𝐈𝐧𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Another Van Ride

After a few minutes, I stood back up, realizing that everyone was probably almost ready to go by now. I left the stairwell and crept over to the room that Dylan and I had shared, peeking my head inside. I let out a small sigh of relief when I saw that Dylan wasn't in the room anymore.

I stepped inside and did a final sweep to make sure I got everything before I left the room, shutting the door behind me and walking downstairs to where Jack and Raine were joking around. Well, at least I didn't wreck her whole mood.

Fed was standing by the giant crate with Dylan, packing up the blueprints and keycards we used the other day. Dylan turned his head to watch me as I entered the room and we made eye contact for a moment before I pulled my gaze away. His stare wasn't angry or frustrated but it also wasn't apologetic. He still may have thought that he was doing the right thing but his eyes were soft as he watched me.

Charlie, Bianca, and Sam were nowhere to be found, but I couldn't blame them. The boys had just gotten their sister back so they would want to spend as much time with her as possible and catch up.

I dropped my duffel bag by the others, and then walked over to Fed, trying desperately to avoid Dylan's gaze which I could feel, very obviously, on me. "Hey, where are the Rhodes?" I asked Fed, even though Dylan didn't move his eyes from me.

"Still packing up. Bianca didn't have anything but Charlie still wanted her to look through everything for extra clothes and stuff," Fed explained. I nodded. The three of us stood in awkward silence before I spoke up again.

"So, what van am I going in?" I asked, hoping that I was put in the same car as Raine so we could talk and I could apologize.

"Well, it's gonna be the Rhodes and me in one van and then I figured it'd be the rest of you in the other," Fed answered and motioned to where all three Rhodes siblings were coming down the stairs as they laughed and giggled amongst themselves. As I watched their happy faces, I felt a pang of jealousy that I quickly brushed off.

I didn't want to be jealous or angry or upset with them. Charlie was my best friend and I treated Sam like a little brother. I didn't know Bianca as well as I did her brothers but whenever we did see each other it was always fun. I didn't want to feel this way around them, but it was so easy to. They got what I didn't. They got to save their sibling while I lost mine again. I knew it wasn't fair and that I had every right to be distant and avoid them, but I couldn't hold it against them. They were happy and that made me happy. However, it would be difficult to be around all three of them sometimes, knowing that they were able to be reunited and the same wasn't possible for me.

But I definitely didn't feel like spending twelve hours in a van with Dylan. There was no way I was going to survive a long car ride confined in a small space with him, especially after what I found out today.

"Dylan should go in the other van," I blurted out, causing Dylan to shake his head and laugh sarcastically while Fed turned to me with a confused expression.

"Why?" he asked, looking between us.
"Well because...how will the other van know where to go? None of them know where Obsidian is," I pointed out, hoping to get rid of at least one of my problems today.

"They'll follow us," Dylan said, cocking his head towards me and giving me a teasing glare.

"What if we lose them? Then everything will get messed up and we'll have to find them again and if we don't find them then-," I started rambling but was cut off when Dylan slammed the last blueprint into the box.

"We won't lose them," he said roughly, now fully glaring at me. I shook my head and turned my head away from him.

"Okay...now that that's done, I'm gonna check on Charlie, and then we should get on the road," Fed said carefully as he backed away from the obvious tension.