He sat in the cold for a few minutes after she'd left trying to hold on to the feeling of her soft hair on his arms and her warm body against his chest. When he'd engrained the moment into his brain as much as he could, Tyler stood up and re-entered the bar.
Christina had already gone, he knew, whisked away by her friends. Aaron was licking his wounds in the corner and Reid was back at the bar chatting up the blonde from before and obviously using the almost-fight to his advantage.
"What was that about?" Caleb asked, from behind Tyler. He turned to see Caleb and Pogue staring at him with expressions of concern and confusion.
Tyler shrugged, "nothing, I'm just sick of Aaron being a douche".
"Yeah" Pogue agreed, puffing up and shooting Aaron a look, "he does need putting in his place sometimes".
Tyler couldn't help smile at his friends' easy acceptance of his explanation: no pushing for details, no searching for the real truth, just taking him on his word. But he had a feeling the rest of the school might take a little more convincing. Already he could sense eyes on him, not in the usual way but in the whispering gossipy way. He was pretty much used to it but this felt different, maybe it was because the other person involved was someone he was genuinely interested in rather than someone he kept around for appearance sake.
"Come on, you need to referee for me and Pogue, I'm pretty sure he's cheating" Caleb intervened, sensing his friends unease.
"Hey!" Pogue exclaimed, "don't bring a third party just because you can't beat the fooz-master!"
Tyler laughed and with that, forgot about the stares and whispers and settled into a night of friends and foozball.
Meanwhile, Christina sat in the passenger seat of James' truck as he drove her back to the dorm.
"Are you sure you're OK?" he asked as they pulled into the student lot.
She nodded and he sighed, sure she was just putting on a brave face. In actuality, her mind was racing, going over that moment with Tyler. As she sat in his arms, crying from the shock, she'd been so aware of his warm chest against her arm and his soft breathing across her skin. Now her mind replayed those sensations over and over, converting every minute detail into long term memory and creating a longing in her that was almost terrifyingly intense. Before, she'd thought her crush was just the result of a curiosity for the unknown but now it felt like something bigger, like her soul was being pulled towards his, like the universe was forcing them together, telling her this was meant to be...but that was ridiculous, probably just a result of shock and teenage hormones, after all what girl doesn't feel like that hot, funny, smart guy they'd been crushing on forever is their soul mate?
She needed to go to sleep and try to forget this night ever happened because one thing was for sure: Tyler Simms would never be hers.