DAMN SCARED

THANE

I picked up my phone and called Tiara.

“Hey,” I breathed the second she picked.

“What’s up. Thane. I was just about to call you right now. Have you heard from Noah.”

“Erm... No.” I said quickly. “I need to ask you for something, T.”

“Look Thane, if this is about one of those ‘my guy code’ situations, then you better start coughing up the truth cause I'm not gonna forgive you this time if you're lying about Noah's whereabouts.”

I exhaled hard. Why do women always assume the worst when they can’t hear from their men? Why should I even know her boyfriend’s every damn move?

“Although I have no idea what that guy has been up to these days, T, but trust me, there's nothing going on with Noah. Since that's cleared, can we focus on my problem now?”

She grunted. “Alright… Shoot.”

“I heard you're close with Rachel. Right?”

She went dead silent for a second and my stomach tightened. 

“Are you there?”

“Yeah. Did you say Rachel?!” She finally shouted. “Don’t tell me you're planning on hooking up with my friend again? No, Thane. That girl is off limits. Totally. Sorry man, but I'm not gonna help you get…”

“Jesus, Tiara. Stop jumping into conclusions. I snapped. “I’m not involved with her. Not in that way.” I shouldn’t even be arguing that.

“... Anyway, she’s with Wendy right now, and I need you to get her out of there. I don’t care how, you just have to make sure she doesn’t stay. Got it?”

“Wait-what? Rachel is with Wendy? I don’t even understand how that is even possible?” Her voice cracked a little with panic. “Oh my God, did your ex… kidnap my friend?”

“What?” I blurted. “Tiara, I’m begging you, stop with the weird questions and just help me out here. I’ll explain later, okay?”

I didn’t give her the chance to say anything else, I just hung up the call and slammed my screen down on the desk.

Wendy and I have actually been doing fine.

Okay… maybe she’s not exactly the kind of character I pictured, but fair enough, she’s cool in her own strange way.

She let me change into one of her baggy sweatpants, which apparently is the only reasonable outfit in her entire giant wardrobe.

Still doesn’t explain why she drives a car that sounds like it’s fighting the road when she lives in a house big enough to host a hundred people, with a whole fleet of cars just sitting outside like they’re bored of being rich.

I had a lot of questions for Wendy, but she kept dodging anything that led back to Thane.

The second I finished the last of my Chapman, I turned to her.

“So…” I said slowly. “You wanna tell me why you chose that shiny-armor car to come save us today?”

She chuckled. And yeah, I’ll admit it. She’s beautiful too. Like the kind of beauty that made Jack lose his mind over Rose in Titanic.

Just… not with that weird smoky makeup she had on earlier.

She shifted on the couch, suddenly nervous. “I don’t know.” She lifted her eyes to mine. “Maybe I wanted to prove something.”

I frowned. “Prove what? That you’ve got a million cars but still picked the loudest, most dramatic one?”

She snorted like I’d told the funniest joke of her life. Revealing those white without-blemish teeth.

“You’re bold and funny, Rachel. I bet that’s why Thane kind of likes you.”

That almost made me laugh.

“Wow. Hilarious.” I said flatly. “Considering the fact that we practically fought the whole drive to his office. No doubt that guy hates me.”

Wendy shook her head. “Thane ignores people he doesn’t like. It’s just—”

“Just stop it, Wendy.” I cut in. “I don’t want to talk about Thane. Let’s talk about you. Did you break up with him, or did he… break up with you?”

Her jaw tightened. “You don’t want to go down that memory lane. You can ask him though. Although, I doubt he’ll want to talk about it.”

Now she had my full attention. I leaned forward. “Why?”

She hesitated. Then her voice dropped.

“Rachel… if you really want to keep things smooth with Thane, you need to…” She swallowed. “Just don’t talk about her around him.”

Her?

I was about to ask when the doorbell rang.

“Excuse me,” Wendy said quickly, standing. As if she just found her escape from something she was desperately trying to run from.

Seconds later, she came back in… with Noah.

“What do you want, Noah?” I snapped before he could even open his mouth.

He didn’t answer. He just grabbed my wrist and started dragging me.

“Are you insane? Let me go!”

He kept pulling until Wendy stepped in front of him.

“It’s rude to drag someone like that, Noah.”

“Back off, Wendy.”

“Did Thane send you to drag her away?” Wendy asked coolly. “Is he that scared?”

Scared? Why would Thane be scared that I’m with Wendy?

“You can’t blame him,” Noah shot back. “He knows exactly how good you are at blowing things up, just like you did today.” 

He dropped my hand and faced her fully. “You were supposed to talk to him, not kidnap his stepsister to your house.”

Then he grabbed my wrist again and dragged me outside without giving her chance to say anything else.

His bike was parked right there. He didn’t even bother checking if I was ready before turning on the engine.

“What the hell happened back there, Noah?” I barked. “What exactly did Wendy do that made everyone act like she’s some kind of disaster?”

He didn’t answer.

And that only made me more determined.

“What did she do to Thane?” I demanded, my fist tight beside me. “What happened between them that all of you are too damn scared to talk about?”