ten

Dedicated to Sevvy, because if there's anyone with a heart of gold on wattpad, it would be her. Definitely check out her works bc she's postively awesome. 

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Chapter 10

I was frozen on the spot as Long Hair started singing a slow, sweet song. He sang it so we well, I would have enjoyed it if he hadn't been serenading for no fucking reason. As if I didn't already hate big, romantic gestures.

It was weird to have a stranger singing to me. He seemed familiar enough, so maybe I did know him, but I still couldn't place where I'd seen him.

"Dude," Austin said from right beside me. He sounded just as freaked out as I was. "Is he really serenading you?"

I could feel my cheeks flaming red. There were some people around us talking in hushed murmurs,  wondering who the heck "Reed Oarkley" was, and why on earth was she being serenaded by Long Hair? Behind me, I could hear some giggles, along with some girls who keep saying how sweet and hot Long Hair was.

Me? I wanted to throw up.

"Do you know this guy?"

I looked up at Austin and shook my head. "I have no idea."

"Why does he know you?" He shook his head at me, eyes cautious as he tugged on the collar of his shirt. "He said your full name. I didn't even know your full name."

"Well, now you do."

I didn't recognize the song, but it was still something too sappy and romantic for my taste. Despite the fact that Long Hair had a good voice, I couldn't make myself think any better of the ridiculous love song. Long Hair kept his gaze on me all throughout the song. Occasionally, he would look down on this guitar before looking back at me.

Needless to say, it was very awkward, so I tried my best not to look at him.

"Let's go," I said, trying to push past the crowd, but Austin held me in place.

"Are you serious?"

"I'm not exactly fond of random strangers singing me random love songs."

"Are you sure you don't know him?"

I groaned but turned to study the guy anyway. While it was true that I think he was slightly familiar, I still had no idea where I'd seen him. I studied his black hair and tried to look past the shadows falling across his face.

I have a really good memory. I don't usually forget people I'd met before, and I was pretty sure I would have recognized someone who stood out as much as Long Hair. Even the people Tori introduce me to always leave a few impressions, despite the fact that I usually tune out most of the conversations we have with them.

The only time my memory fucked up was when I was drunk.

Maybe I met him when I'd been drinking. A party, maybe. Possibly when Tori dragged me out to go to a bar or a club. Whatever it was, I was pretty sure it didn't warrant a public scene involving a guitar, a song I've only heard now but already started hating, and a crowd of people burning a hole through my head as they looked at the "lucky" Reed Oakley.

"Red," Austin said, "this is really freaking me out."

"I'm the one being serenaded by a fucking stranger, and you're the one freaking out?" Despite my "snarking," though, I couldn't hide the fact that I actually was uncomfortable about the whole situation.

I tried my best to remember where I'd met him. It was kind of hard to recall the times I'd been drunk, but the last one was during the graduation party. I wasn't senseless drunk or anything, but I was pretty sure I'd been tipsy. 

It was before Tyler saw me and started talking to me that night.

I remembered then that before the party even hit full swing, I was already taking shots, trying to drink as much as I could. Tori was usually there to stop me when I was doing something as stupid as drinking my problems away, but she was out having celebratory dinner with her family.

My heart sunk to my stomach.

I wasn't sure, but now that I started thinking about it, I remembered how awful I felt before the whole Tyler thing happened.

I didn't have Tori with me at the party. Mom was working on a difficult case, so after some dinner at this French diner, where Mom and I both had to eat as fast as we could so she could go back to her office to work on her case, I had enough time to look for something else to do.

I didn't want to rain on Tori's parade. She rarely had dinner with both of her parents, and she didn't need a pissed-off best friend whining about how her dad didn't show up at her own graduation. 

So I headed to the grad party.

I was upset and more than just annoyed at myself for feeling awful about the whole situation with my dad. It wasn't like it was anything new for him not to show up, but at that time, it felt like a big deal.

When I wasn't feeling good, I had a tendency to take it out on any alcoholic drink I could get my hands on.

Austin looked at me. There must have been something on my face that showed how I figured at least something out. "What is it?" he asked me. "Do you remember him?"

I didn't, really, but I said, "Maybe."

"So he isn't just some psychic who happens to know your name?"

I took a deep breath and forced myself to turn to Long Hair again. I looked at him more closely, studying his features to find out where he fit in the puzzle. "I'm not sure."

"How can one person not be sure about this?"

I gritted my teeth together and decided not to answer him.

We waited for the song to end. A lot of the people around us clapped and hooted, thanking him for the "wonderful performance." I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes. If there was anything wonderful about a public serenade from some weirdo you could hardly remember, I couldn't see it.

The people waited for him to sing again, but he made it clear he was taking a short break. He set his guitar down and stood up from the foldable chair he was sitting on.

Then he started walking.

Right towards me.

I tugged at Austin's arm. "We should really go."

Before we could move, however, Long Hair was already reaching out to wrap his arms around me. I stood there, frozen, as Austin inched a bit farther from me and this fucking long-haired weirdo wrapped me in a semi-awkward hug.

"Reed!" Long Hair said as he pulled away. He kept his hands on my shoulder and grinned at me. I tried my best not to look too freaked out. 

"Do I know you?" I asked him.

He seemed taken aback at first, but then he continued smiling like I just said a really good joke. "You're funny."

Now I was really freaking out.

"Reed," he said, shaking my shoulders a little. I would have pulled away under normal circumstances, but there was something about the way he kept referring to me like a long-lost childhood friend, that made it hard for me to move. "We met at the grad party?"

I blinked. 

Austin was eyeing the exchange between us with a hesitant look on his face. I caught his eye, but he just shrugged in a slightly panicky way. I looked back at Long Hair.

"I don't remember you."

Long Hair stepped back, but he was still smiling. "Well, you were pretty drunk then."

I couldn't help but widen my eyes in horror. Had I fooled around with him while I was drunk? I would have remembered, even if it was nothing but a small interaction.

Right before I could ask him what really happened between us, or how we met, he said, "You're Tyler's girl, right?"

Now, Austin seemed to blink in surprise. He didn't say anything, but he was eyeing me curiously.

"I'm not," I said, shaking my head. "I'm not Tyler's girl."

Even simply saying the words made me cringe. I wasn't sure, but now that I was reminded of Tyler, it was pretty hard to ignore that gnawing feeling in my gut, telling me about how I ditched Tyler earlier without giving him a straight answer regarding his invitation for us to have dinner.

"We met right before he came to woo you out of your misery, man."

"What?"

I took a step back, feeling stupid. I didn't like the fact that I couldn't remember what on earth he was talking about.

"Dude," Long Hair sad. "You really don't remember me?"

"Did I do something infinitely stupid that night?" I asked him.

"Well, I did have to hold your hair back while you puked on the rose bushes."

My brows furrowed at the thought. I did remember throwing up, early in the party. If I thought hard enough, I do remember someone holding my hair back and helping me to my feet as I heaved. I thought back to that night, trying to recall as much as I could, but it wasn't exactly easy to do so.

After a long while, I said, "Is your name... Marvin or something?" 

Long Hair's grin widened. "Marvin it is, my friend! Marvin it is."

"I—I'm sorry," I said. "How did... how did we meet?"

I usually sobered up after throwing up, and I vaguely remember meeting Tyler after the whole puking thing. The details before that, however, were sort of hazy to me.

Marvin kept smiling at me. He kind of reminded me of surfer dudes who kept smiling like everything was a joke, but he looked nothing like a surfer dude with his long black hair and all-black ensemble. "So I was chillin' out in the garden, then you came stumbling out the house and started puking your shit out on the bushes," he said. I winced at the distant imagery. "Man, I felt like an ass if I just let you do your thing, yeah? So I walked over and held your hair back."

Austin looked at me, as if he wasn't sure if Marvin was telling the truth or not.

I tried to ignore his gaze on me as I looked at Marvin.

"I freaked out when you started crying over some--"

"What?" I asked him, cutting him off. I was surprised to hear this. I hardly cried. 

"Yeah, you don't remember?" He simply shrugged. "Anyway, you started crying and I was freaking out. I asked you what your name was, and I was looking for help, then Tyler came along and yeah. He helped you back into the house or something."

Tyler. Tyler was with me while I was drunk and crying. Now that I really thought about it, I vaguely remember taking a small nap after throwing up. When I woke up, Tyler was with me. He offered me some milk and we just started talking.

I wasn't quite sure what happened before the nap.

Had I told him about my problems? About my dad?

Was that why Tyler thinks it wasn't just some kind of drunken one-night stand?

"How do you know Tyler?" I asked Marvin. 

He shrugged. "A friend of a friend. Heard the party and headed there as fast as I could."

I tried to ignore the unsettling feeling in my gut. Was there more to that night with Tyler than just an impulsive one-night stand?

"Anyway," Marvin said, "it was nice seeing you and all, but I got to bolt."

Austin was looking at me weirdly. There was something on his face that let me know he was thinking. Thinking of what, I'm not sure, but he seemed to be seriously contemplating on it. His expression had changed ever since Marvin told us that I had been crying over something, and for some reason, this made me feel embarrassed.

After out little talk with Marvin, we headed back into the music store. I was trying my best not to look at Austin, knowing I wouldn't want to see that skeptic expression on his face. He knew something was up about that whole crying thing, and I hated it when people knew I had a weak side.

If he thought anything about it, though, he didn't say anything.

Magic 8 was every bit as magical as a run-down music store could get. There was a bored-looking middle-aged man behind the counter, reading some Marvel comics. He paid little attention to me and Austin.

"Are those vinyl records?" Austin was pointing at an aisle at the far back.

I shrugged. "How should I know?"

As Austin headed to that aisle to check the records, I headed for the pudgy man behind the counter. 

"Excuse me?" I said.

He didn't even lower his comics down, much less look at me. "What?"

Irritated, I bit the insides of my cheeks down. I was still thinking about the whole Marvin thing and it took me all I had not to lose my calm on him all of a sudden. "I was wondering if you'd seen an Asian girl, about this height?"

The reply was automatic. "No."

He hadn't even looked at me. He just kept reading, flipping a page over, hardly even blinking.

I wasn't exactly one for patience, especially when it came to people being rude, and this blatant rudeness and overall douchiness was grating on my nerves. I knew I shouldn't make a scene, but it was hard not to simply shout after all the frustrations of the night.

"Are you sure?" I asked him through gritted teeth. 

"Yes," he replied without missing a beat.

I took a deep breath before snatching the comics away from him. It was impolite, but I was irritated and downright pissed. "Hey!" he finally looked up at me.

He was probably younger than I thought, probably just approaching his late thirties, but his hair was receding back into his hairline and his beard looked scruffy and he kind of reminded me of those college dropouts who obsessed over Star trek and video games.

"Have you seen a short, Asian girl come here earlier?"

He was glaring at me, and I glared back, holding my ground. I was still holding the comics and his eyes kept darting to it every so often. "I'm going to call the cops on you."

"I'm going to rip this comics in half," I shot back.

His eyes widened and he grunted. Austin must have noticed the commotion, because he was moving towards us, slightly unsure. 

"Have you?" I asked the man.

"No," he replied, but then squirmed a little. "I don't know. Maybe."

"So you did see her?"

His eyes kept flitting back to the magazine I had in hand. "I don't know."

I lifted the magazine and made a show of flipping through the pages in a manner that would damage it permanently. He looked terrified.

"Yes," he hissed out. "I think she came by. She with a dude?"

I lowered the magazine. "Yeah. Do you know where she went?"

"How would I know that? It's not like I ask all them crazy teenagers comin' 'round." 

Taking another deep breath, I opened my mouth to spew out more threats about ripping his comics in half, but Austin cut me off with a question of his own.

"What time did they come here?"

"Around an hour ago," he replied. "No idea where they went."

It was a dead-end. 

I was so disappointed that I didn't care when I tossed the comics back at him, ignoring his panicked gasp when it landed on the counter in an ungraceful manner, the pages folding in half. I was already walking out the door when Austin caught up with me.

"What the fuck was that?" he shot at me as soon we got out.

I turned to him with a barely suppressed anger. "What?"

"You didn't have to be so fucking rude," he chastised.

I scoffed. "This, coming from you. Simply golden."

Looking away, I continued stomping back to Georgina, trying not to let this dead-end bother me. Sure, there was no guarantee that we would have found another lead by going to all these music stores, but knowing they'd been here, but that there was no way we would know where they were now, I couldn't exactly calm down.

It made it hard for me to think clearly, so I just kept walking.

I was jerked back by Austin grabbing me by the crook of my elbow. "Stop being such a fucking bitch."

"Can't you see?" I yelled. "We don't have any other leads."

"Yes, I can see that just fine," he said, unnervingly calm and collected. "But that doesn't mean I'm raging like a fucking madman on steroids. You pissing the hell out of everyone won't solve anything."

"Right," I said with as much venom as I could. "Like you're suddenly the nice guy here."

He glared at me. "Look, Red. I know we got off the wrong foot, but can you please shut the fuck up about every bad thing that's happened tonight?"

"For all your talk about not being rude, you're pretty--"

He pulled me closer, so that his face was just inches from mine. His eyes were blazing with pent-up anger. Despite his obvious irritation, however, his voice was low and calm, and it was exactly that that made it a lot scarier than it should have been. "You're not helping anyone by raging like this. You shut the fuck up and try to calm down."

"Fine," I snapped.

The truth, though, was that there was something in his calm demeanor that made his anger even more prominent. I never would have backed off if he hadn't retaliated with this.

"You got other plans?" he asked me. "Anything that could help us look for them?"

My head was beginning to clear up.

I knew he was right, so I had to force myself to be calm. I took three deep breaths, willing myself to be calm. I wanted my anger to go away, at least for now, because just like he said, it wasn't going to help us with this situation. 

"I'll try to think of something."

He nodded but turned away and busied himself with unlocking Georgina. Turning away, I ran a hand through my hair and tried to come up with any other possible plans for the rest of the night.

Just as I turned, I caught sight of Marvin packing his guitar up. He seemed to be busy counting the money he got, but I approached him anyway. I could feel Austin looking at me as I walked towards the sidewalk where just five minutes ago, a crowd was standing.

"Hey," I said as soon as I was within earshot.

He looked up, slightly startled, before his eyes took on that surfer dude look again. "Yo."

I threw my hair over my shoulder. "I was wondering if you'd seen an Asian girl? About this tall."

He stopped whatever he was doing and squinted, as if he was trying to remember something. "Yeah. I think so."

I could feel my hope fluttering. "Really?"

He straightened up and slung his guitar over his shoulder. "Yeah."

"Do you, I don't know, maybe you know where she was headed?"

Lifting a hand, he scratched his chin thoughtfully. "I'm not sure. She was talking to a guy earlier."

"Yeah." I tried to suppress my excitement. "That's her."

"I think I heard something about grabbing some coffee," he replied with a small shrug.

The relief I felt was immediate. My shoulders rose, as if propelled by this newfound sense of hope. "Coffee?"

"Yeah."

I smiled at him, trying to let him know how thankful I was for his help. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it," he said with a wide grin. "Anything for Tyler's girl." I would have corrected him, but he was already saying goodbye. "See ya later, Reed Oakley." He brought a hand to the side of his brow in a mock salute before walking away.

When I turned back to Austin, who was standing beside Georgina, he was watching me with a blank expression. I wasn't sure if his anger from earlier was gone, or if he was just good at hiding it. I pushed past the thought and made my way back to Georgina.

"Did you find something?" he asked as soon as I was close enough.

Even if I tried, I wouldn't have been able to keep my lips from stretching into a wide grin. "Coffee."

"Coffee?"

"Yep." I walked over to the passenger side. Reaching for the door handle, I said, "Marvin told me he saw them walk out of Magic 8, talking about getting some coffee."

He considered this, nodding ever so slightly. "Actually," he said. "Coffee sounds good. We should get some too."

We both climbed in on our seats. The air between us still felt strained, but it wasn't entirely uncomfortable. As opposed to how we were both so pissed earlier, this was better. 

"So," he said as soon as we pulled out of the parking lot. "That Tyler guy?"

Surprised, I turned to him. "What?"

"That Tyler dude," he said. I wasn't sure how to respond, or what exactly he was asking, so I didn't say anything. After a pause, he cleared his throat and said, "Your boyfriend?"

Almost unconsciously, I was already shaking my head. "I don't do relationships."

"Right," was his only reply.

I thought back to what Marvin told me earlier, about how I was crying and how Tyler came to help me. I tried to recall what I must have told him.

Was there more to that night than just a drunken one-night stand?

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I don't thank you all enough for reading sooooo thank you thank you thank you so much. Also, I will more or less be updating this every weekend (hopefully) so yeah. :) Thank you <333 

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