𝐈𝐧𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝

Chapter Thirty: Obsidian

I felt my eyes flutter open at the sound of two faint voices and after a few moments, I tilted my head up to see that I was still resting on Thomas's shoulder who looked completely asleep. I could tell he was sleeping by his heavy breathing and the way his eyes were glued shut. I carefully removed my head from his shoulder, taking my jacket with me, and moved over so that I didn't wake him. The sound of whispers caught my attention so I sat up to see who was still awake. Raine? And Dylan? I started to carefully climb my way around Thomas and Jack towards the front seat.

"Raine? What are you doing awake," I whispered and Raine turned around to look at me.

"I couldn't sleep," she responded simply and turned back to watch the road while Dylan continued to drive.

"Wanna try falling back to sleep for a while?" I suggested, hoping Raine would say yes so that I could spend some time with her.

"Nah, I'm good. Not really that tired," Raine replied and gave me a smile, probably to show how 'energized' she was. I had no idea how long Raine was awake but it was unusual for her to wake up in the middle of the night. Not to mention, the girl loved sleeping and could hardly function without a full eight hours. Something must be up.

"Well, I can drive if you want, Dylan. You've been driving for a while," I offered. Partially because I felt bad that he hadn't slept in a while and the exhaustion was practically seeping from him. But I also offered because I wanted time alone with Raine so I could apologize and talk about Connor. We hadn't been able to catch up in a while or talk about not finding Connor at Monarch and it was important that I at least hear what Raine had to think about it.

"I'm fine. You sleep," he replied, his eyes still scanning the road.

"No, I already slept. You should really sleep. I don't mind," I insisted, feeling even more guilty that he was asking me to sleep more when he hadn't slept a wink himself.

"I told you, I'm fine."

"Don't be a baby, just let me drive. You've been driving the whole night," I persisted.

"Exactly, so I'll just keep driving. And I'm not being a baby," he responded, still not looking over at me.

"Really," I muttered before letting it go. I really wanted to talk to Raine. Dang it.

"Well, I, uh, I'm going to try to go back to sleep then I guess. You're good, Raine?" I looked over to my sister. I wasn't one of those sisters who regulated their younger siblings' behavior all the time.

Was I responsible? For sure. Did I keep a close eye on them? Definitely! Did I take charge and slightly boss them around when doing chores or small tasks? Of course, it was in my nature. But did I tell my siblings when to go to bed or how to do things? No. They could figure that out themselves and do what they wanted as long as it was somewhat safe and they knew how to get to me if they were in trouble. However, I would give them advice from time to time that I hoped they thought was helpful and I would work through homework problems with them when they couldn't figure out answers.

So I didn't try to force Raine to sleep even though it was one in the morning. Not that this was the latest Raine had stayed up. She and I had some pretty fun all-nighters back home that I could not mention for the sake of our parents ever finding out. Raine nodded to reassure me that she was fine with staying up, I laid back down beside Thomas, resting my head on a duffel bag, this time so I didn't wake him up. I blocked out the quiet whispers that were coming from Dylan and Raine in the front and closed my eyes and started to drift off to sleep once more.

"I already told you, half an hour."

"Well, it's been like ten minutes since you said that."

"What's thirty minus ten, Raine?"