“Why did you pick up a tag-along?” Whitney sighs. “She’s a total mess.”
“She’s a college kid who seems to be the butt of the joke,” Beck argues back. “You don’t put your friend in a trunk. That’s BS.”
“Well she’s not in the trunk now,” Whitney hisses. “I say drop her off somewhere in town. Since our hotel rooms are on the north end we should be good since the tornado didn’t hit that-a-way.”
I don’t answer her, Instead I walk away to find Hayden crouched on the ground. Kneeling down beside her, I only half listen to what the rest of them are saying as I rub a hand down her back. “Better?”
She groans pitifully, but doesn’t pull away from my touch. “I shouldn’t mix vodka and schnapps.”
I wrinkle my nose. Girly has a stomach of steel if you ask me. She held out a hell of a lot longer than I expected. “Those would definitely make you sick after bouncing around in the trunk of a car, yes.”
“They didn’t mean anything by it,” she says, her voice softening. I soothe my hand along her spine another moment beforestanding, the smell from her getting sick leaching into my nose. She sure drank a weird mix of shit. “I thought maybe they would be my friends.”
“Friends don’t put friends in a trunk and leave them in a tornado,” I reason. “Come on, let’s get you up, girly.”
I don’t understand her reasoning for wanting these people to be her friends. I never had a lot of friends growing up. The money I’ve accumulated came from generational wealth, so I never wanted for anything, and I wanted to not be surrounded by people. My team during storm season includes most of my so-called friends, and while I know many members of the OGB, we rarely get together. It’s a society, not a club, so we don’t do Christmas meet ups or anything like that.
She huffs, but finally accepts my hand to stand up. Her grip lingers, but she’s leaning away from me. “It’s Hayden, remember?”
My lips twitch, well aware of her name. “Hayden.”
“And they are my friends,” she snaps. “We’re new friends. I did all the right things to make friends.”
That tells me we aren’t the same sort of person, but if it’s important to her, I’ll play along. She’s clearly distressed and I don’t blame her. She’s had a rough day. Tilting my head, I fight to not tell her these people aren’t worth being friends with. “Party friends?”
She shrugs. “They like to party.”
Nodding, I lead her back to the group. I’ve stopped listening to what they are saying anyway, and as we approach I slide an arm around Hayden’s shoulders. She leans into the touch, and Idon’t miss the jealous glare Whitney shoots her way. She can’t be the center of attention if we’re focused elsewhere. “Just because they’re party friends doesn’t make them real friends.”
Hayden looks up at me, but I return my focus to the team. It’s dark and we’re now in the middle of nowhere with lots of footage to review and upload. We’ll need to do some tracking and see if anything else forms overnight from this storm. We might not be close enough to see any other tornadoes tonight, but there could be others across Oklahoma and the neighboring states tomorrow. “We need to move out.”
“To the hotel?” Drew asks, and I feel Hayden trying to look around at each of us. Whitney is the easiest to see with her bright red hair, but the shadows hide a lot of details now. We’re not directly in front of the trucks, and I wonder how she feels now in a crowd. The interior lights have all timed out, so while I’m comfortable in the darkness with my comrades, she might not be.
I run my tongue across my teeth, considering Drew’s question. We’re close to one of my houses, and if I drive out that way I’ll be a good distance from the team and wherever Hayden was before we found her. I prefer my own place over any of the hotels we book.
Beck chuckles before I even respond. He’s always my ride along, sitting in the passenger seat of my truck religiously. I know he hates riding in Drew’s, because he’s always stuck in the backseat with someone else. “Oh, he ain’t going to a hotel.”
“Shut it,” I snap, glancing down at Hayden. I wish we stayed in front of the trucks where I could see her eyes. I didn’t even think to ask her what she might want to do next. “Wanna come home with me tonight, girly? We can go to the hotel if you prefer, butyou’ve had a fucking day. Hotels are crowded and my place is mostly empty.”
She hesitates, and I don’t blame her. Asking a perfect stranger to come home with you is risky, and she’s got to feel more vulnerable at this point than I do. I know she’s got her crossbody purse, but I have no idea if it’s got her ID or a phone... She's the one in a vulnerable situation here.
The longer she’s quiet, the more I can feel her unease growing. I fill the silence, surprised how much I want her to come with me. “You can ping your location to someone if you want so they know where you are. Got your phone? Send it to a real friend this time?”
Her shoulders don’t loosen at my suggestion, but she makes a humming noise. Her response is almost instantaneous. “Okay, I’ll send it to my sister.”
I’m hoping it’s an older sister, since a teenager wouldn’t be much help if shewerein danger. But if Hayden comes home with me, danger is the last thing she’ll feel.
“What about the rest of us?” Whitney hisses. “We’re just supposed to go to the lame hotel?”
“It’s where we were going anyway,” Drew tells her, patting her shoulder as he rounds the truck. “Get over it, Whit. You’re not the one who would be having fun at Keith’s anyway.”
Whitney makes a noise behind her teeth, like she’s trying to resist the urge to scream. Spinning on her heel she tears the passenger door open, hopping up into the seat before turning to glare at us. “Fine, go fuck around at Keith’s for all I care. We’ll get the real work done.”
“They’ll have half of the footage,” Beck says dryly as she pulls the door down. He turns to me. “You’ll bring that back in the morning?”
“Course,” I tell him, feeling Hayden shifting around to look at me again. The gears are already spinning in my head, and I can see the plan in motion. It might be time to finally draw up my own OGB contract. “It’s only for one night, right, Hayden? So you can relax and recharge before I drive you home.”
“One night,” she repeats.
