CHAPTER 3:
"Mom, this is Reid and..."Indy trailed off, looking expectantly at Tyler.
"Tyler Simms." He filled in, shaking the older woman's hand.
"They dropped by to give me a ride to school, but since I'm not going..." She trailed off again.
"That's okay .We'll just head out. Nice meeting you, m'am." Tyler said smoothly, dragging Reid out to the car by the hood to his hoodie. Indy followed them out, rolling her eyes at Reid, who kept winking and smirking at her.
"So, when do you want our little rendezvous to be, Red?" Reid asked when they were finally out of earshot of her mother.
"Is he always this big of an asshole?" Indy asked Tyler, gesturing to Reid incredulously. Tyler nodded emphatically.
"C'mon, Red. When's mommy dearest gonna book?" She sighed and leaned against the car.
"She'll leave for work at nine. Be home at six." She muttered, pushing off the black vehicle and swaggering back into her house. "And Reid?"
He snapped to attention.
"Don't get your hopes up. I'm taken."
"She's lying." Were Reid's first words on the way back to the dorms.
"You're crazy." Tyler shot back. Indy seemed nice enough to him, and her mom was polite, if quizzical, but there was just something about her...
"She's not taken, or else where was he last night?"
"Maybe she's a lesbian." Tyler threw out, exasperated. Sleeping in a car all night had given him a crick in his neck and a grumpy attitude. And he was hungry and late for school, all because Reid decided to play hero to some girl.
"Would explain why she didn't really respond to me last night." Reid took it into consideration. "Wouldn't be the first I've brought back to the light, though."
"Dude, you're hopeless."
"No, you're hopeless. I just enjoy a challenge."
"A challenge is one thing. Impossibility is another." Tyler quipped, pulling into the school parking lot. "C'mon. I need a shower." He turned off the car and made his way up to their dorm room, Reid following, his head full of thoughts about "Red."