Waste My Time by Kelsey Clayton
Everythingaround me moves in slow motion, my brain unable to take in the scene in front of me. It looks like something out of a goddamn horror movie.
The car wrapped around the tree.
Brayden leaning against it, holding his shoulder as he winces in pain.
Kai pulling Van away from the dead body lying on the ground, face covered in blood.
As they get a distance away, Van shoves Kai off him and storms away. He disappears among the trees, no doubt to let out some anger.
Once the ringing in my ears subsides, I take a deep breath and try to make sense of what happened. My sister, Talan, stares ahead with a terrified look on her face, no doubt in shock. I kneel in front of her and take her face in my hands.
“Are you okay?” I ask. “Are you hurt?”
The sound of Van shouting angrily echoes in the distance. I spare a quick glance that way, but I know he’s only letting off steam. He’ll be back when he’s done.
She shakes her head no rapidly before getting distracted by heavy sobbing. Hudson Vaughn has her arms wrapped around herself as she rocks back and forth. Blood drips down from the cut on her forehead and gets in her eyes, forcing her to wipe it away and quickly staining her hands red.
“Kayn,” Brayden groans.
I take my attention off Hudson and make my way over to him. “What do you need, Bray?”
“It's dislocated,” he pants. “I need you to...help me pop it back in.”
My anxiety rises as I see how serious he is. “We should wait for an ambulance. You should let a doctor—”
He shakes his head and cuts me off. “There's a fucking dead body on the ground. No one is calling an ambulance.”
“But your football career.”
“I know the risks,” he insists. “Help me pop it back in.”
Against my better judgment, I lay him down and grab his arm. He clenches his jaw in pain as I bring his arm out to a ninety-degree angle. I place my feet on his torso to hold him in place, and then with all my strength, I pull his arm toward me. Brayden screams in agony but I don't let up until I feel it pop back into place. The second I step off him he turns to his side and vomits. Half lifting him to his feet, I help him over to the picnic table and lean him against it.
“Kai, I need your hoodie,” I tell him.
He takes it off and tosses it to me so I can use it to make a sling for Brayden.
Hudson continues to sob hysterically. “My parents are going to be so pissed at me.”
“Oh, right,” Tierney scoffs. “Because Knox Vaughn hasn't done worse.”
“Tierney,” I scold my cousin.
She rolls her eyes. “What? You've heard all the stories of the two men you were named after.”
“Yeah, and your dad is one of them. Keep your mouth shut.”
Looking over at the body, Hudson cries harder. “Rory. Oh my God, Rory.”
I glance back at the dead girl for only a second, being as that's all my stomach can seem to manage right now. Her hair is splayed out across the leaves, her shirt stained a deep red from the large stick emerging from her abdomen. I pull my attention away from the gruesome sight.
Van says nothing as he returns and goes to put his arm around Hudson, much to the dismay of her twin brother. If Kai were the quieter type, he may have just let it happen anyway. After all, his sister is an emotional basket case right now. But being a miniature version of his dad, he doesn't have a quiet bone in his body.
“Touch her and die, Hayworth,” he growls.
Van scoffs. “She's fucking crying, dick.”
“That doesn't make her your responsibility, shithead,” Kai snaps back. “Worry about your own sister. Oh, wait.”
He glances back at the body and then smirks at him. In a split-second, Van lunges at Kai. Hudson and Tierney scream as the two of them become a tangled mess of punches. It's not the first time these two have gone at it and it probably won't be the last, but I'm not about to let anyone else die today.
I grab Van by the back of his shirt and yank him back, pulling him away while Brayden holds Kai back with his uninjured arm. The two just glare at each other from over our shoulders, a silent message that this isn't over.
“Knock it the fuck off,” I roar. “This is not what we fucking need right now.”
“No, fuck you,” Van yells. “He—”
“Hello?”
Relief rushes through me as a girl I’m happier to see than I’ll admit comes into view. She looks like she’s been through hell. Her face is covered in dirt, and she seems disoriented as she tilts her head to the side, her fingers hung in her knotted hair.
“What's going on?” Rory asks. “What happened?”
“Oh my God. Rory!” Hudson breathes.
At the sound of his sister’s voice, Van's attention immediately leaves Kai. He slings my hand off him and marches straight over to her, wrapping her in his arms. She sighs against him and holds him tightly.
“Wait,” Tierney says. “If Rory is alive...”
All of us turn toward the dead girl and a cold chill runs down my spine.
“Who the hell is that?”
Est. Arrival 2023