Until Series(100)

“I never said you were; I’m saying that if he was with you, then he should be making sure that you’re okay.”

“I was going to my car; I wasn’t going to wander in the woods, Trevor.”

“Just let me take you home, okay?”

I let out a long breath. “I’ll have Bill take me,” I tell him, trying to compromise.

“No, I’m taking you.”

“I drove him here. I can’t leave him stranded out here.”

“I’m sure that Tammy will give him a ride.” I scrunch up my nose, wondering who Tammy is, and why she would give Bill a ride. Then I look in the direction of the bonfire and see Bill sitting on a large boulder with a red-haired girl in a very, very short skirt, who I assume is Tammy, straddling his waist.

“Okay! So she will give him a ride, but I still need to get my car home.” Trevor looks at me like I should be crying over Bill and Tammy, but I honestly couldn’t care less.

“I’ll have Cash come and take your car home.”

“Okay, but aren’t you going to miss out on the party?” I say, looking around.

“No, Mike told me you were here, so when you didn’t answer my calls, I came to make sure that you were okay.”

“You came all the way out here to check on me?”

He shrugs, looking a little uncomfortable. “It’s what friends do; I’m going to be your best friend.”

“I don’t want you to be my best friend. I don’t really even want you to be my friend,” I say, wondering if I’ve been sucked into Trevor’s universe by some unseen force.

He mumbles something that I can’t hear and I raise an eyebrow, signaling for him to speak up. “Can we fight about this tomorrow?” He scrubs his hands down his face. I can see the tiredness around his eyes when they come back to me. “I’m beat. I had a long day and I just want to go to sleep.”

“Fine,” I sigh, climbing into his truck, feeling bad that he came here to check on me when he’s so obviously exhausted.

“Now, what are you doing?” I ask, batting his hands away.

“Putting your seat belt on.”

“I can manage my own seat belt,” I tell him, pulling it out of his hands and locking it in place. He finally climbs in behind the steering wheel, pulls out his phone, calls Cash, and asks him to take my car home. Cash and Nico promise to drop it off at Mike’s by morning, and to leave the keys in the cup holder. I am not worried; in the country, no one steals cars, and everyone I know leaves their keys in their car overnight. Half way home, my phone rings, and I see that it’s Bill calling. I answer on the second ring.

“Hey,” I say, putting the phone to my ear.

“You ditched me, and someone saw you driving off with Trevor Mayson.”

“Trevor’s taking me home. I’m tired,” I tell him, which is not a lie. “I saw you with Tammy and didn’t want you to leave just because I wanted to go home.”

“She came on to me, I swear; I tried to push her off.” I roll my eyes, wondering how stupid he thinks I am.

“It’s fine. I told you, we’re just friends; you can do whatever, or whoever, you want,” I reply, looking over when I hear Trevor chuckle.

“You have my sweatshirt,” Bill says. I can hear the agitation in his voice.

“You said you had some new info on my brother, right? You can tell me tomorrow when I drop off your hoodie.”

“Yeah, all right. Look, just call me when you get home, okay? I want to know that you’re safe.”

“I’ll be fine; just go have fun,” I say, hanging up.

“What’s the deal with you and that guy?” Trevor asks.

“We worked together at the Tollie factory when it was open. We dated for about a year. When the factory shut down, he moved and started working for his uncle, who’s a private investigator. We agreed to see other people, but were always friendly. Then when I found out what Tim did, I called him and asked him to help, and he agreed,” I say, laying my head against the window, watching the moon follow us off in the distance.

“So, he’s your friend?”

“I guess.”

“I should have talked to you,” he says, and I couldn’t agree more. I thought that we were friends. We’d spent time together, we laughed, I could call and talk to him about anything, and he was there for me. Then it was like I wasn’t worth anything to him when he thought I was a virgin. He wouldn’t talk to me; he ignored me when we were in the same place. And worse, if we were out, he always had a girl on him. And any man that came and introduced himself, he would send someone over to make him leave me alone, even if it was the girl that he was talking to. It was like he was trying to say that I wasn’t good enough to have a relationship with anyone.