We snuck from the bedroom an hour later, looking both ways before darting from the room. If anyone saw us, they would know we were to blame for the mess in the bathroom. Still high from a night in each other's arms, we took refuge in a dim, empty hallway on the first floor.
W paused in a dark and shadowy corner. Hands in his pockets, Tyler chased my lips with tiny biting kisses. "You, are very flexible."
"So's my schedule."
"I guess, that means, I can call you?"
"I guess."
My phone vibrated. Though Aunt Trina seemed to have recovered from her injuries, Hudson and I still waited on her hand and foot, much to her annoyance. I checked my phone, just in case she ran out of Pepcid or was in danger of spontaneous combustion. I frowned at the name on the screen.
Tyler nuzzled my neck. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing. Robin texted me."
"Interesting." He straightened, eyes on his feet as he shuffled in place. "I thought you two weren't friends."
"We're not."
"Cool-cool-cool... What did she say?"
"Whatever it says, it's not as important as this." I tucked the phone away, balancing on my tiptoes as I draped my arms around his neck. Tyler lifted me off my feet, blowing raspberries beneath my chin. I snorted with laughter. Tyler's love language had always been physical touch. He needed hugs when he was sad, he loved cuddling during movies, and when he kissed you, he traced your body like lines on a map. In Tyler's eyes was a world where I chose him over everything. With all that dopamine in our system, how would we ever know if we were doing the right thing?
"I should go home," I whispered, brushing the hair from his butterfly stitches. "Quinn's coming over tomorrow so we can practice for the talent show." I groaned, retrieving the phone vibrating in my purse to check her second text in a row. "Robin never quits. She's like the evil Energizer Bunny, I swear—"
I blinked, trying to make sense of the video on my screen. Something about the couple having sex in a hotel bed made my stomach lurch. A boy with emerald green eyes was straddled by a gorgeous girl with long, honey waves interrupted by a single strip of crimson.
Shaking, I deleted the video.
"You really shouldn't leave your phone lying around." I backed away from Tyler. I had never seen Tyler so pale and nervous. "Robin's words, not mine."
"Aaliyah, that video... You weren't supposed to see that—"
"Too late. You're underage, Tyler. Which means Robin committed a crime when she sent it and I just committed a crime by watching it—what the hell were you thinking?"
"I wasn't, that's kind of the point," he muttered, lowering his voice as someone passed us in the hallway. "Believe it or not it wasn't my idea. But you're right, Aaliyah, I shouldn't have said yes. I-I should have deleted it a long time ago. Aaliyah, will you please just look at me, please?" He cupped my face with both hands. "I can explain."
"You've had plenty of time to do that." Nudging his hands aside, I walked past him in disgust. Tyler followed me down another hallway, back to the brightest, busiest parts of the mansion. My vision blurred by boiling hot tears, I ignored Tyler's pleads. I navigated my way to the overly large foyer, where my sweater hung in the closet. Out of the dozens of kids around us, Quinn and Declan weren't hard to pick out.
Declan's tall frame was positioned behind her, hugging Quinn from behind as they laughed with a classmate. Feeling eyes drilling in the side of my head, I glanced across the entrance hall, where Robin smirked, watching her evil plan come to fruition. Eric wasn't far behind. Avoiding my gaze, he took a bitter sip from his cup.
Quinn's face brightened as I approached. "Hey, you're still here! The weed made me realize something..." Glossy lower lip pouting in remorse, Quinn squeezed my shoulder, failing to notice the way I glared at her hand. "I have been such a bitch to you. And you're always such a good friend to me, y'know?" She gave my shoulder a playful knock. "I just really fucking love you so fucking much, A." Quinn gathered me in a tight hug, then stepped back with a petty cackle. "You smell like cologne. Spill the tea, bitch! Who were you with?"
Tyler stepped forward. Something about the immediate, abject fear in Quinn's face was devilishly satisfying.
Declan, who looked out of place everywhere except the beach, had the nerve to ask if I was okay.
"Actually, Dec, I just found out my two best friends have been lying to me for years. So no, I am definitely not okay."
Quinn glared at Tyler. "How?"
"Robin," he replied, gripping the back of his neck.
"Aaliyah..." Quinn turned to me with outstretched hands. "It was just some stupid thing that happened once, years ago, and we never did it again. Ever!"
"You really expect me to believe it meant nothing?" I demanded, arms folded, not caring about the people who were watching and whispering at our segment from Days of Our Lives. "If that was true then you two wouldn't have worked so hard to cover it up. Admit it, you didn't tell me because you never thought you'd have to. Poor, dumb, Aaliyah—who cares how she'd feel, right?"
Quinn and Tyler both talked at once, alternating between pleading with me and arguing with themselves.
Hands on his head, air in his cheeks, Declan's shoulders lifted in helpless amusement. "Bro, am I high or am I caught in the midst of a celebrity love triangle?"
"If your basketball buddies had done the job right, we wouldn't be asking that question, now would we?"
Writing off the sweater as a lost cause, I marched past the three of them, hissing in Robin's face as I passed her in the front door of the mansion.
"You can have him."
"I told you Quinn's not your friend, Aaliyah," she called back. "She told everyone on the squad before she told you!"
I heard a screech and turned on the front porch, just in time to see Quinn tackle Robin in the foyer. The girls screamed as they rolled, Tyler and Declan fighting to pry them apart.
Outside, the chilly air was a salve against my burning skin. I charged across the rolling green lawn, cursing when Quinn's keys slipped through my fingers. The tears were so hot and thick that I couldn't see them at first.
Tyler scooped up the keys. "Aaliyah, please. You don't owe me anything, but I need you to know that I never meant to hurt you. You gotta trust me—"
"Trust you?" I sidestepped his hands. "For years, you and Quinn pretended not to know each other. Instead, you two were cryptic, and shady, and you acted like I was crazy when I knew something was wrong! You and Quinn were the problem, not me!"
"Ali, listen..." Tyler started to reach out, then thought better of it. "When I hooked up with Quinn, I had no idea you were even friends. I even told her I was in town to see you, and she said nothing. I didn't even figure out who Quinn was until I saw you together in the hotel."
"And you said nothing." I sniffed, wiping the tears from my face. "Do you know how embarrassing it is, finding out this way?"
"Jesus Christ this is fucking crazy! I'm in the fucking Twilight Zone!" Tyler laughed in astonishment, rubbing his face in desperation. "Like, seriously, Aaliyah, I don't—I don't know what to do. How do I fix this?"
He was asking me? "Is this why you turned me down? Because of Quinn?"
"I didn't wanna hurt you, Aaliyah. And I knew I had to tell you the truth before anything could happen between us. I just didn't know how. But I swear to god, Ali, what you saw in that video is ancient history."
"Oh, I know exactly when it happened. It was the weekend of my mom's funeral." Having to say it out loud was an extra betrayal.
"How do you even know that?"
"Because Quinn dyed her hair for Powder Puff—and Powder Puff happened the same week my mom died. So stop pretending you weren't in town and just say it, Tyler. Say you were here. I want you to look me in the eye and say that you had time to sleep with a girl, but you didn't have time for me! Say it!"
Tyler's chin trembled and his eyes filled with tears. But only one of us had the right to be upset.
"I lied to you, Ali. I was here that weekend. I missed the funeral, and when it happened I lied and told you I was stuck in New York."
"How could you do that, Tyler?"
"Please don't cry..."
"Stop touching me. You came back to town, Tyler, and you never told me. I don't give a shit that you got laid or that I had to see it. The problem is that I needed you, and you didn't even bother to show your stupid face to say goodbye to my mom. "
"Aaliyah, I know an apology can't fix this." Tyler's voice cracked from emotion. "But I loved your mom. She was family. So are you."
"If we're family then why didn't you go to the funeral? You didn't miss it for no reason." I gripped his jacket, forcing him to look at me. "You can tell me anything."
"I can't, Ali." This time he didn't look away. "There are some things I can't tell anyone."
"You can keep your secrets, Tyler. But you can't have me too."
Walking away from Tyler wasn't the hardest part. It was the part where I didn't look back.
***