Hi guys! I just want to apologise for not posting in SOOOOOOOOOOOO long! life has been a tad more hectic than planned and a touch of writers block has not helped. Anyway, i'm sorry but here's another chapter and i apologise in advance if there's any silly typo's or grammar errors, been rushing to get it finished and haven't checked as thoroughly as i normally do. Enjoy and please find the time to R&R. i really do appreciate it, even the nagging for more chapters, it motivates me! xxx
The bar was already filling up when Tyler arrived, the air heavy with cigarette smoke and the stale smell of spilt beer. Pogue led the group, his arm draped around Kate's shoulders, Reid behind him and Tyler trailing in the back with Sarah. Caleb was already sitting at their usual table, talking with Lucas Church but as he noticed the approaching group, Lucas made his excuses and stood up heading over to another group of Spenser students at the jukebox.
The group settled, Sarah immediately taking her place at Caleb's as Reid snuck off to the pool tables, ready to make his bets for the night.
Tyler couldn't help himself feel a little out of place as the two couples began chatting idly, lost in their own little worlds. He watched Kate and Pogue's playful flirting and Sarah and Caleb's quiet intimacy and thought how the definition of third wheel had never seemed so appropriate, or maybe it should be fifth wheel? The couples were so lost in their own little worlds it felt like if he suddenly jumped up on the table and striped down to his birthday suit, they'd still be completely oblivious.
Scanning the room, he saw a couple of guys from the swim team playing foosball, some girls he recognized from a party a few weekends back, and of course Reid watching a group of girls playing pool, lacey bra's completely exposed as they bent over to take their shots.
"Hey, guys?" he started, but no one looked up, "I'm just going to go and, you know, drink a bottle of arsenic or something. Anyone wanna join me?"
"Yeah, sure, in a minute Ty" Caleb replied, barely taking his eyes off of Sarah, and Tyler couldn't help a low chuckle escape his lips as he got up and made towards the pool tables.
"Hey, Baby Boy" Reid grinned as he hit his knuckles against the brunettes.
Tyler smiled in response, "checking out the prospects for the night eh?"
They both made their way towards a free pool table, picking up cues as they went.
"Yes, anything's better than trying to endure the love fest going on back there" the blonde smirked as he pushed a quarter into the tables slot, releasing the balls, "and it looks I've got my wing man back"
That was when Tyler saw her. It was like some sixth sense flared up inside of him and his head turned without any formal consent from his brain. A stream of girls entered the bar in a cloud of lip gloss, perfume and excited chatter. He recognized a couple of them but with only vague interest and was about to turn his attention back to his friend when he caught sight of long dark hair and soft peachy skin and the world evaporated. There she was: the girl of his dreams, utterly oblivious to him and yet the universe to him. She was deep in chat with Isabelle Percy who he sat behind in Film and another girl with curly blonde hair that he vaguely recognized. They made their way over to one of the booths in the back. It was crazy, and he knew it, but all he could focus on was the way her startlingly silver eyes scanned the room, the way her rose petal lips curved upwards slightly at a joke and the way her light blue dress bunched up slightly as she walked, exposing her thigh a little more with each step. He became transfixed by that dress, praying the cotton would inch just a little higher.
Thankfully he was pulled from his fantasy before the effects became physical by a hard punch in the shoulder.
"Dude, are we playing or what?"
Tyler looked up and saw Reid's trademark grin but there was a flicker of knowing in his eyes like he knew exactly what his younger friend had been thinking just moments before. The brunette felt his face flush red.
"Yeah, yeah, 'course"
They played like they always did with playful banter and bickering, cussing as they missed a shot, bragging when they made one. It was a good distraction and Tyler became more himself with each turn although he was still painfully aware of every move Christina made and every time her silver gaze swept in his direction which seemed a lot but the pool tables where crowded so it could have been anyone she was sneaking glances at.
The game ended as Reid potted the black - to any innocent bystander the shot was made with a combination of skill and luck but Tyler saw the telltale flash of Reid's eyes.
The blonde let out a yell of triumph as the ball fell with a satisfying thunk into the corner pocket, "I guess that makes me the winner".
Tyler rolled his eyes, "Whatever, Reid"
"You're just jealous that I'm better than you".
"Depends", Tyler replied, "are we still talking about pool?"
Another knowing grin crossed Reid's lips and he straightened up, placing the cue he was holding against the wall.
"It's good you're out Ty, I'm tired of flying solo"
Reid threw his arm around the younger boy's shoulders and roughed his hair. If anyone else had tried it Tyler would have put up a fight but Reid was the exception to every rule.
They'd grown up closer than brothers, a tight unit within the sons of Ipswich, each keeping the others secrets even from Caleb and Pogue. Tyler still remembered the night the summer before last when Reid had bundled through his second storey window, covered in dirt and eyes wild with misadventure.
"What are you doing?" Tyler had whisper-shouted, trying to sound annoyed and grown up but full of childish excitement and curiosity.
He'd been researching college swimming programs with his music on low since his parents had gone to bed an hour or so ago and god forbid he wake them.
It was dark but the pale moonlight creeping through the curtain glinted off Reid's exposed teeth as he grinned a sly smile although his breathing was still ragged, as though he'd been running.
He pulled off his jumper and shirt, "I'm going to sleep is what I'm doing"
Before Tyler could protest the blonde had leapt into his bed, throwing the covers up and over himself in his own uniquely messy way.
Tyler saw nothing else for it and jumped onto the huge lump in the middle of the bed, jerking the covers back.
"Hey!" Reid had protested, trying in vain to pull the comforter back over his head.
Tyler kept the huge grey cover held high and retorted, "You can sleep in my bed, when you tell me why you're in it"
The blonde huffed, sitting upright and trying to look reluctant but the grin was still there, teeth shining.
"OK", he began and Tyler dropped the blankets, sitting opposite his friend, eyes eager and curious.
"You know Remmy Jackson?"
Tyler nodded, and Reid continued, "She threw a party tonight at her parents house down by Marble Head and of course Katie Pembleton was there"
The brunette nodded again, now a little suspicious of what might have happened since Katie was Calebs current girlfriend.
"Dude, it was so f*cked up, we were drinking and dancing and laughing, you know how it is"
The blonde was getting animated and Tyler was nodding and smiling as if he too 'knew how it was' but they both knew he didn't.
"So we were in this bedroom, getting to it, and suddenly Katie's phone starts ringing and it's Caleb and he's all 'I'm coming over baby'"
Reid put on a very bad imitation of Caleb, his voice deep, his accent overly posh
"Naturally we both start freaking out, and she was seriously freaking out, screaming at me as if I''d raped her or something, so I just ran for it, kept running 'til I got here and that's it. Night"
That was it, without another word, Reid rolled over and fell fast asleep and to this day Tyler still didn't know why the blonde had run there and not home.
Needless to say, Katie and Caleb broke up a week later when he found her with a guy from the lacrosse team at another party but Tyler kept his mouth shut even as Caleb had ranted about the idiot scumbag that had obviously seduced his innocent girlfriend - although he did call her a few not so innocent names during the very loud and very public break up argument.
"I'm going to get some food, you want anything?" Reid suddenly broke into his reverie.
"Yeah" Tyler replied, focus shifting back to the dark smoky bar, "Just grab me whatever you're getting. I'm going to the can"
Reid nodded and traipsed off in the direction of the bar.
By the time Tyler returned, he could see his food had been donated to Reid's latest conquest, a tall blonde with definite assets. He shook his head and started making his way over to his friend when he heard a commotion over to his left, by the pool tables. Tyler looked over and saw Aaron Abbot harassing some girl. Normally he would have walked away, it was none of his business after all, but then he caught sight of long mahogany hair and a tan arm and suddenly he was striding towards Aaron, no idea what to do or what to say, just knowing he had to do something.