~Selena~
My day didn't start off as a disaster.
In fact, up until around 11pm, I was having a pretty damn good day. Since I had gotten to see Conner, I was still giggly and mushy, perplexing everyone around the house aside from my mother.
After dinner had ended, I plopped myself onto the sofa and sighed happily at the ceiling, grinning widely until I finally couldn't take it and turned my head to giggle into the cushions like a lovesick school girl.
"What the hell kind of yoga class did they go to?" I heard Stanton mutter as he made his way to the stairs.
"Maybe they used marijuana as incense or something." Sam suggested, following after his twin.
I could almost hear Stanton roll his eyes. "I'm pretty sure that's illegal, Sam." The rest of their conversation became muted as they went up stairs, but I was too busy being happy to care.
Just thinking about being able to see Conner so often made the warmth start to pool in my chest again, spreading and burning until I was sure my body couldn't take it anymore and just exploded. Just the picture of his crooked smile and the feeling of being in his arms again, was more than enough to last me until our next meeting.
A knock at the front door broke me out of my rolling and giggling, and I practically skipped to the door.
"Hey Selli." Alex gave me a curious look as she caught my beaming smile. She had come over a couple of times since my incarceration, and needless to say I hadn't been a happy ball of sunshine then. "Okay, whatever it is that you're smoking, you've gotta let me have some."
I rolled my eyes, but stepped back to let her in. She strode in and immediately plopped down onto my sofa as if it were her own, regardless that I hadn't even invited her over to begin with. I didn't protest though, knowing that she was a bit lonely since Lilly was still mad at us. "Is your dad home?" She asked, looking around.
I shook my head. "He just left for the office. He won't be back until tomorrow."
Alex smile playfully, then patted the spot beside her on the couch. "Perfect. Now, how about you tell me what's got you shitting rainbows, and then we can eat ice cream and watch movies with hot actors in them to our heart's content?"
I grinned back and nodded. Someone to gush to was just what I needed.
~
Now as I was saying, things only started to get strange at around 11.
I was woken up by insistent knocking on the front door. It was one of those things that I pretended not to notice and tried to go back to sleep to, but after a while had passed and the knocking showed no signs of stopping, I reluctantly sat up.
I had to disentangle myself from Alex's long limbs in order to get off the sofa, which was a challenge in itself since she was a closet cuddler. But once I managed that, I unsteadily stumbled through the dark, repeatedly tripping over littered miscellaneous junk and occasionally my own feet.
I all but collapsed at the front door, thoroughly wishing to go back to bed but realizing that the couch was on the other side of the 'obstacle course in the dark', that was my living room. Both a deep sleeper's and a clutz's worst nightmare. (I happened to be both.)
So I turned on the lights and answered the door.
I blinked as my eyes focused on the person standing on the other side. The person in question said nothing, giving me a nervous look while shuffling their feet. I blinked again.
"Lilly?"
The blond gave me a hesitant nod, but didn't smile. "Can I come in?"
I blinked again, but I wasn't imagining things. "Yeah, I guess."
I let her in, and her gaze immediately swept to where Alex was now sitting up on the sofa, staring with wide green eyes. After a moment of awkward silence, Alex stood up and moved to stand by my side, surprise and wariness evident on her face.
"Look," Lilly finally started, avoiding our eyes. "Just to be clear, I only came here because I need your help with something."
I nodded, but didn't quite know how to respond. Was I supposed to be happy that she was talking to us again? Or mad that she had only come back because she needed something?
She took in a deep breath, and some intangible emotion flickered across her blue gaze. "I'm still a bit upset that all of you were keeping something-" She paused. "-something like that from me. Especially since Selena, you're just as much my friend as any of the others. But for now we need to put that aside."
"Is something wrong?" Alex asked hesitantly, almost as if she was afraid that Lilly would snap at her.
Lilly looked at her former best friend for a moment, before nodding slightly. There was another silence, filled only with shuffling feet and more awkward eye contact.
"Okay, that's enough of that!" I jumped in, grinning widely. The pair looked confused, but I went on before either of them could raise a question. "How about for tonight, we pretend that the incident never happened and we're all still best friends, hmm? If we're going to have to work together, we might as well do it like old times, right?"
Lilly let out a breath of relief, giving me a grateful smile. "Thank god! That was just about the most awkward moment of my life!"
"More awkward than that time when you farted during a school assembly?" Alex asked with a familiar smirk.
Lilly glared at her, but there was no longer any animosity behind it. "Shut up! You said you wouldn't bring that up again!"
I cleared my throat, and the two paused their bickering to look at me. As much as it felt good to see things with Lilly being back to normal, she had to have shown up at my doorstep in the middle of the night for a good reason.
"Right!" Lilly exclaimed, as if remembering why she had come. "So when I was checki- I mean on my computer, I accidentally pulled up the GPS on Tom's phone."
"Stalker." Alex coughed into her hand, and I couldn't help but snicker.
Lilly blushed and glared, but went on. "Anyways, I noticed that his location was, well, somewhere a little troubling."
"Where was he?" I asked.
She frowned, looking more troubled than when she had first arrived. "In an abandoned warehouse."
"A warehouse?" I echoed incredulously.
Alex only shrugged nonchalantly. "So? Maybe he's just buying drugs or something?"
Lilly scowled. "You can't just say 'just buying drugs or something', so casually! Plus, I know Tom, and he's not the type to do anything like that."
"Ah yes, our beloved golden boy." Alex sighed dramatically.
"So what do you think he's doing there?" I asked, trying to move the conversation along.
"That's just it!" She said insistently, growing increasingly agitated with every word. "I think he was abducted! He started out at the grocery store, and then he was suddenly speeding towards a warehouse on the other side of town! It doesn't make any sense!"
"So you were stalking him." Alex mused to herself.
Ignoring the red head, I thought about what Lilly had said. It was odd, and definitely out of Tom's character. He was probably the most responsible person out of all of us. "All right then. What should we do?"
Lilly looked worried, and she it reflected in her eyes. "Well we don't have any proof that he's been kidnapped, and since it only just happened he hasn't been reported missing, so I want to go there and check it out." She paused. "Just to be safe."
I nodded in agreement. "I couldn't have thought of a more reckless plan myself. Let's go then!"
Lilly and I made our way out to her familiar yellow bug, Alex grumbling along behind us.
"If we end up crashing a drug deal, I am so gonna rub it in your face."
~
The three of us stared at the building in front of us with wide, disbelieving eyes.
"Okay, so it's not a drug deal." Alex conceded, not taking her eyes off the scene.
The supposedly abandoned warehouse was bustling with people, looking most definitely not abandoned. Dizzying strobe lights lit up the darkness, making the people's face indiscernible from one another.
Scary looking men dressed in leather and even scarier looking women in skimpy dresses lined up outside to get in. One look and I knew that there was no way we could blend in.
"Damn, we should've brought disguises." Alex cursed. I snorted, but didn't entirely disagree.
I looked around, and noticed an alley way on the other side of the building. A bunch of woman dressed in skimpy matching leather outfits were chatting as they disappeared in the alley. Another moment later, the dizzying light appeared in the alley way, and I realized that there must be a side entrance.
"I've got our way in." I grinned at my two companions. They exchanged nervous glances.
We parked on the far side of the lot, closer to the alley way. Together, we snuck out of the car and ran towards the dark alley, the disorienting lights flashing over the people in line creating the perfect cover.
When we reached the alley, I saw that I was right. And much to our luck, the side door was cracked open.
"Damn, that was a little too easy." Lilly commented as we edged towards the door.
"I wouldn't speak so soon." I warned her, before opening the door. We all slid inside as quietly as possible, carefully shutting the door behind us.
The hallways was empty, but the sound of many voices was coming from further down, where the lights seemed to be originating from.
At the sound of footsteps growing closer, I quickly grabbed onto my two friends and dashed into the nearest door. We waited with baited breath as the footsteps moved past where we were hiding, but thankfully they didn't stop. After a moment, the sound of the side door closing had us all breathing out sighs of relief.
"What are the chances we just walked into something highly illegal?" Lilly wondered aloud, her eyebrows furrowed.
"Only about 100%." I grumbled, suddenly not feeling so confident with our plan.
"Awww, come on guys!" Alex said cheerfully, unsurprisingly being the only one not at all concerned for our safety. "This is gonna be a piece of cake!"
I stared at her for a moment, wondering if she was joking or if she was actually insane. Her grin didn't falter. "Are you kidding me? We walked into a building full of bikers and strippers, wearing sweatpants!"
She only rolled her eyes and waved my words off. "Pssshh! So dramatic. There's no need to worry! Just take a look at where we are right now!"
My eyes widened comically as I looked around the room.
It was a dressing room of sorts. A clothes rack lined with the same slutty outfits that the employees we had followed in had on. There was a makeup table too, with more makeup than I could use in a lifetime lying on top. The room was completely littered with shoes and accessories.
"Oh hell no!" Lilly protested as Alex made a move to the clothes rack. "I am not becoming a stripper!"
"They're not stripper outfits. Like hell a stripper would wear something so hard to strip off." Alex pointed out. Of course she would know that. "Plus, this is our way in! We'll fit right in if we dress like employees! We're all a bunch of hot, young girls anyways! It'll be fun!"
Only Alex could consider dressing up as slutty employees to infiltrate an illicit event, fun. To me, this sounded like something police officers got shot doing.
Lilly sighed reluctantly, moving to stand next to Alex and reluctantly face me. "Minus that last part about it being fun, she does have a point. We got lucky getting in, but escaping this place without getting caught could be much harder."
I sighed. If Lilly was agreeing, it must mean that we have no other choice. "Whatever." I turned to Alex, opening my arms. "Do your worst."
She grinned manically, and I suddenly regretted agreeing so easily. "Gladly."
~
It took half an hour to look like proper sluts, but finally we were slipping on our shoes and preparing to go.
The outfits were the all the same, but all were different colors. And I've gotta say, leather unitards aren't nearly as uncomfortable as they sound. Well, aside from the fact that I look like a hoe.
Lilly had called dibs on the black one (a given really), and since Alex had the biggest chest out of all of us (a fact she never let us forget), the red one was the only one that fit her.
I, on the other hand, was left with the white one. The shoes were all standard, black knee-high boots with heels that defied the laws of science. Looking in the mirror, all I could see was a whole lot of leg and cleavage.
"Why the hell am I the white one?" I asked, crossly folding my arms over my chest.
Alex rolled her eyes, as if it were obvious. "Because you've got the whole virgin-pretty look going for you."
I glared at her. "What the hell is 'virgin-pretty'?" Was that supposed to be a compliment?
Lilly broke in with a snort. "It means you look innocent. Like a school girl, or something."
I scowled at the pair. "What, is that like a weird kink or something?"
"Yupp." "Pretty much." They answered in at the same time.
I growled. "I hate everyone."
"Come on, we have to find Tom." Lilly reminded us, worry leaking in through her tone.
They ignored me, instead opening the door and stepping into the hall. I huffed, but followed after them. "Let's just get this over with."
We made our way down the hall towards the lights until we reached a large crowd of people.
Alex looked as if she were born to wear her outfit, moving with complete ease in her heels. Her head was held high and her eyes were swimming with mischief, her hips swaying seductively with every step. Naturally, all eyes were attached to her. Lilly looked more serious, but comfortable as well.
It's a good thing my look was supposedly innocence, because I sure as hell looked like I had no clue what I was doing. Maybe people will think I'm stumbling and blushing on purpose.
Despite my raging heart beat, no one stopped us and we safely made our way to the front of the crowd. Alex at least had been right about us having the right image to pull off being employees.
But what we saw in the center of the room had me even more surprised. There was a large fighting ring, elevated off the ground and surrounded by rope barriers just like a professional one.
In the ring, a fight was already going on. It was three against one, the three males surrounding the middle firgure. It didn't seem like a fair fight at first glance, but seeing the difference in size between the team and the fighter on his own was evidence enough that it wasn't.
He was huge, with bulging muscles that probably weighed more than the three of them combined.
"This isn't fair!" One of the three boys, a blond, yelled to the referee. "This was supposed to be a fight between humans! Not three humans and a mammoth! Whoa there!" The boy yelped as he ducked under a flying fist that had been aimed at his face.
I frowned. That voice was far too familiar.
I gasped at the same time as my two companions incognito, putting two and two together.
"Holy shit!" I exclaimed, watching in horror as Tom, Jerry, and Conner attempted to take on the mammoth of a man.
"What in the world is going on?!"
~
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Sorry it took a while!
My computer broke for a while. A bit of a lame excuse, but that's what happened. Damn defective technology! If it's goon be so expensive, it shouldn't break so easily!
Anyways, just tell me what you think!
PS-
Dear inventor of Calculus,
I hate you.
Sincerely,
Prodigywriter9638