When I reached Rick, he looked up at me suspiciously, "What do you want?"
"Your help."
He shut his eyes and leaned back against the wall. "Sorry, last time I checked hell hadn't frozen over."
"It's about Adrian."
His eyes opened but he still regarded me suspiciously. His gaze darted over to his brother and then back to me. "What about Adrian?"
"She's at the airport in Spokane. She wants to go live with our dad because she thinks she's messed things up here too badly." I shoved the phone at him. "Call her. Tell her to come back home. She'll listen to you."
"What?" Rick's eyebrows drew together, like he didn't quite believe me. "Why did she leave?"
"She put the beer in the squad's duffel bags."
Instead of using Tanner's phone, Rick pulled out his own, and pressed Adrian's number into it. He glanced back at me while he waited for it to connect. "Why did she do that?"
"Because she wanted to make sure you won the audition."
"And she didn't think I could beat you? That's a nice vote of confidence." As he held the phone to his ear, his hand tapped against his jeans. "So she'll be suspended. It's not the end of the world. There are worse things."
"Like living with my dad," I said.
Tanner and I watched Rick silently, waiting for a sign that Adrian had answered.
But Rick let out a grunt and shook his head. "She's not picking up." To her voice mail he said, "Adrian, don't get on the plane, okay? Just call me." He shut the phone and hit redial. I watched him while my insides slowly fell to my feet. She wasn't going to answer. She wasn't going to come home.
Rick stood up, agitated. "So much for 'she'll listen to you.' She won't even talk to me." He swore then, although I assume not into her voice mail. He shut his phone and called again. "It doesn't make sense. Why would she sabotage your song so I'd win, and then take off so I never see her again?"
It hurt to admit it, but I had to. "Well, she sort of thinks you have a crush on me."
"She what?" Rick said this too loudly, and several people stared in our direction. "Just because I was at your locker on Tuesday?"
"That, plus she saw Tanner take me home on Monday and thought it was you." Both Tanner and Rick stared at me, so I quickly added, "I told her she was wrong. I told her I'd never done anything to make you like me."
Rick hit the redial button. "That's the truth and then some."
While Rick paced around the floor cursing, Tanner continued to stare at me, his gaze heavy. I could tell he knew what I'd done. I took a step closer to him and lowered my voice. "I did tell Adrian there was nothing going on between Rick and me."
"But you didn't prove it to her. That would have been easy enough. All you would have had to do was tell her to talk to me."
"I thought it was better if they didn't get back together." When his eyes turned accusing, I added, "You said as much yourself when I went to dinner at your house. You were glad that Rick and Adrian had broken up."
He let out a sigh and his gaze traveled past me, to where Rick paced across the hallway with the phone. "He's been calling and leaving messages for her for the last two days, asking her to come to the auditions. He cares about her. So my opinion doesn't matter."
I looked over at Rick. "And she cares about him." Saying it made me feel worse. Adrian cared about him and I'd messed things up for her. Again.
Rick walked over to us, shoving the phone back into his pocket. "Tanner, I need your car keys."
"Why?" he asked.
"I'm going to the airport to talk to her."
Tanner's head tilted back. "Right now? In the middle of auditions?"
"It will be too late afterward. The flight leaves at 1:00."
"How do you know that?" Tanner asked.
"I called the airlines. There's only one direct flight to Chicago." Rick looked at me then, but without the anger I'd expected. There was only bitter resignation. "I guess you'll win after all. Let me be the first to congratulate you."
I shook my head. "No. You stay here and finish the audition. I'll drive to Spokane and talk to her."
Rick snorted. "You already talked to her, and nothing you said made her want to come back. I'm going."
Tanner glanced back and forth at us. "You can't go to the gate to talk to her without a ticket."
"So I'll buy one," Rick said.
I only had a few dollar bills in my wallet, and I didn't own a credit card. Still, I wasn't about to let Rick win on this point. "I'll tell the airport people she's running away from home. They'll have to stop her. Rick can stay here and audition. I'll go."
"I'm going," Rick said.
"Fine, then we'll both go," I said.
Tanner held up his hands. "Neither one of you have a car, and I'm not letting either of you tear up the highway to Spokane in mine. Besides," he said as he pulled his keys from his pocket, "you'd kill each other before you reached the airport. I'll drive."
"Let's go then," Rick turned, and picked up his equipment. He handed some of it to Tanner to carry.
I ran over to Molly and Polly to let them know I was leaving. "You can withdraw from the auditions if you want. Or you can just do it without me."
They both stared at me over their books, wide-eyed. "We're backup singers," Molly said. "How would we do the song without you?"
"One of you could take my part." I didn't wait for their reaction to that suggestion because Rick was already striding toward the door and I didn't want Tanner and him to leave without me. I grabbed my purse but left everything else with the twins. Then I ran to catch up with the guys.
I sat next to Tanner in the front seat of his car while Rick leaned over the back seat and complained about Tanner's driving.
"Man, that light was almost yellow. You could have gone through it."
I glanced over my shoulder at Rick. "I'm surprised you're still alive."
Rick grunted. "I'm a good driver."
"I don't think she meant that," Tanner said tightly. "She meant she was surprised I haven't killed you yet. Keep telling me how to drive and you might not be so lucky"
Rick sat back in his seat with a thud. "We've got to get there before they board. At this rate it will take forever."
"We'll get there in time if the roads are clear," Tanner said.
The roads were clear, and once we got out on the highway, Tanner drove fast enough that even Rick couldn't complain. The rolling Palouse Hills zoomed by.
Tanner made Rick call their mother and explain the situation. She didn't pick up the call. They knew she wouldn't. The judges had instructed the audience to turn off their cell phones.
It was just as well, because neither Tanner nor Rick wanted to talk to anyone in their family anyway. They'd had a five-minute conversation beforehand about who should be the one to break it to their grandmother that her grandsons had taken the only car without flats and left everyone stranded at the auditorium.
But when Rick didn't show up on stage, they would check their cell phones.
It was a long drive, made longer by the fact that Rick kept tapping his door handle as though this would make the car go faster. Tanner hardly said anything. I could tell he was angry. It showed in the set of his jaw, in his grip on the steering wheel, and in the silence that surrounded him. I wasn't sure who he was angry at, but figured it was me. I didn't bring it up though. That wasn't a conversation I wanted to have in front of Rick. Besides I couldn't stop thinking about Adrian living with my father.