Chapter Two
"I'm coming!" The clock read 7:15 a.m. Why was he in such a hurry? School didn't start for another hour. I rushed down the stairs anyway, my curiosity getting the best of me. "Damn, Valerie, take the whole morning."
"What's your problem? We're not gonna be late. Wanna tell me why you're yelling at me? I don't think I've had the time to piss you off, since I haven't even seen or spoken to you in the hour I've been awake."
"I just have something to do, alright?"
"What? Do some extra credit before school? Clean up trash? Go skip through the daisies with Aly?" I joked.
Surprisingly, he snapped at me. "Why do you have to be so nosy? I just got stuff to do. Just get ready so we can go."
I was somewhat caught off guard by this attitude that he was in for the past two weeks, but I let it go, hoping he would explain when he was in a better mood. I swear, sometimes guys seemed to be PMSing more than girls. We ate a quick breakfast and then drove to school in silence, with loud music to drown out the fact that we weren't talking to each other. I could tell he was tense by the way that he was gripping the steering wheel, but I figured it was better not to press him, just in case he decided to blow up on me again. What was with him? He was starting to worry me; he usually wasn't this serious. Out of the two of us, he was always the happy-go-lucky one, cracking jokes and just kind of bouncing around all the time. I hated this. It seems corny, but he's one of those people who break your heart when they're sad, just because it doesn't happen that often. I couldn't remember the last time he'd been so quiet; the silence made the car ride seem like an eternity, despite the fact that the school was just ten minutes away from our house. I just stared out the window, trying not to worry.
When we finally got to school, he parked and got out of the car. Finally acknowledging me, he stuck his head into my side of the car. "I'll cya later. Don't trip, ok?" I nodded and he turned and walked to the blacktops. If only it was that easy. I slowly got out of the car and walked to my locker. I was so distracted that I had to do my combination twice before getting it right. I was balancing my books and my backpack when a loud voice came from somewhere above my head.
"Hey."
"Jeez." I sighed, picking up my book. "You scared me Jase." He opened my locker wider to look at himself in my mirror.
"Did I cut myself shaving or something? I thought I looked good today." I rolled my eyes. With his six foot two frame, golden hair, and green eyes, he looked every bit the handsome all American boy next door. I just hated that he knew it.
"I just wasn't paying attention. What's up?"
"Nothing, really. Where's Ty?"
"I don't know. He was acting really weird this morning. We got here at 7:30. He went to the blacktops and he didn't tell me anything. Do you know why? I'm kinda getting worried."
"He's probably just having a bad day or something."
"Maybe."
Jason shrugged. "I don't know. He'll be alright. Don't worry about it."
We both knew that I would worry, but I just nodded, trying to be nonchalant. "I guess. Well, I'm going to class. Later." When I got to English, everyone was crowded at the teacher's desk, turning essays into the basket. I got my paper out of my backpack and waited for the group to clear.
"Hey Val. How was your weekend?"
"Not bad, you?" She tried to put on a fake-cheery smile, but I could tell by the look on Alyson's face that her weekend was anything but good. "Too much drama. I don't want to deal with it." I noticed that there were purple rings around her eyes, as if she didn't sleep more than four hours the whole two days.
"Is everything ok?" I hated myself for it, but I was hoping that the drama was with Tyler. If it was, maybe I could help. They worked well together, and she was probably his only girlfriend that I liked because she didn't throw a fit about a girl being his best friend. Maybe fighting with Alyson was what made him so edgy the past few weeks.
"Yea, I'll be ok." It was too bad she was such a bad liar. I was going to talk to her some more, try to figure it out, but the teacher decided to actually do some teaching today. The next three classes passed with no thought-worthy moments. I made my way toward the cafeteria, got my food, and sat at our usual table, waiting for the usual crowd to show up. Chris and Benny were arguing about something, and once again, Jayna and Monica came to the table, fighting about nothing, like they always did. It seemed like they just did it to amuse themselves and keep them from killing someone out of simple boredom.
"Shut the hell up! You don't know what you're talking about."
"Whatever bitch! Whatever, a-huh, whatever, you're being stupid."
"You're the one who thinks you're all that just coz you got some dude's number. Acting up like you're better than everyone."
"No I'm not. You're imagining things. I mentioned it once." I noticed Tyler and Alyson eating at another table across the cafeteria. This wasn't strange, since they didn't eat with us all the time, but there was something strange about the way they were interacting with each other. They didn't seem to be talking, they weren't even looking at each other. Why does it seem like it hurts for them to even make eye contact? They can't be in a fight, otherwise they wouldn't be sitting together. But why are they forcing the relationship if they're mad at each other? I tossed around those thoughts, completely forgetting that I was sitting with other people. I felt a tap on my arm.
"Val, you're not hungry?" I looked up at Monica, who was looking at me with an intense gaze. I looked down at my untouched food.
"I guess not." She looked like she wanted to ask me more questions, but thought better of it and returned to the conversation that I didn't bother engaging in. The bell rang and we all went to our classes. I spent the rest of the day thinking about what could be going on with Tyler. It wasn't like him to get all moody without saying anything to me. It felt unnatural, since we were brutally honest with each other. I walked out to the parking lot only to find that the car was gone. What the fuck is going on? First he cops attitude and now he's leaving me? He could have at least texted me or something. I debated walking, but thought better of it when I saw Jason walking to his car. I called to him, and he gave me a surprised look. "Hey, what are you still doing here? Waiting for me?"
"No, Tyler disappeared. Do you mind giving me a ride?" He nodded, and I silently promised to kill Tyler when I got home. Once I got into the house, I could hear loud rap music blaring out of his room. I knocked on his door, nervous about how he might react.
"What?"
"Ty, it's me. Can I come in?"
"I don't care."
"So does that mean that I can decide?"
"Whatever." I pushed open his door to find him on his bed, lying on his stopmach, staring at the floor.
"What do you want?"
"An explanation. Why have you been so weird for the past few weeks? I'm worried. The only other time you were like this was when…well, not for a long time. What's up?"
"Nothing. I'm just not in a good mood, ok? Why does everything need to be explained?"
"It doesn't." I felt defeated. Afterall, he didn't have to tell me if he didn't want to. But I felt like I had a right to know. It wasn't fair that he was keeping me out like this, so I sat on his floor and waited.
"So…are you leaving?"
"Whatchu up to tonight? Hanging with Alyson?"
"Why do you care?"
"Just curious, that's all. No need to be defensive." He immediately got upset at this.
"I'm not being defensive, you're the one horning in on my business."
"Can I help that I'm worried? For the past few weeks you've talked to me with as many monosyllabic words as you could. Not to mention the cold shoulder. If I did something to you, I wish you'd tell me so that I could stop worrying."
"You didn't do anything."
"Then why are you being such an asshole to me? It seems like I'm the only one you're being messed up to." I made a mental note to ask him about Alyson later.
"You can be moody, can't you? So why can't I?" I backtracked a little, I didn't want to start a fight over something I didn't understand, so I lowered my voice when I responded.
"I didn't say you couldn't. I just—"
"Just shut the fuck up!" Whaaat? I know he did not just say that. "You know what? Forget it. If you're gonna be like that and yell at me when all I'm doing is trying to figure out what's going on, then I'm leaving. Forget I even cared."
"Don't give me that innocent shit and try to put me on a guilt trip. Close the door on your way out." Fine, be like that. I got up, obviously, this conversation was going nowhere, and getting into a fight with him wasn't going to get him to talk to me. I stalked out of his room and slammed the door, then slammed my own door closed behind me. Why was he being so cold? Didn't he know that I just cared about him? It seemed to me that he was being selfish. He couldn't treat me like this. This was the last thing I needed to worry about. I thought back to when we were little. We were both three, and I had moved in next door. His mom made us a welcome to the neighborhood pie and she and my mom hit it off right away. We were friends since that first day of hide and seek. After that, we went everywhere together, and our friendship didn't even suffer from that whole cooties affair. We were constantly in and out of each other's houses, and always present at the other's family affairs. His family was my family, and mine his. Tyler was and is the only thing that I was ever sure about in my life, the person that I could always depend on, which made his weird behavior such a shock. Sure, we yelled and cussed at each other all the time, but this wasn't the same. I never saw such annoyance and anger behind those usually twinkling brown eyes. I deduced that his hostile attitude was just to make sure I didn't know anything. He was hiding something, and he didn't want me to figure it out.
