What if he turns around and leaves the second he sees I'm here? He wouldn't do that! At least, I don't think he would...

     Then again, I also thought he'd believe me when I tried to explain...

     Ugh, okay. What do I do?! Turn around and hope he doesn't realize it's me? But clearly the jogging attire and blonde hair would give it away. Okay wait, this is Clairview. Everyone's blonde and pretty much everyone jogs. Right.

     I pivoted in the sand and sat myself back down, straining my ears behind me. Would he drive away? Would he move to the other end of the beach? Would he just flat out ignore me?

     "Get a grip Madison!" I thought. It was Tyler, one of my best friends...or maybe a recent ex-best friend. But that I could fix. I hoped.

     I was shocked out of my thoughts when I heard a car door close - hard. I didn't dare look around, but I desperately wanted to know if it was Tyler. Before I had a chance to risk it though, I heard running footsteps. He was running to me! I knew it! I knew he'd forgive me!

     I was about to turn around and say something when he jogged in the other direction, off towards the water, his expression tight and his eyes distantly focused on the waves. He wasn't even in a wetsuit today, he was just wearing a customary bathing suit, which was weird. But the combination of seeing his exquisite, bare upper body and the fact that he'd totally just run away without so much as a hello caught my words in my throat. I felt like a fish out of water, my mouth hanging open with my lips poised to say words that just wouldn't come.

   He didn't see you, the little voice in my head squeaked reassuringly. Sure, because you know this beach is positively hopping with people, I thought sarcastically, peering around towards the only other people at the beach at this hour: a lady tossing a stick into the water for her dog and the last few lifeguards joking around near one of the towers. And Tyler.

     So now what? Do I wait half an hour for him to stop surfing, sitting here like an idiot? And what if he decides to ignore me again on the way back to his car? But if I leave now, he'll think I don't have anything to say and that I really do want to go out with Will! Agh!

     Pulling my knees to my chin, I watched Tyler and realized there was something a little off about his surfing. I couldn't quite pin it, but he seemed to be cutting his board around quite viciously, which only made him lose his waves faster. His paddling was quite vigorous too. Whatever, he was probably just practicing for Friday or something.

     I was about to get up to leave when he just sank down onto his board and sat there motionless, just drifting. My eyebrows came together when out of nowhere, he viciously smacked his board and started padding aggressively once more. That's it, I thought, the next time he's down, you're running down there and talking to him. Shouting's more like it, if I wanted him to hear me, but the conversation needed to be had.

     He was down pretty fast again and this time he just floated there again, leaning on his board. I desperately tried to summon my courage but my butt seemed permanently welded in place. Instead of relief, I felt a sense of foreboding when he started paddling back towards the shore, hopping up to ride his board slowly through the wave until it came crashing down.

     Sure enough, he emerged from the water, board in hand, with his face turned towards his feet and his free hand absently massaging his neck. I jumped to my feet, not even bothering to wipe the sand off my butt. Despite the pit of dread in my stomach, I knew I had to talk to him. I had to set this right.

     "Tyler!" I called. We were still a good distance apart since he had barely cleared the tide line, but he looked up, surprised as if he was just seeing me for the first time. But instead of saying anything, he simply stopped walking. For a heart stopping moment, I thought he was going to turn around and run back into the water, away from me. Determined not to let that happen, I ran up to him barefoot.

     "I've been trying to reach you all afternoon!" I said, a little out of breath because I'd sprinted. The entire time he'd watched me with a peculiar expression on his face.

     "Why?" he asked. I was stunned. I thought it was pretty obvious...

     "Because I-" I began. But he cut me off.

     "Because you wanted to rub it in just a little more that you're going to rich boy Will's polo dinner? Right, you have fun with that. I'm sure you two will have a blast," he said, his expression suddenly icily aggressive as me made to walk by me.

     "Are you even going to listen to me?" I demanded, my voice cracking despite my best efforts to maintain my composure. I hadn't expected him to be so harsh, nor had I expected the faint prickling I felt beneath my eyelids. Tyler stopped when he was just level with me, looking down with raised eyebrows.

     "What, did I miss a detail or something? Something else to tell me?" he demanded. My insides seized up and I couldn't help what I said next.

    "I'd thought Will was the biggest asshole I've ever met, but now that I've seen this side of you I'm not so sure anymore!" I snarled. My eyes felt hot and I was blinking furiously to keep the tears at bay.

     "So is that all you had to say?" Tyler snorted, "You think I'm a bigger jerk than that loser you're now dating? Fine, I-"

    "Stop! Just stop, okay?" I pleaded, "You know I didn't mean that!"

     "Do I, Madison?" Tyler demanded, "Do I even know you anymore? You're just like them, chasing after whatever rich guy will have you, it's pathetic!" 

     I couldn't help it as the tears started falling from my eyes. How could he be so brutal and so stubborn?

     "I came to apologize!" I practically shouted, "I came to try to explain that I never meant for any of this to happen! You know I hate Will and you know he's been chasing me forever, so did you even stop to think that maybe this wasn't my doing at all? Do you really think I'd want to go out with a creep like him?" I stopped for breath, my tears having escalated to full-blown crying, "I'm beginning to think I shouldn't have tried to set things right at all, especially if that's what you think of me! And you know what? I'm not even sure I'm that sorry after all, you big jerk!"

    And with that, I turned on my heel and fled. I felt like an idiot, a big blubbering idiot. I mean, I cried in front of him! God, I just wanted to crawl into a big hole to die instead of feel this way.

     Aw crap, I'd forgotten my shoes.

    "Hey! Madison! Maddie, wait!"

     I didn't stop, shoeless or not. I couldn't handle whatever other verbal daggers he had for me. I'd heard enough.

     "Maddie, please-"

     I whipped around as I felt Tyler's hand on my shoulder.

     "No! You do not get to yell at me again! I've had enough of this crap for one day! " I shouted, my voice cracking as tears flowed in earnest down my face. I turned around to leave again, but Tyler held on to my forearm like I'd caught his at school.

     "Maddie I didn't know!" he said, his voice so much gentler now, "Please, I'm sorry! I should never have said those things. I should have believed you, I just...he made it sound..." He ended with a growl of frustration, letting me go to run a frustrated hand through his hair.

 We looked at each other in silence before he pulled me to him and hugged me.

     "I'm so sorry Maddie," he said, "I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. I just thought...I guess Will just had me convinced that you were the one who instigated the whole thing,"

     "But you know I wouldn't do something like that!" I protested with a shuddering sob sigh.

     "I know. It just...hit home. I didn't know what to think," he released me and held my shoulders as he looked down into my eyes, asking simply "Forgive?"

     "Forget?" I asked in return. He nodded and I gave him a big hug, forcing my breathing back to normal as I inhaled the salty sea smell that always reminded me of him.

     "I'm giving you a lift home," Tyler said after he'd jogged back to get his board and my shoes for me.

     "It's fine, I'll walk," I said, "I need the exercise,"

     "Oh shut up. If you need exercise I need gastric bypass," he laughed as I smiled, "Besides, I owe you a coffee and you have no excuse not to get one with me," he said, opening the passenger door for me after stowing his board on the roof. 

     I bit my lip. I didn't want to get coffee if I was all pink and puffy. I mean, this wasn't a horrible, gut-wrenching-sobs cry that normally left me pink-eyed and swollen-faced, it was more of an 'that-was-mean-and-now-I'm-gonna-cry' cry, but there was always the off-chance I looked horrible. And in Clairview, you can't afford to look horrible, even if you're just going to Starbucks.

    "Your eyes aren't pink and you look like a million bucks, as always," Tyler said, as if reading my mind, "Now get in!" I smiled despite myself and climbed in. He knew me so well.

   "So, Starbucks or Clairview Beanery?" he asked as he pulled on a shirt (much to my dismay) and started the car. The Beanery was a small little cafe that imported exotic coffee beans from all over and a small, quiet place was just what I felt I needed.

     "Beanery," I replied as we sped towards town

                                                                       ***********************

     After we'd had our coffee (which was exactly what I needed) and joked around a bit at the Beanery, Tyler drove me home. Without a second's hesitation, he'd agreed to follow through with my "master plan": I'd talk to Will tonight and tell him I had plans with Tyler for Saturday, I'd just forgotten them. Tyler would then stick to the story that we were supposed to go to the Angry Kettle (cute little fish and chips place across from the beach) together. It was perfect.

     The sun had set and the crickets were chirping all around us as we purred down the driveway. I was in yet another moment of bliss, until I saw that stupid silver car in the driveway.

     "Shit," I swore under my breath. Tyler had seen it too and gone mute.

      "Stop the car," I said, my voice quiet and angry. Tyler complied and we stopped just shy of the driveway's circle in front of my house.

     "Well, you'd said you were going to tell him tonight, here's your big chance," Tyler offered, glaring at Will's Audi S5 parked next to my own Audi.

     "Why the hell is he even here?" I demanded, groaning through my teeth in frustration.

    "Did he even try to call you before he came over?" Tyler asked. I groaned in earnest this time.

     "I left my phone in my room," I moaned, slamming my head down onto his dashboard, "Knowing my luck he did try to call before he came, I just wasn't around to intercept it,"

     Tyler reached over to pat me on the back, silent as I gnashed my teeth like an angry animal.

     "Come inside with me," I said finally, grabbing onto his hand as an idea suddenly formed in my head. Tyler shot a wary look from me to the S5, inhaling. 

     "Do you think it'll work?" he asked.

     "It's the best I've got right now," I shrugged, "Please?"

     He blew out his cheeks, glancing down to check the time on his phone.

     "Okay, let's do this thing," he said, easing his car forward to park beside the door.

     I slid out of the passenger side seat, devising something to say in case my arrival with Tyler wasn't enough to shut Will up and get him out of my house. When he came around towards the door with me, I grabbed his hand, inhaling to steel myself as we walked up the steps together. My hand was halfway to the doorknob when the front door swung open in front of me, my hand outstretched into empty space.

     Brett was staring at the two of us, his brows knit in a frown.

    "You know who's inside charming the pants of mom and dad, right?" he asked, apparently fairly nonplussed about the whole situation.

     "Why do you think I brought reinforcements?" I asked, grabbing onto Tyler's hand as if my life depended on it.

     "Now that is a very bad idea," he said, meeting Tyler square in the eye, "You sure you want to get in the middle of this?"

     "Short of you two hauling that pompous jackass out by his gelled hair, I don't see any other options!" I snarled, cutting off whatever Tyler was about to say.

     "Do you even know why Will's here right now?" Brett asked, slipping out to shut the door behind him.

     "Do I even give a damn? If I'd known he was planning on ambushing me then I wouldn't even have come home!" I snapped. Brett sighed.

     "He just invited mom and dad to the polo gala on Saturday," Brett said, watching me as if I might explode. And explode I did, a string of expletives that could make a sailor blush tumbling from my lips as I shoved past my brother into the house.

     If there was one thing that could seal my fate for Saturday, it was an invite for my parents from the ever-so-exclusive Dawson family.  And if Brett was telling the truth, I was in a lot deeper than I'd thought.