{2013}
As a 13 year old girl life was confusing, school, boys, friends. You name it. But having an annoying older brother made things even worse.
"Javi! Can you stop leaving your nasty socks on the floor?" I groan. "If you'd stop spraying your purfume all over the house" he snaps.
Ugh! He's so annoying. But his friend Tyler... even worse.
He constantly picks on me for being into books. As you can tell I'm the smartest of the two.
"Hey kid, You been behaving?" I hear as I sit on the couch. I give Javi a death stare. "I'm not a kid"
"Oh stop being all touchy, you know you love me" Eugh. I didn't love him.
"You ready to study those tornadoes we had on the radar?" Javi mentions, I stare in confusion.
"Tornadoes? I didn't think y'all knew what science was" I laugh at myself and Tyler rolls his eyes.
"You've got no faith Hailey" Javi mumbles.
"Your smart, why don't you help us?" Tyler mumbled as he focused on the paper in his hand.
"Tyler Owens treating me nicely, you ok?" I tease.
"Hailey, I'm always nice too you, now will you help or not?"
I sit there for half a second before shaking my head. "I'll pass" I walk up the stairs to my bedroom and sit on my bed.
I stare at my Eminem poster on the wall and mess around on my phone. My mom knocks on my doorframe.
We were an open door household unless you were changing.
"We're going out for dinner, cmon" She says.
"Is Tyler coming?" I ask.
"Yes" ugh! He follows me everywhere!
I make my way towards the door and step into the garage. Tyler made me sit in the middle so he could have the window.
"Can you please sit next to your friend here Javi?" I ask with frustration in my voice.
"Just get over it Hailey, he's not bothering you"
Tyler rubs my knee and smiles at me. "Don't touch me" I mumble.
My dad eyes me down in the rear view mirror and I look down at my phone. It wasn't long before Tyler was watching with me.
"Haha that's funny send it to me" I look at him weirdly.
"I don't have your number"
"You could though" He smirks, Javi makes a disgusted face.
As we pull up to the local Waffle House I almost cheered being able to get out. I walk in distant from my Brother and Tyler.
We sit at down in the corner table and Of course Tyler had to sit next to me just to make me mad.
"Whatcha gonna order Hailey?" He asks siting his baseball cap on my head. "Pancakes, or something" I reply dryly.
~~~
{2015}
I find myself underneath a dark sky unsure how to take the scene I just watched unfold. My father was sucked into the funnel after not making it to the shelter in time.
I laid in a flooded ditch face down as I cry. The only thing I hear is my name being screamed from the distance.
To weak to get up I let out a scream of my own catching the attention of the nearby flashlight in the distance.
"Hailey! I came as soon as I heard" there stood Tyler. Our differences wore off now that we were 16 and 18.
I try to stand but my legs were to weak.
"Don't get up, just stay here for a second" His voice was gentle and kind towards me.
"Where's Javi, and my mom?" I whimper as blood streams down my leg.
"Javi is fine, and so is your mom I just need you to let me help you" He assures.
I cry helplessly on the ground as he reaches his hand out. "Trust me Hailey, I'm gonna help you" He assures.
I let him take my hand, he gently picked me up and wave his flashlight towards the fire trucks that were parked almost everywhere.
"We need some help over here!" He shouts. A paramedic quickly brought a stretcher for me and I laid down.
I just lost my dad, my brother and mom were god knows where, and I'm here in an ambulance with Tyler Owens.
"Hey there! What's hurt my friend?" The nice paramedic asks, his eyes full of kindness. "My, my everything" I whimper.
The only thing I can do is reach for Tyler's hand. He grabbed it without hesitation and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
I closed my eyes and breathed hard for the ride to the hospital.
I still had no idea where my mom and Javi were but I was determined to find out. "Tyler where is my mom and Javi, I need you to be honest with me" I demand.
"Your mom is gonna be at the hospital, and Javi wasn't in town when everything happened, everyone but you is ok, let's focus on getting you some help" The paramedic smiled.
"Y'all are a cute couple"
"Oh we're not a couple" He corrected. The paramedic apologized as we pulled into the hospital. Hours later I wake up to the steady beep from my heart monitor.
"Ty- Tyler?" I mumble, looking at what seemed to be him. "I'm right here, Do you need something?" He asks, perking up from his uncomfortable looking hospital chair.
"I'm okay, just, making sure someone was here" I mumble. "I'm sorry about everything, Just know me and my family are there for you Javi and your mom" He assures.
"Thank you Tyler" I mumble. We hear a knock at my door and Tyler opens it. Javi opens the door and I give him a smile, still half dizzy from all the medicine.
"Oh my god, your hurt? I only heard about dad I didn't know Hailey" he stutters. "I'm fine Javi, thanks to Tyler" I
add.
Javi looks at Tyler and back at me. "Ty, you can go home I'll stay with Hailey" Javi offers.
"You need to be with your mama, I've got Hailey, I don't mind" I watch as the pair debates on what should happen.
"Hailey, I'll see you tomorrow when things are calm, I love you and please call if you need anything" Javi says.
"Love you too" I mumble as he walks out the door. Tyler stands by my bedside looking at me. Other than a concussion I only had dark bruises witch was good considering what it could've been.
"Those look terrible Hailey" He mumbles rubbing the bruise gently. I wince and tense up and he backs away looking concerned.
"Sorry" he mutters.
The next few weeks were spent alone in my room as I grieved my dads death, and recovered from my injuries.
Even though the tornado destroyed everything I had, it always felt so calming when one came around.
Tyler knocked on my door witch I had closed and locked. "Hailey, it's Tyler just wanted to make sure you were ok" He mumbled through the door. "I'm fine"
"You hungry?" He asks. I was starving but I could hardly lift my arm enough to eat. "Mmhm" I opened the door and Tyler greeted me. "Get in my truck, we'll go down there to that Waffle House"
I walk towards his red Dodge and hop in. "What's all this?" I ask looking at the numerous buttons and switches situated on his center console. "Stuff for tornadoes, I'm planning on taking meteorology at U of A"
"Your gonna chase?" I ask, he nods. "Just hoping I can make things like this a thing of the past Y'know, if we had scans from the inside we could increase Warning time by 15 minutes"
"Sounds smart, I just flow with the wind" I add. "Sometimes you gotta flow with the wind"
