She watched him curiously as he dug into his bowl of steaming ramen. Jody had been trying to work on her patience, but Max was seriously taking the piss.
"Do you think I'm stupid?"
He glanced up, a mouthful of noodles dangling out his mouth. She watched amused as he slurped what he could and swallowed before meeting Jody's steely gaze again.
"No, I don't think you're stupid."
"Good. So what possessed you to wear that jumper?"
He frowned utterly bewildered; as if Jody could talk about fashion sense! The girl in question was currently dressed head to toe in a black gym shirt, black leggings and an oversized burgundy hoodie that hadn't been washed in forever.
"Have you looked outside? It's cold."
"But you hate turtlenecks."
Max blinked, that much was true. He didn't like the way they tugged on his neck and came to rest just under his chin. They just felt strange, abnormal almost suffocating. It wasn't like a scarf that you could loosen... but he supposed he didn't really want to risk a scarf today.
"Well, I changed my mind," he declared eventually, turning back to his food. Jody had a mouthful of sushi considering her next move. She had to admit, this was fun. Knowing that she knew more than she had let on.
"You're blushing."
"Again, it's just cold. My cheeks go red when it's cold, what's your point, Jody?" he retorted annoyed.
She laced her fingers together and rested her chin against them, a smile playing on her lips.
"My point is you seem different. I mean, you seem more spaced out than usual, you're smiling almost all the time, you're actually happy in the mornings now, you're blushing right now and it's so obvious, that the only reason you're wearing a turtleneck, is to hide some hickeys."
Max's jaw quite literally dropped open.
"Forget Sherlock. I grew up in care. Says it all," Jody replied smartly.
Max gave her a look.
"We need to work on you not using the 'I grew up in care' line whenever it suits you..."
"Stop changing the subject. Tell me," she insisted, her eyes glowing.
"Tell you what? You seem to know everything already."
Jody rolled her eyes, god this boy was difficult. Getting him to speak openly was like trying to squeeze water out of a stone.
"Who is it?"
Max bit the insides of his cheeks nervously. The truth was that he hadn't told anyone about him and Kyle. It was so difficult to put into words what they were now, it was like how they'd always been but with everything out in the open. The feelings once unspoken were acted on, the deep conversations which used to end abruptly with one of them feeling ashamed for being too in touch with their feelings, now lasted for hours on end.
They were still them, but more.
And there was also the question that Max had never had a relationship with another boy before and neither had Kyle. These were new grounds for them.
But although they hadn't agreed on anything yet regarding their relationship, there was one thing they had agreed on.
And he was staring straight at her.
He knew that she was the one person who wasn't going to judge or see either of them differently. But even knowing that fact, didn't make coming out any easier.
"Seeing as you think you know it all, why don't you guess?" he offered before slurping his smoothie.
Jody sighed but accepted the challenge. At least Max was admitting that there was a special someone in his life now.
"I mean, you've not really been anywhere since the party. I guess college and gym, but I've been there with you both times and I'm pretty sure I would've known. Did you meet someone going to the shops?"
"Oh, because doing the groceries is the best way to meet the love of your life..!"
"You never know!"
Jody pursed her lips in thought as Max sat opposite her silently gloating. He'd almost finished his ramen bowl when her eyes lit up.
"The party."
He raised his eyebrows, "What of it?"
"Whoever it was must've been at the party. But that's the thing, because I'm pretty sure you haven't really bumped into anyone else more often than you usually do. I mean, the girls from college seem the same..."
Max sighed, Jody was never going to guess who it was unless he spelt it out. He was about to help her out when she raised a finger silencing him.
"You must see this person quite often if you've got that many hickeys on your neck. Really often..." her eyes widened in somewhat realisation.
She glanced at Max and then back down at her lap. She wanted to say who she thought it was but if she got it wrong, then that would make things really awkward.
"Is it... someone you're already really good friends with?" she offered eventually. "As in, really good friends."
Max sighed.
"It's Kyle."
Jody almost jumped out of her seat.
"What? Wait!"
"Um, we've just... well, yeah. Since the party..."
Jody blinked twice to make sure she wasn't dreaming. She'd thought it but it'd never crossed her mind before. Kyle was... well, you could never tell a person's sexuality from looking at them but she knew that a lot of people had a very specific idea of who he was.
"Was it just from the party? Or..."
"I think there'd always been something between us. Just wasn't sure what."
She couldn't help but feel so overwhelmingly happy for Max, her lips were curling into a heartfelt smile as she spoke.
"And he makes you happy?" she asked, already knowing the answer.
Max nodded, his cheeks flushing a delightful shade of pink.
"He does."
*******************************
A few moments later she was sat in her bed, mug of tea in her hand rewatching one of her favourite shows.
The flat felt lonely without Lola. She didn't particularly want to go and face it.
Max had helped cheer her up, taking her out on numerous trips and well... given that exams were near, so-called 'study dates' but they hadn't completely distracted her from the fact that she felt more distant from Lola than ever.
They'd spent the last week making most of the time they had left together but Jody couldn't help but feel abandoned somewhat. She knew deep down that this had been coming for a long while, and yet... she hoped that Lola could be here with her.
Her phone rang.
"Guess what?"
She rubbed her eyes realising that rather than Lola, it was Tyler calling her from the other side of the world.
"Tyler? Look now's not a good time..."
"Jody, seriously!"
Sighing, she glanced at his face on the screen, beaming from ear to ear. Her mouth slowly dropped open as he pulled the phone away from his face and spun around slowly. Strange, where he was standing looked oddly familiar.
She gasped as he stood proudly with his back to her flat door.
He was here.
"Surprise!"
Shaking her head bewildered, she opened the door feeling completely deflated on seeing him. Why couldn't he just say when he was coming, at least she would've made more of an effort than slouching around in her dressing gown all day?
"You could be a bit more happy to see me," he commented, frowning at her odd behaviour.
"Couldn't text, no?"
"It was meant to be a surprise. Jody, what's gotten into you? Come on, it's me..." he tried, as she rubbed her head feeling a migraine coming on.
She bit her lip anxiously; truth be told, any other time his visit would've been a welcome surprise but with everything that was going on with Lola, she could hardly think about anything else.
Long distance relationships seemed to be becoming a habit for her.
"Sorry. Just tired. Cuppa?"
"Please."
******************************
She watched him curiously. Sure, they'd Facetimed each other plenty of times but seeing him sat in her living room sipping on a cup of tea seemed odd. It was strange how she'd become so used to seeing her best friend sat by a beach on the other side of the world, sun shining, everything looking heavenly and happy and warm...
Jody turned away slightly. She supposed she'd created this fantasy of Tyler in her head, a guy who was living his best life, in a place where nothing could go wrong except when that's all she'd been made to see.
You never really knew what was going on in someone's life.
She knew that all too well. Lola had been having her doubts about staying with Jody for a while. And all this time, Jody had thought that she'd been enjoying herself too.
"Where's Lola?" he asked eventually.
Jody tried to ignore the planet sized lump in her throat.
"She moved out. Went home."
"What? Why?"
"She just... wasn't happy. Needed a change. We're doing long-distance."
"Oh."
Tyler glanced up from his mug, watching as Jody tried to make herself busy in the kitchen. This whole interaction felt weird.
Over the phone, it was like they'd never stopped being friends. They could escape from their problems, crack jokes, share funny memes and memories...
In person, however, neither of them could hide from the stark reality. As soon as the call ended, they resumed their real lives. The highs and the lows.
The truth.
And all this time they'd been playing up to each other, putting on a show of happiness, trying to prove to each other that things were good, nothing had really changed, but Tyler knew that true friends didn't hide from each other.
And Jody was hiding. Almost as much as he was.
"You can talk to me," he began. "I know I've not been here but... Lola going, that's pretty big. And I'll listen."
Jody shook her head adamantly, "I'm fine! It's for the best anyway..."
"Jody," he said, in that knowing tone of his.
She couldn't escape it anymore. She broke.
******************************
Once the sobbing had died down, and the tissue box was empty (she needed to go to the shops), she forced herself to meet Tyler in the eye again.
He always knew how to calm her down again. And even though, she'd changed, she wasn't as angry a person as she was... she still needed someone there to listen to her.
Max was that person for her but even so... he didn't quite seem to get her like Tyler did.
"She says she's doing a lot better now but, I don't know. I just got so used to having her around me all the time. After everything we've been through."
"It's a big change. It'll take time."
"Yeah."
"And living here all by yourself, especially when we're so used to having people around must be hard."
Tyler had a point. She'd always used to complain about having no privacy in the DG but now she literally had no one to wake her in the mornings, no other presence stumbling about in the house.
It was lonely and isolating and scary all at once. And she hadn't prepared for this. At all.
"What are you doing back, anyway?" Jody asked deciding to change the subject.
"I've got a job here. Interning at this radio station, good salary... and well, as much as I loved St Lucia and staying with mum and Kamal, I just wanted to go back home."
Jody frowned.
"So you're not just here on holiday?"
"No. I'll be here for 6 months. Liam said he'll sort out a flat for me around here now that he's an estate agent but I was planning on staying with Rick in the meantime, meet his kid."
Jody raised her eyebrows, this was huge. There was no way she'd thought that Tyler would wind up living back in the UK.
"That's... wow."
"See, I thought it'd be nice to surprise you, but well... I didn't really think. I'm sorry, if this is too much."
"No, Tyler look... I am really glad you're back. I just, well... I'm shocked. It just seemed like you were having the time of your life over there; didn't think you'd want to come back."
Tyler smiled sadly.
"Well, it's certainly got a special place in my heart but... I think I've worked out this is where I belong."
"Fair enough. I mean, you were back here literally every holiday..."
"Yeah, okay! Know-it-all."
She managed a giggle at that. They sat there in a shared silence as Jody took the news in. Tyler was back, pretty much for good. It seemed like a whole world away now, the big 'eloping to St Lucia' scandal... but almost as though all that trauma and heartbreak had been for nothing.
She scolded herself mentally. Of course, she wasn't the type of person to believe that 'everything happened for a reason'; if she did then her being chucked into care would've had some sort of twisted justification.
But in truth, that whole drama from years ago had changed her. It'd made her realise what her focus was. Her dreams.
And Tyler being back was the perfect chance for Jody to properly solidify their friendship. Go back to some sort of semblance of what they used to be. The best of friends.
An idea struck her.
"When are you heading to Rick's?"