Hideaway

Chapter |22|

He caught my surprised gaze and answered my unasked question,"My family, or specifically my grandparents are of ancient beliefs. They believe in an early marriage," he said.

"So you mean that-"

"-they think that I can find a bride here," he finished for me.

I gaped at him. "How old are you?"

"Eighteen in two days," he replied.

"Woah!"

He sighed as he looked up at the sky. I honestly felt bad for him. Forced marriage was one of the things I didn't like at all.

"By the way, I'm Tyler," he said, extending his hand.

"Sk-Penny," I caught myself before I uttered my real name and shook his hand.

"Nice to meet you, Skylar," he said and my head snapped my head towards him, jaw hanging.

"H-How-What?"

My blue eyes met his cool green ones that held amusement in them. "Don't worry. I'm the only one who knows. I saw you with Andrew when you went to change,"he said and my eyes widened.

"Please don't tell anyone," I nearly pleaded. How many more were going to know this secret now?

He chuckled. "It's okay. Though I can understand why you don't want to associate yourself with Alicia," he spoke and my jaw dropped once again.

I narrowed my eyes at him.

Seeing my expression, he laughed again. Raising his hands in surrender, he spoke,"I'm a very observant person."

"Oh yeah, what else have you observed?"

"Well, Alicia cannot bear anyone crawling over her in the food chain, Eddy has a habit of picking his nose, Lacey doesn't like her boyfriend but likes to show him off, Andrew genuinely likes you-not in the crush way, though, Dave thinks no one notices him when he tries to cheat and..."

"Woah woah stop. How do you know all of this? And what do you mean by Lacey not liking her boyfriend?" I asked, pretty much flabbergasted by his observations.

He shrugged. "If she genuinely loved him, she wouldn't be off relationship relations with other guys," he said and I gaped.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Haven't you seen her smooching with that orange haired guy, I think his name is Isaac or something," he said and I shook my head.

I was about to say something when a whistle blew. I furrowed my eyebrows and opened my mouth to say something when Tyler interrupted me.

"Okay. You need to run to the finish line. You'll win that way. If they ask you about the kidnapper, tell them that you broke free and ran away," he said, quickly getting up.

"You sure you don't want to earn points? I have a feeling that we could be great friends," I said, a bit hopeful that he'd stay.

He laughed. "I'm not going anywhere, anytime soon. My momma darling won't allow that," he said, making me laugh.

"Okay, then. We'll hang out sometime?" I offered.