"Your mum does things quickly," Jody commented, standing in the doorway as Tyler rummaged through his drawers. "She met Kamal two months ago, got engaged a month after that and now, another month later, you're going to her wedding in Vegas!"
She'd always wanted to go abroad, especially to the US, ever since she was in junior school and one of her friends there had gone to Disneyworld. Jody could still remember the intense jealousy she'd felt at the time and loathed to admit to herself that she was feeling the same thing towards Tyler albeit not as strongly. For the most part, she was happy for him. This wouldn't be his first trip abroad but it'd be the first he'd remember, especially since it marked a special occasion in his (mother's) life.
"I know," he agreed, closing one drawer and opening another. "I just wish they'd waited until at least Spring. Who gets married in December?"
"Mike?" It had come as a shock, though a pleasant one, to them all when they'd found out that Mike had proposed to Fiona. Their wedding was to take place here in a little over two weeks: fifteen days, to be exact.
"True that," he concurred before blowing out his cheeks and stepping away from the drawers. "Can't find it. Don't know where I put it last."
Having watched him desperately search his storage furniture for a good twenty minutes, she took pity on him and decided to intervene. "Have you checked the bathroom cabinet?"
His eyes widened. "No."
She barely moved out in time as he darted past her and down the hallway. "You might've thrown it out anyway!" she called after him. "You haven't actually used it in years!"
He re-emerged moments later with empty hands, dejectedly trudging back into his room. She had no idea why he was suddenly obsessed with taming his hair; the messy, unhampered curls were his trademark look. He even went to work looking like that. Why would he have to smooth it down for his mother's wedding? Would he do the same at Mike's wedding?
"I'll have to ask around to see if someone's got some I can borrow over the weekend," he said, hanging around near the doorway. Near her. "Candi-Rose probably has a spare, doesn't she?"
"If you want to literally smell like roses, then yeah, I'm sure she does," she answered, giggling.
He chuckled, his eyes twinkling. "I don't mind, you know. What do you think men's hairspray smells like anyway?"
"Well, that stuff you put on last time reeked," she admitted, though not unkindly.
"Did it really?" he questioned, raising an eyebrow. Peering up at him, she realised he was practically in her personal space. When had that happened? "Can't say the same about you; your hair always smells so good."
She gripped the door handle behind her, wanting to laugh and tell him how cringeworthy he sounded but couldn't, not when her heart was racing a hundred miles per hour. It'd be hypocritical of her anyway; she'd been guilty of similar stupid thoughts about him many a time, some of them occurring as recently as her last spar with Brandon. The only difference was that Tyler had voiced his embarrassing thought directly to her, breaking some sort of unspoken rule between them. He seemed to regret it, though, because his face was beetroot red.
"Uhh, thanks," she managed hoarsely, her own face burning. She'd long known that he liked her hair out but this was something else. A change of subject was required. "You know your mum likes your hair how it is," she said, remembering him offhandedly telling her so years ago. "She wouldn't want you to put product in it."
"You reckon?" he asked in a slightly high voice. Perhaps wisely, he stepped back a little, putting some distance between them. "I mean, I don't want to look like an idiot."
"You wouldn't," she assured, releasing the door handle from her sweaty grip. Gross. "Not because of your hair, anyway."
They didn't do it as much anymore but they used to call each other 'idiot' as a joke on a near daily basis and now she wondered how appropriate that had been given that they were care kids with serious issues. She certainly hoped that he'd never taken the name-calling seriously; it was already bad enough that he (they) lived with someone who regularly put others down for his own amusement.
"I wish you could go with me," he divulged, not looking bashful anymore.
To be honest, so did she, and not just because it was taking place abroad. For obvious reasons, she'd never been invited to a wedding before. As shallow as it sounded, Mike's simply didn't count; she literally lived at the venue and would have to be there either way. She doubted she'd ever go to a wedding the rest of the household wasn't invited to. Even if her worst case Luke/Millie scenario (them getting married) played out, she still wouldn't have the honour of being a wedding guest, if Millie's current treatment of her was anything to go by.
"Well, we're going to Mike's wedding together, aren't we?" she countered, tipping her head to the side. She didn't wait for his reaction, pushing herself away from the door(way) and walking into the room. "C'mon, you need to pack."
.:. QK .:.
She hadn't hugged him when it came time for him to get into Kamal's car, instead opting to wave him off like the others. The reason was simple: the feelings she constantly tried so hard to ignore always tended to flare up whenever she was faced with physical contact. During the summer holidays, she'd rather foolishly thought that she was starting to see him in a platonic light but by the time November rolled 'round, she knew that nothing had changed. In fact, the only difference between now, and, say, last year, was that she had a boyfriend, which didn't even matter because she didn't see much of Brandon. There had been that short period of time she'd become obsessed with spending time with him to the point that she'd ignored her friends, but Mike had soon put an end to that, and it had only happened in the first place because she'd been trying to avoid Tyler.
The more she thought about it, the more she realised that this trip and the literal distance that came with it would be a good thing for her. Others would call her a cynic but ever since she'd first started developing feelings for Tyler, she'd wondered if it was solely because she lived in the same house as him. Okay, not solely, perhaps, but mostly. After all, it was difficult enough getting over a crush on a best friend without having to see him at home every breakfast and dinner (and lunch, on the weekends). Of course, it wasn't so much a crush anymore as it was something else, something that scared the living daylights out of her, but it didn't stop her from contemplating a different reality. For instance, would the crush have fizzled out if he'd been a best friend from school rather than one from home? Would she have fancied Brandon in the same way if he'd lived here since age nine in Tyler's place? Would she have developed these feelings at all if he'd got fostered by the funny lady he'd met the day before Ryan had arrived? There was no way of knowing, of course—as if the universe would ever make things that easy—but she wondered all the same.
That night, after a long evening in the gym with Brandon, who increasingly felt more like a sparring partner than anything else, she curled up in bed and drifted off to sleep with thoughts of him and Tyler plaguing her mind.
¤ The next morning, she dragged herself down the stairs the same way she always did whenever she was woken up unnaturally early on a Saturday morning. She ambled into the kitchen, the ground beneath her bare feet feeling unusually soft, and grabbed some breakfast, nearly dropping her plate of toast when she turned towards the dining table.
"Brandon?!" she shrieked, staring at him as he munched on what looked like a cereal bar. He and the other occupants of the table—Jay, Candi-Rose and Alex—stared back at her in bewilderment.
"Yeah?" he prompted, before chugging down a glass of water. "Have you changed your mind, then?"
She blinked. About what? What was he even doing here? He never came round without being asked to, especially not this early. "Huh?"
"About coming to the gym with me," he answered, standing up and checking his watch. He didn't wear a watch. "I'm leaving in about half an hour."
"What are you doing here?!" she demanded, her confusion only growing stronger as he whispered something in Candi-Rose's ear. WHAT!
He stopped his whispering, raising an eyebrow right at her. "Uhh, I live here."
WHAT?!
Jody turned on her heel and ran the hell out of Dodge, the plate in her hands disappearing as she walked right into the language corridor in school. Glancing down, she saw that she was now in full school uniform and looked up just in time to avoid bumping into a fellow pupil.
Finally, and embarrassingly lately, it dawned on her that she was dreaming. Of course, she was. How else could she have floated on her feet in the kitchen?
"Jody!"
The scene shifted again and now she was sitting in her Year Ten Maths classroom as one of the German teachers droned on in what sounded like French. She shook her head.
"Psst, Jody!"
She turned around in her seat. Tyler. ¤
Jody's eyes snapped open, Tyler's beaming face lost to her within seconds. The time on her phone read 03:13. She yawned, turning over on her back, away from the numerous photographs of the two of them plastered all over the wall on her left. How strange. She hadn't dreamt since she was, like, ten.
.:. QK .:.
By the time the clock struck eleven, Saturday already felt like such a drag. It was stupid, really, seeing as Tyler was usually at the radio station by this time anyway but, somehow, something was already amiss. Did his presence at breakfast really make such a difference? Why? They barely spoke most mornings, especially since they'd started coming to breakfast separately.
"Jody?"
She snapped out of her daze, scrambling to look something approaching normal as her brother took a seat next to her. "Luke," she responded, donning what she hoped was a winning smile. "How are you?"
He'd pretty much blindsided her with his visit, having been off the radar for over a month. He still contacted her through Simon, a sad sign that he hadn't yet stood up to Millie, and owing to Tyler's departure, she'd forgotten all about her social worker informing her about the visit two days prior.
"Very well, thanks," he answered, and she tuned out for the rest of the conversation because she knew it all by heart anyway: small talk, an excuse as to why Millie couldn't join them, and an interrupting phone call or text to cut the visit short.
Only this time, they managed to 'talk' for twenty minutes without his phone going off, and he even had the time to go out into the garden with her. After a minute or two of taking in the cold December air, Luke turned to her and said, "I've not seen Tyler around today. Has he left care?"
"No," she replied flippantly, the very thought of Tyler leaving filling her with dread. "He's at his mum's wedding."
"Oh," he let out, dropping the posh act for once as he dug his hands into his pockets. "She's getting married with a son still in care...? Isn't that a little...?"
"A little what?" she asked defensively. "Mum used me to bag a new husband. Well, she tried anyway. Tyler's didn't. That already makes her a better mum in my book."
If it was anyone else, like Denise, she'd agree that they were selfish for moving on with their life when they couldn't even look after their own child but Sally was in the rare category of parents who had a legitimate reason for not having been able to. By all accounts, she hadn't even wanted to give him up and was willing to take him back as soon as she was able but he'd decided himself that he wanted to stay in care longer and that was why he was still here. With her. She frowned. Now that Sally was getting married, would she want to complete her family by asking Tyler to move in again? Would he say yes?
"Sorry, I didn't mean to judge," Luke apologised softly. "Of course, you're right. Mum should've never used you like that." She allowed herself to snort, knowing that no one who mattered was around to hear the unattractive noise. 'Mum' should've never done a multitude of things but that'd never stopped her, had it? "You didn't go to the wedding with him? Is that why you're upset?"
"Why would I go with him?" she questioned, sniffing. Did she really look upset? What would he know? He didn't see her frequently enough to know what she looked like when 'upset'. "Let's go inside."
He nodded and walked towards the patio door with her. "Well, he came to the funeral with you so I thought..."
She bit back a smile as they entered the kitchen. A wedding and a funeral were hardly the same thing, though she understood what he was getting at. "He would've taken me with him if he could. The wedding's in Vegas, so..."
A look of understanding washed over his face. "Ah."
She opened her mouth, about to ask him if she actually did appear to be upset, when his phone rang. "Ah," she mimicked instead. There it was: the dreaded phone call she'd been waiting for with bated breath.
"Love?" he said into the phone, shooting Jody the usual 'sorry' expression. "Yes, don't worry. Yes, of course, I will." Yes, yes, yes. He'd never once said no. Was he even capable of it?
"See you later, then," she said dismissively, as soon as he ended the call. He didn't even bother pretending that he wished he could stay longer this time but she found that she didn't mind as much. He'd stayed a lot longer than he usually did, at least.
Utterly bored out of her mind after Luke had left, she'd visited Sasha and Dexter, and had gone to the gym, in that order, and the day had seemed to pass just that little bit quicker. Dexter had a girlfriend now—one that was questionably or perhaps predictably older than him—and Murphy and their little sister had grown up considerably since she'd last seen them. Seeing Brandon, however, had thrown her off because looking at him reminded her of the funny dream she'd had last night. The idea of him being in care seemed as wrong as that of her not being in care; even in her dreams, she was still a care kid.
That night, she fell asleep watching Tyler's Snapchat story. His hair was natural, just the way she liked it, and he looked as if he was having a blast.
❄ "You lot are so annoying!" Jody complained, slamming her locker door shut. Aliyah and Beth exchanged amused glances. "There's nothing going on between me and Tyler! We're just mates and besides, I haven't even known him that long!"
"Who cares?" Beth asked, placing a hand on her hip. "Brad's known Hannah even less and they're already getting serious! The whole school already talks about you two, so you might as well make it come true..."
"I care!" Jody retorted, close to tearing her hair out. "You guys don't get it! My mum's a deadbeat and my only living brother's been in prison since I was a kid but Tyler's got these amazing parents who are always there for him!"
"What has that got to do with anything?" Aliyah questioned, waving flirtatiously at one of the boys who walked past them in the corridor. "You can't keep feeling sorry for yourself, Jody. It'll get you nowhere in life."
Jody was taken aback by the sheer apathy in her friend's voice. This was a dream, she knew that by now, especially after last night, but she didn't want to stand here and listen to the insensitive comments any longer, even though she knew they were probably right. She felt sorry for herself an awful lot, didn't she, primarily when it came to the men in her life?
Before she could run away this time, her surroundings morphed and the Science corridor was replaced by the bus stop outside Ashdene Ridge. She was standing next to the stop, anxiously eyeing up the kids outside the house while Tyler checked out the timetable.
"Are you ever going to invite me inside?" he asked, making her tear her eyes away from Taz, Finn and Jay. "We've been mates since my family moved here but I still haven't met yours."
"They're not my family," she said nervously, wringing her hands together. She suddenly felt bad as soon as the words left her mouth. If they weren't her family, who was? "I mean, they're the closest I'm going to get to one, but they're not my blood family, not like your parents are to you."
"I know that," he stated, smiling small. "I just wanted to meet them before—" He abruptly cut himself off, avoiding her eyes. Before what? "There's something I've been meaning to ask you," he continued hesitantly, as if he'd heard her question, "I mean, I think you already know, but I like you."
Her stomach did a somersault and she willed herself to stay calm. The real Tyler would never say something like this to her, certainly not of his own accord, so she had to ask, "As more than a friend?"
"Well, obviously!" he answered, but he sounded so happy that his sass didn't piss her off like it usually would've done. "So, do you wanna go and see that movie with me this weekend, just the two of us?" ❄
"Yes!" she mumbled deliriously, half asleep. She didn't even care that she had no idea what film he was referring to. "Yes..."
.:. QK .:.
《 "She did it because of me!" Tyler cried hysterically in a pre-pubescent voice, looking so much younger than he had in a long time. His hair was half the size she was used to seeing it. "I know she did! It's because I got fostered!"
"Don't be silly," she admonished, sitting next to him on the edge of his bed. "She told you she wouldn't mind if you got fostered as long as you didn't get adopted, remember?"
"Yeah, but she didn't mean it! She probably wasn't even taking her pills properly!"
She sighed. "Look, Tyler, Mrs Underwood is worried about you. Your mum was an adult. She's responsible for her own actions, whether she felt bad about you getting fostered or not... None of this is your fault; you're only eleven."
He sniffed, staring at her through teary eyes. "Why do you sound like a grown-up?" Uh-oh. She was supposed to be eleven here, not fifteen, but she couldn't control what came out of her mouth.
Feeling awkward, even though it was a dream, she shrugged casually in response. "Dunno."
He let out a noise that sounded like a half sob half laugh before slinging an arm around her. "I wish you were here more. My foster parents are great but it's so quiet sometimes."
"Ask them to foster more kids," she suggested. "Harry and the new kid at the home, Finn, were foster brothers. You could have one as well."
"How about a sister?" asked a lady she recognised as Mrs Underwood, appearing out of nowhere.
《 "I want to move back to Ashdene Ridge," Jody announced, avoiding the gaze of the boy across the dining table.
"But why, sweetheart?" Mrs Underwood inquired from the head of the table, sounding confused and... hurt. "You've been with us for four years now, almost as long as Tyler has."
Tyler scoffed. "Just let her go, Mum! She's probably been talking to Denise again!"
Jody scowled at him as her foster mother regarded her with concern. "Is that true, Jody?"
"Of course not?!" she snapped, feeling irritated for some reason. "I hate her!"
Mrs Underwood paused and sat back, her eyes darting between the pair of them. "Have you two fallen out again? I know I've been working late these last few days but that doesn't mean you two can start doing whatever you want in my absence."
All of a sudden, blood rushed to Jody's cheeks and she looked away but not before catching a glimpse of Tyler to see that he appeared to be equally abashed.
"Nothing happened in your absence, Gloria," she said softly, bowing her head. "The truth is that this just isn't working for me anymore."
"You two used to get along so well when you were younger," Gloria lamented aloud. "Are you sure about this? You'll be sixteen soon; they might put you straight into a semi-independent flat." Jody pursed her lips together, not daring to answer. Her foster mother sighed. "Won't you at least wait until Martin gets back from his business trip before making your final decision? You know you've always been the daughter he's never had."
"Yeah, sure," she replied, her voice trembling. He was the dad she'd never had as well.
《 "You don't have to leave!" Tyler exclaimed, throwing his arms out. He and Jody were standing in her bedroom at Ashdene Ridge but the view outside the window indicated that this was Gloria's house.
"Really?" she croaked in a pathetic attempt to yell. "Didn't you hear Gloria the other day?!" He gave her a blank look, drawing a frustrated snarl from her. "I'm the daughter they've never had! How are they going to feel when they find out what their daughter and son have been doing behind their backs!"
"Jeez, not so loud!" he warned in a panicked voice before running to the doorway and peering out of it.
"What are you doing?!" she shouted as he closed the door, her heart thundering in her chest. "You shouldn't even be in here!"
"Why not? I thought I was your brother!"
"You're supposed to be!"
"But I'm not! You're not even their daughter!"
She laughed hollowly, her heart lurching painfully, and dropped down onto her bed. "But you're their son, aren't you? It'll break their hearts if they find out that we nearly—" She stopped herself, unable to finish the statement.
"But we didn't," he said quietly, sitting his uninvited behind down next to her on the edge of the bed. "It was just a kiss, Jodes. It didn't even mean anything to you anyway so why are you getting so worked up about it?"
"As if it meant anything to you an' all," she sniped bitterly. "You were just trying to get a girl into your bed—you didn't care who."
He didn't respond and after a long stretch of silence, she turned her head in his direction to see that he had a dead serious expression on his face. She blinked, her mouth becoming dry, and she scrambled to gather her thoughts. Heck, what thoughts? This wasn't even real.
"I was going to ask you to the prom that night," he confessed, and if she wasn't already speechless, he would've struck her so. He turned to face her, mirroring her exactly, the hurt shining in his eyes. "But I guess you wouldn't want to go with your perv brother." 》
"But I would!" she shouted, groggily lifting her head and opening her eyes to see her entire Geography class staring back at her.
"Detention after school, Jody Gray!" the teacher declared harshly, before turning back to the whiteboard. She rolled her eyes.
Why the hell did she take Geography anyway? It only reminded her of all the places she'd never been. Oh, there she went again, feeling sorry for herself just like dream Aliyah had pointed out.
.:. QK .:.
Jody clucked her tongue as she sat inside the Year Lead's office, trying not to crack under her scrutinising gaze. Bill sat in the chair to her right, lazily chewing gum and clearly thinking that because the Year Lead couldn't see under the table, she couldn't tell that he was secretly on his phone. Apparently, he was in detention because he hadn't handed in three pieces of homework in a row.
Five minutes into the detention, the door softly clicked open and the cruel woman from the Absence office popped in. "Got another one for you; absent on Friday and only came in after lunch today but no doctor's note to prove his four-day illness."
"Thank you," the Year Lead replied, and in walked, or rather stumbled, Tyler, looking like he was at death's door.
Jody leapt up from her seat as soon as the Absence office lady closed the door, grabbing Tyler by the arm and guiding him to the seat on her left. As he smiled weakly at her in gratitude and the Year Lead primly cleared her throat, she boiled in anger, wondering how Mike and May-Li could've sent him to school in such a state and how the staff couldn't see that he was suffering from severe jetlag. The flight had been at least fifteen hours, for God's sake; he'd spent at least thirty hours within the space of four days in the air!
"Miss Gray, you may let go of Mr Lewis' arm now," the Year Lead stated as if she was making a suggestion but Jody knew that she was really giving an order.
She begrudgingly let go of his arm, wanting nothing more than to hug him and ensure that he got some well-deserved sleep. She half wondered whether this was another dream and yet another version of Tyler but banished the thoughts from her mind. What did it matter? Whether due to their life circumstances or fate, she loved him to distraction and maybe a part of her always would. She couldn't change it, so why even try?
Bill whistled from her right, drawing the attention of everyone else in the small room. "Guess I now know why it didn't work out between you and my sister, eh, mate?"
A/N: Just a few things to note about the dreams, in case they weren't clear: the first and second dream sequences belong to same 'universe' wherein Brandon is the one who's lived with Jody since age 9 and Tyler's the one she meets during Year Ten, though at school instead of the gym, and the third sequence takes place in a world where Mrs Underwood from the Series 3 premiere and her husband foster Tyler and later adopt him (after Sally overdoses on her meds). Personally, I believe that when something's supposed to happen in your life, it'll happen by hook or by crook. In this case, Jody was always meant to meet Tyler and fall for him and that's what happened. Since Jody would've died in the Series 4 finale if Tyler hadn't rescued her, I made it so that Kingsley was never released from prison in the Brandon/Tyler switched universe.
Okay, so, believe it or not, but I had a dream two nights ago where I was watching a non-existent episode of TDG. It had to be an alternate S6/S7A episode because Ryan was still in care but it consisted of Charlie and Bird becoming a secret couple, and Ryan actually caring about Candi-Rose being upset and deciding to set her up with Chloe. I mean, no offence to Bird/Charlie and Candi-Rose/Chloe shippers (do such shippers exist, lol?) but I have never considered these two pairings (the former doesn't sound legal). I've written two fanfics based on dreams before (one was crackfic, one was serious) so if anyone wants to use this dream and spin it into an amazing fic, please go ahead. I did watch Bird's Song that day so I guess Bird, Candi-Rose and Charlie were subconsciously playing on my mind when I drifted off to sleep.
Last night, I had another TDG dream wherein Candi-Rose had Ryan's baby. I'm pretty sure they were still teenagers and still living at Ashdene Ridge at the time. I don't think I was even watching this one in an episode; I think I was present at the scene as a character or part of the hospital staff. The conception (lol, word choice) of weird pairings in my dreams continue. Once again, no offence to any possible shippers out there.
Thanks to Charlie and yourfire for the reviews and the well wishes.
Charlie—as always, interesting theory but I think it'll be a while yet before Jody meets Millie. You know, at first, I thought the 'I don't have any money' statement was just an empty excuse to let Jody down without disclosing the real reason he wouldn't take her out but his obsession with money in Faker really got me thinking and thus Chapter 33 was born. Of course, the main reason for his rejection was that he was scared of losing her friendship.
yourfire—I'm glad that this chapter made things in the series make more sense. I'll admit, when I first watched RyanMan, I thought Tyler was such an idiot for shooting poor Jody down, but that was more because I felt bad for her than anything else. Only when I watched Faker and No Escaping did I realise what was going on in his head at the time and how hard it was for him to turn her down in the first place. He must've wanted to make a move so badly but their friendship stopped him.