Broken

| 17 | Exposed pt. 2

Last chapter ran a little long, so here is part two!!

~*~

I feel my bones begin to tense until he finally takes a seat next to me. Him and his shirtless glory. I can't look. I can not look. Damn it, why is it so hard not to look?!

"So, am I seeing things right or did you just stare at my abs?" he says with a small laugh, but my laugh is more nervous than ever.

"No, I wasn't staring." I tell him, trying desperately not to look directly at him. My eyes are dead set on the water as I try to avoid his gaze. My face is turning a bright shade of red, and that is the last thing I want him to see on me.

"Sure." he says as he nudges me with his arm and he furrows his eyebrows in the sexiest way he possibly could. Our skin touches and I feel my whole body light on fire. He has no idea the emotional trauma his simple sexiness is causing me.

Without hesitation he slides into the pool without making a single splash. I watch as he swims further into the pool away from me. I almost forgot that Haley was here too.

"He so likes you." she mutters under her breath as she looks at me with shock written all over her face.

"No he doesn't." I say as I shake my head. Tyler would never like a girl like me. He would like a girl like Emma. She is stick thin with this gorgeous blonde hair and stunning eyes that probably drag all the guys in. Either way, they all like her, and not me.

"How can you be so blind? Haven't you ever noticed that you're the only one he ever looks at in the room. He doesn't take his eyes off of you. He wanted to be alone with you in that car. He came and sat next to you at the pool. He caught you after the jump. When is it going to hit you that he may just like you back."

"There's more to it than that. He's just protecting me, that's it." I tell her and I feel the ache in my chest come back again.

"Protecting you from what?!" she exclaims and I feel my heart beat start picking up in my chest like you wouldn't believe.

"Nothing, ok? I didn't tell him anything. He just kind of... found out. I didn't want anyone to know, so now the two of us are kind of just stuck together. There's nothing there, I promise. It's more like he sees me as his sister." She has no idea how true that statement is.

"Why won't you just tell us?" she presses on, and I finally snap.

"Because I'm worried you won't look at me the same anymore!" She falls quiet and returns her gaze back to the pool.

"There is nothing that you could say or do that would stop our friendship, Grace. Nothing will make me change the way I look at you because in this case, you are my sister. We're too deep in this friendship for you to ever think otherwise." she tells me and at this moment I want to tell her. I want to feel a sense of release. I want to feel better about this whole messed up situation, but I don't say a word. I just can't. I want to so badly, but my mouth just won't pry open.

Tyler pops up out of the water right in front of me, and Haley and I both jump.

"Come in the water." he says as his eyes meet mine, but I shake my head no. "Why not?" he asks me and I still shake my head. Looking at him right now hurts me in ways I never thought pain could feel. Just when I thought I had felt it all before. The water droplets dripping from his dark brown hair that's all messed up and drenched from the water. His glistening skin that's more exposed than it's ever been.

"Tyler, I didn't dress for the pool. I plan on sleeping in these clothes. I'm not getting them wet with chlorine and God knows whatever else is in this thing."