Chapter 2 – How we got here.
Monday morning arrives and Billy is waiting for Tim so they can fix Tim's truck and get rid of the rental car, finally. Mindy was going to Angela's house, but Tyra decided to pass on that and have a lazy day. She drops Tim off at Billy and Mindy's and drives back to the motel to take a long hot shower and a little nap. As the warm water caresses her skin, Tyra smiles to herself thinking about all that has happened in the past week. Part of her still can't believe she and Tim are engaged. If anyone had told Tyra at 16 that she would be getting ready to marry Tim Riggins when she was finishing college (and that would have been beyond 16 year old Tyra's wildest fantasy) she would have beat the living daylights out of the person that even suggested such a thing. She grins now remembering those days. Of course, at that time, she alternated hating Tim, loving Tim, and finally just getting to a place where she could be friends with Tim. Funny thing was, the attraction had always been there, from the time she first laid eyes on Tim in kindergarten. It had gone from the innocence of being five, to the eight year old hating boys but really secretly still liking Tim, to the twelve year old version of their relationship, which was all bra snapping and hair pulling. From there, they embarked on a relationship that, honestly, had started out sweetly enough and seen them go to a dark place where they did whatever they could to hurt each other. The day she turned thirteen, Tim showed up at her door with a handful of flowers he had picked himself. She remembered being elated he had remembered her birthday, but she wouldn't let HIM know that, of course. Tim knocked on the door and she opened it herself. "Are those for me, Timmy?" Tim shook his head. "Nah, they're for my other girl," he said as he held them out to her. "Ha ha, you're so funny," Tyra told him. Secretly, she was thrilled. He'd called her his girl. Tim didn't say what he didn't mean, even at thirteen. They spent the whole day together that day. Fast forward to sophomore year of high school. Things had been good between them freshman year. Tim was JV then and the JV rally girls weren't any kind of threat. Sophomore year, Tim made the varsity team and it changed him. She started noticing he was starting to believe he was a God. Something that happened to most of the Dillon Panthers, with the possible exception of Matt Saracen. She didn't like what she was seeing from Tim and how he was treating her, but she stayed because he really was all she knew. She also knew he really did care about her, he just didn't know how to show it with his ego in the way. It didn't help that he could have just about girl he wanted naked and under him with a simple grin and raise of his eyebrows. Then the first game of that season came, and something broke inside all of them. Tim couldn't handle Jason's accident at all. He pushed her out of his life and turned to Lyla, and yes, that stung, even now, even knowing they were broken up when Tim and Lyla got together. Tyra had long since buried that hurt and forgiven Tim. After all, she was far from innocent back then. She had made a play for Smash. She had slept with that business man from the oil company, and yet part of her still belonged to Tim. She knew it deep down. She would NEVER have let him in on that secret though. By the end of sophomore year, she and Tim had figured a way to coexist as what she would loosely term friends. By that time, she had been through her darkest time in her life. Tim had tried to get back together with her that year, right before the playoffs. She had wanted to say yes and be with him again so badly, but she had enough respect for herself by then, thanks to Mrs. T., that she had told him no, even though it broke her heart, and she was pretty sure she had dented his too. Junior and Senior years they were still friendly, but not together. Life intervened and they were each with other people. She had been with Landry and Cash and then Landry again. He had gone back with Lyla yet again. Billy and Mindy got married. They both graduated and she went off to UT. Lyla left Tim behind and he made his sacrifice for Billy, Mindy, and Stevie. Life really wasn't kind to Tim in those two years. As bad as she felt for him, she knew it had contributed to them being together now. Life had knocked Tim Riggins, football God, down a few pegs and he was a lonely soul when she got back to town for Christmas that year Mindy found out she was having twins. Tyra's heart hurt when she saw Tim. He was so lost. She offered him comfort that night the only way she knew how. When Tim had asked her not to go, pleaded with her to please not go, she'd been undone. She would NEVER have been able to turn him away, and she was so unbelievably glad she didn't. She grinned down at the ring she still couldn't believe was on her finger.
Please review…next chapter is Tami and Eric finding out the good news.