Dedicated to ImaginingGirl, for all her support on each and every one of my works. Thanks, Cool! Also, belated happy birthday oops. 

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Chapter 7

"Wait, so, let me get this straight," Alyssa said from the backseat. "Your best friend ditched you for Austin's cousin, so now you're on this wild goose change looking around the town for them?"

"More like Hulk chase, really," Austin replied with, surprisingly, a smile on his face.

That got a laugh from our new friends. He'd just finished telling them about the reason why we were on the outskirts of town anyway, but telling them about the whole "Hulk chase" required telling them more about the night. We ended up having to start with the party, the raid, the whole my car is missing along with my best friend thing.

They found it hilarious.

(Of course. They weren't the ones stuck with a moody Dickhead driving in a car that would most likely fall apart any second.)

"You wouldn't be laughing if you were the one being chased," Austin said indignantly. "And Red here still won't admit that she finds my ass sexy."

I scoffed. "Trust me." I crossed my arms over my chest. "I've seen better."

"Oooh," our audience from the backseat cooed.

"Better? You've seen better?" he asked in mock disgust. "I'll have you know, my ass is the best."

"Right."

" The best, I tell you."

I didn't know why Alyssa and Warren were giggling at Austin's shameless affection for his own gluteus maximus, but I was worried it might contribute to his overall narcissism. Not that he wasn't so in love with himself already.

Naturally, I found it my responsibility to make this world a better place by taking him down a notch or two. I pretended to examine my nails indifferently. "It's really not that special, Dick."

"Dick?" Alyssa piped up from the backseat.

"She think it's cute to refer to me as the male genitalia," Austin replied before I could. "I don't know, I think maybe she wants the D, yeah?"

Dropping my hand, I turned to him with a slightly open mouth. "I'm—"

"Thirsty for the D?" He had the audacity to wink at me, a cocky grin already making its way to his face.

I punched him in the arm. "That is disgusting." Almost automatically, my face was scrunching up into a expression of blatant disgust. "And wrong on so many levels."

The rest of the conversation went vaguely like that—Alyssa and Warren asking about more details regarding the night, Austin obsessing over himself and me, fighting the urge to roll my eyes while giving out an exaggerated sigh. I've long stopped trying to deal with him and his self-absorbedness.

They asked us to drop them somewhere at a friend's house, but on our way there (I was navigating for Austin), the conversation took on a different turn. We ended up telling them in detail about our next plan, which was to go back to Sluggers to talk to McKenna.

Austin told them about how I didn't have my fake ID with me (I didn't even have the real one, actually), and that I couldn't into the club. The moment we mentioned this, Alyssa perked up in her seat. She placed one hand on the headrest of my seat and pulled herself forward, closer to me and Austin. "Wait, I think Warren and I could get you in.

To say I was surprised would have been an understatement. My an eyebrow arched, I asked her, "Really?"

"Yeah," Warren replied with a wide grin that slowly made its way to his face as the idea sank in. "It's not really that hard if you use the back door. We'd done it before for a friend."

"What about your car?" I asked them.

Warren waved a hand in a dismissive gesture. "It'll live."

"It could get car-napped or something," I pointed out.

 They didn't seem to care though, already detailing the supposed plan.

I, of course, probably wouldn't ever leave my car unattended on the side of a road. But then again, among all of us, I was the one with the missing car. It was ironic, but I've long stopped trying to make sense of this night.

We decided, instead, that Warren and Alyssa were going to help us get into Sluggers first, at least until I get to talk to McKenna and ask her if she knew anything about where Tori and Lewis might be. After that, we'd proceed to drop them off at their friend's house, and Austin and I could go follow whatever lead we get from McKenna.

I was a bit doubtful about the whole thing, but it wasn't like there was anything I could do but try to see and go along with it.

"Don't be such a pessimist, Red," Austin told me once Alyssa and Warren finished detailing the whole thing to us. He was smirking at me in that incredibly annoying way of his.

My eyes narrowed into slits. "This, coming from the guy who was moaning about how the Hulks would get your ass kicked."

"My sexy ass."

"You're so in love with your buttocks, I wouldn't be surprised if you married it."

The smirk slid off his face.

While arguing with him, I hadn't noticed how Alyssa and Warren had been cackling from the backseat. I turned to give them a puzzled look. There was something in the way Alyssa was laughing while looking knowingly at me that made me ask, "What?"

"You guys are absolutely adorable," she said.

The car swerved so suddenly I had to shriek. "Fuck, Dick. What the hell was that?"

He ignored me. "Us? Adorable?" Austin asked, his voice tainted with skepticism. He huffed. "I know I am, but I don't know about Red."

"You nearly got us killed," I went on.

"Red is so snarky it literally surprised me to hear her being associated with the word adorable." He shook his head, still intent on not paying attention to me. "Trust me. Red is a lot of things, but not adorable."

"I am not snarky, you—"

"Never adorable."

"Dick, I'm not kidding when I say I—"

"Red," he cut me off, "admit it. You are."

I glared at him for a few seconds, silently seething because I couldn't exactly argue with him. Tearing my eyes away from him, I drew in a deep breath and slumped back in my seat. "Shut up."

---

The drive back to Sluggers was animated with more of the easy conversation we had with Alyssa and Warren. I wasn't sure why, but Austin probably reserved his annoying attitude specifically for me because honestly, when he was talking to them, he was pretty okay. The moment he talked to me, however, he reverted back to scowling or saying something completely egotistical and annoying.

The moment we pulled into the parking lot of Sluggers, I immediately scouted the area for signs of the Hulks. I was relieved to find them nowhere in sight. There were more cars now than before, since it was already around 9:40 pm.

I still couldn't fully wrap around my head around everything that happened so far tonight. In the course of one night: I'd gotten my Arctic Monkeys shirt ruined, turned down Tyler's invitation for a date, almost got busted for underage drinking, walked for around a half-hour to and from the gas station, nearly became a witness of the Hulks beating the crap out of Austin, and managed to actually find two strangers to be pretty... okay.

Austin and I didn't ask our new acquaintances if they were together, but despite the lack of touchy-feely moments between them, they seemed to have a kind of synergy between them that was undeniable.

"Austin and I will go in first," Warren said just as we all climbed out of Georgina. Austin was busy checking the locks but he nodded and seemed to be paying attention.

Alyssa and Warren relayed the whole plan to us again.

Surprisingly, it wasn't really that complicated for a plan that went against the law, but they assured us that it worked for them before. They had this friend who didn't have a fake ID either and they managed to get her in without getting into any trouble.

Of course, I still couldn't shake off the feeling that something bad might happen here. Then again, I might just be being too pessimistic. No plan was foolproof after all.

The general idea was for Austin and Warren to find a way to distract anyone guarding the backdoor long enough to get me in. Alyssa, of course, decided to stay with me to help me, despite the fact that she had her ID.

To be honest, it didn't seem wise to trust two strangers we'd picked up from a random sidewalk at the edge of town, but it didn't seem wise to let Austin walk into the bar alone either. If he did, I can't say I wouldn't be be surprised if he came out with twenty members of the Mafia hunting him down, intent on assassinating him.

"So," Austin said, his eyes flicking back and forth between our two friends before landing on me. I wasn't sure, but I think he might have given me a small nod, as if to say good luck or see you, "we'll go in ahead."

"Yep," Alyssa chirped.

As soon as they turned away, the two guys immediately fell into a conversation about sports. I could vaguely hear them speaking about the latest national basketball game or something, but had to divert my attention when Alyssa turned to me.

"Come on, then. Right this way." She started walking towards the side of the small building. We were walking towards an area with next to no light, but Alyssa didn't exactly seem like she'd go jujitsu on me and brutally murder me on the spot.

But then again, this could all be an elaborate plot to get Austin and I separated so they could kill us separately.

It didn't seem likely, but whatever. I started walking beside Alyssa, who was humming a low tune to herself.

"I was surprised when you told us that you and Austin are practically strangers," she suddenly brought up. "You just seem to get along so well."

I almost started coughing. "Getting along well?"

"Uh, yeah," she said with a slight shake of her head.

I didn't really have a lot of friends, so I was used to speaking to Tori, who was almost a full head shorter than me. Alyssa and I, however, were almost the same sight, so I kind of felt slightly awkward about walking alongside her. It was weird to even have thoughts about this, but I just really wasn't used to it at all.

"We've literally been doing nothing but fight." I lifted a shoulder in a small shrug. "I could hardly even stand him."

She gave me that little knowing smile of her. It was like those kind of smiles you get from people who already watched the movie you were watching, and they were just trying not to give spoilers so they're driving you crazy by looking at you like oh, I know how this ends up.

"We are not going to end up with each other," I said indignantly when I realized what the smile meant.

Both her eyebrows shot up. "I didn't say anything."

"But you were thinking it."

"How would you even know what I'm thinking?" Even the way she said it contained no denial. It was slightly off-putting how she could get me so worked up about something she never even said. "You're the one who's suddenly saying stuff about ending up together."

She even winked.

She fucking winked.

(I have a feeling she and Dick would get along really well.)

"Forget it," I snapped and instantly felt guilty about being, as Austin so nicely put it, snarky. I sighed. "I just, if you're thinking that we'd somehow end up together, I just wanted you to know that it's not going to happen."

"Why not?" Alyssa frowned. She looked genuinely concerned about the whole thing.

"Aside from the fact that we do nothing but scowl at each other when we're alone?" I pretended to think about it, before saying, "Oh, right. I don't do romance."

Her brows creased together. "What does that even mean?"

"I just... I don't believe in love," I told her with a simple shrug.

The words hung over us, and I hated how they sounded slightly bitter. I wasn't even bitter about it; just matter-of-factly. In fact, I'd like to think that I had always been nonchalant regarding my distaste about anything romantic.

I wondered, for a second, if I'd offended her. When I looked at her, though, she didn't seem to take it the wrong way. "Why not?" She shot me a genuinely interested look.

I've had this conversation with Tori one too many times before. Somehow, though, I was uncomfortable with telling her about all the reasons I had for thinking that romantic love was overrated.

"I just don't," I finally replied.

She seemed to be giving me a calculating look, but didn't say anything because we reached the corner of the building. If we peered over, we could pretty much see the backdoor.

"If we're lucky, no one's guarding that door on the other side," she said, "but if we're not, let's just hope Warren and Austin successfully get him to leave his post."

"Are you sure this plan will work?" I tried to push past the doubt, but I really sucked at being optimistic. She shot me a look and I shut up.

If I even let myself think about the whole thing and how it could backfire—somebody catching me, getting taken into interrogating, not being able to find my best friend because I was busy trying to get myself bailed out, something bad happening to said best friend—so I just tried to reassure myself with the knowledge that it worked before.

"You know," she said, "that's a shame."

"What?"

"You gotta admit," she said with mischief glinting in her eyes. "Austin's kind of really, really fucking hot."

I shook my head. "Please don't let him hear that."

"He is," she said.

I held a hand in a stop gesture. "I'm pretending you never said that."

"It needed to be acknowledged," she said in a sing-song voice.

Snorting, I gave her a look that said really? "Heappreciates himself enough, thank you very much. He would probably make a shrine to worship himself, if he could. Really, the best gift you could give to that guy is a mirror."

She was giving me that I know how this ends smile, and I waited for her to call me on this, but she shut up and simply peered over the corner of the wall to look at the backdoor.

Curious, I peered over as well and saw no one but the usual smokers casually hanging out, leaning against the wall without making eye contact with anyone else. I looked away and checked the time. It had been around six minutes since the guys entered the bar. Surely, they hadn't gotten in a fight or something, right? (I really wouldn't doubt it.)

Then, I heard the unmistakable sound of the door being opened, and Alyssa grabbed my lower arm. I looked over, just in time to see Austin pop his head out and motion for us to come closer. Alyssa and I sprinted towards it, wondering if the smokers would stop us or something, but they merely watched us until we got to the door, uninterested. Or possibly too stoned to care.

"Quick," Austin said as we both scrambled through the door. He closed it behind us as soon as we got in.

"Did that actually work?" I asked both of them. "Seems anticlimactic."

Alyssa tilted her head to the side. "Told you."

Austin led us through a series of small corridors until we reached the bathrooms and, finally, the inside of the club. I've always loved the way the strobe lights would pulsate along with the heavy bass of whatever music was playing—I loved the organized chaos of the lights, the controlled randomness—but for some reason, it was just giving me a headache today.

I was too exhausted to deal with this. Some pop song was playing over the speakers, so I figured the next band was just starting to set up or they were probably on a break. I looked over at Austin, who led us to some corner, saying this was where Warren said they'd be meeting us when he was done distracting the man guarding the backdoor.

"Now that I think about it, how did he distract him?" I asked Austin.

He lifted a shoulder in a lazy shrug. "Something about him hearing some woman giving birth in the bathroom or something."

I didn't have time to ask if he was joking or not, because that was the moment Warren appeared with a wide grin on his face.

"I told you it was easy," he said to me.

"Seems too easy," I agreed.

There was an awkward moment when the four of us just stood there, exchanging looks, as if waiting for someone to make their move.

I cleared my throat. "So, um. I'll try looking for McKenna."

"We'll be here," Alyssa said quickly and wished me luck.

Only when I walked away from them did I realize the sheer ridiculousness of what I was about to do.

I've hated McKenna Davies for two years now. I've hated her even before her hair was still brown and waist-length. She used to be a sweet girl, really. We might have even been friends freshman year.

But then she told everyone about how I lost my virginity to Jeremy White.

I knew it wasn't that big of a deal, in retrospect, but it was kind of incredibly infuriating to wake up one day, go to school, and realize everyone's staring at you because they all knew what you'd been up to last Friday night.

Sleeping with Jeremy White had been a drunken decision. Truth be told, I should have thought better of it, but I was drunk and it was the night I received a call from my dad about how I couldn't spend holiday break with him that year because he was "dealing with some things," which I knew really meant that I had no space in his shiny new life. I was frustrated and I was reckless and I was impulsive, so that night, I really didn't care about the consequences of my actions.

What made it such a big deal, of course, was the fact that Jeremy White was going out with McKenna Davies's best friend, Stephanie What's-her-face.

It was a messy period of my life, one where all I wanted to do was punch the next person who asked me, Did you really do it? and everyone assumed that I was sleeping with everyone else's boyfriends and while I couldn't care less about my reputation (seeing as a few weeks later, Jeremy White had slept with a new girl and everybody forgot about me), I didn't exactly appreciate the fact that everyone knew about it and it was McKenna's fault.

Not one soul knows how I've managed not to kill her over the years. I was hoping the same patience I had for her for four years would keep me from closing my hands on her throat when I see her.

I'd been carefully maneuvering past the dancing, seemingly drunk people as I made my way to the bar in hopes of finding McKenna or any of her friends there.

They weren't, so I moved on to the booths on the far back.

Some girl managed to dock me the back of my head and I stumbled right into a three girls having a conversation.

"So, then, I was, like, in the bathroom? And I was scared because these three guys were, like, moving in on me? And, then, this guy came along and saved me?"

It sounded familiar. I knew all too well who "this guy" was. The girls didn't notice me, too busy gushing out over how "hot" her "savior" was. All of them seemed to speak with question marks at the end of each sentence and (I really hate myself for stereotyping, but) they were also all blondes. Real or not, I couldn't care less.

I shook my head and moved on, looking for a flash of purple hair anywhere, but it was kind of hard to do that with all these lights swirling around. I'd almost decked a redhead with sharp pixie cut thinking it was her, but thankfully stopped myself when I realized it wasn't.

Just when I was about to give up and go back to where Austin and the others were waiting for me, a flash of purple caught my eye.  

She was standing right outside a booth, the way someone who's out to get more drinks would be, and it was sheer luck that I spotted her. It was the farthest booth and I was positive I never would have found her if she hadn't been standing up.

I walked over to her, trying not to get hit by any random drunk person on my way.

I managed to catch the last bits of their conversation—"are just using me to buy you drinks and"—when I grabbed her by the arm and cut her off.

"McKenna," I said.

There was a pause. She looked confused at first, disoriented, her eyes narrowing at me, before widening. She must have realized who I was. She shook my hand off and took a step back, as if to put some distance between us.

Briefly, I looked over at her friends and recognized no one, so they might have been people who didn't go to the same school as ours.

"Do you know where Tori is?" I asked her, yelling a bit over the music.

Her brows furrowed even further at first, but then her face cleared into her usual calculating look. "Why aren't you with her? Too busy screwing someone else's boyfriend?"

I rolled my eyes. "Do you know where Tori is?" I pressed further.

"She came here earlier," she answered, probably picking up on my murderous intent. "She left around a half hour ago."

"Do you know where she went?"

"Why don't you just ask her or something?" McKenna crossed her arms over her chest.

Irritated, I repeated my question and took a small step closer. "Did she or did she not tell you where she's going?"

I felt a small surge of triumph when she took a step back. "I don't know."

"McKenna," I said warningly, dangerously close to grabbing a fistful of her purple hair and trying to yank each strand off her scalp. I wasn't even going to hate doing that.

Some guy from the booth stood up. "Hey."

My eyes snapped from McKenna to his.

"Your friend's the Chinese one?" he asked me. "With the blonde dude?"

I gritted my teeth together, knowing Tori wouldn't have appreciated this misconception about her (everyone always thought she was Chinese), but didn't bother correcting him. "That one."

"She mentioned going to some music shop," he said.

Skeptical, I gave him a once-over, wondering if he was simply saying so I could leave them alone. My eyes flicked back to McKenna.

"Yeah, I think she did mention a music shop," she said.

Whether they were lying or not, I wouldn't have a choice but check for myself either way. I would have thanked them—but I just couldn't bring myself to thank someone like McKenna Davies—but I simply gave them a curt nod and swiveled on my heel.

I might have heard one of them say "What got shoved up her ass?" but I decided to pretend I didn't. I wasn't exactly up for a fight.

I was walking back to the corner where Austin and the others were waiting when someone slammed into my back, making me almost trip on my feet if I hadn't braced myself on someone's back. I turned, expecting to see McKenna or one of her friends, but it was just some random drunk dude staggering and struggling to stay upright.

"Hey, babe."

The deep voice came from the person I accidentally had to use for support. When I looked up, I was surprised to see a familiar face.

Holy shit.

It was one of the Hulks.

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A/N: 

I just wanted to apologize because this chapter was long overdue, considering it was already typed and was simply waiting to be edited. Unfortunately, each update from now on will probably be as sporadic as this. I can't thank you all enough for the support you're giving me and this story and YOU GUYS ROCK OKAY?? Also, Austin's butt. Enough said.