Ty's a bit giddy for all of three seconds before his mother lets out a heavy sigh. She pinches the bridge of her nose like she's clinging to her sanity.
"Well," she says, heading toward the kitchen, "I need a drink. Honey?"
"Red or white?" Otis follows her.
Adina laughs. "Oh no, we're going straight to the whiskey. Tandy, can I get you anything? Juice? Tea – decaf, of course. Hot chocolate?" Tandy's ears literally perk up and Ty bites his lip to keep from laughing. Adina grins. "I'll put the kettle on."
When his parents disappear, Tyrone quirks an eyebrow at Tandy. "What are you, ten?"
She narrows her eyes defiantly. "Don't act like you're too cool for hot chocolate, choir boy." He rolls his eyes. Giving the room a once-over, Tandy probes, "So, you gonna give me a house tour or what?"
"Absolutely not."
"Why not?"
"Because you're nosy as hell."
Her smirk is wicked as she pushes herself up on her toes, invading his space. "Afraid I'll find your porn magazines?"
"Oh my God."
"Come on." She wanders around the coffee table, idly fingering the contents on top. "Show me something cool."
"Like what?"
It's her turn to roll her eyes. "You tell me."
The first thing that comes to mind is to show her the box where he's kept her ballet slipper all these years. But no, that's a level of creep that he's not ready to own up to. Instead he motions for her to follow him into the basement. Along the far wall is the sole reason he's never been allowed to roughhouse down here: his parents' record collection.
"Dude," Tandy breathes, "you guys have a phonograph?"
"Yeah, we got it when my grandfather moved into assisted living."
She's at the record case before he even finishes, practically vibrating with excitement. Her eyes scan over every title hungrily. She picks up an old jazz record and runs her hand along the cover.
"This is sick." She says, beaming at him, and he wants to smile, wants to be in the moment with her, but all he can see is the purple skin marring her temple and the dried blood in her hair.
His palms itch with the desire to reach out, but his fists stay firmly at his sides. He shifts awkwardly on his feet, mulling over how to best approach the subject.
"Did you find anything out, you know, before everything hit the fan?"
Her smile falls and she shrugs. "Not much. There's a van that's been making the same rounds every night for the past few weeks." She keeps looking through the records like this isn't even worth her full attention. "They keep loading something in from the warehouse and moving it to a second location. Figure I'll follow the van and –"
"What?" he barks, startling her, "You're going to keep following these people after what happened tonight?" She stares at him blankly as if it's most obvious thing in the world. Tyrone lets out a breath of disbelief. "Tandy, what if I hadn't been there?"
She closes her eyes, sighing, "Ty –"
"You could have died!" His voice cracks on the last word like he can't physically bear to say it.
She blinks at him and he feels utterly ridiculous but he also doesn't care. How can she be so unconcerned with her own safety? How can she act like it doesn't matter – like her life doesn't matter? He wants to convince her that it does, wants her to care, but there's a petulant voice in his head screaming what about me? I don't want to watch anyone else die! Why doesn't that matter to you?
Tandy is quiet for a long moment, ultimately avoiding his question with one of her own. "How did you find me? How did you even know that I was in trouble?"
Ty shakes his head. "I don't know, I just – I just felt it. It was like this pain. Then to find you I just…" he shrugs, "I don't know, I just thought of you."
Tandy nods considerately. She bites her lip, looking up at him through her eyelashes. "What did you think about?"
It stuns him how fast she can change the entire mood of a room. His frustration immediately gives way to something else as heat blooms in his cheeks. "For real?"
Her eyebrows quirk innocently. "Just a question."
He could lie. He probably should, or turn it into a joke. For some reason he tells her the truth. "Your hair." She looks skeptical. "Last time I saw you it was in braids."
"That's dumb." She says, scrunching her nose.
He chuckles. "Hey, it worked, didn't it?"
Her eyes take on a softness he hadn't been expecting as she inches closer to him. "What else did you think about?"
"How do you know that wasn't it?"
She doesn't budge. "What else?"
Tyrone sighs. "Those ratchet sneakers you always wear." She frowns comically. He grins, meeting her eyes when he says, "Your smile."
He's probably imagining the blush the spreads across her cheeks but he doesn't get the chance to confirm it before Adina calls from upstairs, "Cocoa's ready, guys."
When they enter the kitchen, Otis and Adina are both nursing half-empty glasses of whiskey. At the end of the counter sit two steaming mugs of hot chocolate, one of them being shaped like a basketball with Tyrone's name on it. Tandy raises her eyebrow but Ty ignores her in favor of getting the whipped cream out of the fridge. She pushes the mugs toward him and he puts a little extra in hers, then tilts his head back and sprays some into his mouth.
"Tyrone." Adina chides. He offers a garbled, full-mouthed apology that makes Tandy laugh. Adina takes another swig before saying, "So dear, tell us about yourself." Her tone is casual, but Otis' calculating eyes make it clear: this is a full-blown parental interrogation.
To her credit, Tandy doesn't seem nervous in the slightest. "Not much to know, honestly." She launches into a story that's sort of true but bullshit enough that Ty wants to laugh.
While his parents are occupied he pulls out his phone a sends a quick text to Evita.
SORRY FOR BOLTING. GOT EVERYTHING TAKEN CARE OF.
GOOD. HOW'S CRAZY WHITE GIRL?
HOW'D YOU KNOW IT WAS ABOUT TANDY?
BECAUSE YOU'RE THE DIVINE PAIRING, DUMBY. SHE OK?
Ty hesitates to answer. Sometimes he thinks Tandy's never really okay, she's just good at pretending to be. He simply replies,
YEAH. SHE'S GOOD.
Adina's laugh brings him back into the moment. It's a loud, guttural laugh that she only ever makes when she's in legitimate hysterics. Even his dad has a bemused smirk on his face. Tandy locks eyes with Ty and shoots him a wink, sipping her cocoa triumphantly. He smiles, but it feels weighted. Adina picks up the conversation, probably something embarrassing about his adolescent years. Ty can barely hear. His eyes stay tethered to Tandy, trying to sort out the real from the pretend.
The Johnson's guest bathroom is bigger than her mom's kitchen and Tandy tries really hard not to be bitter about it. This is Tyrone, after all. She knows that living in a fancy house doesn't mean his life's been easy, but God damn, how many decorative hand towels and artisanal soaps does one family need?
She turns the faucet on and starts filling the bathtub, dumping in every kind of bubble bath available. Undressing is a slow, painstaking process, her muscles screaming in protest. The vanity mirror offers her three different angles to view herself from and none of them are flattering. Her right shoulder – where she'd been slammed against the storage crate – is the same sickening display of purple and blue as her forehead. She runs a tentative finger along her temple at hisses when even the gentle touch makes it ache. Washing the blood out of her hair is going to suck.
Tandy takes a deep breath, eyes running over her bruised and bloodied form. The voice in her head whispers yes, this is what you're supposed to look like: as damaged and ugly on the outside as you are on the inside. She thinks of herself in all those stolen dresses and glittering accessories. That's not the real you. You're a liar. A junkie. This is the real you.
A knock on the door keeps her from spiraling any further.
"Just a sec." She says, grabbing a towel off the rack and tucking it around herself.
She opens the door and nearly chortles as Tyrone's eyes go wide and immediately lock onto the floor.
"I… sorry I just… my mom wanted me to… uh, she said she'd wash your clothes while you're in the bath and uh… here." He thrusts a floral pajama set into her hands. "Those are for you… for tonight. They're Mom's but she said you can borrow them."
He's beet-red by the time he finishes and Tandy can't help but snigger. "Deep breaths, Ty. Deep breaths." He finally meets her gaze, if only to glare at her. "I'll have to thank her, and your dad. They've both been wonderful."
Ty grins reluctantly. "Yeah, they're alright."
Tandy soaks in his smile for a second longer before setting the pajamas on the edge of the sink and turning to grab her hoodie and jeans off the floor.
Ty gasps. "Shit, Tandy."
There's a tingling sensation in her shoulder blade and a flash of black and white. She whips around to see Ty's outstretched hand, hovering in mid-air like he's shell shocked. He slowly realizes what he's done and lowers his arm.
"What happened to you?" he says, aghast.
"What do you mean?"
"Your shoulder."
Tandy huffs. He'd scared the daylights out of her over that? "It was the same dude that gave me a concussion. Threw me up against a wall and started strangling me." She thinks if his eyes get any wider, he may actually hurt himself, so she quickly adds, "Ty, it was fine. I popped out one of these babies." She produces a dagger with her free hand. "And bada-bing bada-boom, we're all good."
He gapes at her. "What the hell is wrong with you?" Her heart drops into her stomach. "How can you be so cool about this?"
Heat flares in her palm and she digs her fingernails into her skin to keep it from igniting. She moves close enough for him to feel the venom in her words. "I'm willing to risk a few bruises if it means getting justice for my dad."
Ty doesn't back down, instead taking a step closer, his face terrifyingly open. "But what if it kills you, Tandy?" Her fire nearly dies at the desperation in his voice. "Then your dad will still be seen as a failure and you'll just be gone." He pauses like he wants that word to sink in. "Who benefits from that?"
Her instincts kick in and she nearly spits what do you care? But even in the throes of her anger, she knows that isn't fair. Tyrone's proven to be the best friend she's ever had. She knows he cares. She also knows he'll be okay without her. He's got Evita and his parents. He's got a future.
What does Tandy have? A prescription drug addiction and a worn out hoodie? The only thing in her life that matters is her father's memory, and Roxxon is trying to destroy it. How can Ty not get that? After all they've been through, how can he still not understand what's at stake here?
The spark of fury returns and she surrenders to it. "You were willing to kill someone to avenge your brother. You were willing to become a drug runner." He looks away but she won't let him off that easily. She steps even closer until her skin is glowing and she can feel his energy pulsing around her. His head snaps up and he jolts backward but she refuses to lose ground. "Stop acting like you're so much better than me."
"I'm not!"
"Yes you are." Her voice cracks, eyes stinging. "You think I'm crazy for going after Roxxon. I can see it in your face every time I bring it up. You act like this thing you're doing with Detective O'Reilly is somehow different. Well guess what, Tyrone: it's not. So you can drop this "holier than thou" attitude because it's really starting to piss me off." Tears spill down her cheeks and she violently wipes them away, shoving her clothes into Tyrone's chest. "Be careful with the hoodie."
She pivots on her heel to shut off the faucet. He's gone when she turns back around.
