Heart Waves

by Danielle Sibarium

  “You are not at all what I expected.” I said hoping to match his kindness.

  His eyes were downcast, as if embarrassed by my comment. “I’m sure Reece told you I don’t have any redeeming qualities at all.” The left corner of his mouth curled up. I couldn’t help but notice how alluring he looked. “That I’m actually the devil in the flesh.”

  I shook my head, “No. He doesn’t talk about you much.” It was my turn to avoid his scrutiny. I wondered why I suddenly felt like I’d betrayed Reece by giving Tyler any information. Or why I cared. “I just know he doesn’t want me around you.”

  He chuckled. “Then do yourself a favor. When you go back inside,” Tyler said getting to his feet, “don’t tell him you were with me.”

  “I won’t cause any problems for you,” I said standing and almost falling back down, before Tyler’s strong arms steadied me. Unlike Reece, he wasted no time releasing his hold on me once certain I could stand on my own.

  A strange image passed through my mind, and I wished Tyler didn’t let me go so abruptly. I yearned for understanding. I saw myself in his arms, finding solace in his embrace. It wasn’t an image of what was happening currently. It was something that hadn’t yet passed. How? Why would I turn to Tyler?

  It wasn’t romantic. It couldn’t be. I couldn’t help but wonder if I would get the same dizzying sensation from Tyler, as I felt when Reece was near.

  But why?

  “It’s not me I’m worried about,” Tyler said somewhat smugly. “I can handle Reece’s self-righteous bull. I don’t think you can.”

  I didn’t protest. I didn’t feel too good. The ground felt wobbly beneath my feet. I turned from Tyler resigned to going back inside and facing Reece.

  “And Jenna,” Tyler drew my attention again with his kind and sympathetic tone. I couldn’t imagine this was the very same person I warned Reece to avoid. The very same person Reece made me promise to keep my distance from. “Hear him out, okay? Give him a chance to explain before you do anything you might regret. Think of how he would feel if he knew you were out here with me. He might not believe we just talked.”

  “You do care about him don’t you?”

  I watched Tyler suck in his breath, as a flash of something dark, crossed over his face. I didn’t understand his strange reaction, but before I could read it with any certainty the look passed. It disappeared and was replaced with a grin. “I think he needs someone in his corner.”

  I let it go, convinced I’d been wrong when I judged Tyler so harshly. Regardless, it didn’t matter. I’d most likely never see him again. I wasn’t certain I’d ever see Reece again. But, if by some miracle he could convince me to trust him, I would bring them back together. I could help them see why they couldn’t just throw twelve years of friendship and loyalty from the top of a cliff. If I decided to trust Reece, to give him another chance.

  As to what I would say when I saw him, or what I’d do, I had no idea. I knew I’d have to take it as it comes. First, I had to make it back, without help from Tyler.

  Tyler.

  Funny, he didn’t think I could handle Reece. I didn’t think I could handle walking.

  “Too late,” Tyler crowed. “Here comes Prince Charming.”

  Chapter 36

  I spun around in time to see a mask of hate covering Reece’s face. I gasped in shock, frightened. I didn’t know if I should be afraid for Tyler, me, or both of us.

  “I got this,” Tyler whispered.

  I didn’t protest, I couldn’t answer. I stood paralyzed by the look on Reece’s face. I swallowed hard watching him jog towards us. I didn’t know how long I’d been outside with Tyler, or when Reece noticed I was gone. In the end none of that would matter. A minute with Tyler would be a minute too long.

  As guilt seeped from my head to my eyes, I reminded myself I had no reason to feel guilty. He was the one locked in his bedroom with his ex-girlfriend. The guilt faded, anger replaced it.

  “Jenna,” he looked from Tyler to me and back. “What the hell is going on?” Reece asked once he closed the distance between us.

  I wanted to answer, but words didn’t rush to the foreground of my mind. A result of the drink I shared with Tyler, combined with the stress of what I’d witnessed at the party.

  “Hey lover boy, you might want to keep better tabs on your girl.”

  “Shut up!” Reece glared at Tyler, his body stiff, muscles taut.

  “Good thing I was out here.” Tyler’s eyes were mocking as he goaded Reece. “I found Jenna crying her eyes out, oblivious to the fact she was alone in a secluded area. After all, you never know what kind of creeps are lurking in the shadows. I’m just saying.”

  Still unable to find the sound of my voice, I hugged my arms around myself, trying to suppress the chill Tyler’s words sent through me. I glanced over at Reece. Veins were popping out of his neck, and his body trembled. I thought he would lunge at Tyler.

  “Come inside so we can talk,” Reece reached for my hand.

  I pulled away, “No. Get Grace, I want to go home.”

  “Nothing happened Jenna,” Reece tried to reassure me. “Don’t believe anything he said. He’s just trying to come between us.”

  Tyler took a step toward Reece, “What makes you think I said anything about you? Huh?”

  Before he could attack, I squeezed between them, and with my hand on his shoulder, backed Reece up a couple of steps. “Reece, stop.”

  Looking past me, his eyes locked on Tyler, Reece shouted, ignoring my attempt to dissuade him, “You set this up. You sent her.”

  “I sent her to warn you, the rest you did on your own.” I saw the anger and rage I associated with Tyler building in his face. “How the hell was I supposed to know you’d take her to your bedroom, nimrod.” Tyler’s eyes narrowed with a sharp bitter edge to them.

  “Her idea. Not mine.” Reece retorted cold and hard.

  “What the hell is going on?” I looked from one to the other, not fond of being left in the dark.

  “You didn’t tell her?” Reece asked surprised. “Of course not,” he continued without waiting for a response. “You want her think you’re some sort of hero.”

  Tyler smirked and shook his head in disgust. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  Reece turned to me, “It was a ploy. Rebecca came to distract me . . .”

  “To warn you,” Tyler interjected.

  “They knew you’d be there. They were counting on it. You got upset and ran out, and Tyler was waiting, ready to fill your head with a crap load of lies and . . . ”

  “Because I’m so dumb I’d accept any bit of bull thrown my way?” I snapped back at him.

  “That’s not what I meant.” I wasn’t used to seeing Reece flustered and floundering about. His lips pressed into a thin line, his eyes pleaded for me to listen. “He made it all up. There’s nothing to worry about.”

  I felt a cold chill lift the hairs on my arm and the back of my neck. “What did he make up?”

  Tyler ran his hands along the sides of his head, “I know it’s hard Reece, but you need to get your head out of your ass and take this seriously”

  “Shut up!” Reece warned.

  “You know what? I don’t give a shit. I made sure you got a heads up. I figured since you wouldn’t listen to me, maybe you’d listen to her. I tried. My debt is paid and my conscious clear.”

  “Listen to you? You’re lying. These are just lies to unnerve me.”

  Tyler closed in on Reece, a living, breathing, wall of rage and hate. “So you’re saying I’m wrong in assuming you got yourself into trouble again.” Tyler smirked, taunting Reece.

  I wanted to stop them, before they went too far if they hadn’t already.

  We were seconds, a minute at most, from a full blown fist fight. I debated keeping myself unwisely between them, or rushing back to the suite for help.

  Out of nowhere, an image flashed through my mind, accompanied by a sudden, sharp pain ripping through my head.
Reece and Tyler going at each other. Blood and fury smeared on both their faces. Something dark and metallic in someone’s hand, but whose? And what exactly? A knife? A gun? A body falling to the ground. I squeezed my eyes shut, wanting to banish the image from my mind.

  Fighting the vision, struggling to come back into the moment, my mind kept shifting between reality and the horrifying scene scorched into my brain, trying to know which was which.

  Tyler scowled at Reece. Reece glowered at Tyler. They stood toe to toe. I quivered as I looked on. Before it went too far, before they tried to kill each other, I had to figure out how to stop it.

  Another image flashed through my head. My world began to disintegrate. “No!” I shrieked and fell to my knees in the grass, doubled over, clutching my stomach. The roiling of the contents in my belly rising. I was going to be sick.

  “Jenna!” Reece dropped down first, kneeling in the grass on front of me. “Are you alright?”

  I couldn’t answer. My head pounded along with my heart.

  Tyler crouched beside him, looking on in silence.

  “What the hell did you do to her?” Reece shouted at Tyler.

  I shook my head and reached out to Reece. My hand landed clumsily on his chest. “You have to stop,” my voice sounded much weaker than I would’ve liked. The vision drained me of all my energy. I clutched the sleeve of his shirt, trying to emphasize my plea. “Please Reece. Please, I need you to stop.”

  The fear in his eyes reflected my own. Reece swallowed hard, “What’s wrong Jenna?”

  “You want me to call an ambulance or something?” Tyler had his cell phone in his hand.

  “I just need a minute. I’m fine.” I assured him. “Reece will take care of me.”

  Before I finished speaking, Reece took a seat on the ground and gathered me in his arms. I clung to him, knowing he’d keep me safe, like a life jacket in the middle of the sea at night. I was shaken. Frightened of the image, of the sickening feeling it brought out, I felt weak and useless. I clung to the one thing I knew would keep me safe at the moment.

  “Jenna, you’re so pale.” I picked up the sullen tone of Tyler’s voice.

  “I’m fine.” I stated feeling a reprise of just enough strength to sit up straighter. My mind even seemed a little clearer, not as foggy as it had been only minutes before. We were all safe. Funny how quickly fear and adrenaline can sober you up. “I just want to go home.”

  Reece nodded. “Can you walk, or do you want me to carry you to my car?”

  “You can’t drive.” I insisted. “You were drinking.”

  “I only had the one drink I shared with you,” Reece assured me. “Besides it’s been well over an hour since I had it.”

  I looked at Tyler, in disbelief. An hour? That wasn’t possible. We were only out there for about ten minutes before Reece found me. Reading my expression Tyler chimed in. “Time flies when you’re having fun.” He flashed me a smile.

  “Get Grace, she’ll take me home.”

  “Grace left. When you took off, she went home, in case you went there.” Reece explained. “You’re stuck with me.”

  This reminded me of another night. It felt like a million years ago, when he manipulated circumstances, so he could drive me home. The night his lips brushed mine, the night I agreed to go out with him. The night my world changed.

  “You get the car,” Tyler directed to Reece. “Pull up to the front of the building. I’ll wait there with her.”

  “We don’t need your help,” Reece scolded.

  “Actually Reece,” I cleared my throat, “I think that’s a good idea.”

  His face turned cold and hard, expressionless. “I can do this without him,” Reece insisted.

  “I know. But it’ll take longer if I walk with you, or if you carry me. Since I have no idea what came over me,” I lied, “I don’t know if it will happen again.”

  Reece took a minute to let my words sink in before agreeing and taking off to get the car.

  Alone together, Tyler looked at me with concern. “So you want to hold on to me or something?” He crooked his arm for me to take hold of.

  “I’m fine.” I answered. “As long as we walk slow.”

  Tyler nodded.

  After a few steps I looked up at Tyler and laced into him. “I can’t believe I actually believed you!”

  “What are you talking about?” Tyler’s brows furrowed together as if he didn’t know what I meant.

  “You knew why I was crying, and you acted like you had no idea. Reece is right, you were out there waiting for me to come running. Why? So you could laugh at him? At me?”

  “Don’t flatter yourself,” Tyler’s voice held no emotion. “I had no idea how it would play out. I didn’t even know she went to the party. Besides, how should I know you’re so thin skinned?”

  “I’m not thin skinned!” His insult strung a cord in me, a thick, tightly wound cord.

  “You were willing to walk away, without even putting up resistance, let alone a fight. Skins don’t come much thinner. Unless this great love he thinks he’s found isn’t really so wonderful, which is what I’m thinking.”

  We reached the front of the building and I was grateful we didn’t have to go any further. Reece would be able to pull right over to us. I wished he would hurry.

  “Reece is everything I could want and so much more. He’s wonderful and honest and loving.” Tyler snickered maliciously as I ranted. “You wouldn’t know anything about that, because you are a twisted, sadistic liar.” Anger from the whole of the night mounted and festered inside me. Tyler seemed like the perfect target.

  His mouth looked gnarled as he took a moment to compose himself. In a cold, distant manner, with his eyes burning through me, Tyler spoke. “If I told you what I knew, you wouldn’t have believed me anyway. Even now, when you know I did nothing to hurt you, or Reece, you’re accusing me of . . . I’m not even sure what.”

  “Manipulating me.” I glared at him. “And what was that with Reece? You purposely picked a fight with him.”

  Tyler nodded. “And you should thank me for it.”

  Thank him? I wanted to punch Tyler in the nose. “How’s that?”

  Tyler shook his head. “Seeing us together was enough to set him off. He would’ve made you feel bad. Like you did something wrong, forgetting all about the fact he was locked in his bedroom with Becca. And I can assure you, while nothing might’ve happened, I’m sure she tried her best. Much as I would’ve liked to put my fist through his face, that wasn’t why I did it.”

  Touché. Tyler was right.

  Reece pulled his car over to a stop right in front of me. He got out and raced around the car, poised to open the door. Tyler beat him to it. I wanted to say something to Tyler as I sat down and buckled my seatbelt, but Reece was there, and it would’ve been too awkward.

  “Thank you,” I said as Reece went around to the driver’s side, my head swimming with confusion.

  I took a long look into Tyler’s deep, dark eyes, while Reece buckled up and put the car into gear. Tyler’s eyes didn’t leave mine, even after he backed away from the car. For reasons I couldn’t understand, I found it impossible to take my eyes off him. I watched Tyler unmoving in the side mirror until we turned off the road, knowing he would have some sort of impact on my life.

  Chapter 37

  The purring of the engine was the only sound in the car for five very long minutes. I opened my window to let some fresh air in.

  “Do you feel sick?” Reece asked, glancing over at me.

  “I’m fine. I just need air,” I answered dismissively.

  “You were in the air when you . . .” he paused searching for the right words, “what did happen?”

  “I had a vision, I think it was a premonition.”

  Reece reached over for my hand. Despite how much I longed to feel him, feel the comfort of the electrical current that ran between us, I pulled away. Afraid his touch wouldn’t hold the same magic I’d grown accustomed too. Afraid of
what that would mean.

  “Don’t touch me.”

  His face revealed nothing. No surprise, no anxiety, no anger. I wanted a reaction from him, not indifference.

  “Jenna, sweetheart,” he began in his most saccharine tone.

  “No.” I shook my head, thinking of Tyler’s assessment of how Reece would try to shift the blame. “You went off with her.”

  He let out a long breath. “It’s not like I wanted her there. Tyler sent her. You heard him admit that.”

  He was right. And I should’ve focused more on what she told Reece. Why and how Tyler was involved, and what exactly that meant. Normally I would’ve looked for the link, on how it was all entwined together. Instead I was acutely focused on one thing. Rebecca.

  “If she bothered you that much, you could’ve asked her to leave,” I glared at him from the corner of my eye.

  “I did.”

  “Before I got there,” I snapped.

  “I thought she’d leave if I ignored her. She didn’t. It was obvious you were uncomfortable, so when she asked to talk for a minute, I agreed.”

  “Did you have to take her to your bedroom?” I couldn’t hide the jealous feelings I fought to control. My voice betrayed me. It cracked, as if I were struggling to hold back tears, because that wasn’t already painstakingly obvious.

  “You’re making this out to be some sort of romantic rendezvous,” he sounded peeved, “It wasn’t. And I told her not to come back again.”

  I looked out my window into the darkness of the night. It felt apropos the veil of blackness winding itself around me, squeezing tight, like bandages around a mummy.

  “Whatever.”

  “Nothing happened, Jenna. I swear.”

  I smirked. “That’s why the door was locked.”

  “I didn’t realize she did that.” He sounded worn down, defeated. “You’re letting Tyler mess with your head.”

  “Tyler?” My voice went up two octaves. “All Tyler did was stick up for you!”

  “What?” He shook his head as if he didn’t believe me. “He’s playing some sick game I haven’t caught on to yet. That’s all.”