Wild Chase by Storm V (best electronic book reader .txt) 📕

“Tell me the entire conversation.” Ian said calmly. Sometimes he seems more like an older brother more than a younger one.

“So one girl asked for N,” I said making air-quotations for N. “And the other girl, I’m guessing she’s N. Said she didn’t need to get anything just be at The Plaza, Room 7 midnight.” I said. ‘Then the first girl was like, ‘Okay. Poor Claire Brent.’” I said mimicking her tone poorly. I was never meant to act... or mime.

“So something bad is happening.” Alex said in a duh tone.

Ian shot him a look and I couldn’t help but smile.

“We need to help her.” I said before thinking. My hands flew to my mouth when both the boys looked at me with wide eyes. It made me feel good but completely stupid for saying something like that. Totally unpredictable and I sort of liked it. “Yes! We need to help her!” I said confidently to assure them and myself.

“I’ll call dad.” Ian said not missing a beat.

“And you’re coming with me.” Alex said and dragged me by my wrist as Ian called dad.

“Why?” I asked suddenly scared. I didn’t expect them to agree so quickly. This was not what I planned. I hoped they would talk me out of it.

“We’re getting in the car.” He replied.

“Why?” I asked again. I knew the answer; I just didn’t want it to be true.

“We’re going to The Plaza before you become a scaredy-cat again.” Alex said and smiled as he held the passenger door open.

I had hoped they wouldn’t take me seriously. Oh god! What had I gotten myself into?

 “So we’re just going to go to The Plaza. Assuming we get to the right Plaza and we just walk up to Room 7. If it’s a hotel, let’s see how we get past the lobby without checking in. And save Claire?” I asked looking at both the boys.  We were driving down the highway and into the city. It was a ridiculous plan, it wasn’t even a plan I had no idea what had gotten into me when I said let’s save her. I also two of the world’s most encouraging idiots to back me up and I didn’t need that at that moment. It wasn’t the right time to encourage me.

“First of all Rach,” Alex said from behind the wheel. He called me Rach. Did I like that? I mean I didn’t mind people calling me Rach but it sounded different coming from him . Don’t get me wrong, it was good different but did I like it? “It’s obviously The Plaza, as in, the hotel in the city. Second of all, we check in for the night.” He shrugged like checking into The Plaza for the night was no big deal. Yeah checking into one of the most expensive hotels was never a big deal.

“Okay there is a third of all.” I said. “Which is sort of connected to the first of all.”

“What?” Ian groaned from the back seat.

“Have you stayed at The Plaza?” I asked.

Alex nodded.                  

“Okay how many floors does it have?” I asked.

“What does that have to with anything?” Ian asked.

“Nothing.... but I’m getting to it.” I responded impatiently.

“Twenty floors if you include the pent-house suite.” He replied glancing at me.

“Wow.” Ian said in his impressed voice. He always used that tone when something, totally ordinary to the rest of us amazing him. I don’t know how such things intrigued him but it was fun seeing him get excited over such trivial things.

“Yeah whatever.” I dismissed it. “How many rooms are there on each floor?” I asked.

“Ten rooms.” He replied after thinking about it.

“So each room on each floor would have a different number, right?” I suggested.

“Right,” He replied and I waited for them to realise what I was trying to tell them.

“Okay so?” Ian asked after a minute of silence.

“Each room would be 101, 102 and so on.” I said and smiled.

“Right,” Both of them said, completely unfazed.

“Oh god you mofos! There is no Room 7 at The Plaza! It’s 701 to 710!” I yelled exasperatedly and my hand flew to cover my mouth when I was aware I shouted. I glanced nervously at Alex. He probably thought I was so weird. But then again so did everyone so it didn’t really matter. But it was Alex and his opinions of me did matter. I really have to stop having these discussions with myself.

“You’re really smart.” Alex stated looking at me with a smile and not on the road.

I smiled shyly and pointed to the road. He chuckled and turned his attention back the road. “So which Plaza and where?” he asked.

“Okay pull over.” Ian said and I watched him pull out his phone. “How much time to do we have?” he asked

“Till midnight.” I replied.

“That means we have five hours to find the right Plaza out of 10 Plazas.” Ian said with fake enthusiasm.

Alex and I groaned in unison.  This was going to take a long time and we wouldn’t be able to stop the people from doing the awful thing they were going to do to Claire. But if we did manage to help Claire and stop those terrible people from doing whatever they were going to do we’d be famous. However, that would depend on who those girls were and what they were going to do. If they were really tough criminals that had just been released from prison and if they were going to murder Claire, or something along those lines, we’d be famous. Then everyone would know how truly astounding I am. And Naomi and Janice would know not to mess with me.

The movement of the car got me out of dreaminess, “where are we going?” I asked. I made sure my voice was soft and I kept reminding myself not to yell. I didn’t want Alex looking at me like that again. It was strange, no one’s given me that look before and I had no idea what it was.

“We’re going to one of the eight Plazas.” Alex answered and reached over to open the glove box. He pulled out a huge CD case and tossed it on my lap, “the nearest one is half an hour away, so pick one.”

I nodded and went through the music CD’s. He had pretty good taste in music and I was surprised because I never pinned him for a person who would listen to the bands and people I listen to. In fact, I never pinned anyone except Ian and I. I thought we were the only ones.”You listen to Vampire Weekend?” I asked. I was astounded that I found a Vampire Weekend album. They weren’t my favourite but they were definitely good.

“It’s my brother’s old collection. I don’t listen to that stuff. I must have passed you the wrong CD case.” He replied sheepishly. So I was right, he didn’t listen to this stuff. Not that his music taste mattered. I wouldn’t matter because it was never going to happen!  I mean it was Alex, the nice popular guy with the pretty girlfriend. It was rather predictable that nothing could ever happen between the both of us.

I pulled out the other case and my mouth was open. “Nirvana,” I whispered because I couldn’t actually speak. I was just left more stunned as I flipped through the album. He had every artist I adored and albums and songs I only dreamed of having. “Ian! Look! The one you wanted!” I yelled and showed him the CD case hoping to get the same reaction he had when we were talking about the hotel.

“I need that on vinyl.” He said and continued looking out of the window. A normal person would have still gotten excited but my brother didn’t. I sighed and continued flipping through. My eyes went wide every time I came across something I had been hunting down. And every time I gasped I saw Alex glance at me and chuckle from the corner of my eye. It felt nice that he was paying attention to me but at the same time I felt uncomfortable because I never really knew how to deal with attention. Attention of any kind for that matter. The bottom line was I was very secure not socialising with people. The only people I could comfortably talk to and be myself with were Ian, Keith and Victoria. That was because I’ve spent so much time with them and they genuinely like me. I think.

“Are you going to play anything?” Alex asked once I was about half way through. Right, I forgot about that.

 I giggled nervously and pulled out the CD that I was looking at. I looked back at Ian because he was suspiciously quiet and found that he was fast asleep. Now this was going to get awkward and I wouldn’t have anyone to help pull me out of those situations that I always so easily manage to put myself into. “How far are we from the Plaza we’re going to first?” I asked.

He looked at his watch, “another fifteen minutes,” he said.

I groaned and tried to come up with something else to say because once you start a conversation you’ve got to finish it. Otherwise, it’s just plain awkward. Like now. Why did I even ask how long it was going to be? By the time we reached a run-down Plaza I had changed three CD’s while it was halfway through the list only because I really wanted to as many I could.

“Okay it’s a hotel.” I said once we were at the door. “Let’s see if they have a Room 7.” I finished and walked through the door with coolness in every step. Then I became conscious of how incredibly stupid I would look if I continued walking like that right up to the reception desk and not have anything to say. I would have plenty to say, I just wouldn’t be able to say them.

“What happened?” Ian asked stopping next to me.

“Nothing,” I replied and motioned for him to walk ahead of me. I slowly followed the boys and took in the place. The walls were painted a pale blue with one long green stripe running along the centre of all of them. The furniture was very homely and flowery. The room wasn’t lit very well and that gave the whole room a very sinister look. There was a porter sitting near the door reading a very old issue of a sports magazine instead of doing his job. If he was I wouldn’t have had to push the door open myself. The stout man at the reception didn’t look helpful either. He sat behind the desk writing something and looking straight at us. How did he do that? Not look at what he was writing.

“Can I help you?” He asked with a condescending tone.

“I need to know if you’ll have a Room 7 available.” Alex said without a trace of nervousness in his voice. I would have never been able to do that. Not in a million years.

“It is available.” The fat man looking down for the first time since we entered.

“Could we