The New Normal

Chapter Sixteen

When I got home, I collapsed onto my bed with a big sigh. After the pies, Tyler taught me how to bake a ginormous batch of carrot muffins, chocolate chip cookies, and then insisted we put together some sandwiches as well as wrap them up individually so we could sell them for tomorrow. It was long and tiring and we didn't finish until ten thirty. But I couldn't complain, I wanted to keep busy and that's exactly what I did.

Not even bothering to take off my clothes that were covered in flour, batter, and who knows what else, I stayed in my bed and fell asleep instantly.

The next morning, I woke up by the sun streaming in my room through my curtains in such a way, in hit my eyes directly and I felt blinded by it. I stretched out my arms and let a yawn as I pulled myself upwards. I looked down and realized that I was wearing the outfit I wore to work yesterday, sighing, I hopped off of my bed and went to my closet and found grabbed my skinny black sweatpants and a forest green crop top and my runners. I hastily put my outfit on, feeling too tired to go to school. At the thought of school, I stopped in my tracks. I didn't wake up by my alarm, so what time is it? Looking at my nightstand, my bright alarm clock beamed nine forty five a.m.

"Son of a monkey!" I whisper yelled to myself as I grabbed my phone and bag and charged down the stairs. I can't believe I was so tired last night that I forgot to set my alarm and now was incredibly late for school.

I flung open my front door and locked it as quickly as I could and began to dart down the street to get to the local bus stop. As I was running, a car behind me began to honk but I ignored it, focusing on my destination. The car must have gotten annoyed with my ignoring their honks because the driver swerved in front of me to stop me from running. The tanned window rolled down and I was greeted with a face of a girl, someone I had never met, with far too much makeup on. I crossed my arms and leaned on my right leg, placing all my weight on it. "Can I help you?"

"I-" She was about to answer and given by the look of annoyance on her face, it probably wasn't going to be a good one. However, a head popped behind her and Tyler looked me over, as if he was evaluating me. "Why are you late?"

The girl in the car, crossed her arms and huffed. Probably pissed that he was giving someone other than her attention. I studied her demeanor and realized it was Imogen Clarke. A girl who had quite the reputation with the boys at Sacred Heart.

Deciding I wanted to play on her annoyance, I shot Tyler a flirtatious look and smiled slyly. "Well, you did tire me out last night. Gosh, I was so exhausted from last night I could barely get my legs to work this morning."

Imogen visibly reddened out of anger and I could see she was clutching her arms so tightly I could see red marks under her long manicured nails. Tyler, on the other hands tightened his hands on his wheel, out of embarrassment or anger, I'll never know. But I found myself surprised when he said huskily, "Get in."

Too tired to argue, I opened the door and plopped down on the leather seats, which were cold on the small of my back that was exposed due to my crop top. Through the side mirror, I saw Imogen glaring at me and I found myself rolling my eyes at her attitude, I'm too tired to deal with her crap.

The car ride was silent and as a result, I dozed off a couple minutes after getting in. It wasn't until Imogen slammed her door shut when I awoke and bolted upwards. I fumbled to get my things and unbuckle my seat belt and when I opened the door, I tumbled out of the car still in a sleepy haze. A hand gripped my arm to keep me from smashing onto the ground and I looked up to see Tyler's grumpy face. "What is your problem this morning?"

"What is your problem with me?" I bit back, roughly removing my arm from his grip and crossing my arms. I studied his face and I saw he was struggling to find an answer. Not wanting to wait any longer for his response, I rolled my eyes yet again and turned to walk to the school.

Tyler pulled me back while Imogen tried to paw at his shoulder. He shrugged her off and grumbled for her to go inside. She didn't argue but she did make in known she was not happy by letting out a little huffy as she did so. I looked at Tyler staring at me and I felt myself get a little uneasy while he did. I rubbed my arms as I felt a chill run through me. I mentally kicked myself for not bringing a hoodie.

"Here," Tyler said with a red hoodie held outwards.

I arched a brow and let out an unfeminine snort. "I'm not wearing your flavour of the week's hoodie."

Tyler rolled his eyes and thrusted it forward again, this time looking agitated. "It's mine, put it on before you catch a cold."

"Fine," I huffed out, snatching the sweater from his hand aggressively. But as I put my bag down so I could grant Tyler's wish of putting on his hoodie, Tyler's group of friends came sauntering out of Seth's car.

Colson had a flirtatious grin and looked my up and down, making me suddenly want to cover up my slightly exposed stomach. "Looking good, J."

Turning red due to embarrassment, I didn't respond, not knowing how to. Tyler on the hand, smacked Colson on the back of the head, causing Seth and Ryan to chuckle, and walked over to me as I was bringing the hoodie over my head. It smelt like firewood and cinnamon. I thought it was a weird combo, but I found myself liking it. "This is why I told you to put the damn thing on."

He helped me finish putting it on by pulling it down roughly and fanning out the hair that was tucked in. I stayed still as he did this, like when he had tied the apron on for me when I was working with him yesterday. Instead, I just stared as he move my hair back into how it usually rests when down. His eyes were bright as the sun shone directly on them and I noticed flakes of both light green and forest green floating about in them. It was almost hypnotic.

"Are you done staring at me, sweetness?" Tyler mused with a lopsided grin.

I coughed awkwardly and nodded my head vigorously. Not waiting for him to come back at me with an unnecessary comment, I turned on my heels and walked towards the school as I called out, "You all should be ashamed of yourselves, you missed first period!"

Turns out, I should have been ashamed of myself. Because I yelled at the boys while entering the school, the vice principal heard me and gave us all detention for being late without a note from our parents. We sat in the library, which was abandoned due to the end of the day bell going off about twenty minutes ago. The VP, Mr. Kooley, sat at the circular librarian desk and typed away on his laptop, not sparing us a second glance. Despite being strict on tardiness, Mr. Kooley was actually a pretty laid back guy, so detention with him wasn't so bad. We were allowed to wander around the library, read the books, or work on assignments if we had any, we just weren't allowed to leave until four.

Tyler called his mom, explaining both him and I would be late for work. She was understanding, but he was upset from getting caught. This was pretty evident sense he's been glaring at me for the twenty minutes we've been here. But I didn't really care, so I just ignored his stares and got up from my padded chair and decided to look through the giant stacked shelves that were scattered throughout the large library. I tucked my hands in the pocket of Tyler's hoodie and glanced at some of the titles, but most of them were just textbooks the teachers refer to during lessons.

My mind wandered to Tristan, thinking he'd get a kick out of me getting Tyler and his friends landed in detention. He would laugh and give me a high-five and no doubt rub it in Tyler's face the next day. Tris and Tyler had a weird friendship before the accident. They weren't quite friends - they hadn't been for a year or two, not since their big fight in the ninth grade - but they were on friendly terms where they would greet each other in the halls or chat with one another if it were necessary. As I walked, I realized, I never got to know why they fought or what they fought about. All I knew was their friendship wasn't the same after that.

I went to turn the corner when I collided into someone. "What the-"

Looking up, I saw Tyler. "Can we talk?"