Dedicated to @manipulators for her lovely comment on the previous chapter, which made me smile like an idiot. Thank you so much :) 

Chapter 12

Even without a leash, Hunter was surpisingly well-behaved. Like Austin had said earlier, the dog seemed pretty old. There was a quality of laziness in the way he walked and followed us. I'd always liked dogs. When Tori's brother got a new puppy, I immediately came over so I could help them name her.

Austin seemed more relaxed as well, as if Hunter's presence had a soothing effect on him. We hadn't been walking for a long time when I felt him sending me curious glances.

I caught his eye, craning my neck to look up at him. "What?"

He shrugged and averted his gaze. "You like dogs?"

Narrowing my eyes at him, I wondered if it was a trick question for a green joke or sexual innuendo, but his face didn't have that glint of mischief that I now knew all too well, so I said, "Yeah."

"Do you have one?"

It was kind of weird to have him asking all these questions without being rude about it. It almost felt like we were two normal people casually having a stroll at the park. I figured it was a harmless question. "No. My mom's allergic." I sneaked a glance at him. "What about you?"

"We had one," he said, "when I was much younger."

An image of that picture in the glove compartment flashed across my mind, with him and Lewis smiling broadly at the camera. "Can't imagine how that dog must have felt with such an owner."

"Hey, June loved me." He sounded all defensive about it and I suppressed the urge to smile.

"June," I echoed the name. "That's a nice name. Girl or boy?"

"Girl," he replied. "She died when I was thirteen."

"Oh."

"That's the thing about having pets," he said, kicking a stone on our path without missing a step. "You get attached to this animal, you watch it grow, you rely on it, until it stops becoming an 'it' and you end up seeing her as a best friend."

I looked up at him, surprised to hear him say these words. There was a slightly lonely expression on his face.

He took a deep breath and continued, "Only to watch her die."

I looked down at Hunter, taking in this little fragment of Austin's past. Maybe that was the reason why Austin suggested for us to take Hunter to a walk. Maybe he was seeing June in him and this was why we were here, walking as though we had all the time in the world, without even making any effort to look for Hunter's owners.

"Tell me about her," I suddenly said. He seemed surprised, but to be honest, I was even more so. It wasn't like me to engage in topics like this. I didn't even know why I chose to push the topic further, but I didn't want to dwell too much on it.

He considered this, his eyes flicking to Hunter before nodding. "Well."

I waited, looking down at my feet as we continued to walk. I noted, almost as an afterthought, that our steps were matching each other's.

"I got her when I was five," he began. "She was just a little puppy then."

"Were you the one who named her?"

I fixed my gaze ahead of us. From where we were, I could see the Bench. It was still a few yards away from us, but I could see it. It was this little metal bench, placed right next to a lamppost, but for some reason, I wasn't exactly disheartened to see that the Idiots weren't there.

"No," he replied. There was a shift in his voice, and I looked at him, slightly taken aback by that almost imperceptible change. "It wasn't me."

A part of me longed to ask him more about this, but I could sense his walls coming up. I knew, somehow, that pushing it further might just lead to him closing off again, the same way he did back at the Coffee Overdose. I didn't want a repeat of that particular moment, if only because it was unbearably awkward, so  I cleared my throat instead and asked him, "What kind of dog was she?"

I could feel him relaxing a bit. "A great Dane." He shook his head with a small chuckle. "It's kind of difficult to imagine how a puppy that small can grow that big."

Trying not to let him notice my ignorance regarding dog breeds (I didn't even have any idea what a great Dane was), I said, "I mean, was she the energetic kind or—um—"

"Oh, you bet," he said, his voice taking a slightly more vibrant tone. "Whenever I came home from school, she used to tackle me. Dude, she was probably taller than I was at the time."

 "Even as a kid, female dogs seem to harbor a certain liking for you."

He raised an eyebrow, giving him a somewhat suggestive look. "I remember calling you a female dog earlier, Red. Does that mean you harbor a certain liking for me?"

Scoffing, I averted my gaze with an eye-roll. "Please. Get real."

"Get real?" he echoed. "I haven't heard that since middle school."

"I haven't seen a face as ugly as yours since Shrek."

"Hey," he said with mock indignation. "Do not mock Shrek. I like Shrek."

"Is he your role model? I wouldn't be surprised, since you kind of look like him, to be honest." He bumped his shoulder with mine, almost taking me out of balance. He didn't really use much force, but it took me by surprise, so I almost stumbled. I looked at him when I righted myself, appalled. "You—"

"How hard is it to admit that you think I'm hot, Red?"

I rolled my eyes and huffed. "You are not hot. The only one who thinks you're hot—"

"Are the female dogs," he cut in, sending me a sideways glance.

"I'm not a female dog."

"I didn't say you were."

"And I certainly don't think you're hot."

"I didn't say that either."

"Clearly, you were implying it." I stopped walking just as we reached the bench that Tori and I have claimed ours way back then. The dim orange glow from the lamppost bathed it in an almost serene light, making it seem like an image from a movie.

Austin stopped walking and Hunter looked up at the two of us, his tongue in full view. I walked over to the Bench.

"They're not here," Austin said. I looked at him, ready to say something in case he decided to tell me about how stupid of an idea this was. He, however, just looked down at Hunter as he nudged him towards the bed. "Come on, buddy. Let's take a short rest."

Austin sat on the bench before I could even move from where I was standing. He was busy petting Hunter with both hands as I walked closer to sit, making sure I was sitting on the farthest end. I was still slightly surprised with the fact that the dickhead wasn't being that much of a dickhead at the moment, but I was beginning to see all these different sides of Austin as the night continued to progress.

"So," Austin said, looking at me and letting go of Hunter. "This bench. This is where you and Tori met?"

I thought he was about to ask me about our next "plan of action," so I was taken by surprise by his question. Blinking, I tried to mask my shock with an air of indifference. "Yeah. Kind of."

The metal of the bench was cold where it met my skin. The cold even seeped through my clothing. I let a hand pick on some of the chipping paint on the armrest.

"How did you meet?"

Hunter was lying down on the gravel by that time. Every now and then, something would catch his attention—a passerby, a small cat—and he'd lift his head, only to replace it back on its front paws, like he decided it wasn't worth the trouble.

Beside me, Austin was looking at me expectantly.

I cleared my throat. "I was ten. I was trying to fly a kite, but no matter what I did, it just wouldn't. When I was tired of running around, I sat on this bench. Tori walked up to me and asked me if she could try it." I smiled, almost unconsciously, at the memory. "She made it fly on her first try."

"Asians." When I looked at him, he was shaking his head, his lips tugged into a smile.

I laughed a little. "Yeah."

It was just a normal Sunday then. I was with my mom and she was with her family. My mom was busy reading a book under a tree while I attempted to make the motherfucking kite fly. Tori had been watching me run around pathetically for half an hour before walking up to me.

"We easily became friends," I continued. "We were classmates, but we've never really talked up until then."

"You've been friends since you were ten?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

Now that I thought about it, it had been a pretty long time. It had been almost eight years since then. The thought reminded of the fact that she was leaving by the end of this summer; that she wouldn't be just a short drive away anymore; that she and I will be parting ways soon. I could feel a weight on my chest, brought about by the fact that I was already missing her, even though we still had a few weeks together.

I didn't cry a lot, not really, but I felt like crying at that moment, so I quickly tried to change the topic. "What about you? Ever had a best friend?"

He froze, his face immediately going back to that blank expression he had back at Coffee Overdose. The muscles in his jaw were taut with tension, as though just the simple question had thrown him off completely. I could see his walls go up, very clearly, and I knew there was no getting past them.

"Never mind," I said immediately. "As if anyone could stand you long enough to be your best friend."

"I could say the same to you."

He didn't sound offended about my comment, but I chalked that up to him trying to deflect the question. "I told you, I'm only this snarky when it comes to people I hate."

He shook his head with an exaggerated sigh. "Oh, Red. You sit on a throne of lies."

I narrowed my eyes at him.

"We should have brought the croissants," he commented with an air of nonchalance. He draped his arms over the back of the Bench, looking directly across the gravel pathway of the park. "You think the Idiots had gone here?"

I looked down at the empty space between us, trying to look for any signs that Tori and Lewis might have gone here. I was slightly hoping I'd spot a paper-bag from Coffee Overdose or even some crumbs or whatever, but I knew Tori didn't exactly like littering and looking for crumbs was a really stupid idea.

"I don't know," I replied. I only realized how disappointed I was when I heard myself speak. The disappointment was laced in my voice and Austin must have noticed it too, if the look on his face was any indication.

"Don't worry," he said, making me look at him skeptically because he actually sounded sincere. "A walk around the park seems slightly relaxing, yeah?"

"Are you trying to make me feel better?"

"What?" He cleared his throat. "No."

I couldn't help but cross my arms over my chest, raising an eyebrow at him. "Right."

"I was just saying," he said, almost too quickly, "that it was a good idea to walk. And Hunter seemed to enjoy it. Didn't you, buddy?"

Hunter barely lifted his head to look at us.

"Right. Don't try to deny it, Dick. You were trying to cheer me up."

"I did no such thing," he said.

"Oh, Dick." I tried to suppress a smile. "You sit on a throne of lies."

---

After loitering around for a little while around the park, we figured we might as well go back to Georgina. "Must be feeling lonely, that Georgina," Austin had said, to which I rolled my eyes and agreed.

"Yeah. She can be very emotional when left alone for so long. She's very sensitive."

We followed the pathway we used earlier, trekking our way back to Georgina.

"Why are you so intent on finding Tori?" he said, not a minute after we began walking.

"I already answered that earlier," I replied, rolling my eyes.

"No." He shook his head, shoving his hands in his pockets. "You didn't really answer it properly."

I didn't want to admit it, but I wasn't as irritated as I was earlier. The conversation was civil enough and our jabs and insults towards each other seemed slightly less sharp. In fact, they seemed almost normal. I wasn't sure, exactly, what it was the led to this, but it must have been that argument at Coffee Overdose earlier.

We both had gone too far, and for some reason, that led to me seeing this completely different part of Austin that I hadn't seen earlier this night. A side of him that I hadn't expected to find at all.

Maybe that was why I found myself answering him. "Tori had always been... adventurous."

He sent me a look. "Adventurous," he echoed.

I ignored the teasing in his voice and continued. "She would always have these crazy ideas and she made me go along every single time."

He raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.

"There was this one time," I said, "when she heard about this group of college students going bungee jumping a few towns over." I looked down, watching my steps like I did earlier. "I refused to come along."

He was listening intently, but he didn't press me to speak faster. He didn't ask questions. He just waited for me to say them. I wasn't sure, but maybe that was why I ended up telling him the rest. I told him about the fact that I thought Tori wouldn't go through with her plan if I wasn't there; about the call I'd gotten from her mom asking me if I'd seen Tori because she still hadn't come home.

I told him everything about that incident, and by the time I was done, he seemed to be deep in thought, completely silent.

"For a while after the incident," I said, "she wouldn't talk to anyone. Not even me."

I didn't say more. We just continued walking, Hunter slightly ahead of us, his tail wagging as he continued to stroll with us.

"Don't tell me you blame yourself for it," he said.

I looked at him, almost startled. "What?" I asked stupidly.

"Don't deny it. I know you blame yourself for it." He was speaking matter-of-factly, sounding surprisingly reasonable and collected. "It wasn't your fault, though. She was being stupid."

I looked back down. "Yeah, but I could have stopped her."

"Or youcould have gotten raped, too," he pointed out.

"I wouldn't be stupid enough to actually let us go anywhere near those strangers."

"That still doesn't make it your fault." He shrugged. "That was all her."

I didn't say anything, for once letting myself really think about these words—words I've been telling myself for a long time. I never, not even once, truly believed in them. I've been so used to holding myself to this that it was hard for me to see otherwise.

Austin, however, seemed adamant on trying to make me change my mind.

"And I know Lewis is sort of an idiot," he added, "but he's harmless. If you're worrying about him doing anything to Tori, don't. I'd be the first one to punch him if he does so much as think of it."

"Well," I said, shifting in my seat and trying not to let him know how grateful I actually was for what he's telling me. "I'm already here." When I looked ahead, I could see Georgina, right where we parked her. "Might as well continue searching."

---

Even after we got to Georgina, we figured we couldn't exactly bring Hunter around inside the car. We decided to go around the neighborhood on foot to look for his owner. It wasn't exactly a foolproof plan, but it wasn't like we had a better one, so we didn't exactly have a choice. Besides, he probably lived nearby anyway.

It was, however, half-past ten now, and it seemed impolite to knock on each door in the hopes that it might be where Hunter's owner lives.

"Any plans?" Austin asked me.

I eyed Hunter, who was sitting right next Georgina with his tongue out, before looking up to survey our surroundings. I looked back at Austin. "I think I know someone who lives nearby. Maybe we should ask if we could use their phone."

He contemplated this, another one of those calculating looks on his face. "How far is it?"

"Not that far. Just a few blocks away."

"Whose house is it, anyway?"

I lifted a hand to scratch the back of my left ear, trying not to squirm. "Um."

 "Um?"

"Just someone, all right?" I said. "They'll be okay with us showing up. Trust me."

He didn't seem to be completely all right with the idea, but he didn't argue further.

Austin tapped Georgina's hood twice before walking ahead to the houses, Hunter trailing after him. I let myself lag behind to watch him. He was speaking to Hunter, who surprisingly barked back, making Austin chuckle slightly.

With the sound of his laughter still ringing at the back of my mind, I let myself remember the words he'd told me earlier, about how the incident with Tori wasn't my fault. I wasn't sure why, but I was beginning to really reconsider the whole thing.

I knew, of course, that it wasn't my fault. I knew that. But even then, it never stopped the guilt from plaguing my thoughts. And just like what Austin had said, I could easily drop everything and just stop searching for Tori, but there was still a nagging feeling somewhere in my subconscious mind, and I knew that I could never quite shake off; like a box left unchecked in my mental To-Do-List.

And if there was one thing I hated, it was leaving something undone.

As much as I thought this whole search was a bad idea, there was nothing I could do but go through with it. I didn't get chased by the Hulks for nothing.

"Turn left on the next corner," I half-yelled to Austin.

He looked back at me. "What're you doing walking so far behind anyway?"

"I'm allergic."

"To dogs?"

"To dickheads."

Despite the lack of light, I knew without a doubt that he was rolling his eyes at this. "See that, Hunter?" The dog yelped. "Red called you a dickhead."

I bit down on my lower lip and tried not to smile at his typical response.

"I think you hurt his feelings," he said after a while. "Apologize to Hunter."

"Hunter and I both know that I was talking about you, Dick."

"Red," he said in mock seriousness. "Seriously." He stopped walking, and so did Hunter. He turned back to me. "Hurry up and lead the way. You walk like a girl."

The feminist inside me made me raise an eyebrow at him. "Is that supposed to be an insult?"

He grinned. With the way the streetlights were angled towards him, shadows fell across his face, so the sight of his straight teeth seemed almost blinding in the darkness. "I'm just kidding. No need to snark."

"That's not even a word."

"Clearly, it should be." He didn't move as he let me catch up, hands shoved in his pockets in a way that I now realized was his signature pose. "If the inventors of the English language spent even just a minute with you, they'd feel the need to invent that word."

I faked a sneeze.

His brows shot up his forehead, an amused smile on his face.

I shrugged, a smile of my own on my face, and continued to walk ahead. "Sorry. I'm allergic to bullshit."

---

HAHAHA I love writing about Reed and Austin so much, which is pretty narcissistic of me to say, but I'm just really happy because I've always preferred using a lot of dialogues instead of narration (which I should really improve hahahahaha). I hope you enjoyed this and do tell me what you think <3