car radio

ALISON DIDN’T REALIZE IT at first but her eyes were closed and she was whispering something under her breath, soft lips mouthing a quick count to ten in a sort of a technique she’d made a habit of whenever she began to feel like she was drifting out of place. A trick on how to stay calm, be present, and survive when her body didn’t know how to. She tried to think of chilly football games and overheated parties. Christmas in the city, the warmth her sisters’ hugs at the dinner table. She thought of graduation with Bella, summers spent in Lacoste skirts and headbands. Any memory that felt golden enough needed to wash over her within the moment or else she’d be focusing too much on the dead body that was now slumped in front of her, the feeling of Hayes hands light on the cheeks of her skin. Only she never registers much of either since coming out of her trance. She could hear people yelling but it took her a second to remember why. Allie blinked between Hayes and the shouting, her eyes dropping down to the body before backing up away from it until they were both running again. It didn’t take long before she was letting Hayes pull her around in all sorts of directions and forcing them over by a window explaining this to be their way out. 

So, without thinking, Allie dropped to the ground and grabbed the biggest shard of glass she could find since didn’t know what else could be waiting for them outside of this if this is what it looked like in here. She had already come to the terms with the fact that she wasn’t cut out to be here experiencing any of this but that didn’t stop the nagging feeling the back of her mind of wanting to be able to do something if anything else happened regardless of what. If Hayes could bring himself together to get them out of here safely, then the least she could do was try to be helpful considering her last moments weren’t her finest. She’d still be stuck behind a chair crying, alone, and feeling weak instead of minutes away from escaping if it wasn’t for him so she had to give him the satisfaction of knowing she was trying just as much as he was despite the freeze ups. The realization of just how close they were getting to being out of here filled her with a sense of urgency she didn’t know she had, but before she found herself prepping to exit, she found herself at the mercy of another idea. Allie took the very limited time they had left to be here to take a step forward to Hayes and brought her lips close enough to his into the form of a kiss. Only before she could enjoy much of it, Allie had pulled away and backed up towards the window.

❝ That was for not leaving me. ❞ She put a leg over the ledge. ❝ Now let’s get the hell out of here.❞ 

It wasn’t until he saw Allie picking up a shard of glass that Hayes even considered finding a weapon for himself. He had been so busy focusing on getting out of the building that he hadn’t given much thought to what they were going to find when they did manage to escape. It was an oversight and one that could have caused their lives if it wasn’t for Allie but Hayes quickly shook himself out of his thoughts before he could spiral. They were still alive and relatively unharmed, that was the thing he needed to focus on. He needed to concentrate on the fact that they were still breathing and that he wanted them to stay that way. He looked around for a second before quickly darting away to grab the gun of someone who seemed dead and taking it back to where Allie was. In theory he knew how to use a gun. He knew where the safety was and how to pull the trigger but he’d never shot at a person before. Hayes told himself it was fine. He wouldn’t need to use it, it was just in case. 

The kiss shocked him. It was the last thing he expected among the gun fire and the voice in his head telling him GO GO GO. For a second it felt like everything around them stopped and only the two of them existed but just as quickly, reality hit. 

Hayes climbed over the the broken window as quickly and carefully as possible. They didn’t get this far just to cut themselves on some broken glass. As they started making their way away from the building it seemed like they were going to make it out fine, until a man with a gun walked towards them asking where do you think you’re going? Hayes, the man who had only ever shot a gun once in his life and never at a person let adrenaline take over. Before he knew what he was doing the gun was raised and he was pulling the trigger, shooting the man in front of them in the chest. He dropped the gun in horror. He just shot someone. He just shot someone through the chest. He just killed someone. His breathing became labored as he tried to keep his oncoming panic attack at bay. He just killed someone. He just shot a human being in the chest. Blood was pouring out of him. 

SHE HAD BLACKED OUT the moments between having a gun pointed to the back of her head to when she found herself down by the tables on her hands and knees, blood caked in her nails and glass bits in her hair. Her timeline of things was starting to get fuzzy the more her mind worked on sorting out the details, still unable to process the night’s first points of issues while failing to remember how she managed to get tucked down here in the first place after being threatened by someone twice her size like she did something to them. Only every conclusion kept coming up short thanks to her train of thought being harrowed by images of Kate, the sight her body being stripped of life in front of everyone she knew by some man who fancied himself something special. The realization of how haunting a body became after being touched by death came over her in waves of clarity with the more energy she put into replaying the whole thing, letting all that anger she felt crash over as she forced herself to hyperfocus on the now instead of letting grief grip at her in distraction. She had no intentions of dying tonight. So while she could feel the heel on her left shoe had become broken, the strap at her ankle to remove them was the least of her worries as she shifted low between chairs and tables, her breath hitching in her chest as she felt the floor beneath her shake with people falling from wounds and blasts going off overhead. Every scream, every choked out word for mercy made Alison’s stomach flop and cause a wave of dizziness to roll over her. More screams erupted to her right and she could see bullets rolling and hitting the floors like pennies. 

She needed to get out of here.

In what world did people like her deserve treatment like this? She was a good fucking person for the most part. Glitzy at twenty six and she was supposed to be thriving, drunk on life to celebrate the people she loved, not hidden under a table at a wedding on a farm like a mouse being trapped by a house cat looking for slaughter. 

Allie had crawled behind once last chair before a shadow loomed over her and it took her a few seconds to let her eyes adjust to Hayes just standing there, the sight of him looking so surreal she hadn’t realized she wasn’t breathing until she felt herself gasp, tears stinging in her eyes because just for one second she thought someone was coming towards her again. However, she didn’t need to be told twice. They had to get out of there and Allie was happy to oblige by hiking the hem of her dress over her ankles with one hand as she stood up, the other reaching out for Haye’s. . .only before they could make moves to turn, someone not to far from them managed to get clipped right in their chest in and then Allie felt herself stiffen like she had just gone frigid, hand squeezing his as she looked at the body drop on in horror.

❝  Hayes. I need you to get me out of here. ❞ 

Hayes could tell he was doing better with everything happening around them than Allie was. Perhaps it was because he’d experienced death and horror before, maybe it was because every time he closed his eyes saw the dead bodies of his parents. Having to identify his own parents corpses at the age of fourteen was something he had never managed to come to terms with but maybe it had made him numb to seeing bodies drained of life in front of his eyes. Maybe all of him inner demons and darkest trauma were finally good for something, and maybe the things he was seeing just hadn’t sank in yet. There was a significantly higher chance that the adrenaline and need for survival that he felt was numbing everything else around him. There was still the chance that as soon as he took half a second to pause and think about things that everything would hit him like a train but he didn’t have time to think about that. He couldn’t have an mental breakdown at all if he and Allie died in that room. Surviving had to be on the forefront of his mind, they didn’t have the time to stop and think about what was happening. 

Hayes had never considering himself brave or strong or heroic. His whole life he had been the nerdy skinny kid who was innocent and unassuming. Loud sounds made him flinch and if they were loud enough they made him jump, a man like him wasn’t cut out to be in a room like this. And yet, there was no other option. He could see Allie crumbling before his eyes and if he needed to be strong enough for both of them that was exactly what he’d do to get them out of there. There was a dead body next to them, the third he’d been that day. He was starting to get horrifically familiar with the sound dead bodies made as the hit the ground. He was getting even more horrifically familiar with the sound bullets made as they hit someone. It was a sound he never wanted to hear again in his life. Hayes avoided looking down at yet another dead person among the chaos. He had no idea if he knew them, if they had blonde hair or brown, if they were young or old and he had no intention of finding out. As soon as he heard those words leave her lips he knew he had to do something. He lightly slapped Allie on the face, hopefully not enough to hurt but enough to get her attention and force her mind from the body that she was staring at. He knew at that moment with a level of determination he’d never felt in his life that he would get Allie out of that room unharmed. He was going to need her help to ensure both of their safety, but he knew they could do it. People like them didn’t deserve to die like this. All they’d been trying to do was have fun, they’d done nothing to warrant the bullets raining down around them. 

Where: cressino farm wedding / post plot drop

It wasn’t the first time Hayes had found himself with a gun pointed at his head, a fact which only disturbed him more rather than bringing him any kind of comfort. He was a normal guy, he followed the rules, did his job and he payed his taxes. There was no way he should have been held at gun point as many times as he had. Not only that but everything going on in the wedding hall seemed to be moving in super speed and slow motion at the same time. A group of people he didn’t recognize had seemingly taken over the wedding and started shooting at people. Maybe Hayes shouldn’t have attempted to move when everyone was clearly told not to, if he hadn’t he might not have been gifted with the special treatment of having a gun pointed straight at his head. The screams were deafening, covered only by the sound of gun fire that didn’t seem to end but all he could focus on was the gun. 

People said that when you were about to die your life flashes before your eyes but for Hayes everything was blank. Even as he watched the man’s trigger finger start to move there were no images of days gone by or the good times he’d had. All there was was screaming and the gun. He took a deep breath in having no doubt that it was about to be his last and as he exhaled he finally heard the shot ring out. Much to his surprise the pain didn’t follow the gunshot and as he began to pay more attention to his surroundings he noticed that the gun was no longer pointed to his head. Instead it was on the floor along with the man that had been about to end his life.

Hayes wasn’t sure he believed in god or any kind of all knowing being, but he silently thanked whatever or whoever had just saved his life. He made a silent promise to do more with his life and become a better man but before he had too much time to pray another bullet whizzed past him head making him duck. He stayed low to the ground, he needed to find Allie and get the hell out of there. He knew the last time he’d seen the blonde she was in the hall not too far away from him so she had to be close by. 

IT  WAS  HER  THIRD  TIME  AROUND  to the desert table, and really, she needed to be ashamed of herself, but this time she had her daughter in tow. “Wait your turn,” she told Harper gently, turning her attention from her daughter to Hayes when he spoke up. “Oh no, please take your time. She doesn’t know what she wants just yet either. Between you and I though, the chocolate covered strawberries are absolutely delicious.” She’d had more than enough of them over the course of the past hour that she could say it with certainty. “Or the eclairs if you like pastries.” 

Hayes smiled at her words, at least he wasn’t being an inconvenience. Getting in someone else’s way was probably one of his big fears in social situations and one of the reasons he liked to keep to himself. “I might have to listen to your recommendation then and go with both. What’s a free dessert station if you can’t take one of everything right?”

where: wedding reception | cressino farm

who: @hayesevans​​​

Violet was finding the joyous day to celebrate Gabe and Julia had become riddled with odd occurrences. One of the minor ones had been seeing Allie and Hayes attending together, neither of them had mentioned it, granted it wasn’t really her business but she couldn’t help the awkwardness she’d felt upon first seeing it. Most of it had dissipated and as her dance with Hayes came to an end she couldn’t help the impressed smile. “Are you getting better at this? If you’re taking lessons you can tell me!” she teased.

SHE WASN’T OBLIVIOUS. Growing up with a strong sense of self made pride easy when it came to her vanity, only there was something different when that reassurance came in the form of sweet compliments given by handsome faces. Allie brought her gaze down, playing off his words with an eyeroll meant to deflect yet never moving herself away from his embrace since she had quickly grown comfortable being tucked by his side. ❝ Well, you aren’t looking too bad yourself, Evans. ❞ She kept her arms hugged at his middle, her legs moving forward with his towards the bar since getting a drink was sounding nice, the need for something to loosen her up coming in strong if she was going to continue being momentarily flustered every time Hayes opened his mouth to compliment her.  ❝ Whoever talked you into putting on this suit must have really great taste, huh?  ❞ Allie pulled her lips into a grin, exposing teeth and all, as they closed in on clusters of people. ❝ Now, when you say, ‘go and get a drink’ does that follow under the ‘I’ll take a shot with Allie’ umbrella or … is that too much? ❞  

Hayes was slightly surprised that Allie was still nestled into his side but he very much wasn’t complaining about it. He’d never been the most cuddly person in the world but having that closeness was providing him with a sense of comfort. Especially in an environment which usually made him uncomfortable, it was nice to have that constant reminder that Allie was there with him. It wasn’t the easiest thing in the world to walk to the bar with a five foot four blonde wrapped around him but they managed it. “Whoever talked me into wearing this suit must have incredible taste.” He laughed as they made their way through the crowd and to the bar. “Well you already got me here so, why not go all the way? I’ll take many shots with Allie if that’s what she wants.”

ALISON KNEW THAT when she invited Hayes to the wedding that there was a large possibility he could and would say no. Weddings were large, loud, and filled with people most guests will never see again and Allie liked to think she knew the guy well enough to know that this wasn’t his thing. Only coming on the arm of anyone else just didn’t seem right and she found herself too pretty to come alone. Her reaction to him obliging was borderline ecstatic, she even got him into a suit. Granted, she was the one to pick it out, but now that she could take a breather away from bridesmaid responsibilities and really take the time to see her date, she’d consider the choice the second best one she’s made throughout all of this. Hearing his compliment had her beaming, cheeks turning pink and it wasn’t because of the Fenty blush. ❝ Call me beautiful one more time and I may just swoon, ❞ She wrapped her arms around his middle once he got close enough and looked up at him as he grinned something so infectious she couldn’t help but put on a grin of her own as she leaned into him, ❝ but no, I think Jules is all set with everything for now, so I’m all yours. ❞

Hayes found that he could slightly relax now that Allie was by his side. Being in large crowds of people still wasn’t his thing and probably never would be but he hated it less than he used to. Before Oceanside and their habit of making anything into a big occasion he probably would have said no to the wedding but he was slowly getting used to all of it. It had taken him five years but better late than never. “Why am I not allowed to call you beautiful? You are.” He laughed, smiling down at her. He didn’t want her to have any doubts in her mind of what he saw when he looked at her and that was someone entirely out of his league. The reason Allie had even invited him as her date was lost on him but he wasn’t going to complain about it. “Good I like the sound of that. Shall we go and get a drink?”

@anikam​​

@alexamocre​​

He was, however, a lot happier when her ceremony bridesmaid duties were finally over and he could actually spend some time with her. Hayes walked up to Allie, a big goofy grin on his face. “I wont lie to you, I think you’re the most beautiful woman in the room. Was there anything else you needed to do?”

@alliejdrake​

THE MARCHAND NUPTIALS - HAYES EVANS