Hacker

Chapter 3 - Ethan

He- He touched my hand!! Oh my God.. Is- Do I have a chance..? That. Is what's going through my head right now. I'm looking at my hand, his touch lingering on me. I curse myself for liking this guy as much as I do. I look to the girl. She's clearly embarrassed that she's being carried right now. I look at her from behind Daniel, smiling. She just huffs in return, looking down. "Thank you guys, but.."
"No buts." Daniel interrupts, before smiling warmly. "You now have two new friends." He says. The girls eyes widen. "Friends?! No! I can't have those! I-I-I-I- I'll get you boys into so much trouble, or probably killed!!" She shireks. I tilt my head. "Why? What's your name?" I question. The girl crosses her arms. "I don't have to tell you that." She says. I frown. "What if I tell you mine?"
She's silent. "Fine, but first names only."
"Okay! I'm Ethan! That's my best buddy Daniel!" I yak. The girl nods. "Well.. I'm Taylor.." She mumbles. I smile. "You don't go to my school, Taylor. Do you go to Waterfall?" I ask. I must be right because Taylor doesn't answer.
Daniel is the next one to ask a question. "So, why were those guys about to beat you up?" He asks. Good question.. I figure. Taylor doesn't answer again. I cross my arms. Nobody should ignore Daniel. He doesn't deserve it! I open my mouth to talk. "He asked a question. You know, after having us save your life, you should answer to us." I state. Taylor just stares. She then sighs, defeated. "Screw my morals.. " She utters. "Fine. Yes, I do go to Waterfall. Those guys were about to beat me up because.." She looks around before continuing. "Because I hacked into their system. I.. I'm really good at coding. And.. Yeah." Taylor says. It's hard to tell if she's lying, but I just nod either way. "Okay.."

I don't have time to say anything else much anyways, because we're back up stairs. It's after school. I'm honestly surprised. "How long were we down there?!" I ask. Daniel looks at his watch. "About two hours. Felt like five minutes." He says. My eyebrows raise. "Wow!" I say. Taylor's eyebrows are creased. "Where do we go? I've never been here before."
"Then why were you in our basement?" Daniel asks. Taylor rolls her eyes. "Because your maze of a basement is connected to ours. And it's not a basement. It's a vault room. Like in Harry Potter? I don't know where y'all got basement, but it definitely ain't one of those." She states very matter of factly. Daniel just rolls his eyes. "Whatever. What do you wanna do? Go to your house, or... " He trails off.
"Just.. Take me to my m- uh, my house. My mom will take care of it." She says. Daniel nods. "I can-"
And I don't mean to interrupt him, but I gasp. "Daniel! What time is it?!" I ask, panicked. My mom will FREAK. If I'm not home by ten. Daniel looks at his watch, since there were no windows to see if it was night or not. "Don't worry, it's only six. Just call her and warn her." He reassures me. I nod, and take out my phone to text her.