really grateful for the help. I'm Alyssa. That's Warren."

I forced out a smile. "It's okay. We're headed there anyway. I'm Reed."

She offered another smile and turned back to look at Austin and her companion. They were already walking back to us, talking about something like they'd been friends for a long time. The girl—Alyssa—looked back at me with another blinding smile. "You got a good boyfriend. He's a keeper."

Before I could deny her assumption, Austin opened the driver's side door, giving me a look that seemed to say, See? That wasn't so bad.

I sighed. 

---

A/N:

I'm really, really sure the editing on this chapter sucks. I happened to come across Les Miserables on TV and was distracted while editing and it's 3:14 am and I'm pretty emotional right now but yeah. Sorry for any sucky parts and errors. Feel free to point them out :) 

Also, Alyssa and Warren appeared! Lmao I couldn't help myself, okay. Forgive me ily all thank you so much. <3 

[what the actual fuck? i'm currently really pissed right now bc for some reason, wattpad says this is rated r and dude just what the fuck. i sent a complaint but WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCKKKK GUYS IS THIS RATED R IN ANY WAY? sure there are cuss words and sexual jokes but this isn't fucking 50 shades of grey is it]