Dedicated to Ish because she's a lovely person, not just because her comments always make me smile but also because of everything else. Thank you so much <3

Chapter 14

As soon as we finished eating the garlic toasts Aunt Rosie had prepared for us, we borrowed their phone. It was an old Nokia model, something Mom had brought for Aunt Rosie a few years back, just to have some way of contacting them other than the landline, and I was surprised to see that they had enough credit for a few calls.

First, we called the number on Hunter's collar. The dog paid no attention to us he just lay there on the carpet, looking lazy and bored as Austin recited the digits to me.

A deep male voice answered on the third ring. "Hello?"

"Hi," I said, looking directly at Hunter. "My friend and I ran across a dog on the streets earlier. This number was written on the collar." 

There was some rustling over the line. "Oh, thank goodness."

I made Austin get a pen and a scrap of paper he had conveniently found from a notepad on the coffee table so we could write the address down, but instead the man volunteered to send her daughters out to fetch the dog instead. We gave him this address and he thanked us for the call.

After ending the call, I repeated the conversation to Austin, who simply shrugged okay.

"Are you calling the Idiots next?" he asked me.

I gave him a look. "Who else?"

Since Austin didn't have any idea what Lewis's number was, I dialed my phone number instead. I've had the same number for three years now and I knew it almost by heart now. After pressing call, I pressed the phone to my ear. I wasn't quite sure how I could keep myself from yelling at her the moment she answered the call, but after a few rings, it became clear to me that I didn't have to worry about that anytime soon.

She wasn't picking up.

"Fuck."

Austin looked away from a photo he was looking at. "What?"

"She's not answering." I redialed the number.

I almost always put my phone on silent mode and I could see how Tori, who always had her phone in the loudest volume because she hardly noticed things like these, could have missed the call. Or maybe she was too busy doing who knows what.

Austin shifted closer. "Still not answering?"

"Gee, what do you think?"

He narrowed his eyes and looked away with a disgruntled eye-roll.

I tried a few more times, only growing more and more frustrated as the phone kept ringing. I cursed under my breath, making Austin raise his eyebrows at me. When I glared at him, he dropped his gaze but didn't comment.

After thirteen more tries, I gave up and suppressed the urge to hurl the phone and throw it against the wall. Seething, I tossed it on the couch instead.

"Why don't you fucking calm down?"

I turned to Austin. "How can I calm down when—"

"Then be angry at your best friend, not at me."

"I'm not angry at you," I spat.

"Right," he replied with a glare of his own.

We continued to stare each other down, both of us fed up with the whole night. Neither of us dared to look away, as if that would prove anything.

The atmosphere was charged with our frustration when Aunt Rosie walked in. I hadn't even noticed her until Austin averted his gaze to look at her.

"Everything all right?" she asked in a tone that let me know she knew the answer already.

Austin had the decency to look ashamed, and I did too. Somehow, it felt like arguing in a house owned by old people was something that wasn't only wrong but also embarrassing, especially since the place seemed to be filled with Aunt Rosie's sunny personality.

The dickhead must have been feeling the same because we both answered "Yes," at the same time, prompting us to glare at each other, only to look away pointedly.

Aunt Rosie didn't miss this, if the look she'd given us was any indication, but she didn't mention it. "Were you able to call your friends?"

I released a sigh. "No."

"Oh." She nodded. Judging by the tone of her voice, I could tell that she was obviously trying her best not to ask us about our argument. "I'm sure they're all right. Tori and—what was his name again?"

"Lewis," Austin quickly replied.

"Right. Lewis. I'm sure Tori and Lewis are getting along just fine and aren't arguing," she said.

I could feel my face flushing as Austin cleared his throat to fill the awkward silence that followed. I filled her in about the conversation with Hunter's owner, telling her about the fact that someone will come pick the dog up.

"We'll just wait here until then," I said afterwards, "then we'll be out of your hair."

"Are you sure you should be out so late?" she asked us doubtfully. I knew she was itching to ask us to stay the night instead, so I quickly nodded.

"Oh, it will be fine." I smiled. "I'm sure we'll find them soon enough."

(No, I wasn't.)

"Well, I'll just leave the two of you here then. I would wait with you, but I'm afraid I'm too exhausted." She gave the two of us a frighteningly sweet smile. "You two will be all right?"

I knew it was her way of telling us to stop arguing. Austin must have known that too because he was doing his best not to look at me. I helped Aunt Rosie up the stairs, holding her hand and leaving Austin alone in the living room.

When we got to the landing, she said, "Are you and Austin fighting?"

I couldn't but wince at the question, trying not to bite the inside of my cheeks as I came up with an answer. "No, Aunt Rosie. We aren't."

"You know," she said, "the two of you share the same spirit."

I almost started coughing. "What?"

"It's no surprise that you clash with each other so much."

"That's not true. He and I don't share the same... spirit," I said, whatever she meant by that.

"Why, little Reed," she said, "there's no denying it. The two of you are so alike."

I didn't exactly agree with her, but there was no point in arguing with Aunt Rosie, so I decided to just keep quiet. The small corridor leading to their bedroom was lit with little orange lights on the wall. The carpeted floor occasionally creaked beneath our feet.

They had this house the year they married each other. It reminded me of how long they'd been married.

When we reached the door to their bedroom, she turned to me. "You'll be all right?"

I nodded. "Of course. We'll just lock the door before we leave."

"I'm looking forward to seeing Austin again," she said with a knowing smile. The implications of her words made my face heat up.

"Don't," I said, almost too quickly. "It's not like Austin and I will see each other again after tonight."

"Oh, Reed. " There was a small smile on her face. "You never know these things."

"But I do. There's no way we'll see each other when we part ways," I said.

"Chance encounters happen quite often."

"Chance encounters?" I groaned. "You sound just like Tori."

"Oh, honey," she said, "it's not like you'll lose anything by believing in something."

Wrong, I thought to myself, thinking of the days when I still believed that Dad was ever coming back home, and how it felt after all those days of believing and believing and believing in something that will never come true. I did lose something: the will to believe; and it was impossible for me to get that back.

But with Aunt Rosie giving me a sympathetic, all-knowing smile, all I could do was kiss her on the cheek and tell her thank you, good night, I'll be sure to visit soon.

---

Austin was sitting on the couch when I got back to the living room.

I recalled our argument just five minutes ago. Normally, I would have picked up where we left off, but if Aunt Rosie believed we were arguing because we shared the same "spirit," then I might as well not argue with him at all.

At first, I wasn't sure what he was busy with, but when I walked closer, I realized he was holding Aunt Rosie's phone in both hands. I peeked over his shoulder to look at what he was so busy with.

He must have noticed my presence. Without warning, he looked up at me, catching my eye and making me step back instinctively.

I cleared my throat. "Um, what—what are you doing?"

He lifted the phone, looking cautiously at me. "I'm playing this game."

"What is it?"

I squinted at the screen, trying to make out the image on the screen. At first I couldn't figure out what it was, but then I realized what it was. "Oh. It's been a while seen I'd seen someone playing Snake."

"I know." Austin grinned and looked back at the screen.

Somehow, I was slightly surprised by the fact that all traces of uneasiness from our argument were gone now. I looked at my wrist watch, wondering what time Hunter's owners would come, before walking to the couch to sit.

I sat just in time to see Austin's snake die.

I snorted. "You suck."

He held the phone out to me. "Let's see you try."

Feeling competitive, I took it from him and accepted the challenge. "You might want to take notes from the master."

I'd only been able to get a score of twenty-one when I accidentally pressed the wrong keypad and my snake hit some sort of wall. Austin, who scored fifty earlier, snickered beside me.

"I suck?" the dickhead said.

I huffed. "That was a... trial game. I'm still getting the hang of it."

"I wasn't aware the master needed a trial game."

"Well, now you are."

"It's Snake," he said, with a stupid triumphant smile on his face.

I ignored him and chose to play a new game, determined to beat him. The game was simple. There was no way I'd let him think he was better than me at anything. I could beat Tori's high scores on every game on her phone (which I'd lost. Oops.) and I wasn't letting Austin beat me at Snake, of all games.

"You think we'll find them?" he asked me.

"Shut up. I'm concentrating." I pressed the number six keypad.

He chuckled, shaking his head. "Right, since Snake is a really difficult game that requires concentration."

"You're annoying and I can't—fuck. Look what you've done," I cried. The words Game Over were written on the screen. "I was so close to beating your score."

"What I've done?" There was an infuriating smile on his face. "It's not my fault that you suck."

"You distracted me."

His lips took on a lopsided smirk. "Ah, well. I do have that effect on people. My sexiness is too distracting for—"

"You're annoying, not sexy."

"Oh, Red." He shrugged. "I've lost count on how many times we've had this conversation."

"Only because you're so full of yourself." I chose to play another new game. "If you could just shut up and let me play in silence, I'd be able to get double your score."

"All right." He didn't make any effort to hide his blatant doubt. He sounded all-too-mocking and I had to grit my teeth together and try not to elbow him.

I was scoring near fifty when the doorbell rang, making me jump in surprise and causing my snake to hit its own body. Appalled, I looked at Austin, who began laughing loudly.

"That—that was totally unfair." I tossed the phone at him, almost hitting him in the face if he hadn't caught it with two hands. I mentally cursed him and his quick reflexes as I stood up to get the door. Hunter was asleep right next to the coffee table, so I had to step over him on my way.

Austin was still silently laughing when he rose from the couch.

I could vaguely hear him coaxing Hunter out of his sleep when I opened the door, revealing a short-haired brunette, about my age, and a blonde girl who seemed much younger than us.

"Hi," the brunette said with a smile. "I'm Kyla. This is Adrienne. We're here to pick up Hunter?"

"Hello," the girl—Adrienne—said with a smile that showed all her teeth.

"Hi." I smiled at them. "I'm—"

"Red, is that them?" Austin's voice cut in.

Behind me, I heard Hunter bark, his feet padding against the wooden floor as he ran towards the two girls.

"Hunter!" Adrienne yelled just as Hunter tacked her, nearly toppling her over if Kyla hadn't broken her fall. The dog looked so happy, its tail wagging back and forth, as though all traces of its laziness evaporated at the sight of his owners. ]

I found myself smiling.

"Thank you so much for calling us," Kyla said as she let out a sigh of relief. "We've been searching for him for everywhere."

"No problem," I replied as Kyla crouched down to pet Hunter. Adrienne seemed to be scolding the dog, but to me, she simply looked cute.

They wanted to treat us something as a thank you for returning Hunter, but Austin and I declined the offer. We were full from Aunt Rosie's toasts and we figured we really didn't need any more holdups. It was nearly midnight and we still haven't had any other leads as to where the Idiots could be at that moment.

When Kyla and Adrienne left with Hunter, Austin and I both watched their retreating backs, the two of us standing there on the front porch.

He was the first one to break the silence. "Well, I'm gonna miss that dog."

I sighed. "We need to get moving."

"Should we—should we let them know we're leaving?"

"Nah." I waved a hand in a dismissive gesture. "I already told them we'll just lock up as we leave. They both seem pretty tired. I'll just properly thank them when I pay another visit."

We went back inside to make sure he hadn't left anything—wallets, keys, whatever other things he carried around with him—before leaving the house.

As soon as I closed the front door behind us, I realized with a sense of disappointment that we still haven't contacted Tori and Lewis. I've tried to call them a few more times before leaving, but they just weren't answering, so I brought the phone with me.  I was hoping my phone hadn't died yet, otherwise, we'd really have no other means of communication with them.

Austin must have felt the same heaviness around us, because on our walk back to where Georgina was parked, he said, "What now?"

I sighed, lifting my hands to pinch the bridge of my nose. "We'll come up with something."

"Wow," he said, sounding genuinely surprised. When I looked up at him, an almost-confused half-smile was plastered on his face.

Suspicious, I inched away from him. "What?"

"You said we'll come up with something."

"So?"

"So, we're a we now?"

"That's ridiculous," I said quickly.

"No, really." He was teasing me again. I had a flash of that stupid Snake game and I was reminded of how I hadn't managed to beat him at all. For some reason, this only fueled my annoyance. "All this time, you kept saying you'll figure something out, that you'll think of our next plan."

"That's only because I know you're an idiot and that you won't be much help."

"Well, then, what changed?" His lips were, much to my distaste, still fixed into a smug smile. "You said we for the first time."

"You—you're thinking too much of this."

He chuckled, shaking his head. "I just like the sound of it, babe."

I stopped walking. "Did you just—did you just babe me?"

He came to an abrupt halt, turning to me with a confident smirk. "We better hurry up. Georgina's probably feeling pretty lonely."

---

The rest of the short walk was filled with Austin trying to come up with more ways to annoy me with the word "we." It was getting more and more aggravating and it took me a lot to stop myself from physically injuring him in a way that made it impossible for him to open that mouth of his ever again.

On our walk, we'd forgotten about the fact that we didn't have any more leads now. Once I spotted Georgina, idly parked along the gravel sidewalk, I realized Austin and I definitely had to think of our next plan.

"You think we should go just go around the town and try to see if we can find your car anywhere?" Austin suggested just as we reached Georgina. He leaned back against the driver side door, hands shoved in his pockets as he looked at me, as if waiting for my approval.

"That didn't really work the first time," I replied.

"Ever the pessimist." He removed his hands from his pockets and held out one of them to me, palm up.

At first, I wasn't sure why on earth he was offering his hand to me and I had to wonder why the fuck he wanted to hold hands with me, but then the shiny object on his palm caught the light from the streetlight from the next lot and I realized he was holding a coin.

Needless to say, I blushed.

"Heads, we'll think of something else," he said, "tails, we'll go with my plan and just drive around."

I frowned. "I'd rather we decide this through logic." Making decisions through things like flipping a coin was something I'd always thought was unreliable. I didn't like taking chances on something as irrational as this.

"Lighten up," he said with a noncommittal shrug. "It's not like we actually have other choices."

He flipped the coin without waiting for a response, catching it easily with the back of his hand, holding it in place with the other. When he removed it, I almost unconsciously walked closer to look at the coin.

"Tails," he said. "Get in."

He pushed himself off of the car and unlocked it. I heaved a sigh and went over to the passenger side. I got in just as Georgina started her telltale whining when Austin turned the engine on. I was getting used to Georgina's quirks by now (which was scarily disturbing because no one should think it's normal for a car to make such noises).

When we got it running, Austin turned to me. "Where to?"

"Should we try downtown again?"

"What if we run into the Hulks once more?"

"We'll just be driving around anyway," I reasoned.

He didn't seem particularly happy but he didn't argue with it anyway. He shifted gears and the car lurched forward before settling at a normal pace.

The fact that we didn't have a solid plan was getting on my nerves. We were back to square one, driving around without any leads at all. In fact, we were better off the first time, since we knew that they were looking for some sort of band in the clubs. Now, though, we didn't really have anything.

Austin fumbled for the stereo, playing Mayday Parade to fill the silence. I focused outside, still trying to think of a plan that might actually lead to something.

"Do you really have no other idea as to where Lewis might head off to?" I asked him.

When I looked over at him, he seemed to be thinking seriously about it. I waited, watching him carefully, but after a few long seconds, he shook his head with a disheartened sigh. "If I did, we wouldn't be doing something like this."

"If only things had gone differently," I muttered to myself. It was true. It felt like everything led back to that meeting in Parker's. Maybe if Austin hadn't spilled his drink on me, Tori never would have taken an interest in Lewis and none of this would have happened.

If that first encounter hadn't happened, there was a likely chance that Tori and I would be back in the house watching Shutter Island while cleaning out a jar of nutella. I closed my eyes, releasing a long sigh.

"I'm just as frustrated as you are," Austin said. "And I'm actually really sleepy. I haven't had much sleep ever since I got here."

I hadn't actually thought of that, so I looked over at him, slightly surprised. I studied his face closely. If he was tired in any way, it wasn't really obvious. There were telltale signs of his exhaustion—his eyelids looked a bit heavy and I realized he was beginning to yawn more often as the night moved along—but it wasn't something one would notice at first glance. I'd almost forgotten that he flew from Michigan just this morning.

When Tori was sleepy, it was impossible not to notice it. You wouldn't even be surprised to hear her say absolute gibberish that didn't make any sense because you'd think she was already half-asleep.

"For someone who's exhausted," I told Austin, "you seem pretty collected."

"Really?" He sent me a sideways glance. "You don't seem that tired either, considering it's almost twelve."

I wasn't an insomniac or anything, but it had been a while since I slept before midnight. I'd always fall asleep around three a.m. or something like that. "I'm not really a morning person."

"I kind of had the feeling you weren't."

"Really? Why so?"

"Because," he said, "I'm not a morning person either."

Flustered, I quickly averted my gaze. "That's just a coincidence. We are nothing alike."

"I guess you're right," he said, before turning to me with a lazy grin. "For starters, your butt isn't as sexy as mine."

I let out an exasperated sigh, throwing both my hands up in the air. "Will you ever, ever let go of that?"

"Not until you admit it."

Scowling, I turned away.

He laughed.

After driving around for a few more minutes, I realized this was growing more and more fruitless with every second. It didn't help that he started singing along to the songs once again, filling the car with his horrible, off-key singing. I wanted to crawl into a soundproof hole and never come out again.

"For the last time"—I sent him a withering look—"stop singing, Dick."

"I don't know, Red." He tilted his head to the side. "Georgina seems to be enjoying it, right G?"

"If I could strangle you right now, I wouldn't even hesitate."

"Why don't you sing, then?"

I could feel my eye twitching. Did he always have to make everything a challenge? He turned the stereo off, drowning us in abrupt silence. He sent me an expectant look, lips upturned in a mocking smirk.

"Well, come on," he prompted. "Sing something."

"This is pointless." I turned to the window, determined to ignore him for the rest of the ride.

"If you can prove you sing better than me, I'll stop."

The deal was really, really nonsensical. It wasn't like we actually had something that could gauge who was better between the two of us. My bleeding ears, however, were enough to actually make me reconsider.

I imagined the rest of the ride if he continued singing and internally cringed at the thought.

"Suit yourself." He turned the stereo back on and opened his mouth.

"Fine," I cut him off before he could start.

He seemed all too satisfied when he turned it back off. "I knew you wouldn't be able to resist my charm."

"Excuse me while I go vomit."

He wrinkled his nose. "That's disgusting. At least one of us actually has charm."

"If being annoying is called charm now, then yes, you are pretty charming."

"Just sing, Red."

This was embarrassing. Singing for no reason at all was harder than I thought it could be. It was awkward and useless and having Austin listen wasn't exactly helping. I couldn't even thinkof something to sing in the first place.

"You know what?" I said, turning away from him. "I'm not doing it. Just sing all you want."

A moment passed, in which he seemed to be thinking of something to say, but then he just turned the stereo back on. "We had a deal."

"Whatever."

"That's unfair."

"What isn't?"

"You know what?" he said.

I didn't like the sound of that. Cautiously, I turned to him. "What?"

"This looks like a nice place to ask around." He suddenly slowed down and turned, pulling into a parking lot of an establishment.

I straightened in my seat, looking around. "Dick, this isn't the time to—"

"It's not like we have any leads," he interjected, taking the keys off of the ignition slot. The mischievous smile on his face made my heart drop to my stomach. "Come on, Red."

He got out of the car, ignoring my protests. I was left there, completely aghast. I stole three calming breaths before getting out of the car as well, suppressing the urge to slam the door. I looked up with a glare at his direction, which he casually dismissed.

"It's open mic night," he said, pointing at the illuminated sign of the bar.

"We don't have time for this."

"Oh, Red." He started to walk towards it. "We have all the time in the world." 

---

A/N:

I SUCKED AT PLAYING SNAKE which is probably why my frustration manifested in this chapter hahaha also, I can't think of a ship name for them??? Like why is this so hard even? Also, just a quick heads up, I'm running out of pre-written chapters (I only have till Chapter 16) and I'm not sure I can churn out new chapters so um uh yeeeeeah. 

DICK CALLED RED BABE HOLLA AT ME 

Oh also also also Kyla (and Adrienne) appeared!!!!!