Explosive

Chapter 4

"Hey, anyone up for a game of two touch?" Tyler suggested with wide eyes and an excited smile.

"Oh my God, you guys still play that?" Tori asked, surprised.

"Of course!" Jamie and Tyler said in unison. "Is that even a question?"

"Oh, I was always so much better at that than you were."

"Is that a challenge?" Seguin asked, raising an eyebrow.

"If you want to think of it that way, then sure. It's not much of a challenge for me." Tori bragged.

"Ah, but I've had so much more practice, and I assume you haven't played it for what, more than 5 years?" Tyler lightheartedly taunted.

"It's on, Seguin! I'm glad we have Jamie, he can be our impartial judge on who's better." Tori teased, lightly punching his arm with a smile. She had to avoid squeezing his tattooed biceps.

"Oh, Jamie's not impartial. He'll vote for me any day. We might have to get Jordie over here." Tyler laughed with a smile.

"No, we can settle this ourselves. Marshall and Cash can referee us, but we've gotta eat first. I didn't get all this out for nothing, I'm starving." Jamie answered, knowing that Jordie was most likely taking a nap and didn't want to be disturbed.

After they had brunch and Tori almost ate more than Tyler and Jamie combined, they were ready for a game of two touch. It was a strange interpretation of soccer, having a fairly large group of people stand in a circle and keep the ball off the ground for as long as possible. Boy, does it get competitive.

Tyler went to go get the soccer ball, which got Marshall and Cash excited. They sprinted out the door, running around in circles on the lawn waiting for Tyler. The dogs provided an extra level of competitiveness to the game, and it wasn't long before Marshall knocked Jamie off balance, Cash grabbed the soccer ball out of midair and they all ended up laying together in the grass.

They sat there for a long time, watching the clouds roll gently past under the huge blue Texas sky. They called out the shapes of them every once in a while, and Tori's hand eventually found itself entangled in Tyler's hand. The dogs sat between the three of them, already completely worn out, and the time they spent there on the lawn together was calming and cleansing for everyone.

Not surprisingly, they were all on the same afternoon nap schedule, so Tyler made dinner reservations and they all kind of died for a couple of hours before they had to leave for dinner. Later that evening, when Tori was upstairs in the shower, Jamie was wandering around Tyler's house in search for a snack. Tyler heard Jamie softly padding on the hardwood floor and woke up, making his way to the kitchen as well.

Tyler poured himself a glass of lemonade and sat at the kitchen island, quickly stealing some pretzels from the bowl Jamie had poured for himself. Jamie sat down at the island next to Tyler, and he stuck up a conversation.

"Tyler, do you understand how awesome Tori is? She's a really spectacular girl and you're lucky to have her."

"I know, she's always been there for me ever since we were 6. I'm lucky to have the both of you, actually."

"Tell me how you met her." Jamie said, trying to hide a smile.

"Again, we were 6. It was the summer after kindergarten in our hometown in Canada, and we were both playing in the park. She was on the swing set and I was digging a hole in the dirt with my bro friends when she launched herself off the swing set and rolled through our work space! I was seriously pissed off at her, so in my fit of rage I told her to go lick the swing set and hopes she got sick. I was a terrible child. Anyway, she came right up to me and looked me in the eyes and said so determinedly "FINE!", went over to the swing set and licked it. I was so impressed and shocked that I invited her to help me dig the hole, and we've been friends ever since."

"You're kidding me, right?"

"Not at all!" She answered, coming down the stairs and into the kitchen with a towel in her hand, drying her hair. "I was throwing up for days because I licked the swing set, but his mom brought him to my house so he could apologize and make me feel better. We played with my GI Joe figures and My Little Ponies and the rest is history. Though, for the record, I have punched him in the face before. He deserved it, though. But yes, our friendship is not perfect, but it's incredibly strong because Tyler and I are stubborn to a fault, and that's what matters." She finished, leaning against the counter top and taking some pretzels too.

"Okay, now you have piqued my interest. Why did you punch him?" Jamie smirked, knowing it was about to get good. Tyler blushed and got slightly uncomfortable, hesitant to tell the story.

"Freshman year." Tori began. Tyler groaned in response. "We were just awkward kids back then. But we went to our very first homecoming dance together, it wasn't kind of just a given. He didn't ask me or anything, we just knew we would go together. But at the dance, I found out that he actually did ask Reagan Von Houser, the most popular girl in our grade. She said no, but he was hitting on her all night. He sort of forgot about me, so I sat in the cafeteria booth eating pizza all alone for most of the dance. His mom drove me home, and he walked me to my door. Mind you, I was in tears. So I explained myself, then punched him in the face and went inside. It wasn't a very good dance experience."

"Tyler, please tell me you fixed this somehow."

"Yeah, of course! Junior year. We went to prom together, I asked her and everything. It was our first official date, but the couple thing didn't last long after that. Anyway, she looked beautiful and I hadn't figured out what to do with my hair yet, so I wouldn't suggest looking at the pictures. Besides that, we had a great time and I kissed her on her front porch. It was the only one I've gotten from her, but it completely knocks the others from other girls out of the ballpark. It was the best."

"Tyler, I meant if you apologized! But that's good too, I guess."

"He did apologize. I was pissed for an entire month, didn't talk to him at all, but then he finally got the message and apologized."

"I had a black eye for a month!"

"Good." Jamie and Tori said in unison before giggling lightheartedly. They went to dinner together when they were all ready later that night. The next morning, she had the swim meet she came down to Dallas for.

But Jamie kept thinking about their story from earlier in the day. He realized that Tyler and Tori have something he and Tyler don't: they have an entire lifetime of history.

They went through all their awkward years together, they had their highs and lows, and experiences Jamie never had with Tyler. That was what clued Jamie in to understanding why things were so different between them. Tori and Tyler knew each other on the playground; Jamie felt that a lifelong childhood friend could never compare to him.

He found himself comparing Tori with himself in an attempt to figure out why things were different, but he seemed to be the only one who cared about any of it and felt silly for it. Jamie was pretty sure that Tyler never gave any of it a second fleeting thought, and neither did Tori. She had nothing to worry about and was just so happy that she was reunited with Tyler.

So Jamie tried to promise himself that he just wouldn't think about it anymore, which did not end well. That was not the right call for him to make, but that only effected him since the only place this conflict had ever existed was in his head. He never spoke about it to Tyler or Tori, so he thought that if he was the only one who was hurt, that minimized the damage for everyone else.

He knew that he only had to get through these few days with Tori around, but she wasn't the problem and he realized he shouldn't blame her. It was just everything else that followed it; all the emotions and how that would change Tyler and Jamie's relationship in the long run. But Jamie had some time to think about it, and had some space to deal with it.

This weekend, Jamie was out of the picture.

Tyler was completely focused, with everything devoted to and locked on Tori anyway.