Chance Encounters

six

Dedicated to @roastedpiglet bc omf her comments are life idek they make me want to cry from happiness thank you so much <3

Chapter 6

I was tired.

Since we couldn't exactly go with just one liter of gas for the whole night, we had to go bring Georgina to the gas station either way to fill her up. I saw another sneak-peek of the redhead on Austin's wallet when he pulled it out to pay.

 I tried not to look at it, of course.

After the walk we had earlier, I realized that Georgina, despite being kind of old, was better than having to travel on foot.

It was a quarter past nine when we actually made it back to one of the clubs we'd been circling earlier. The Sluggers was, as far as I knew, the club Tori preferred over the others. When I asked her why, a few months ago, she said it was because it didn't seem as sketchy as the others. It was also the only live music club, which meant that if Lewis mentioned a band and a club, I figured it might be a good place to start.  

"You got a fake ID?" Austin asked me as soon as we found a decent parking space.

I gave him a look. "Uh, is that even a question?"

He mirrored my look. "Do you ever just answer with a simple yes or no?"

"Yes, I have a fake ID," I hissed through gritted teeth. "It's right here in—" I cut myself short. "Fuck. It's in my purse."

We contemplated on this one for a moment, until we both decided that I was going to stay here and he can go in by himself to ask around.

"Keep Georgina some company," he told me right before leaving.

I wasn't exactly comfortable with letting him leave and go in the club alone. God knows what an idiot like him would end up doing. I wouldn't be surprised if he somehow decided to stay there for a drink or two, abandoning me altogether, but I shrugged the nagging feeling in the back of my mind off.

"If you're not back within five minutes, I'm going to fucking spill blood all over Georgina," I warned him.

Even just the thought of it seemed to repulse him. "You really don't want to do that."

I shrugged. "Five minutes."

"It might take longer," he argued.

"Five minutes."

He gave me a flat look. I simply looked back. His face reverted into his default scowl-y expression. "I'm not going to fool around, so lay off."

I still couldn't shake off the feeling that letting him leave alone might not be the best idea in the world, but it wasn't like there was anything I could do without my purse. (I really wanted to kill Tori.) I thought longingly of home and my jar of Nutella, checking my wristwatch. It was 9:17 already and I could easily be lazing in my room watching Sherlock.

He hadn't been gone for long when I decided sitting around doing nothing was boring. I almost even said "So, Georgina, just you and me now" but fortunately stopped myself. Austin's idiocy must be rubbing off on me.

It was a horrifying thought, so I quickly shrugged it off and decided to snoop around the car. I reached for the glove compartment—it didn't open as easily as I thought it would (Georgina must be old)—so when it fell open, I was glad to see that it wasn't empty.

There were a few CDs lying among random things. There was an empty M&M wrapper and a book. There was a receipt from 7-11. Nothing interesting. I took the book out, a dog-eared copy of a Stephen King novel, and flipped through the pages.