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♯ ❝ CAN'T TRUST A THING SHE SAYS. ❞
CHAPTER THREE ✧･ﾟ: * 🌪️🌀
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THE NIGHT FORMED FAST OVER THE TOWN SHE WAS IN, ANOTHER DAY ENDING WITH A NEW ONE SOON AFTER THE MOON WENT DOWN. EVERYONE SEEMED TO PILE INTO THE SAME parking lot of a hotel her crew was staying at, and it was packed to say the least. She was surprised at the amount of people chasing storms this time, but knew majority weren't there for that.

They were there to see Tyler. Not that she could blame them though, he was really... something. Something that she wanted to connect with again, and try to understand this new version of him.

Charlie carried her side bag around her left shoulder, while her camera was safely lopped around her neck also. Her hair was undone from the braids she had, and was now laying in a curly mess that she didn't bother fixing up, as she was heading to bed soon.

The low humming of a tune being played by a few siting around a fire flowed through the parking lot, and soothed her nerves from what happened today. She felt a bit peaceful listing to it, as she strolled in between Kate, and Javi through the space, passing many groups along the way to get to their hotel rooms.

"Haven't we stayed here before?" Javi asked the two girls beside him curiously, his elbow sometimes grazing Charlie's that had her smiling at him, and nudging back playfully, "I'm pretty sure we have."

Kate snickered amused sharing a knowing look with Charlie, who tilted her head towards their friend, "Yeah, Javi. You are right." She answered chuckling, "We've stayed in every motel in Oklahoma. Don't you remember the last time we were here? I made you buy me a bunch of snacks after you lost our thumb war."

Javi rolled his eyes also amused chuckling, remembering that day vividly as it was one of his favourite times where he got to make Charlie smile, "How could I forget, Char?" He dramatically asked, making her shove his shoulder playfully, "Remember also we used to have Addy check in? Then later, we'd call sneak into the room so we could all save ten bucks?"

"We had her do it 'cause she looked so sweet." Kate added onto the comments, her arm lopped around her sisters and all three of them laughed together fondly remembering the times from their past with the group.

The laughter soon stopped between them, leaving Charlie with another bittersweet feeling in her hear, one that had her squeezing her bag strap tightly. Her footsteps slowed a bit now, and looked back to see her sister and Javi still talking, which had her sighing tiredly not wanting to ruin their time together.

"Ah, guys, I'm gonna head to bed--" She caught their attention instantly, and she rubbed the back of her neck smiling shyly, "Don't let me stop you two from hanging out. I'm just really tired and wanna check up on my camera." She finished just as Kate walked up to her sister, Javi lingering behind them.

Kate's gaze was soft looking over her sister's face, fingers brushing back a few pieces of Charlie's locks, "Alright. If you need anything, don't hesitate to text me Bear." She told the younger one gently, hand coming up to squeeze the other's forearm comfortingly.

Charlie nodded her head with a small smile thrown up at Kate, "I will. I'll see you later," She peered over her sister's shoulder, and threw a wave at Javi next, "Take care of my sister for a bit. I'll see you tomorrow, Javi." She gave one last smile at the two, before turning around and walking off now alone.

She kept her head down to ignore all the people around her in the parking lot, before she made it to the stairs, and let out a sigh of relief as she hadn't run into anyone yet. Her palm reached to grab the railing along the stairs, and hopped onto them beginning to walk up.

The girl was having the time of her life stepping up the stairs, minding her own business away from everyone but herself. That was until she spotted Tyler's crew, and the man himself. Her eyes went wide seeing his figure standing on his truck, and tried to duck down to hide, but unlucky for her he had already seen her.

"Cowgirl. You ain't very good at hiding, I can see you from a mile away."

She felt her cheeks flush embarrassed now hearing his words in the drawl of his, and grumbled to herself as she stood back up slowly to her full height. She avoided eye contact with his crew, who all stayed to cheering and make cat calling noises to her, and she felt like letting the ground swallow her up in that moment.

"'The cells to the west will choke each other out,'" Tyler continued on to embarrass herself further, his eyes focused on the broken piece of his truck's roof he was fixing, and quoted what she told him, "she said. 'The one to the east will put on a show.'"

Charlie leant her elbow on the stairs railing, her camera now dangling along with her necklace, and decided to play along with his attitude, as she replied snarky, "Well, it did't throw you off the scent."

"Hey, that's what makes Tyler famous." Boone, the said male's partner in crime which she once was now spoke up, his words coated with a heavy accent, and he pointed to Tyler with his free hand not holding a beer.

She had to hold in her snort hearing Boone's comment, and instead raised her eyebrows like she was interested, "Ohh, that's why he has so many fans following him around like headless chickens." She hummed dramatically, which had some of his group hollering amused at her words, "I mean, he's famous on Youtube? Right?"

Tyler chuckled through his clenched teeth, now turning his head towards the girl and his green eyes only focused on her even with everything else going on around him. He could of been mistaken, but he swear he felt a bit of jealously coming from her, and nothing got him riled up more.

"U-uh, yeah, we're--" Boone stumbled out not expecting her to know what platform they were on, as he leant back against the truck and motioned to Tyler behind him leaning on the roof, "We're on the Youtube. We got what? About a million subscribers now, huh?" He asked of the group, gaining words of agreement from them all.

Ben stood up from his chair he was sat on, and trailed up to where Charlie was stood on the stairs, but was on the ground craning his neck to look up at her, "Uh, Charlie what?" He questioned her, and was quick to add on seeing her confused expression, "Your surname, just in case I include you in my piece."

Tyler narrowed his eyes a bit on the reporter, before his gaze fell back on the girl watching her figure tense up, and it made him swallow the lump in his throat, adjusting himself in his spot leaning on the roof.

"Oh, um, just Charlie's fine please." She eventually told Ben with a head nod, and awkward smile, her arms folded over the railing to glance down at the reporter who respected her decision, going back to writing in his notepad.

"She's a tricky one. Mmh-hhm." Tyler butted in quickly to comment, humming low in the back of his throat and smiled at her tightly, that sent a shot of pain to her heart seeing it was fake like his usual ones.

"Actually, you made a good call earlier." Boone started to talk again to her, her brown eyes glancing away from Tyler to the male drinking beer, "The other cell, it looked stronger, but cap never broke."

Charlie pursed her lips in thought not knowing if that was a compliment or not, but instead twitched the conversation around back to the group, "So, where did you guys all meet?" She asked gazing over the people around the truck, and landed on Tyler last, "Did you study meteorology at the U of A?"

This gained her amused laughs from the group which further more confused her, and Boone raised his arms up beside him with a carefree smile thrown at her, "Alright, Charlie, me? You know, I just flow with the wind. You know what I'm saying?" He tells the girl who now looked surprised, "Yeah, I never went to, like, school or nothing. Um, Tyler, he studied meteorology though."

Her eyes went wide a bit hearing that new information about him, another clench to her heart she felt knowing she missed all that about him, and that she wasn't there to experience their long life dream together. She acted like she was surprised however, and pointed a finger at Tyler, "Him? You mean, him--"

"Yeah, girl. You know, he's a cowboy scientist, you know." Boone began to gas up his best friend, not hearing how Tyler was trying to tell him to stop talking, "He's got this natural instinct, similar to yours I think. He taught me everything I know, so--"

"Boone." Tyler's name calling finally was heard by him, and the male instantly stopped hearing the warning tone. Tyler's eyes flickered to her now, expression hardening, "You know, our crew's not like your crew, Charlie. We don't need PhDs and fancy gadgets to do what we do. I guarantee you, these guys have seen more tornadoes than anyone else in this lot combined."

She gripped the railing in between her fingers more, hating how weak in the knees she felt hearing him speak her name in that drawl of his. She tried to keep her expression in check like he was doing, and leaned forward more smugly, "Oh? Is that right?"

Ben, not sensing the tension between the old childhood sweethearts, opened his mouth to talk again to the group, his glasses looking over them all curiously, "Do you think there's a chance we'll see one tomorrow?"

"Oh, yeah. Outbreak, baby." Boone answered the reporter with a whistle, and smirked excitedly taking a swig of his drink still leaning on the truck, as the rest of his group agreed with him.

"You know, if you can keep up, we'll put you in the episode." Tyler spoke back up nonchalantly to Charlie, turning his head back to her as he took a long sip from his own beer, acting smug like she was doing before.

She felt her eye twitch at the comment, and tapped her pointer finger against the railing, "Woowwww," She dragged it out dramatically, placing a hand over her mouth next seeing how he was smirking cockily, "What a privilege that would be."

"Where are you chasing tomorrow?" Lilly, the other one in the group whom's name Charlie has come to learn asked her interested, another person not picking up on the tension between the main two talking back and forth.

"Oh, no, no, no. Not falling for that again." Tyler was quick to jump in, and clicked his tongue looking down at Lilly briefly before his eyes landed on Charlie like usual, "Charlie's living in New York. Can't trust a thing she says anymore."

Yeah that one hurt... she thought to herself trying to mask her emotion with a tight smile, and stared straight into his green eyes, tilting her head to the side, as she sarcastically snapped, "That's rich coming from you. You can always trust a guy who puts his face on a T-shirt, huh."

Everyone in the group began to make impressed noises at her come back, and pointed at her figure, as she bowed her head a bit at Tyler, before turning to walk up the rest of the stairs out of view. This left the male with a lot of thoughts, and emotions, but didn't stop the scowling smile forming across his lips watching her figure walk off.

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THE NEXT DAY CAME JUST AS QUICK AS THE NIGHT ENDED, AND THE GROUP WAS BACK ON THE ROAD STOPPED AT A NEARBY CAFE. ONCE AGAIN IT WAS FILLED WITH MANY CHASERS, some of them just being people to watch the action even if it was dangerous, and that was something that made Charlie's nerves rise up knowing they didn't care. Then again from the looks of the skies outside, nothing was coming yet shockingly.

Her hair was back up in one braid this time, her bangs sitting on her forehead gently and was still in the same outfit, expect for having changed shirts. She preferred to keep it on all the time, since it was comfortable and didn't bring any other clothes other than shirts and clothes for sleeping.

The camera she always carried around was hanging around her neck like usual, but her bag was back inside Javis' truck since they were stopping for a quick bit to eat. She didn't feel like food in that moment, as she walked through the busy cafe hearing the people around her, and the news playing saying there would be a lot of storms in the next 37 hours.

She paid no mind to that for now knowing she'd figure it out later, and placed her sunglasses over her head as she walked past where Kate was. She saw her sister talking with Javi at table, with Scott and Marhsall Riggs, someone who Javi told her about recently.

Charlie felt something was off by all the paper work being placed on the table, and taken by Riggs, who had a gleeful smile on his face, a look that had her stomach twisting for some reason. Regardless of that, she knew Kate would tell her if something was wrong or if anything happened while she wasn't around.

She saw Javi waving at her in greeting when she stared too long, and sent a small smile back, before she shakes her head to centre herself. She pushed open the door leading outside of the cafe, and now entered the scorching heat of the bright sun.

The sunglasses were slipped over her eyes so she didn't have to squint, and found herself walking away towards the road, just stopping where the glass field was. She was instantly taking a deep breath of air, holding it for a few seconds and exhaled contently.

She baked in the warmth being provided from the sun, and felt the gentle caress of the wind blowing along her cheeks. She could hear the grass swaying gently in the wind too, and the muffled voices of people meters behind her, all giving her a moment of inner peace.

That was until the familiar sound of boots walking against the cement found her ears, and her eyes flew open straight away knowing who it was by the next voice speaking to her came, "Well, nothing's coming out of that one."

Charlie turned her head a bit sideways seeing Tyler directly beside her, a space between them that he didn't dare to cross yet, "That one?" She spoke looking back at the sky where the clouds were forming, and hummed curiously, "No, it's clearly moving into a stable environment."

He was quiet for a few seconds, hands on his hips as he somehow subconsciously moved a bit more closer to her, "Yeah. No low-level CAPE." He took off his sunglasses to took a better look at the clouds in the sky, "Not enough shear to keep it interesting."

"Oh, yeah. It's gonna die out." She added onto his words, and took off her own sunglasses also to slip them on her white shirt, as she stepped up to be standing next to him observing the clouds above them, which were weirdly shaped.

"Not enough moisture to grow." He lead off once she went silent, his forearm just grazing hers which had both of them tensing feeling the small amount of contact they've had for over years, and he was quick to say something, "Where'd you say you learnt how to track storms again?"

Her brown eyes followed his green ones as he moved to stand in front of her, and she raised her eyebrows knowingly, "Well for starters, I didn't cowboy." The nickname flew out of her mouth easily, and his chest felt tight hearing it, "And secondly, you should remember I learnt everything myself."

He just stared down at her with a tight smirk, and clenched his jaw shuffling in his spot, "You know, we're gonna be stuck here all day waiting for nothin' to happen." He began to talk in a calmer tone, his drawl not so present anymore, and tapped his finger against her sunglasses near her chest, "How about we try to get along, hmm?"

Her cheeks flushed a little at his playful touch, and crossed her arms over her chest, "I mean we could, if you weren't making things harder." She defended glaring up at him, watching his face shift into a furrowed brow scowling one, "But yeah, sure. You're right. I'll even go get us a couple of drinks, what would you like cowboy?"

Tyler didn't believe her one bit, not when he knew Charlie like the back of his hand despite not seeing each other for many years. He knew she was by how she tapped her fingers along her arm, something she did out of anxiety, but he still played along for her sake, "Really? You aren't fooling me around here, darlin'?"

She cursed her stomach for leaping at the nickname he called her, and rolled her eyes cranning her chin up more to his taller figure, "Yup. I'm most definitely not fooling around here." She protested innocently, batting her eyelashes also.

He smirked charmingly at her behavior, his own chin tipping down to be inside her space, "Wouldn't mind an iced tea, thank you." He told her clicking his tongue, and spotted the mischievous glint in her brown eyes that told him everything he needed to know. This was more like his Charlie, and he wanted to see more of it again.

"Coming up right away." She chirped sweetly, going to pat his chest also but paused mid way to grab her sunglasses instead and sent him a smug smirk, before she turned around to walk away, her one braid swinging over her shoulders as she did so.

Her walking pace was slow at first, but the more she got away from Tyler the more her pace picked up. And now she was jogging away from him, as he too soon realised what she was doing, and began to run back to his crew while she went to hers knowing a big storm was brewing.

She slipped on her gold sunglasses quickly running up to where Javi and Kate was, and she came to a quick stop once she did, "We got to go, now." She grabbed Javi's arm, who turned to look at her confused with her sister beside him, "We got something big, guys."

Javi's face shifted into one of understanding, and excitement as he nodded his head, "Alright. Let's go, guys!" He called out to the rest of the crew, who were all getting into their vehicles already, and he pulled along the sisters with him, "Let's go!"

Charlie hopped into her usual seat near the window with Kate beside her, and felt her heart leap a bit when Tyler's truck drove past them with his crew, honking his horn knowing she was in the car. It had her both scowling and grinning like a dork, "Of course he picked it up. I knew he would."

Up in the red truck leading the groups up in front along the dirt road, Lilly spotted the car that the sisters were in through the drone's goggles she was wearing, "Ah. Charlie must have seen the storm, too." She spoke what she saw out loud, "They just passed Dexter and Dani."

Everyone in the truck was happy to hear that news, expect for Tyler who's face hardern up and he took off his sunglasses to held them in his hand, while he still drove the wheel easily. He did glance through the mirrors outside to spot the truck she was in, and then looked forward to the road, masking very well what he was feeling.

"So what's the deal with her?" It was Ben's curious question that triggered the male up front, but the reporter didn't notice it was he was busy looking at the other two in the seats for answers, and still gained none knowing it wasn't there place.

"Why don't we focus on our story, Ben?" Tyler tells him a bit sharply, fingers gripping the steering-wheel tighter, as he felt two things in that moment about Charlie. To be protective of the girl, and annoyed at how she was invading everyone's life's but his again.

"Sorry. She's just so..." The reporter trailed off with an apologetic expression thrown at Tyler, himself know sense something was up between the two and he wanted to find out more before the trip ended, "intriguing."

And for once, Tyler would fully agree with his statement because that she was. And so much more, to him especially.

The truck Javi was back in driving again was picking up speed along the dusty road, as the sisters glance up at the clouds forming and shared a look with one another, "It already has a nice structure. Moisture levels are just right and lots of CAPE." Kate talked first as to what they were seeing to Javi.

Charlie slipped her sunglasses on her shirt again, and placed her camera in her lap as she narrowed her brown gaze on the clouds humming, "Flow is clean. Pulling tons of warm moist air from the south. Here's the mystery, though." She began to explain, not knowing a certain blonde male was telling his group the same information at the same time.

"We actually don't know how a tornado forms. We see the hook on the radar, but--" She trailed off pointing at the screen sitting in front of the storms path, "What are the invisible factors coming together? Every little detail that has to be perfect. It's pretty incredible actually."

Kate watched her sister talk freely, the girl now coming out of her shell and into her natural environment which was storms. Kate's smile was soft, and she wrapped her arms around Charlie, squeezing her tightly making the girl yelp confused but pat her arm back in the embrace.

Javi's eyes flickered from them smiling at the sight, but it dropped into a serious expression when the tornadoes spiral was now coming down from the skies, "Come on, come on, come on." He muttered hopefully, just as it touched the ground easily, "There it is. Yeah, baby!"

Charlie broke free from the embrace with her sister, and gazed amazed at the now twin tornados rotating around each other, "Javi, go faster." She told him quickly, patting his arm a bit rapidly that had him 'whooping' and pressing in the gas to drive faster, "Let's get our data."

Javi grinned at the both of them widely, and he reached out to hold up two fingers to Charlie, who instantly understood. She giggled a bit, as she held out two of her, and the two did their old handshake they always would do, before it ended up with spinning their fingers in the air to motion a tornado.

The truck came up to speed with Tyler's one a few seconds afterwards, and Charlie turned her head holding onto Kate's arm to meet the eyes of Tyler. He just flashed her a charming grin from behind his window, and she just raised her brows at him unamused through hers, before Javi drove faster away from them.

"Alright, guys, let's stop playing games. Let's cut these guys off." Javi ordered through his ear piece hearing the commotion behind them, and was back to being behind the red truck, but pressed on the gas once more to gain speed.

This time when they came up to Tyler's truck, Charlie didn't shy away behind Kate who gave the male a deadpanning expression, while Charlie raised two fingers up to circle the air in a tornado motion, just like he did to her before. However she added something different to the move.

She flipped him the bird while snickering amused, and it left him feeling like a giddy teenager again watching her do that. He was thrown off his game now because of her.

"There you go, Owens." Javi commented smugly when him and his entire crew had pushed them behind their vehicles, and now his truck followed them along the road with Javi leading the group, "Alright, which one's gonna stay guys?"

Kate straight away glanced to her sister for the answer, and she tensed a bit taking a photo of the fields around them. Charlie peeked out from behind her camera, "Oh, right, uh--" She stuttered placing the camera strap around her neck, and focused her attention on the environment outside, "Give me a second."

Her brown eyes looked at the two tornadoes in the distance creating chaos, gaze narrowing down on them trying to figure out which one. She glanced outside the window soon after not finding anything, and her eyes widened spotting the flow of the wind through the wheat, how it was pushing towards them fast.

"Go left! Javi go left!" Her voice left her throat loudly which startled the two in the car, and he didn't question her as he knew she understood it best, "Take a left, trust me!" She continued to exclaim, waving her arm around.

He didn't think twice, and turned the steering wheel to make the vehicle take the sharp turn, as the rest of the crew follow along but Tyler and his. Charlie's eyes did follow his red truck till it was out of sight, trying her hardest not to feel bad about him going down the wrong path to the storm.

"Whoo, baby let's go! That was amazing, Char." Javi exclaimed excitedly when they all saw the other storm disappear, and the one they were chasing still active, as he asked her curiously, "How did you even know that?"

She smiled a bit shyly rubbing the back of her neck, and shrugged her shoulders looking between her smiling sister and best friend, "Well, did you see the wheat? Winds moved to the north." She stated motioning to the tornado, "Just what this one needed."

The truck they were all in soon came to a screeching stop when they got close enough to the tornado, protective glasses over their eyes and the three all jumped out of the car into the harsh winds quickly to get the job done fast.

Charlie was instantly meet with the wind blowing her clothes and hair around, as she gripped onto Kate's arm for dear life staring up at the tornado a few meters away from them. If it wasn't for the fierce winds, she would have taken a photo of the might storm.

She helped the other two bring out the data collector from the trunk, and set it down onto the grass with a grunt, as Javi finished off the task, making sure it was locked into the ground, "We're all set! Girls, come on!" He yelled over the wind, and motioned to get back into the truck.

Kate had a strong grip on Charlie's figure once more leading them back to the car, and trying not to get blown away by the force of the wind. Kate opened the door up first to let Charlie slide in, and she got in next which made Javi straight away drive off away from the tornado.

The PAR was ripped up from the ground by the winds, and dragged into the tornado, as the trio watched it happen unable to do anything. Javi was driving the vehicle backwards along the road, and Charlie picked up on what the storm was doing, "Javi, it's turning fast! You need to hurry!"

He did listen to her frantic voice, and picked up the speed as he glanced backwards through the back mirror to keep the truck steady, "How we looking? Wizard, talk to me!" He demanded through the ear piece, talking this his other team member.

Charlie could hear her fast heart beat in her ears, as she watched wide eyed at the tornado easily ripping apart a house in its way, and completely left nothing behind. The powerline was sparking also, from how it got bumped over and she gripped onto Kate's forearm tighter.

Javi knew they weren't going to make it to cover, so he made a sharp swerve off the road which made the girls yelp startled and the truck fell into a ditch off the road, where they would just be safe from the tornado. They all yelled alarmed at the sudden bump, and it made them bounce in their seats before the car came to a stop just as the storm passed over them.

She kept her head down under Kate's arms around her, trying to block out the harsh sounds of the tornado passing over them, and held onto her sister even tighter. It moved the truck around a little bit roughly from the force, but they still remained safe and unharmed even when the storm finally passed over them onto it's new destination.

"Thank god, it just grazed us."

❪ ✏️ ❫ 𝚆𝙾𝚁𝙳𝚂 : 4890
─►☆ AUTHOR'S NOTE :

another long chap sorry guys my i yapped too much with the words 😭 i really wanted to try and get more scenes out so i can get to write that scene sooner which actually is next chapter and im so excited to write it omg charlie and tyler's best scenes are coming up fr fr 😩🙏🏻