earbuds

nine

Once we were inside the abandoned building, this Clay dude begins walking around and exploring. I just kind of slowly walk around. It's not very big, just a small main area with a couple rooms to the left and a room to the right. The couple of rooms being the bathrooms that were pretty much empty, upon further investigation. The room on the right must've been an office or something because there's documents all over the floor and a desk and chair in the corner. Not creepy at all.

"Boo-"

"Clay!" I jumped and stumbled backwards. "Fuck you."

"Sorry, couldn't resist." He shoved his hands into his pockets and looked behind him, relaxed, not paranoid like me. "This used to be-"

"A rest area, I know. I've seen them in movies." I said, gaining composer after the little scare and walking into the room. I don't touch the documents and papers, just crouch to look at them. "You think this one was abandoned, like uhm. Hmm. Like it ran down, they couldn't afford to keep it open?"

"That has to be the only way it would be abandoned unless someone robbed it or killed a bunch of people, but I doubt that." He said, leaning on his ankles for a second before turning back towards me. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah. How long have we been here?" We walk on out of the building and I watch as the sun rises slowly.

"An hour." He says, unlocking his car and hopping into the driver's seat, with me following behind slowly, getting into the passenger seat. He turns the car on and we buckle up. "It sure didn't seem like an hour though. The sun is already rising, too."

"Yeah." I mumbled, leaning my head on the window, yawning. "I'm starting to get a gut feeling that coming with you was a bad idea."

"Why's that?" He pulls out of the area and merges back onto the highway.

"I'm basically being used, just to get close to my parents." I said, hearing my phone go off. "Shit-" I take it out of my small bag and open it up. My parents texted wondering where I've gone. They made it home for a quick stop and saw I wasn't there. Wondering if I had gone to a friend's house. I hope one of the girls helped me out.

I quickly dialed Tay's number and she picked up. "Hey! Your mom called like a few times and I covered for you but where are you?"

"Tay thank god. I'm with my soulmate-"

"Oh?"

"Long story, but you're gonna need to cover for me for a bit longer. I really need you to. This is important." I ramble.

Clay glances over at my panicked state, before focusing back on the road.

"Is your soulmate taking you somewhere? What's happening? (Y/n)?" Tay kept pushing.

"I can't talk about it really, but promise you and Becca will over. Please."

"Yeah, we'll do what we can." She mumbles. "When you can clear everything up, call me and let me know."

"Thank you so much. I owe you both." I said, hanging up and jotting down both their numbers on a post-it I found in the car.

"We need to get rid of that phone. I'll get you a burner to use in the meantime, as soon as we get to George's." Clay mumbled, gripping the steering wheel in concentration and focus. He mumbles something under his breath, but I don't hear him. "Also, I apologize for making you feel uncomfortable about this whole situation. I'll be able to explain better when the smarter dude is by my side."

"Do you.. have any other friends?" I ask.

"I have a friend named Nick, but he isn't much use. I mean that in a lighthearted way. He's not insanely smart like George or can so background research like me. He's a moral support kind of friend." He answers, chuckling afterwards. "He's not gonna meet up with us until later though, if that's what you were wondering."

"Is there anything he's remotely good at?"

"Combat." He answers quickly. "He's also pretty great at shooting guns. I don't know a whole lot about them really, but ask him and he will tell you the best and the worst of the bunch, which ones look like you'd be able to handle, and so on."

"So, you guys are like.. a team huh?" I look over at him from staring out the window.

"I guess." He shrugged, chuckling again. "George jokingly called us the dream team once."

"The dream team." I nodded, agreeing with George. "Clever."

"Then it's settled." He said.

I leaned my head back on the window and let sleep overtake me.