Going Long (Waiting on the Sidelines #2)(41)

I heard my phone buzzing in my pocket, but just let it go to voicemail, and kept shooting random targets on the screen. When it buzzed a second time about two minutes later, I got annoyed. I ignored it then, too, but the third round of buzzing made me panic, and immediately think that something was wrong with my dad. I paused my game player and tossed my controller to one of the other guys. Pulling my phone from my pocket, I walked out to the hall so I could hear. When I saw the face and name staring back at me on the screen, my heart dropped to the pit of my stomach. Why was Nolan calling me? Why now, after all this time? At 1 a.m.? On a Saturday?

I almost missed the third call when something forced me to answer.

“Noles?” I was confused. I could hear traffic in the background, and people laughing. It sounded almost as if she had dialed me accidentally, a misfire from her purse. And the hurt I felt at that thought surprised me a little. I was about to hang up when I caught the unmistakable sound of her breathing.

“Reed?” she sounded upset, like she’d been crying. “Reed? I can’t hear you. Are you there?”

“Noles, I’m here. I hear you. What’s wrong?” I said, pulling keys from my pocket and flying down my hallway out of instinct. Then she started giggling. It was an off sounding laugh, though. Like she was…drunk? I put my hand on my forehead and pinched the bridge of my nose. Jesus, this was not happening.

“Nolan, are you drunk?” I waited while she finished a giggling fit, and then it turned into panicked breaths, and near crying again. Nolan, I’m hanging up.”

That did something to her, because she started talking more clearly now. “No! Wait. No, no, no, no…” she was fighting to make sense. It was irritating me, and scaring me at the same time. I instantly regretted the times I’d put her through having to deal with me like this. “Reed? Don’t go. I…I need help.”

That was it; I was out the door now. I hated how weak I was, and half of my brain admonished the other half for giving into her, letting her run my actions still after breaking me in half. But I wasn’t over her. I wasn’t even remotely close to the start of getting over her. And she needed help, so I’d come.

“What’s wrong, where are you?” I said forcefully, trying to get her to concentrate. She giggled a little again, and then stopped.

“I’m…at a bar,” she burst into laughter again. I leaned my forehead on my steering wheel and banged it a little. This was not going well. And if I was going to drive 100 miles to come get her, I was going to need a whole lot more to go on.

“Yeah, I get that. But what bar?” I said, sarcasm winning out.

“I…I don’t know, Reed. I’m scared. I don’t know where I am,” she was starting to cry harder now. Fuck! I was already pulling onto the main road for the highway.

“Nolan, you need to find out where you are. Can you tell me what you see?” I asked, grasping for anything.

“I see…people,” she was giggling again.

Realizing I wasn’t going to get anywhere this way, I tried to figure out where her friends were. “Where’s Sarah? Nolan, I need to talk to Sarah. Is she with you?” I was crossing my fingers like hell that Sarah would be on the phone soon.

“Sarah left,” she was giggling again.

“Okay, how about Sienna?” I asked, knowing it was less likely Sienna was with her. When I thought about who she could be out with if it wasn’t her girlfriends, I wanted to scream.

“She’s mad at me,” she started giggling, but less than before. “I mean…she left. I didn’t want to go home.”

I knew there was no way Sienna would leave her somewhere alone, not when she was like this. “Okay, Noles. I need you to do something for me, okay?” It was like reasoning with a 4-year-old.

“Okay,” she was almost listening.

“I’m going to call someone, find out where you are, but I need to call you back. Hold your phone in front of you, and I want you to watch it for when I call, okay?” I was trying to keep things simple.

“Okay, answer the phone. Got it,” she was crying a little again. She was a mess.

I hung up with Nolan and called Sienna. I was counting each ring, hoping like hell it wouldn’t go right to voicemail. When I heard her pick up, and heard the crowds and music in the background I felt relieved. I knew she wasn’t far.

“Reed?” she was yelling a little into the phone. “Hang on, I can’t hear shit in here. I’m going to the ladies’ room.”

I couldn’t tell where they were, but I knew it was crowded, the techno music thumping in the background, and the constant stream of voices filling in the gaps.

“Okay, that’s better. I can hear you. What’s up?” she said, not even a hint of panic to her voice.

“Sienna, where’s Nolan?” I asked urgently, just wanting an answer at this point.

“She’s out on the dance floor somewhere. I don’t know. I keep trying to make her come home, but she won’t…why?” she clearly had no idea what had happened.

“She just called me,” I sighed, pulling off at the next exit and pulling into a nearby gas station so I could talk.

“Wha?...Wait, where is she, Reed?” Sienna asked, now a little worried herself.

“I’m not sure. She just called me. She’s all freaked out, said you two had a fight, and you left her at some club,” I just killed the engine and tossed my hat on the dashboard, rubbing my face out of frustration. “What the hell, Sienna? She’s f*cking wasted. I can hardly understand her.”