12 am { ON HOLD }

Ch. 13

❝it wasn't attraction i felt, but a connection that ran deep like she'd plugged into a socket in my brain and we were both lit up from the same energy source. i would've done anything for her❞ ― vikki wakefield

After driving Emily away from the school for the second time in the past two months, Tyler took her to a beach only half an hour away from their neighbourhood. Neither had said a word, and neither really had to as they sat in the pickup truck and stared out at the beautiful ocean in front of them, more endless and wonderful and infinite than they could ever wish to be.

It wasn’t until Tyler decided it was time to head back a couple of hours later that he realised the girl beside him had fallen asleep, arms wrapped loosely around her legs which she had previously brought up to hug to her chest, her body leant slightly against the side of the truck door with her cheek against her knees and the side of her head pressed to the window.

She was so deep under the unconscious dream land that she didn’t stir a single bit as Tyler couldn’t help but stare at her, noted how her eyelashes brushed her cheekbones and the way her lips were parted slightly, not stirring a single bit despite the fact that a bit of sun had managed to seep through the leaves of the trees Tyler had parked under and was lighting up half her face in such a way that it made her look just the more delicate and wonderful – ethereal almost.

And, no matter how long a person stared, they could never tell that she was going through her own hell, could never tell she had previously experienced a panic attack barely two hours ago and cried so much she couldn’t breathe. But then again, nobody ever saw these kind of things; nobody ever cared enough to look.

Yet the longer Tyler stared at the unconscious girl beside him, vulnerable and sweet as ever, he couldn’t help but note just how beautiful she really was; despite her sadness, despite her flaws, and despite all those things that people always shied away from due to fear. And for the longest moment he realised that this was the real Emily Smith who wasn’t hiding behind books or sarcasm for once, who wasn’t using anger or the alcohol in her system as an excuse to why she was acting a certain way or saying things for a certain reason – she was just the girl he had once been best friends with, had loved in a way only a best friend really could, which, for a stabbing moment into the jolt of reality, he really did regret ever turning his back on this girl.

And he had never regretted a single thing in his whole 18 years of existence.

He could have sat there all day just staring at Emily sleeping soundlessly, regardless of how creepy and weird that undoubtedly was to any onlookers, but eventually he knew he couldn’t keep doing it, he knew he had to let her brother know of her whereabouts considering – annoyingly – her phone had been vibrating in her bag nonstop for the past ten minutes. So, after a few more minutes of listening to the annoying sound of it buzzing, Tyler finally pulled her phone out of her bag and got out of the pickup truck as quietly and carefully as he could, barely even closing the door before he walked a few steps away from the car and, for a moment, just stared at the still-vibrating phone in his hand that continued to light up with Nathan’s name and a photo of him and his little sister pulling childish faces at the camera – a kind of happiness radiating in Emily’s face that only her brother could make happen.

“Hello?” Tyler answered after a few heartbeats of staring and recouping himself.

“Jesus, Emily, finally! Where the hell are you the school called me an hour ago that you’d left how could you do that without letting me know why are you-” and just as fast as the rushed words tumbled out in one breath they stopped just as quick as he seemed to realise that the person who had greeted him didn’t have the voice of his sister’s. “What-who is this?” Nathan spluttered in confusion, Tyler letting out a soft sigh as he readied to explain things.