Tyler was immediately aware of the gossip cranking up a notch as Christina left the pool. All day he'd noticed more stares and whispers than usual, obviously as a result of the night before, but now the rumour mill was about to go into overdrive. Normally this would have worried him. Although he'd always accepted the fact that he would be a key player in the reality show that was Spenser, he'd also always made a conscious effort to keep a lower profile than his brothers. He just didn't like the idea of everyone thinking they owned him somehow because they were privy to every moment of his life. And now he'd unknowingly brought Christina into that.
Suddenly, he realised how unfair this was. All he'd done was ask out a girl he (really) liked and now there would be all kinds of rumours flying around about both of them, some nice and some not so nice. He remembered when the news that Pogue and Kate had had their first 'adult sleepover' got out and while Pogue was heralded amongst the guys, Kate suddenly became a slut and had to deal with all those jealous bitchy girls digging into her for weeks, until Tiffany MacKenzie got arrested for stealing and crashing her dads BMW and the gossips found a new source of ammo. Pogue had felt so guilty whenever Kate had gotten upset. Tyler remembered Pogue confiding in him that he almost wished he'd been born into another family just so his girlfriend didn't have to go through all the torment that came with being tied to him.
The consequences of his very public conversation with Christina – come to think of it, there weren't many less public areas he could have done it - rolled around his head as he paced up and down the pool. His coach scolded him throughout for not concentrating but he couldn't help it, he was preoccupied. He had to find a way to spend more time with Christina without dragging her further into the twisted social politics he and his friends lived in.
Halfway through his cool down, it came to him and it was all he could do not to race through the last few lengths so he could catch Christina up.