A/N: Hey peeps! New story for ya! I've been writing this for a while and it currently has ten unedited chapters. So, with adequate reviews, all I have to do it edit and post! ;p
This is my first time writing about Tyler, he wasn't even in TaT so this has been a fun new challenge. I got this idea from the fact that I thought Sarah was kind of a party girl back in Boston and then it kept growing…
It's different and weird but I love it and I hope you do to! Enjoy lovelies and happy reading!
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"Because that's what people do. They leap, and hope to God they can fly, because otherwise you just drop like a rock, wondering the whole way down, why in the hell did I jump?"
—Hitch
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Chapter 1
His feet tapped against the hardwood floor impatiently. He'd run back to the dorms to change after swim practice so that he'd be on time and now they were starting late. He nearly got up to leave. But he almost got up to leave every time he came, but he didn't. The thought of his friends, his brothers, staring at him in that worried, guilty way always kept him in his chair in the stuffy room above the Catholic Church.
He cracked his knuckles, all eyes turned to stare at him. He was the only one there under thirty-five. An old woman glared at him as she rubbed her arthritis-plagued hands. He tried to smile at her. It didn't work.
His head pounded in a now-familiar way. Reid was Using again. He wondered what the blonde's excuse was this time, if her had one. Since Chase's appearance and Caleb accusing him of Using, Reid hadn't had much patience for the oldest Son. The two had hardly any problem Using on each other despite Pogue's and his own objections.
The instructor of the class entered the room, all smiles and "There is hope for every person in this room." Yeah right. What if you haven't had a sip of alcohol in nearly a year but still wake up in the middle of the night covered in sweat, you're your throat on fire from the need burning inside your heart. Every part of him wanted to run back to that night so long ago when his cousin had pushed the first beer toward him with the words that changed his life forever.
"It'll make you feel better."
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It's not a big deal, it's not like you're going to see someone you know. No Spenser kid would be caught dead here.
If she told herself that enough times she might actually believe that every thing would be fine. Until that happened she was stuck repeating the same words over and over again as she climbed the stairs to the room where the class was held.
She opened the door, causing every head to turn her way. She gulped. Her eyes scanned the faces of the room, her breath caught in her throat. She had known that Hummer looked familiar.
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"Sarah," He called after her as she hurried down the stairs after the class was over. Her hands were shaking; he wanted to talk to her, what if he told someone? He called her again. He was right behind her, grabbing her arm to keep her from fleeting and forcing her to face him. She felt a lump rise in her throat, tears wanting to escape but she refused to let them roll down her cheeks.
"Tyler, please don't tell anyone." The words exploded from her mouth before she could pull them back. She met his eyes, looking for signs of his answer. What she saw on his face was not the anger she'd feared. Only confusion and the same feeling she had in her stomach expressed on his face. A ghost of a smile from him broke the tension that had filled the air. It made her want to smile too. His eyes were really blue, how had she not noticed that before?
"As long as it's a two-way deal."
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The door opened almost silently. Reid had learned the art of sneaking in well during their time at Spenser. The boy could have been a spy. Even in the darkness of two in the morning, the moonlight through the windows revealed the slight limp in the blonde's gait.
Tyler bit his lip as he watched Reid move skillfully across the usually squeaky floor, trying not to wake him. From how stiff each movement was and the pained expression that was evident in the bare outline of his face, Tyler could tell Caleb had really done a number on him this time. But he couldn't bring himself to be angry with the oldest Son. Part of him knew Reid deserved it.
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Breakfast was quiet at their usual table the next morning. Sarah wouldn't look at him, she stayed focused on Caleb. He still couldn't see it, how a girl like her could really have the same problem he did.
Pogue and Kate had just gotten back together for the millionth time and Pogue was focusing all his attention on her while she acted as if she were gracing him with her presence. Reid was the only one absent. He hadn't been in the room when he woke up, or at practice. He was only beginning to worry when the lanky blonde appeared beside him, his posture stiff, looking anywhere but across the table to Caleb.
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The waiting room was loud, all the surrounding conversations joining together in a muffled roar. He was alone. He hated being alone, it always prompted the burn to come back to his throat. But Reid he needed a smoke badly, he had forced the blonde outside to stop his constant fidgeting. Reid hated doctor's offices, and the Gloucester Emergency Room was no exception, but his knee was still swollen and needed to be x-rayed.
Right before they called his name, Reid came back through the sliding glass doors, looking slightly more relaxed, his jaw still clenched, his limp more prominent than it had been the day before.
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"You're right. There's no bone damage, only some bruising to the muscle. Painful and slow feeling but fine."
Reid was smug the rest of the day. Full of I-told-you-so's, throwing Tyler his smirk whenever possible. Tyler hated it when Reid drove, always too fast, out of control. He never watched the road, always on his phone or smoking. On the ride home he optioned for the latter. A white cancer stick between his thin lips, pulling the air through it like it was his only source of oxygen.
Tyler wasn't sure when Reid would get it. No matter how much nicotine he put in his body, it would never suppress the Power, nothing would. Not that it stopped him from trying.
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Tuesday, the night AA was held, rolled around again before it felt like the whole week had gone by. It was getting colder as Christmas got closer. All the trees downtown glowed with twinkling lights and cheerful music filled the streets. But the tiny, stuffy room above the sanctuary was still as plain as always.
"Okay, thank you Gerald for sharing your experience." The instructor's voice was too peppy and the room was too hot, despite it's lack of heating and the freezing temperatures outside.
She bolted from the room again and he didn't try to catch her this time but when he got outside she was still on the sidewalk, wrapped up tightly in her jacket, looking cold.
"You need a ride?" He called to that beautiful head of blonde hair. She jumped at the sound of his voice. When she turned to him her cheeks were flushed from the cold and her breath was making clouds in the air. She looked around, as if checking to see that he was talking to someone else.
"Someone's coming." She answered quickly, glancing at the passing cars anxiously.
"Well they're late and it's cold out here. You can call 'em." He waved his cell at her. "Come on, we're going to the same place, the least I can do is give you a ride." A smile stretched across his face and he wondered why he felt so comfortable around her. He was horrible with girls.
She looked at the road again, biting her lip as none of the cars turned into the church's parking lot. She turned to look at him again, a small smile on her face. "Yeah, that'd be great."
"So," He heard himself say a few minutes into the silent car ride. "How are you liking our quaint little town?"
She laughed. "It's cute, I guess. I miss Boston, all the hustle and bustle. Much more me."
"Cute? Did you just call Ipswich cute? Even after everything Caleb told you about us?" He glanced at her quickly before refocusing on the road.
"I don't know, I try not to think about it. Besides, I know that you can't judge a book by its cover, found that out last week." She sent a humor-filled smirk his way and he laughed.
"Yeah, I guess I've changed a lot in the past year." He put on his blinker, turning on to the road that led to Spenser.
"You must've." Her voice was quiet.
He smiled at her shyly, expecting a blush to creep on to his cheeks, it always did, but it never came. He wasn't nervous. He couldn't get that through his head.
The truck was silent until he found a parking spot and turned off the car. She turned to him, smiling and opened her mouth to say 'thank you' he could see the words on her lips, but she changed course.
"Oh shit." As if she had just remembered something. "I have to go." She quickly began to gather her bag and jacket, moving so fast she became clumsy.
She stopped, as she was about to get out, turning to face him again. The boy she had known for months but only just met. She smiled, not that polite, but not really genuine smile you give your grandparents, but the one you give a friend, the one you give to a person you don't mind being around.
"Thanks for the ride." Her voice was sincere, her hand on the door handle.
"No problem." He smiled and again felt the sensation of things being too simple between them.
And then, right as she was about to turn and get out and go into the dorms and go on with her seemingly perfect life, back to her overly perfect boyfriend, and most likely live happily ever after, everything changed.
Just for a moment, in the light of the dashboard, their eyes met. Blue on blue. Sapphire burning into Deep Ocean. That one look held everything both of them had ever seen, ever felt, ever dreamed and the one thing they both longed for: acceptance.
It was a moment so monumental it should be documented in history books, meaningful enough to haunt both of them through the night into the next day and the entire week.
As quickly as it had happened, it was over. She got out, ran up the steps and into the dorms and back to her life but it wouldn't ever be the same as it had. From that moment on neither of them would ever be the same person from before, only actors on the stage of life, pretending that they were happy with the way things were, that they didn't know how green the grass was on the other side or long for it like a starved animal.
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Reviews are love. And don't worry, I haven't forgotten about Invincible.