“Shut up, Caro.” Tyler slammed the door closed and resumed his seat on the end of his bed.
“Your mom’s cool.”
“Yeah. She is. Now cut the crap. What’s with the sudden need to talk to me, Matt?”
Matt scratched his chin. His gaze flit around Tyler’s room, taking in the posters on the walls, the worn carpet, the basic wooden furnishings, and finally resting on the guitar case poking out from under the bed. “I didn’t send Nessa the video clip of you and Shawn fighting, okay? I showed it to her, sure. But she sneaked my phone and forwarded it to hers.”
“Whatever. That all you wanted to talk to me about?”
“Not exactly. Wanted to know the real deal about Homecoming.”
“Yeah. Right. Like you haven’t heard the story a zillion times already.” And acted like you believed it. And let me hang. And like I’m ever gonna confide in you in a million years.
Matt leaned back in the wobbly desk chair and nearly assed over when it tilted far more than it should have.
Tyler sniggered. “Sorry, dude. Should have warned you ’bout that. It’s on its last legs.”
Matt gave him “yeah, sure” eyes. “Shawn’s full of shit. I’ve never believed his version of what went down.”
“Gee, Matt. I really appreciate your support. Especially since it’s come, like, so many months after Shawn’s ‘shit’ hit the fan.” He knew he’d injected just the right amount of sarcasm into his voice when Matt winced and looked all hang-dog and guilty and sorry as hell.
“S’pose I deserved that.”
“Yeah. You really did.” Tyler heard a muffled noise. He put his finger to his lips, cautioning Matt to silence, and jerked his chin at the door.
Matt’s brows rose. Your mom? he mouthed.
Tyler eased off the bed, tiptoed over to his door and yanked it open. As he’d suspected, he surprised the bejesus out of his eavesdropping sister, who squealed and jumped like a scalded cat. He didn’t say anything, simply stood there, glaring at her, until she slunk off down the hallway and disappeared into her room, slamming the door behind her.
“Jeez, she’s a pain,” he groused.
“Naw,” Matt said. “She’s cool. Hey, d’you reckon all the attention means she might have a thing for me?”
His tone was so hopeful and so unlike his usual why-bother-with-a-straight-answer-when-a-smartass-one-will-do, that Tyler’s glib response died unspoken. “Maybe. It’s kinda hard to tell what she’s feeling when she’s still so pissed at Shawn.”
Matt’s shoulders slumped. “Yeah. On the rebound and all that, huh? About Shawn. I figure he and Vanessa lied through their teeth about what went down at Homecoming. I reckon you got a raw deal. It really pissed me off when Shawn got you benched. Coach is a spineless dick. He should have told Shawn to stick it.”
Tyler snorted. “Yeah. And while he was at it, he should have thanked Shawn’s daddy, the mayor, for withdrawing his hefty yearly donation. Like that was ever gonna happen.”
Matt sighed. “I just want to set the record straight. That okay?”
“Maybe. Depends on your motives.”
“You don’t trust me?” Matt faked being stabbed through the heart. “Wow. That’s harsh, dude.”
Tyler just stared at him.
“Okay, okay. You got me. I have a motive. I want to take Shawn down. That’s why I took the vid of you two beating each other up—was hoping to use it but it kinda backfired.”
“Ya think?”
“Yeah. Sorry. But the dude needs one big-ass wake-up call, and I’m hoping to be the one to give it to him. You with me?”
Tyler chewed over Matt’s words. Watching Shawn lose his top-jock spot held major appeal. Not even Shawn’s influential father would be able to haul Shawn’s ass out of that particular fire if Tyler went public with what he knew. But the same reason he’d remained silent and taken the rap in the first place still applied. It wasn’t just all about Shawn. There was Vanessa to consider, too. Shawn knew that. He’d relied on Tyler’s instinct to protect Vanessa—leveraged it and used it to take down a rival.
Bottom line? Tyler still didn’t want to get Vanessa into trouble. Even if she had morphed into a total bitch lately.
Matt stared intently at him, gauging his reactions. “It’s Nessa, isn’t it? You’re protecting her. You’ve always been protecting her. Man, I didn’t think you were that gone on her. Would never have taken up with her after she dumped you if I’d known.”
Tyler believed him. They’d once been teammates, and if not close friends, then at least friends. He figured Matt was on the level and there was no hidden agenda.
“I’m not gone on Vanessa,” he said. “Not anymore. I mean, I think she’s pretty hot and everything. Or I used to. But not now. Not since—” He’d been about to say, “Not since Jay” but Matt beat him to it.
“Yeah. That Jay chick’s really something. Not my type, but I can sure appreciate what she’s got to offer.” He noticed the less-than-impressed expression on Tyler’s face and warded himself with his hands. “Chill, dude. Sooo not interested, okay? Now, your sister— Don’t take this the wrong way, but she’s my type. The keeper-type. You know what I’m saying? Makes all the other girls seem like practice runs.”
Tyler rolled the tension from his shoulders. “Yeah. I know what you’re saying.”
Matt sagged—slowly and with a great deal of caution—back into the chair. “Back to Vanessa. I get you’re protecting her. And I figure it’s gotta be something real big, right? ’Cause, dude, lately she’s owning the bitch routine and you still won’t roll over on her. So why don’t you spill and we’ll figure a way to keep us both happy, huh? Besides, I figure I deserve to know what the frick her deal is.”
“Yeah. Guess you’re right.” And God knew it’d be a huge relief to tell someone the truth after all these months of keeping it under wraps and having it eat away at him. “But before I spill my guts, you gotta promise you won’t go off half-cocked.”
Matt’s brows knitted into a troubled frown. “That bad, huh?”
Tyler’s stomach twisted into a knot. Bile scorched his throat and he swallowed convulsively. He’d thought all this was behind him—convinced himself he’d shucked it off, moved on and all that crap. But now the prospect of telling someone loomed, all the disgust and horror and panic he’d felt that night crashed in on him again.
“Yeah,” he finally said. “That bad. So no going all vigilante on me. We’ll both figure out what happens from here on in. Deal?”
“Deal.”
Tyler slid off the edge of the bed and planted his butt on the floor. And the more he tried to find the right words, the more he wondered whether Confessions Of Tyler was such a good idea.
Aw, hell. He’d just come right out and say it. “Vanessa was dealing.”
He snuck a look at Matt’s face but Matt wasn’t giving anything away.
“At the after-party, I walked in on her doing a deal with a couple of guys. They freaked and took off. Vanessa must’ve been on something, because I’ve never seen her like that before. Talk about OTT. She was all hysterical, begging me not to tell her parents, sure she was gonna be expelled and stuff. She wouldn’t listen when I told her I wouldn’t say anything if she promised to quit dealing. She offered me drugs. I turned her down—of course. And then she offered something else.”
“Sex.”
Tyler felt his face burning. Sure he was a teenage boy whose hormones practically owned him, but the shame of that night was still very very real. “Yeah. And shit—” He sucked in a deep breath and let it out real slow. Might as well tell all. “I knew she was with you but I’m only human. I mean, when we were dating, Vanessa and I never went all the way. So I was tempted. Real tempted. Who wouldn’t be?”
“Chill, dude. I get where you’re coming from.” Matt laughed, but it sounded more wry than anything else. “Nessa can be pretty damn tempting when she puts her mind to it.”
“You got that right. Those short-shorts�
��.” Matt’s smirk told Tyler they were both on the same wavelength when it came to Vanessa’s taste in clothing.
“Anyway, she threw herself at me. Like, literally. I was trying to calm her down and get her off me, when Shawn walked in.” He shrugged. “That’s kind of it, really.”
“And the reason you didn’t rat Vanessa out?”
“It’s complicated.”
Matt didn’t say anything, just waited.
Tyler stared at the ceiling. Matt would probably think he was the biggest sap on the planet but— “Because I know what her parents are like. I’ve seen them look at her like she’s the biggest disappointment in their lives. It gutted her. And a couple of times, after they’d given her the big lecture about what a no-hoper she was, she cried all over me about it, you know? She swore if they ever found out, they’d have her shipped off to one of those boot-camps for emotionally disturbed kids. And I could totally see them doing that to her.”
Matt picked at a hangnail. “Figures. Nessa’s parents are the sort who go in for emotional abuse. ’Specially her mom. She’s a real piece of work. And probably the main reason why Nessa’s such a screwed up chick in the first place.”
“Yeah. You got that right. I couldn’t do that to her. And I kept quiet.”
“Riiight. That’s it, huh? That’s the big secret?”
“Yup.”
Matt puffed out a disgusted breath. “And you let Shawn tell everyone you’d slipped Nessa something, then tried to do her? And let him convince Coach to kick you off the team? Man.”
When he put it like that, it seemed like a really dumbass thing to have done. Hell, if Shawn had taken it a step further, and if Nessa had been prepared to lie and back him all the way, Tyler could’ve ended up slammed with a sexual assault charge.
Then Matt surprised the hell out of him by saying, “I probably would’ve done the same thing.”
“Huh? You? Puhlease.”
“Jeez, dude. Your opinion of me is hardly flattering.”
Tyler grinned. “Ya think?” Still, it helped knowing Matt understood why he’d given Vanessa a free pass. It helped a lot more than he cared to admit.
“And what about the Boy Wonder? What the eff was he doing in that room anyway?”
Tyler hit him with full on “Well, duh!” eyes. “You even gotta ask?”
Matt smacked himself upside the head with the heel of his hand. “Buying.”
“Yup.”
“You sure?”
“He walked in waving a wad of cash and telling Vanessa exactly how many AASs he wanted. He wasn’t pleased to see me, that’s for sure.”
Matt jerked in his seat and almost fell off the untrustworthy chair. “AASs?”
“Anabolic androgenic steroids. AASs.”
“Dude, I know what they are. I figured it might have been prescription stuff she was dealing. Vicodin or Ritalin or whatever. But AASs? Damn. No wonder Shawn’s got such a short fuse. Shit.”
And then he lunged from the chair, sending it crashing to the floor. “Shit! AASs. Perfect.”
Tyler could only describe the expression on Matt’s face as unholy glee—an expression he’d often seen on his sister’s face. An expression that meant things were gonna start getting real out of hand, real soon. He switched his attention to his chair. Which was now in two distinct pieces. “Yeah. Perfect.”
“Big match coming up in a couple of weeks,” Matt said, looking all nonchalant. “Word is, there’ll be some scouts snooping round. And I’ve got two words for you, dude: Compulsory drug-testing.”
Tyler groaned and covered his face in his hands, picturing all the drama involved with trying to get Shawn to pee in a cup without him getting suspicious. “Isn’t that three words?”
~~~
Jay scanned her immediate environs. When she was satisfied all was clear, she leaped from one of the uppermost branches of the large oak, startling the scruffy little dog that had been patiently sitting beneath the tree. She hushed Fifi, and checked her elderly owner was still napping in his old wingback chair in the sitting room.
He was. She could hear his snores, even over the blaring TV.
She squatted on her haunches to ruffle the dog’s fur. “Thank you for keeping me company, Fifi. It was a most interesting way to spend an hour. I’ll see you later, okay, girl?”
Fifi whined and Jay rewarded her with one last pat and a scratch behind the ears. She performed one last scan to confirm she wasn’t being watched, then leapt the fence and hit the pavement at what she considered to be a sedate jog.
Now she knew Tyler’s secret—the sordid little trinity involving him, Vanessa and Shawn. What she would do with the information, how she might leverage it, she had no idea. Yet.
Chapter Twelve
The first words out of Caro’s mouth when she barreled through the entrance doors were, “I still can’t believe you live in the same building as my favorite recycled clothing boutique!”
Because Caro seemed to expect a response, Jay said, “Yes. I believe I mentioned my apartment is on the top floor.”
“That’s so cool!”
“It certainly seems that way.”
“Do you shop there?” Caro asked. And then, casting her gaze over Jay’s jeans and t-shirt, answered her own question. “I guess not.”
Jay examined the clothing Caro wore more closely. She’d already mentioned to Jay that she’d purchased the outfit at Black Angel. The ensemble consisted of a black vinyl corset-style bustier worn overtop a blood-red t-shirt, a tattered net skirt, and red leggings. The red-toned eye-shadow Caro had dusted around her eye sockets made the contrast of her green eyes all the more startling. They glowed like she was some otherworldly creature. Her lipstick was an unexpectedly deep green that complemented her eyes.
Caro preened beneath Jay’s attention. “It’s my pseudo-Goth look. I figured I’d wear it today to shock the natives. What do you think?”
“I like it,” Jay said. “I presume you didn’t practice in that outfit.”
She snickered. “Of course not. Bettina would’ve had a cow. I ditched the skirt and corset.”
“You should be banned from that store,” Tyler said. “You look like you’re suffering a bad case of goth-witch-itis.”
“Gee, thanks, bro.” Caro made a point of sweeping her gaze over Tyler’s tatty sneakers, worn jeans, and a plain black t-shirt that had been through the wash so many times it was more grey than black. “Coming from you, that really inspires me to make more of an effort with my appearance.”
“I think you look amazing,” Jay told her.
“All you need to complete the look is a tat,” Tyler said.
“Really?”
“I was joking.”
“Still….” Caro heaved a hugely disgruntled sigh. “Like Mom’s ever gonna let me get a tattoo.”
Tyler snorted. “Like you’d ever handle the pain of getting one. Besides, if you really were stupid enough to get some spider-web tat all over your neck, or face, or wherever, you’d be screwed once this phase wears off. You’d have to save up to get it lasered or something.”
“What makes you think it’s a phase?” Caro demanded. “And I’m not stupid enough to tattoo my face. I was thinking more the back of my neck, or my hip. Or even the base of my spine.”
“Ick,” said Tyler. “I’m imagining old wrinkly pensioners with saggy tattooed skin, just so’s you know. Sure doesn’t do much for me.”
Caro paused to consider that. She grimaced. “Much as I hate to admit it, you got a point.”
“I can’t imagine you with saggy skin and wrinkles,” Jay said. It was the truth. For some reason she had yet to fathom, she couldn’t visualize Caro as old. Or Tyler, for that matter.
Tyler laughed. “Happens to us all, eventually.”
“Mmmm.” Growing old with Tyler—Jay could do it of course, outwardly age her appearance to keep pace with his aging process. Spending the rest of Tyler’s life with him…. It was something to consider.
“He
y, sorry I couldn’t come over straight after school,” Tyler said. “Did you get my note?”
He’d stuck a note in her locker, warning her that his music teacher had asked him to stay after class, so he’d stick around and wait for Caro.
“Yes. Thank you for being so considerate.”
He slanted a sly glance at his sister. “We’d have been here earlier if someone hadn’t insisted on putting on her finery and redoing her makeup.”
Caro sniffed, unrepentant. “Cheer practice is hell on makeup.”
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