A Carmel Love Story

Chapter three

Meet and Greet

An argument immediately breaks out.

"We're going," I exclaims, smiling.

"No lyra, we are not getting in a random car with some random male actor you just met," Tommy retorts, stepping forward.

"Guys-" I cut drysten off.

"Why the hell not tom, we both know if you go home all you're going to do is eat, watch community, and continue to ignore those twenty thousand missing assignments," I counter back, taking a step so we're almost nose to nose.

"Guys," drysten starts, tentatively.

"What!" We both snap, turning towards him.

" You know tommy, you don't have to come, me and lyra," he puts a hand on my shoulder, "can go and you can stay."

My eyes widen, and I smirk at him, " Ya tom, I can go by myself, it'll be fine."

I know his friendly protection instinct will kick in, and sure enough, " You're not going alone, I'll come with you." I jump up and down, squealing.

" Thank you thank you thank you!" I exclaim, hugging him.

He smiles and pats my head. I'm a few months older than him, but he's still got a good 8 inches on me. Since I stopped growing pretty young, I'm only the short height of five feet.

"Great," drysten claps his hands, "And here's our ride now."

Me and Tommy both gape at the large limo that pulls up. The door behind us opens and people begin to come out to look at the car. Drysten quickly opens the door and shuffles us inside before entering himself. He slides to the front and knocks on a small black door, "Atlas, we're going to the lodgings."

The car starts moving slowly, and I look at the interior. It seems like it could comfortably sit up to 18 people, and what looks like a mini fridge sits in the corner.

"Nice, isn't it," drysten says, gesturing around at the car.

"That one word for it," I chuckle, still observing the inside with a slight Look of what I imagine must be shock.

Drysten crosses one leg over the other and grins, and I notice something I hadn't before. "Do you have a nose ring?" I ask, and he chuckles.

"Yep, just got it a few weeks ago, I'd take it out, but it takes too long." He shrugs, "So, what do you guys do for fun around here?"

I immediately start listing all of the things I remember, "Well Madison Antosh's second cousin usually hosts parties in the park every wednesday, and Ashly Decker's mom is always hosting church dinners, but those are never fun." She takes a breath and thinks for a minute, before her face lights up. "Oh, and Abraham Balderes host's a market every Tuesday, small businesses and really anyone who wants extra cash sets up stalls to sell stuff."

Drysten turns to Tommy, a smirk on his face, "So what does Tommy do? I mean other than act like a sleep deprived maniac."

I snorts into my hand and I glare at her, before turning back to drysten."I work a few jobs, but other than that I usually just spend most of my time on school."

I scoff, "tell that to your 10 missing assignments and 4 failing classes." Drysten laughs and even Tommy manages a chuckle.

I'm right of course, tommy is absolutely miserable in school even when he tries, so he's just stopped really trying. But it's not like anyone really cares except teachers. The history books are gonna talk about how fucked up our government was, not how kids were failing math and couldn't solve 82 y = 20083.

The car stops and a dark velvet voice with a russian like accent comes from the front of the vehicle, "we're here Mr. Colimore."

Drysten smiles and is the first one out the door. He does a dramatic gesture with his hands, motioning for us to get out of the car with him, "After you."

I jump out and take Tommy's hand as he exits. I do a once over of the inn he's staying at. It's tall, and a glass balcony sits next to what looks like a fancy rectangular brick silo. Most of it is open, but there's what looks like a pool on top and behind a glass door is what looks like a few more rooms, the rest of which I assume are inside.

I hear the front door open and turn to see a tall and strongly built man in a suit climb out. And I'm not kidding, he looks like a Thor turned spy. Drysten sees me staring and rushes to introduce us, "this is atlas, he's my personal bodyguard and self defense trainer," he knocks his arm against atlas, who begins to walk into the inn.

Drysten turns to us and shrugs. "Atlas is stubborn."

Tommy snorts into his hand, and rye raises his eyebrows, turning to him. Tommy tries, (and fails) to cover it with a cough, but straightens up. "Um, how well is your bodyguard supposed to know you, exactly?"

Drysten glares and ignores him, turns. He gestures for us to follow, and begins walking himself.

I elbow tommy as we walk. He rubs arm, "Ow, what the hell was that for?"

I begin to answer when we actually enter the large inn. A large flight of stairs and an elevator is in the corner, and the front desk is beside the wall. Atlas is leaning against a wall on his phone and drysten is sitting on the floor beside him. Rye jumps up when he sees us, and Atlas presses the up button. The elevator opens and we walk in, Atlas in the front.

I lean over and whisper to Rye, "Why do you have the white version of Mike Tyson driving you around?"

Drysten snorts into his hand and begins to answer when Atlas interrupts. " As Mr. Colimore is a famous actor with a net worth of about six point two million dollars, I'm simply as a security precaution against anyone who has less than kind intentions regarding him."

Tommy laughs, "And exactly how many attempts on drystens life have you helped stop."

The elevator stops and Atlas steps out before answering stoically, "three."

Rye laughs as he walks off the elevator, "he's exaggerating, the first time someone broke onto set, the second time dude tried to get into a fist fight with me and-"

Atlas cuts him off, "You mean succeeded in getting into a fist fight with you." drysten glares as atlas continues, "if i recall right you ended up with a black eye."

"same difference," drysten says, waving him off. "and as I was saying, the third time someone just sent me a death threat, but I get those from time to time anyway."

I look at him in shock. "i never saw that fist fight on the news, how did you cover that up?"

Rye smirks, " We were filming an action show at the time anyway, so we just said it was an accident, and no one really paid any attention."

Tommy rolls his eyes and mutters under his breath, "always the honest one rye."

Drysten whips around to face tommy, grinning ear to ear, "you just called me rye."

"what?"

Drysten takes a step closer to tommy, still grinning and Atlas sighs and stops walking. "You called me Rye, like Lyra does, not my real name."

Tommy ears go slightly red, but I think im the only one that notices, and tommy stands defiantly. "And? why shouldnt i call you rye?"

Drysten turns toward the front, chuckling "toche."

Atlas and rye lead lead us to room 207, and atlas pulls out a small card, obvoily ment to open it. Drysten leans back and whispers in my ear, "Im not even allowes to keep the keycard with me. He says ill lose it," he pauses, " he's right, but it still stings."

The door clicks open and we enter.