EXPOSURE•tyler owens

Chapter Two

Tyler Owens is making his grand entrance with Ain't No Love In Oklahoma blasting on his radio. His truck comes speeding in dangerously, the rest of his crews' vehicles following. His truck has a big tornado symbol on the front, and the red color is rusting off.

People were waiting here for him. They cheer, and I notice stands set up selling his merchandise. Is that a shirt with his face on it?! A mug?

I know Tyler Owens is an idiot, but he's a bigger one than I previously thought.

The guy in the passenger seat sticks his head out of the window and holds a camera. "Hey, Storm Parr. We're live on YouTube, say something!"

"Go to hell!" I shout.

Javi shoots a glance at me. "It's better to not engage."

Oh god. Tyler is getting out of the passenger seat as the crowds surround him and cheer. He's looking around, a cowboy hat identical to mine on his head.

I haven't seen him in a bit. And when he looks in my direction, I'm caught a bit off guard by how handsome he looks.

"Hey, how are you feeling?!"

Tyler looks down at the camera. "I'm feeling pretty good, Boone."

He looks at the crowd. "If you feel it..."

"CHASE IT!" they all yell.

"I said if you feel it.."

"CHASE IT!"

Tyler's smiling goofily until he takes another glance back towards us. His smile drops, and I realize that he's spotted me.

I send back a small smirk, crossing my arms. "Excuse me," he mutters to Boone.

Tyler is heading my way as Javi and Scott talk to Kate. He looks irritated when he comes over. "What are you doing here, Elena?"

I act innocent. "What? Am I not aloud to be here in the tornado cowboy's territory?"

Tyler sighs. "Not if you're going to ruin the mood."

He observes my cowboy hat and chuckles. "What's this?"

"Just a little hat."

Tyler grabs it off my head and I fume. I try to grab it out of his hands, but he holds it higher and higher, moving it out of the way every time my hand almost touches it.

I hate that he's tall enough that I can't reach. Even my jumping isn't helping. "Give it back, Owens."

"Not if you're using it to mock me."

I cross my arms. "Alright, Tornado Wrangler."

"So you do watch my YouTube channel."

"No, I've just heard you say it so many times that it's engraved in my brain. I can't believe you call yourself that."

Tyler rolls his eyes. "You never answered my question. What are you doing here?"

"I'm gonna chase."

Tyler steps closer, still holding the hat where I can't reach it. "That's not why you're really here. You're scared of tornadoes."

"No, I'm not. You don't know me half as well as you think, Owens."

He leans close enough to my face that I breath in his alluring scent. Tyler finds the exact ways to push my buttons. "I'll find out why you're really here, Ellie."

I hate when he calls me that, because no one ever calls me that. He doesn't get some special nickname, because he doesn't deserve one. Tyler Owens is not my friend.

"Alright, Wrangler."

He frowns once again as I walk away and leave him to stand there alone. Tyler's puzzled as to why I would chase, and I love that I get to cause him that confusion.

We've never quite got along properly anyways.

I'm taking a walk down by one of the many grass fields. The winds are blowing my dark hairs back and I'm listening to music in my earbuds.

It feels nice to have some peace and quiet, especially with the breakup I went through earlier in the day.

The end of a long relationship just occurred.

"You look miserable," Tyler Owens's voice echoes.

I keep in my earbuds, trying my best to pretend like I didn't hear him. He keeps following me, and I just want to push him over.

"You just gonna ignore me, Ellie?"

I angrily take out my earbuds, whipping around to face Tyler. I hope the tear stains aren't still visible.

"It's not the time, Tyler. It's never the time. We've never been friends, so why are you following me around?"

He chuckles. "You're right, we aren't friends. That's why I'm living off the fact that you look so miserable."

Tyler never knows when it's too far. He doesn't exactly know what happened earlier to make me this upset, but he should be careful with his words.

"You actual asshole. Get lost, Tyler."

He's still following me when I continue to walk. "This is funny."

"Is it really that funny that Matt broke up with me?"

Tyler pauses, and I know he must feel bad now. He should. "I didn't know."

"Yeah, of course you didn't. You didn't even think before you spoke. May I remind you, that's why we aren't friends, Owens."

I leave him behind in the dust, holding back my tears. Tyler is the bane of my existence. I cried in my room for the rest of the night, but only stopped when I got a delivery at my door.

It was a beautiful flower, but I never knew who it was from.

I'm brought back to reality when there's an urgent tap on my shoulders. "We have a storm to chase."

I feel chills down my spine as I hop in the passenger seat of Scott's truck. He explains the plan to me and that this isn't just a normal chase.

He says that we're going to be using these machines that Javi used in the military to get a three dimensional scan of a tornado. There's three teams, and each has to place one in a specific spot.

This was the part I wasn't ready for. Actually chasing the tornado. I tend to talk a big game until it's actually time to do it. I take a deep breath and decide that for the sake of my pride that I can't back out of this.