Undeniable Chemistry

Chapter 37 | Football and Mishaps

I cut her off. "He's never been hard to love; I think I wanted him to be because I was scared, but I've always seen him. The real him." She smiles and says, "You'll be good for him." I nod, "I hope." She pauses and stares at me, almost as if she can see me, and everything I am. "He'll be good for you too, maybe he will bring out the light that's trying to shine behind the darkness."

I pull my sleeve down nervously and keep walking, my heart hammering in my chest.

When we go back to the hospital, I pass by Sloane's office to see if she's there but when I find out she's not, I follow Margie upstairs and to her room.

By the time I get to Tyler's room, he's fast asleep and my heart aches. He trying, so hard he's trying, can I say the same?

-

Friday's game arrived far too quickly for my liking. We were playing against Daniel's school and I was praying to God I wouldn't run into him. Dylan parked the car and Ali pulled in beside him. We got out and all linked arms before walking towards the field.

Cheerleaders were warming up, the football players were scattered around and the bleachers were full. "We should get snacks," I suggested and the other agreed. We walked to the vendor and waited behind a few others. "Bella?" I turn my head in the direction of the voice and my heart plummets. "Daniel, hi." He looks at me, then at Tyler's arm around my shoulder. "Didn't expect you to be here." I nod slowly, "Yeah uh, yeah." The others analyze our exchange pensively as Tyler's arm flexes when a girl, whom I presume to be Lilah, walks up to him and kisses him.

Tyler scoffs. "Hypocrite." He mutters but loud enough for Daniel to hear it. "Excuse you?" He steps forward, Lilah's hand drops and she looks at me and Daniel, seemingly connecting the dots. "You heard me. I called you a f*cking hypocrite. You're out here with some new girl and all this time you've been sh*tting on Bella for nothing, because news flash a*shole, we never dated."

Tyler takes a step forward, easily towering over Daniel. "I suggest you shut the hell up before I break your other arm." Tyler swings at Daniel and he keels back before barreling but Ethan and Dylan stand by Tyler and stare him down, causing him to stop in his tracks. I go to Tyler and grab his arm, assessing the damages.

"Let's go, I'll clean this up, it's not worth it Ty." "No Bella I'm sick of this guy trying to make you look bad." "I did that on my own Ty. He's not fully wrong." Tyler looks at me and bows his head, letting me lead him to the inside of the school in search of a washroom.

We walked into the all-gender bathroom and I took a paper towel and started cleaning up his hand. I looked up and saw him staring at me. "What?" "Nothing, it's just, I thought you'd be angry at me or something." I sighed and looked up, "he deserved it and yes I'm not happy, you're still partly injured and what you did was a bad decision. What if he decided to retaliate?"

"I would've beat him up." "With what your non-dominant arm?" He sighed and mumbled out a half-hearted "sorry."

"All done," I said and stood up. Before I could walk away, he grabbed my wrist and looked me in the eye. "I need to say something." I cocked my head to the side, the atmosphere had changed and I could tell he was serious.

"What's wrong, are you okay? Does your arm hurt-"

"Bella! I'm fine it's just-" He sighed and balled his hands into a fist "Look I don't wanna give you some sappy speech about how wonderful you've made my life. How I still owned that coffee-stained shirt, how you're the first girl who has ever talked back to me, the first girl who saw me for me, or how you let me see that life could be fine in the colour grey, and you made me okay again. I- I like you Bella and I'm not talking about friendship I mean something more than that."