Not having to wake up early on a Monday felt so good. Jody smiled to herself, rolling over on her belly so that the warmth of the sun's rays streaming in through the window directly hit her back. She sighed in content, feeling like she was sunbathing on a beach. This was somewhat unusual weather for late May, especially after four weeks of near-constant dreariness, but was a welcome change all the same. So comfortable was she that she almost drifted back off to sleep when her mobile phone pinged, interrupting her peace and quiet.
Eyes still closed, she blindly reached out towards the bedside, patting her way across the surface until she felt the familiar rubbery texture of her phone case. Grabbing the phone, she rolled onto her back and forced herself to open her eyes, turning her screen brightness all the way up because she couldn't see a thing in the glaring sunlight. She skimmed through her notifications list, scrolling past random friend requests, a text from Carmen, a WhatsApp message from one of her mates, news about the royal honeymoon, news about Brexit e.t.c. until she saw something that made her jaw drop. She sat up in excitement, quickly reading the article before leaping out of bed and running out of her room.
As she walked up the hallway to Tyler's room, she thought about how excited he'd be. They'd both been waiting for this news for ages. Once she actually found herself standing outside his door, however, she faltered, her hand suspended in the air just in front of the door handle. Could she really just burst into his room, first thing in the morning, without even knocking? She raised her hand to knock but stopped herself from doing that as well. Would that be too formal? She let her hand drop, her excitement rapidly waning. Why was she hesitating so much?
She wasn't Brandon's girlfriend, not yet, and even if she were, why should that change how she behaved around her best friend? She wasn't some medieval woman who was controlled by her man... not that Brandon was her man, though he had texted her the day after the date to say he'd had a good time and had sort of hinted at a second one sometime soon. Unfortunately, Candi-Rose had snatched her phone and replied very positively before she even had the chance to decide for herself. She shook her head. Everything between her and Tyler had changed, and their actions hereafter had to reflect that.
Barging into someone else's room first thing in the morning was not normal best friend behaviour even for same-sex best friends. Sure, she'd ignored it when she'd thought that Tyler liked her, and so had he, for some reason, but it was no longer appropriate—not that it had been, in the first place—now that she knew he only wanted to be friends. She had to act like everyone else did around their friends. Normal.
"Jody?" Charlie's voice wafted down the hallway, its owner appearing around the corner shortly after. "Oh, there you are!"
"What's up?" Jody asked, stepping away from Tyler's door and meeting Charlie halfway, stopping in between the doors to Joseph's and Finn's rooms.
"I walked down to cemetery this morning and—" Charlie paused as the door to Finn's room opened and said boy popped his head out of the doorway, rubbing his eyes. "Could we go to your room?"
"Err, yeah," Jody replied after a moment, smiling awkwardly at Finn before following Charlie. Being led back to her own room felt odd like she was a kid being dragged to the naughty corner. "Is everything okay?" she asked as she closed her bedroom door behind her, eyeing the older girl in concern. Was she in some sort of trouble?
"Oh, it's nothing bad," Charlie assured with a small smile, silently asking if she could sit down. Jody relaxed and nodded straight away, amused that the other girl still felt the need to ask. They were well past the point of formalities. "It's just something you ought to know."
Sitting down on the edge of her bed, Jody raised an eyebrow. She hoped it wasn't anything to do with Brandon. "What do you mean?"
"Well, do you remember any of the female mourners who were around when we went to the cemetery last month?" Charlie questioned and Jody blinked in surprise, having not expected this vein of questioning at all. She squinted, trying to picture the faces she might've caught a glimpse of that time at the cemetery but came up with nothing.
"No, I wasn't really looking around," she answered, wondering where this was going. "Why?"
"When I went down there today, a regular came up to me and asked me if I knew the children of Denise Jackson. That is your mum's name, right?" She nodded, motioning for Charlie to continue. "She said that a few days before we last visited, a man approached her and asked if she'd seen anyone visit your mum's grave, especially her children. She told him she saw a young man visit the grave but didn't know if he was your mum's son. Apparently, she wanted to approach you that day we went there, to ask you if were your mum's daughter, but stopped herself when she saw you crying."
"I wasn't crying," she hastily protested, narrowing her eyes in scepticism. What sort of woman frequented a cemetery often enough to witness multiple people visiting the same grave on completely different days, and managed to remember it all? The whole story reeked of dodginess. "There's no one who would ask after me or my brothers. I haven't got any extended family and I don't think any of my mum's friends would come looking for me."
"Hmm," Charlie let out before her eyes suddenly lit up. "Maybe she misunderstood him. She didn't tell me if the man himself mentioned your mother's name. It's possible he just pointed a grave out and she got the wrong one."
"Maybe..." Jody said uncertainly, wrinkling her nose. "But it's not likely, is it?"
"No, you're right," Charlie agreed, shaking her head. "Any sane man would want to make sure that other people know exactly who he's talking about."
Something occurred to Jody just then. "But if someone was asking after me, why didn't the pastor let me know? He told me about Luke." She bit her lip, recalling the flowers she'd discovered in her mother's floral tin which had been too fresh to have been left there by Luke. Was it the work of this mystery man? Even so, it still didn't explain why the pastor hadn't mentioned him... unless... "Is there more than one pastor at the chapel?"
"I never go inside the chapel," Charlie responded, "but I think so. The same pastor can't work there every single day of the week." Jody 'hmm'd, wondering if one of Kingsley's ex-gang brothers was stalking their mother's grave when her stomach rumbled. She tentatively peered up at Charlie to see her stifling a laugh. "Breakfast?" the older girl suggested as she stood up, tipping her head towards the door.
Jody was taken aback. Charlie had walked to the cemetery and back, a combined walking time of about an hour, without eating? Why? "You mean you haven't already had it?"
"I didn't feel hungry earlier," she stated, shrugging her shoulders. Jody made a noise of understanding before following Charlie out of her room.
As the two girls passed the hallway to Tyler's room, Jody turned her head to see said boy and Alex walking down together, the latter lightly (she hoped) punching the former on the arm like she used to. She averted her gaze, forcing herself to appear happy when she and Charlie made eye contact. Why did things have to change as she grew up? Why couldn't they stay the same?
.:. QK .:.
The sun continued to beam on Ashdene Ridge for the next few hours and, as expected, each of the residents took advantage of it in their own way: Charlie sat outside in her tent; Taz helped Joseph with some sort of experiment; Bird sat on the green garden bench, listening to some tunes, next to Candi-Rose who was doing Floss' and Chloe's nails; and the rest, including Jody, were playing football. As per usual, Jody was the only female player, a fact that'd never deterred her, even when Bailey used to taunt her about it, and today, she was on Ryan and Jay's side, playing against Alex, Tyler and Finn. Whether by fate or design, she ended up marking Tyler who despite always having been at least a head taller than her, seldom succeeded in wresting the ball away from her. She grinned as she whizzed past him, kicking the ball into the net as Finn dove in completely the wrong direction. She high-fived Jay, receiving a rare, genuine smile from Ryan who was in goal on the other side of the 'pitch'.
Unfortunately, the once-friendly match took a nasty turn when Jay wound up on the ground and accused Alex of fouling him.
"That was a foul, right, Bird?!" Jay bellowed, held back by Ryan as he lunged for Alex who had to be restrained by both Tyler and Finn. Jody looked to Bird to see that his eyes weren't even open and had probably been closed throughout the entire match.
"Candi-Rose?" she tried, only for said girl to spare her a disparaging glance.
"Nail art requires my full, undivided attention!" she responded, shaking her head and returning to her task of painting Floss' nails. Jody blinked, feeling like she'd travelled back in time to when Carmen used to sit there on their old garden swing and spout out eerily similar nonsense while doing Tee's nails.
"Sorry, Jay, but you've been busted," Floss declared matter-of-factly, sticking up for her 'BFF'. "I'm not falling for your lame tricks."
"Actually, I think Alex did foul Jay," Chloe spoke up, setting off a round of screaming and arguing that probably wouldn't stop until Mike or May-Li intervened.
As if it were second nature to her, which it probably was, come to think of it, Jody exchanged a look with Tyler, rolling her eyes at Jay's exaggerated wailing. He didn't disappoint, rolling his eyes in return, and just like that, she knew that all was well between the two of them.
"Bench?" he asked over the squabbling, referring to the picnic bench situated far away from the pitch.
"Yeah," she replied quickly, making a run for it. They both sat down on opposite sides of the bench and she leant her elbows on the table in between them. "How long do you think it'll take for Mike and May-Li to break it up?"
"Years," he answered, chuckling. "I don't know where she is but he's hiding inside the office cos of all the extra duties he's taken on."
"Well, May-Li did tell us all not to treat her any different just because we know now," she pointed out, recalling several instances of everyone offering to help May-Li with mundane tasks ever since she revealed that she was pregnant... which had been just yesterday. The news had been a pleasant surprise to them all, though Charlie seemed to have already known, and Jody had jokingly asked May-Li if she'd got inspired by the pregnancy test drama, but it turned out that May-Li and Alice had already scheduled the IVF date way before any of that had even happened. "May-Li pregnant. Can you believe it?"
"I couldn't at first; I thought she was going to stop at two sons," he stated, squinting at the glaring sunlight shining directly on him. "But I guess not. I guess everything changes... eventually."
She pressed her lips together, a strange melancholy taking hold of her as she remembered just how much change had taken place in her life within the last two days, starting with the stark realisation that he'd never liked her the way that she liked him. No. Why was she upsetting herself, especially on such a nice day? She'd decided to move on from her crush on him and she eventually would. Like he said, change was inevitable, and feelings changed all the time, didn't they? They certainly had for her parents...
Recalling what she'd wanted to tell him earlier, she smiled at him. "Have you heard—"
"About the last instalment?" he finished for her as if he'd read her mind, flashing her a dazzling smile. She suddenly blushed, and she wasn't so sure that it was because of the intense heat. Luckily, he didn't seem to notice. "I saw the trailer this morning! I was thinking we could do a marathon of all the other ones leading up to the release."
She raised an eyebrow, excited by the prospect but doubtful that they could pull it off. "Is there enough time, though?" she questioned. The new film was going to come out in July, just over a month away. "There's a lot to get through." Fifteen films, to be precise.
"Yeah, we've got the whole week!" he exclaimed, throwing his arms out. "And when we have to go back to school, we can still use the weekends!"
"Yeah, you're right," she commented, the uncomfortable weight of the last two days lifting off her shoulders in an instant. It was as if the awkwardness caused by Brandon asking her out had never happened at all. She straightened her back, slamming one hand down on the table. "Let's watch the first one now!"
Almost at once, the pair of them jumped off the bench and sprinted into the house, heading for the DVD stack in the lounge. As the two of them rummaged through the numerous DVDs, sharing conspiratory smiles, Jody felt less like a raging tomboy on the cusp of womanhood and more like the nine-year-old who used to be the lookout for the equally young Tyler while he nicked Gina's biscuits. Once again, Brandon popped into her head and she couldn't help but compare the two boys: she could be a kid around Tyler, her best friend, but had to be more mature around Brandon, her maybe soon-to-be boyfriend. One made her young and the other made her... old? Did she need both?
.:. QK .:.
Later that week, Jody and Tyler sat in front of the telly together, a fifth of the way into their marathon. They'd initially faced a bit of opposition from May-Li who had been a little concerned by their staying inside every day instead of spending time outdoors like everyone else but she'd backed off when they subtly threatened to follow her around all day as if she were an invalid.
They burst into laughter as a funny scene came on, their hands accidentally brushing when they reached into the popcorn bowl at the same time. The occurrence itself wasn't out of the ordinary—it tended to happen when two people shared a bowl or bag of popcorn which was why she'd opted for her own bag on her date with Brandon—but this was the first time it'd happened since before the whole Brandon situation and was the very first time it distracted them from the screen. Their laughter died out nearly straight away and they stared at one another, their hands lying still in the popcorn bowl. Jody swallowed deeply, mentally imploring herself to look away but she just couldn't do it. But why wasn't he looking away? Thanks to him, her mind was playing cruel tricks on her, trying to convince her that he was gazing at her like the guys in rom-coms looked at the women they loved.
He would've never let, or rather told, her to go out with Brandon if he returned her feelings. Why couldn't she just accept that once and for all? Why was she wavering and allowing herself to fall back into that trap, that stupid, stupid dream where they had a future together?
"Jody?" Candi-Rose called from behind her, snapping her out of her trance. Tyler seemed to regain his senses too, slowly pulling his hand out of the popcorn bowl and looking back at the TV screen.
"Yeah?" Jody prompted, turning to the girl standing next to the sofa. "What is it? We're busy." She didn't mean to sound harsh but the stare-gazing had thrown her off, engulfing her in another bout of confusion regarding her love-life.
As if on cue, Candi-Rose looked between her and Tyler before saying, "You've got a date with Brandon. In half an hour."
"What?!" Jody exclaimed, sitting up and pulling her hand out of the bowl so fast that she nearly spilt all of the popcorn. "I don't remember agreeing to anyth"—she paused, taking her phone out of her pocket and going to her messages—"Ugh, Candi-Rose!" Apparently, that time that Candi-Rose had taken her phone and agreed to a second date, she'd agreed to a certain place and time. "You flip out when someone takes your phone but then you go and do something like this!"
"You knew about this!" Candi-Rose squeaked. "You were there when I texted him and you were fine with it!"
Yes, she had been there, but she'd never thought to check the messages and she most definitely was not fine with it. She'd just assumed that Candi-Rose had merely said 'yes' to a second date and that Brandon would contact her with a possible day and time later. She had thought it a bit odd that he hadn't messaged her since then but hadn't been all that bothered because she'd been occupied by Tyler. At least now she knew why...
"I'm cancelling," she muttered, beginning to compose a message when Candi-Rose stepped forward and straight up snatched her phone from her. "Oi!" she yelled, standing up and taking it back.
"You can't cancel," Tyler spoke up for the first time since Candi-Rose had walked in. Jody spun around, looking down at him. "It's too short notice."
"But"—she exhaled shortly, gesturing towards the TV—"What about this?" The film was at its best part right now and it seemed such a shame to leave it... and him.
"It's fine, we can finish it off later," he said, his eyes downcast. "I'm not going anywhere... but Brandon'll be upset if you back out of your date."
"He's right!" Candi-Rose piped up, her voice irritating Jody as it reminded her why she was in this situation in the first place. "You were going to go out with him again anyway weren't you?"
Tyler pressed his lips together, turning the TV off. "I might as well work on my next forum rep pitch," he mumbled, standing up and stretching.
"Come on, Jody!" Candi-Rose more or less ordered, grabbing Jody by the hand and pulling her towards the lounge door.
Feeling brave, Jody shrugged the younger girl off and walked back up to Tyler. It was now or never. Either she was going mad or he had been looking at her in a way that mere best mates didn't.
"Are you sure?" she asked earnestly, hoping he understood her veiled meaning. She didn't have enough guts to spell it out, especially in front of Candi-Rose, but she had to know. "One of these days, he'll probably ask me to be his girlfriend." That sounded vain but she was pretty sure it was true.
He avoided her gaze just like he had the day he first told her to call Brandon and she just knew then that he understood her meaning perfectly well. "Yeah," he replied quietly, glancing at her one last time before walking past her. She watched him go, feeling numb as Candi-Rose dragged her to her room.
He hadn't been able to lie to her as a child. He still couldn't. As Candi-Rose fussed over her hair and nails, Jody stared into nothingness. She didn't know what was worse. Being rejected by someone who didn't share her feelings or being rejected by someone who did.
A/N: Thanks to CharlieSMarts12 for the review. This story loves you back, believe me, and it definitely won't dance around you like Tyler does to Jody. Lol, no, the preggo test was not May-Li's. She became pregnant a few weeks after the whole pregnancy drama. Just in case you're wondering why this vain bish thanks you for your reviews but doesn't return the favour... When I'm writing for a fandom, I try not to read other fanfic for that fandom so as not to get influenced by someone else's plotline. Seeing as you're also writing Jyler, I really don't want that to happen. Good writers like yourself can probably fight the influence but I am very impressionable.