WHEN THE RAIN STOPS- Scrutinized [TANNER x LUNA] 2 IN 1

SIDE STORY: FINALLY PART 1 2/2

|AUGUST|

"August!" he said, coming over to me with an unfamiliar friendly smile. Cole usually scowls at me, so he must be desperate for something. "What's up?" "Oh nothing, just the usual. But hey- have you seen Luna?- I really need to talk to her-." "Sorry, I have no ide-." "What's going on over here?" Travis asked over my shoulder in an upity tone. I exhaled in defeat. There was no way Travis wasn't gonna spill the beans. "Nothing, He was just wondering where Luna was. I told him we don't know." Travis pursed his lips. "Well that's simply isn't true." He said glancing at me before looking over to Cole. "I'm sorry, but she put her two weeks in over a month ago. Something about moving south with her fiancé?" He looked back over to me with a reassured nod before he turned back over to Cole. "But if you really need to talk to her, I could give you her number if you'd like." Cole nodded his head with the tiniest hint of hesitant and bottled up anger. "Ok! Let me just get it from my office. Follow me." Travis motioned to us.

Meanwhile, I was confused. Why the hell was Travis lying to him? We know her phone doesn't work, we know she still works here, so why is he acting like this?

We got to his office, where Cole started to impatiently tap his foot. You could tell there was something wrong. He only stopped when Travis gave him a post it note with her number on it. "Thanks. I'll give her a call." Travis nodded and motioned him to the door as I decided stay behind. Closing the door behind him. "What was that?" I asked. He sighed. "Something was up with him, and we know her phone doesn't work so why where you acting like-." "I think he's working with Vincent.." my eyes widened. "What?" "Luna told me about Cole. About how he used to hit her, isolate her, all that. So what's stopping him? I mean, Vincent Opa could've persuaded him in to finding her location for him. And after all, Cole seemingly vanished after their break up so who's to say he's not a stalker?"

After what I found out about Tanner, I thought Cole was dead.. but when he came in the door, I didn't really remember my theory til now.

Cole is a mole.

"Call Luna." I said as he picked up the phone and began to dial a random string of elongated numbers. Guess they wanted to be secure. "Hello?" A slightly tired Luna said. "Hey Luna, it's Travis. I have August here with me and we just wanted to talk about something. Can you and Tanner talk?" Silence rang as we heard a chair pull up. "Yeah, what's up?" "Ok-." "Cole came in today." I said, interrupting Travis. He was talking too slow. "What?" Luna asked. "Mhm, he was wondering where you were-." "And what did you say?!" Tanner interrupted in a worried manner. "-We said you quit and gave him your old number." Travis reassured as Tanner scoffed. "I can't believe this, they're supposed be in prison!" "Cole and Valerine were set free on good behavior." "And what about Vincent?" Luna asked in a slightly numb voice.  "He-.. he's out there.. he escaped a few weeks ago."

Tanner let out another scoff as Luna sighed. "I'd have to advise you to stay in hiding. I'm Sorry." Silence rang in the room til Luna asked "are you guys free next weekend?"

|LYDIA: 5 Days Later|

"Where are you going?" Adam asked from the couch. "I'm on my way to Valinen to help Luna dress shop." "Isn't that across town though? 2 hour drive..." "Mhm. I want to be there, and I know that can make you think I'm-." "2 hours seems like an awful long time to be alone.. wouldn't you rather have company? Perhaps we could carpool with the others.. or, if you'd like, it could be only us. Which ever you choose, I'd be happy to come along." I smiled. "Is this about last time? I didn't mean to make you feel guilty or anything." "No, it's not guilt, I just wanna come with you." He stood up and put down the magazine he was reading. "Let me pack and we can leave in 10. Notify August we're picking him up from too."

|LAYLA|

"Honey! Have you seen my bag?" I yelled at Ein who was in the kitchen. "You left it at the lodge! We'll be fine! Just pack for the weekend!" I sighed as I closed the suit case and walked over to the kitchen doorway. Leaning on it to watch Ein cook our last meal before heading out. "Do you think they're still mad at me?" "It's only been a few days, you have to understand, it was harsh-." "-Yeah! But it had to be done!.." I sighed, looking down to the floor. "He almost killed my best friend Ein.." He exhaled "I know.." "Then why are you taking his side?! Luna could'v-." "SHE MADE HER DECISION LAYLA! SHE'S HAPPY! HE'S HAPPY! WE'RE ALL HAPPY! SO JUST DROP IT!"