Break In My Heart

30. Take Me Back

Tyler's leg nervously bounced against mine in the silent car.

My hair was still a bit damp from the shower I'd taken when Ty and I were finally able to break away from the groups of people congratulating us.

My fathers were driving us back home to have a celebratory dinner for our win and for us coming out. Though my fathers had been fairly normal when they'd approached Tyler and I after the game, I knew that once we were home, an avalanche of questions would fall down on him from both my dads and my sister. He was obviously feeling the pressure as shown by his hyperactive leg. Luckily, we were in the third row of my Papa's three row SUV so we had privacy, however, I kept catching my fathers' eyes glancing back at us every now and then through the rear view mirror.

I put my hand on his leg and used my thumb to gently stroke his knee. "Ty, relax," I said, my voice reduced to less than a whisper. "It's alright. You've been around my family before and my dads already like you, so do my siblings. Trust me, Ty, you have nothing to worry about."

"Yeah, well tell that to my heart. It's about to bust out of my chest and go on the run, man."

I softly scoffed as I took his hand in my own and kissed the back of his knuckles. He leaned his head over so it was resting on my shoulder. I pressed my cheek to the top of his head, allowing the feeling of Tyler's skin and the darkness that surrounded us to be enough to occupy me until we arrived back at my house.

Light quickly flooded into the car as we pulled into the parking garage of our building since my dads didn't like parking out on the street. "Alright everyone, up, up, up," Papa said with the clap of his hands after he'd parked.

"Come on you two," Azalea said as she gently nudged Emerson and Adryan, both of which had been occupied by whatever TV show they'd been watching on their tablets. She led them out though neither one of them lifted their heads from their screens.

"Aye, you two, badre (pay attention), huh?" Padre chastised as he pulled Adryan's headphones off of his head before he did the same to Emerson.

"Daddy!" he whined as Azalea let down the seats so Tyler and I could climb out.

"Adryan!" Padre mocked with a fake frown before he ruffled Adryan's hair, which everyone knew he hated more than anything.

"Alright lovebirds, hop out," Azalea lightly jabbed as she motioned for us to get out, and since my fathers were too distracted with the little ones, I was stealthily able to flip her the bird not only on one hand, but both which she lovingly returned, going as far as to kiss her middle finger before raising it at me.

I scoffed. "Uh huh, keep that in mind when I finally get to interrogate Josh, and I'm going to get him good." I shuffled out of the car with Tyler hot on my heels.

"Oh yeah? Well luckily for me, I get Tyler now, so you better be careful around me tonight."

Tyler all but blushed as a nervous chuckle escaped his lips. "Don't worry, I'll be right here," I softly said so that only he could hear before I slid my hand into his, gave him a tight squeeze, then let my hand fall back to my side, not wanting to make him uncomfortable when he was already anxious around my family. I couldn't blame or fault him, though. If I were in his place I'd be doing the same thing.

The journey up to our apartment was usually fairly fast, but for some reason, today it felt extra long between the not-so-subtle way my dads were fan-girlling as they glanced at us, Tyler's nervousness, and the silent battle Azalea and I were partaking in with our only weapons being our glares and facial expressions. Though I knew that she was bluffing about going after Tyler, she was 100% going to come after me in the form of embarrassing stories. And to make matters worse, even when I finally got my hands on Josh, I wouldn't be able to do half of the damage Azalea could because our dads would stop me and remind me that I'm supposed to be the "bigger person", but the bigger person doesn't exist between siblings. I didn't settle. I got even.