Chapter 2

I wasn't happy about having to be out in the open wearing my Go Cougars!! shirt. It wasn't just because the Cougars have never won a single basketball game in a decade, but also because I was a firm believer of not using double exclamation marks. It was, however, the only shirt I had in the backseat of my car and it was better than walking around with a Coke-stained shirt sticking to my boobs.

Tori eyed the shirt as soon as I got out of Parker's comfort room. "Isn't it too late for you to show your school spirit?"

 "Oh, I'm not wearing this for our basketball team, Tor. I'm supporting the exploitation of men by women who are twice their age," I replied, balling my Arctic Monkeys shirt into a sad heap of Coke-stained cloth.

"Age is just a number, what matter is that it's—"

"True love," I said with an eye-roll.

She frowned. "I was about to say not illegal."

I snorted. "When have you ever cared about the law? Underage drinking, driving without a license, destruction of private property. What else?"

"Destruction of public property? It was an accident."

"Right."

By the time we reached my car, I was still laughing as she tried to explain how destroying her neighbor's mailbox when she was out jogging was nothing but an accident. The details have never been clear to me as to how she managed to do it, but it was Tori, so I guess that was enough of an explanation.

"It's not my fault it was poorly constructed," she grumbled as I fumbled for the keys to unlock the car with one hand, my shirt bundled up in the other.

"At least they didn't press charges," I said.

"Oh, please." She waved a hand in a dismissive gesture. "I can get away with anything."

I couldn't actually argue with that. I heard the unmistakable click of the doors being unlocked as I turned the key. I tossed my purse on the backseat along with my shirt before climbing behind the steering wheel. I might have seen Tori wince at how I carelessly threw my purse away, but she didn't comment on it.

Once we were both seated, she threw her black hair over one shoulder and straightened in her seat. I recognized it as her Let's get this started gesture, so I wasn't surprised when she said, "So, first stop."

"You mean there are other stops?"

She shot me a look. "Yes, there are a lot of other stops. You don't expect to find true love without a challenge, do you?"

"I don't expect to find true love, period."

"Reed."

"Fine. Where to?"

"I heard Tyler Howard's holding a party."

My eyes snapped to hers at the mention of both Tyler freaking Howard and the word party. "You're kidding me, right? Please tell me you're joking."

She checked the clock on the dashboard before looking at me with an innocent smile. "Hurry up or we'll be late, babe."

If there was one thing I knew about Tori Matsunaga, it was that her innocent smile was always anything but that.

---

The party was in full blast when I parked somewhere along Tyler Howard's street. There were a lot of cars already, so we had to park a few lots away. I could still feel the bass thumping from where we stood, despite the relatively far distance from here to Tyler's house.

I turned to Tori to give her another pleading look, but she was already walking ahead of me. I bit the insides of my cheeks, clamping my mouth shut, to keep myself from saying something against this little plan of hers.

And I had a lot to say.

I reluctantly trailed behind her, wondering if there was a way to make her see how bad this idea was. I checked my watch, surprised to see that it had only been an hour and a half since we left the comfort of my house. It was only just a few minutes past seven but I already felt exhausted from having to babysit my best friend.

Even though said best friend was practically dragging me into the lion's den.

Ever since the night of the graduation party, she had never stopped bugging me to about Tyler Howard. I could only guess that this was the reason why she chose to go here, of all places. I already told her, the morning after the grad party, that what happened between me and Tyler was nothing but a one-night stand.

Tyler and I really hadn't talked about it, but I was pretty sure there was an unspoken agreement between us about how it was just one of those one-time things to forget the morning after.

Tori, however, believed otherwise. "Tyler likes you for real," she insisted, half-screaming it to my face two weeks ago, to which I simply rolled my eyes and decided not to point out that if he did like me, he should be the one calling and that either way, the feeling wasn't mutual.

It's not that I didn't like him—sure, he was good-looking and funny—but it's just that if he really was looking for something more serious than a one-night stand, I wasn't the girl for him. He was the kind of guy who would have been good boyfriend material and I just wasn't looking for that.

As if Tori had been reading my thoughts, she came to an abrupt halt and turned to me, waiting for me to catch up. I quickened my pace until we were standing next to each other. "Have you tried talking to Tyler yet?"

We started walking side by side, almost in sync with each step. "Tori, how many times do I have to tell you that it was—"

"A traumatizing experience for Tyler?"

I gave her a flat stare. "Did you just insult my—"

"I'm not talking about the sex part," she said, "I'm talking about the leaving before he woke up part. And still not talking to him after, what, two weeks?"

"I told you." I heaved an exasperated sigh. "It was a one-time thing. He hasn't exactly tried to talk to me either."

"Only because he thinks you're not interested."

"And I'm not."

She stopped walking to face me completely. "Why not? He's sweet and gorgeous and he makes you laugh. I can't even make you laugh!"

"Uh, yes, you can." I pulled her with me as I continued to walk forward. "So if we're going by those standards, then you can be my soulmate, Tor."

"I appreciate the compliment," she said with a small huff, "but Tyler."

"Is sweet and gorgeous and hilarious, while I'm prickly and snarky and not at all looking for a relationship." Sending her a sideways glance, I hoped she could finally just drop the topic and see things the way I did.

There were around ten people standing on the front lawn when we got to Tyler's. I heard someone heaving to my right and felt a momentary pang of pity for the rose bushes. I was pretty sure some guy was peeing on the tree next to the bushes. I quickly looked away, thankful for the lack of light out here.

"Tori."

She turned to me. "What?"

"Do we really have to?" I gave her my best Let's not do this look, but she merely let out a frustrated grunt, grabbing my lower arm to pull me right inside the house with her.

She successfully led us through the throng of people in varying degrees of sobriety, unfazed by the amounts of sweaty bodies blocking our way. I noticed that at least half the faces in the living room were unfamiliar and I wondered, briefly, how they managed to invite themselves in. The people I do recognize from school were thankfully too busy to pay me a glance and notice my Go Cougars!! shirt.

I heard some people chanting Chug! Chug! Chug! from what seemed like the dining room, so I was glad when she steered us away from the general direction of the drinking game and we ended up in the kitchen instead, where there were considerably less people hanging around.

"There's Tyler."

I was unprepared for the slight shove she'd given me, so I nearly stumbled and tripped on my feet. Luckily, I gripped the edge of the counter before I had a chance to kiss the floor. When I looked up to glare at Tori, there was a sheepish look on her face.

"Uh, sorry?" she half-yelled over the music.

"You're—"

"Reed?"

I froze, hearing Tyler's familiar voice. Pursing my lips together, I looked to my right to see Tyler Howard standing in front of me, his face caught between a puzzled look and a smile. At least he looked pleasantly surprised.

Of course, that was the moment my brain reminded me that the last time I'd seen Tyler, we were in his bedroom.

"Hey," I said and forced a smile.

"Hey." He offered me a smile that was more genuine than mine before shifting his focus on Tori. "Konnichiwa, Matsunaga-san."

"It should be Konbanwa," she told him but she reached out to hug him anyway.

A lot of times I'd been jealous at how easy Tori interacted with others. While she could easily hug Tyler Howard like it was nothing out of this world, I couldn't even give arrange my face into a sincere smile. She made social interactions look so easy.

Then again, she wasn't the one who had a one-night stand with him, but still.

"I think I just saw Jesse over there," Tori said as soon as she pulled away from the hug. I felt my heart drop to my stomach as I looked at her. I came to the realization that this is what she'd been planning all along. I shot her a look of warning, but she made sure not to look at me. "I'll leave Reed to you, Ty!"

Before I could even react, she was already walking away, leaving me alone with Tyler.

I counted to three in my head, trying to remove the scowl in my face as I thought of reasons to convince myself not to kill Tori. At the moment, there weren't a lot. When I was pretty sure I didn't have the expression of a person planning her best friend's assassination, I looked up at Tyler.

"You're not drinking?" he asked me, leaning closer a bit so he didn't have to shout over the music.

"I'll take a beer."

If anybody asked me what Tyler and I were, I wouldn't know the answer. All I knew was that he was always just kind of around. I was that girl who mostly kept to herself and Tyler was that guy everybody knew. Even Mr. Litachsky, the school janitor with the ever-present look of disdain who had a blatant hatred for teenagers because we "litter everywhere," would smile when Tyler joked around with him.

Our interactions at school mostly consisted of small talk when we were in line in the cafeteria, or when we just had a quiz on one of the subjects we had together, or the occasional moments when we'd bump into each other. We didn't really know each other well, but our conversations had always been amusing and not at all awkward. How we progressed from having small talk to hooking up at the graduation party was one of those things that just happened. I never really let myself dwell too much on the details, and I was hoping we shared the same outlook.

Thankfully, he managed to get two kegs for the night, so we didn't have to go to the dining room to get some beer. I really didn't want to get caught in the middle of a drinking game. Instead, we made our way to the backyard. There were a lot of people here too and I wondered for a moment just how man were invited to come. I noticed him eyeing the swimming pool, like he was looking for anyone who broke the unspoken no-jumping-in-the-pool rule.

"How's your summer so far?" He filled a plastic cup with beer and handed it to me.

"Same old." I brought the plastic cup to my lips, taking a tentative sip. "What about you?"

He laughed, shaking his head. "Well, my mom signed me up for this—uhh, please don't laugh—cooking class and so far, I haven't burned the place down, so I guess I'm doing all right."

I nearly spluttered my drink out. "Cooking class?"

"Hey." He placed a hand over his chest, his face contorting into an exaggerated expression of hurt. "I'll have you know I'm pretty good at it. And the ladies love it." He winked.

Laughing, I raised an eyebrow and gave him a thoroughly impressed look. "Glad to hear you haven't poisoned anyone yet."

"You wound me, Madam!" he cried. "You wound me deeply."

I shook my head. "It was a compliment."

"How about I cook you some dinner?" He shifted and moved so that we were face to face. There was a hesitant smile on his face, replacing his usual mask of confidence. "I might even cook your favorite dish. You and me. What do you say?"

I could almost hear Tori saying I told you so. "Tyler, that sounds..."

He must have heard the uncertainty in my voice. His smile dissipated, sensing the rejection, and I clamped my mouth shut as I watched his shoulder slump.

I took a deep breath and forced myself to say something, but I couldn't think of the right words. Telling Tori was one thing. She knew me and was prone to my pessimism and overall hate for anything romantic. Telling Tyler, however, was another story altogether. I didn't want him to think I had anything against him, because I really didn't, but it was hard to say that without somehow hurting him even just the slightest bit.

"What happened two weeks ago," he said. He dropped his gaze, focusing instead on the grass we were standing on. "Was it—uhh—just a one-time thing to you? I'm not asking for us to do it again. I mean, sure that sounds great and all, since you're really—wait, what? I mean"—he groaned, reaching over his shoulder to rub the back of his neck with one hand—"Maybe you'd like to hang out sometime. Because I do."

Times like this, I really wanted to fucking kill Tori, though this wasn't Tori's fault at all. This was all me. If I hadn't dealt with my parents' divorce the way I did, maybe I wouldn't be so against the idea of forming long-time relationships. Maybe I would have given this thing with Tyler a chance.

And I wanted to, if only to say that I at least tried, but I knew it wasn't going to work in the long run. I just didn't have it in me.

I opened my mouth to reply, though I still haven't exactly formulated the words in my head, when I suddenly spotted something move in my peripheral vision. I looked away from Tyler just in time to see a figure cannonball into the pool, fully clothed, with a splash that made me step away instinctively. (Getting my shirt soaked once was enough, thank you very much.)

"Oh, shit," Tyler said, turning to the pool, but there was nothing he could have done for the five other people jumping in unison. "I'm going to fucking kill Noah. Reed, wait a sec, I'll just, uhh..."

"Go," I told him, wishing my relief for the distraction wasn't as obvious as I felt it was.

As soon as he turned away, I immediately made my escape, determined to find Tori. I turned, all too quickly, and bumped into some guy.

"Fuck, I'm sorry," I immediately said, my eyes trained on a surprisingly familiar shirt, except now my beer was dripping all over it. When I looked up in horror, I found myself staring at Coke Guy. "You."

He was still busy looking down at the damage I'd done and when he looked up to meet my gaze, his anger shifted into a look of surprise and recognition. Which then shifted into an intensified look of anger.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" he said as he continued to glare at me.

The irony of the situation almost made me laugh. "I—I didn't—"

"At least I didn't do it on purpose," he said.

My mouth dropped open. If I felt sorry for ruining his shirt five seconds ago, I wasn't anymore. "I didn't do it on purpose, Dickhead."

"Right. Why do I find that hard to believe?"

"Maybe because you—"

I was cut off when a figure suddenly stumbled between us, startling me so much I almost fell back. The figure staggered and I realized, vaguely, that it was some guy from school. When I looked to my right, I saw some guy who was definitely not from school walking closer to the first guy, eyes dead serious.

Vaguely, I registered some people repeatedly shouting "Fight!" and realized I was caught in the middle of what would be a bloody battle over somebody's girlfriend or another. When the first punch was thrown, all thoughts of Coke Guy evaporated as I sprinted away to get to safety, trying to navigate my way through the crowd of people eager to witness the fight.

This was exactly why I knew going to this party was a bad idea. While I didn't want to leave Tyler hanging, I also didn't want to somehow end up hurting him. And knowing Coke Guy was in the vicinity as well didn't exactly make the whole situation better.

I managed to reach the living room unscathed, although I might have elbowed a few people along the way, and tried to scan the crowd for Tori.

There were times when I hated the fact that she was short. It was so hard to see her in a sea of people. I spotted her by the makeshift bar, talking to the guy to her right. I couldn't see who the guy was since he had his back turned to me, but I figured it must have been Jesse. I pushed past more people to reach Tori.

Her eyes caught me struggling to squeeze past two tall guys who seemed to be high on something and she immediately grinned.

"There she is!" I heard her say and the guy shifted to look, just in time to see me successfully maneuver my way around the guys.

My heart dropped to my stomach when I saw who she was talking to.

"Tori," I said, trying to feign a smile.

"Reed, remember him?" She pointed at Coke Guy's friend, smiling so much that I could almost hear her say Soulmate!! With two exclamation marks.

"Hi. I'm Lewis," he said with a smile that practically mirrored Tori's. "We met earlier? I, uhh, we're really sorry. My cousin didn't—"

Then a tall guy suddenly appeared from the crowd, extricating himself from some girl trying to drape herself all over him.

"Lewis," he said, "you won't believe who I just ran into. Remember that bitch from—" Coke Guy cut himself off when he looked up to see the lovely reunion taking place. His eyes flitted over his friend, then at Tori, and then at me. "You."

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A/N: 

*Konnichiwa is usually said as a greeting during the afternoon while konbanwa  is for the evening.

Hi guys! So, this is the second chapter. :) I kind of think Tyler is adorable, but hey, what do I know? Thanks so much for reading 

Sam xoxo