We stay silent as Tyler drives us back home. I had stopped crying, feeling like such a fool for tearing up in front of him. I wonder what he truly thinks about me. Even if we all get upset, but it's embarrassing crying in front of someone, especially if you don't know them.
"Do you want anything to drink?" Tyler asks me as we walk through the front door.
I turn to him, signing 'yes please'. He tells me to sit down on the couch and I do. I watch him take off his jacket and he places it neatly over the couch. He takes off his tie as well, setting it down with his jacket before disappearing to the kitchen.
I sit there not knowing what to do. Everything was quiet and it annoyed me. I could hear Tyler opening and closing the fridge and cabinets. I reach over and grab the remote, switching on the TV. I flip through it until I came to a music channel. A band name Simple Plan comes on with their song Summer Paradise.
I sit there staring at the video and listening to the song. I bob my head a little to the music. I like the beat and it felt relaxing. It made me want to sing along, and I wished I could.
"Oh I love this song," I hear Tyler say.
I stop bobbing my head and turn to see him walking into the room with two glasses of Coke. I blush, hoping Tyler didn't see me bobbing to the music.
He walks over to me and holds out a glass in front of me. "I hope you don't mind Coke."
I sign 'thank you' and take the glass, taking a sip. Tyler sits down beside me and we watch the TV without making any eye contact with each other.
"So are you feeling okay now after what happened?" he asks me when the song was over. Another song came on. This time it was an RnB song.
I nod.
"So you like music?" Tyler asks me.
I reach for my marker and write the whiteboard that was on my lap. That's what my friends say.
"I like music too. I play the guitar sometimes. If I wasn't a surfer, I would be a musician."
I smile at him.
"Do you reckon that you could play something on the piano for me someday when you get your memory back?"
I stare at him, not so sure if I wanted him to hear me play. I turn to the board. I don't know. Maybe. But what if I never remember how to play again?
Tyler stares at me before replacing his drink on the coffee table. He sits back and rolls up the sleeves of his shirt. He shifts in his seat and moves closer to me. He moves his hand up to my head and pushes some of my hair away from my face. Tyler strokes my hair. "Listen to me, Ruby. You're going to get your memory back. It will take time but you will remember again."
I smile at him. Tyler's family really has a lot of faith in me in remembering everything and learning to speak all over again. Why can't I be just as faithful to myself?
We sat there staring at each other. His hand was still in my hair, stroking it. I stop breathing as I stare into his eyes. I don't know what made me want to do it, but I placed my glass in my left hand and moved my other one towards his face. I want to touch his face, to feel his skin against my own. Tyler stops stroking my hair and rests his hand on my cheek.
I was about to place my hand on his cheek when I hear Gabe's voice, stopping my hand from touching Tyler.
Tyler and I quickly move away from each other and turn to see Gabe standing in the room with Kaleen and another girl with blonde hair. She looks a lot like Shannah. She must be her sister. The three of them had a sneaky grin on their faces, like they were up to something as soon as they see us together.
"G-Gabe, I didn't know you were home," Tyler says, getting off the couch.
"I have been home for ages," Gabe answers. "I was just in my room with Kaleen and Tammy."
Tyler blushes. "Um, I'm going to go get change." He grabs his jacket and tie from the couch, and walks towards his room.
"Hey, don't forget about that party tonight," Gabe reminds his brother just as Tyler reaches his room.
"Yeah, I remember." He closes the door.
I sat there not being able to make eye contact with Tyler's brother and his friends. I sip my drink.
"Hey, Ruby, you should come to the party tonight that we are having on the beach," Kaleen says.
"Yeah, you should," Gabe agrees. "Oh, and this is Tammy. She is Shannah's sister."
Tammy smiles at me, giving me a little wave. "Just so you know I'm nothing like Shannah. I still don't understand how Tyler is dating her. She is so up herself."
I write on my board. I don't know if I should go.
"What do you mean you don't know?" Kaleen grabs my arm and pulls me off the couch, causing me to spill some of my drink. "Come on, Tammy and I will help you get ready. The party will be in a couple of hours. We are going to make you look your best."
Kaleen put my drink down on the table and then drags me to my room. Tammy shuts the door and then immediately the girls started going through my stuff. I stood there, watching them as they empty out my bag, discussing to each other with what would look good on me. They whispered a few things too and I heard Tyler's name being mention a couple of times, but I have no idea what they were saying about him.
"Okay, we need her to stand out," Kaleen says. "Other girls will be wearing their bikinis. We need her to wear something that could capture his eyes with."
"How about this?" Tammy asks.
Kaleen looks at the outfit she had picked out. "That's perfect!"
She grabs the dress from Tammy and then holds it up at me. It was a silver sequin dress. The dress looks nice but I was unsure about it. It looks too short.
"You have to wear this, Ruby," Kaleen says.
I take the dress and held it up against my body, looking in the mirror of the build-in wardrobe. Kaleen was right. The dress did look great on me.
Tammy and Kaleen leave the room so I could get change. I take off the dress that I wore to the funeral, putting on the new outfit. It fitted me perfectly. I stared at my reflection in the mirror and smile. The dress was short, just covering my ass. Kaleen is right. The dress does look perfect on me. It even goes well with my tan skin.
I step out of the room to find Gabe and the girls whispering about something. Tammy spots me and then they all turn to face me.
"Wow," Gabe says. "You look hot, Ruby."
Kaleen wracks him in the arm. "Hey, keep your eyes on me."
"I'm sorry, but Ruby really does look hot in that dress. My brother is so going to come running after you."
I feel my heart skipping a beat at the thought of Tyler running after me. I wasn't really sure if I really want him to do that.
"Okay, next step is make-up," Tammy says. She grabs my hand and drags me towards Gabe's room.
Kaleen closes the door and Tammy makes me sit on Gabe's bed, which is messy. I don't think he made it at all this morning. The girls studied me, trying to work out what would look good on me. Tammy gets out her make-up kit from her bag, and starts applying foundation to my face. She adds a light blue eye shadow to my lids and then mascara, and lastly she applies some lip gloss. It has a strawberry smell to it.
"How are we going to do her hair?" Tammy asks Kaleen.
Kaleen studies me, thinking hard. "Let's straighten her hair."
Kaleen grabs my hand, dragging me towards the bathroom. Tammy plugs the hair straightener into the power point beside the sink. Kaleen tells me to sit on the toilet and then Tammy started straightening my hair.
There was suddenly a knock at the door, follow by Tyler's voice. "Hey, are you girls finish in there? I really need to use the bathroom."
Tammy and Kaleen looks at each other.
"How are we going to get rid of him?" Tammy asks.
"I don't know," Kaleen replies. "I will think of something."
Kaleen walks over to the door and opens it half way.
"Could I please use it now?" Tyler asks.
"Sorry, we are going to be for a while. Just go do something else in the meantime."
I couldn't see Tyler from behind the door but I can imagine how upset he might be. "You have to be kidding me. There's just one bathroom in this house and you decide to hog it. Thanks very much you guys."
"We are almost finished and then you can have the bathroom."
"Yeah, you won't believe how many times I've heard that one."
"Go do something else in the meantime. We will be out in a sec." Kaleen closes the door and turns to us. "Are you almost finish, Tammy?"
"Yeah, I'm finished." Tammy puts the straightener on the sink and switches off the power.
"Okay, we need to get Ruby to Gabe's room without Tyler seeing her."
I stare at them, wondering why they wouldn't let Tyler see me. I'm sure there was nothing wrong with him seeing me.
"Distract him, Kaleen, and I will get Ruby to Gabe's room. Hey, flirt with him. It might freak him out and he will stay in his room until we go."
"Well, that's only if Shannah doesn't come. Remember she doesn't like being in his room because of Emerald." Kaleen rolls her eyes. "I can't believe that she is afraid of a frog that sits in the palm of your hand." She walks out of the bathroom.
Tammy grabs my hand, pulling me to my feet, and then peeks out the door. We could hear Kaleen talking to Tyler. We walk out of the bathroom and spot Tyler with his back to us. Kaleen had her hand on his shoulder, which made him uncomfortable. Tammy quickly drags me into Gabe's room before signalling to Kaleen that we were in the room.
I sit down on the bed just as Kaleen comes in.
Kaleen sighs with relief. "That was close."
"Yeah. Okay, we should start getting ready now."
"Yeah, we should." Kaleen turns to me. "Ruby, you don't mind if Tammy and I get dress in here. We could change in your room but we don't want Tyler to get suspicious at what we're doing."
I wanted to ask them what they were up to, but I didn't have my board. It was still on the couch. So instead I just nod and allowed them to get change.
I turn away as they undress themselves, putting on their bikinis, along with denim shorts. I still couldn't understand why they wanted me to get dress up while they dressed up in their swim suits for the beach party. They said about wanting me to stand out, but why do I need to stand out?
As soon as the girls were finished, they sneak me into my room to choose a matching pair of shoes to go with my dress. Both girls had matching flip flops to the colour of the bikinis – purple for Kaleen and yellow for Tammy. I didn't have that many shoes – just flip flops and flats. Tammy picks a blue pair of flip flops with white hibiscus printed on them. Once we were ready, we left for the party with Gabe. Tyler was waiting for Shannah before he headed out.
The beach party wasn't far from the house, just a couple of metres up from where I ran to the other day when Tyler chased after me. The sun was setting, turning the sky to shades of orange, red and yellow, and many people were already there when we arrived. A bon fire was lit and a mixture of pop, rock and dance music played loudly on the beach. Some people were surfing while others were on the beach, dancing to the music, dressed in bikinis or board shorts. I feel like an outcast wearing this outfit. Why did I allowed Tammy and Kaleen dress me like this?
At first when I see the people, I wasn't sure about the party. I wanted to leave because I knew I didn't fit in. But the beat of the music started to make me excited, making me want to dance. Gabe disappears for a moment, returning with pineapple juice in pineapple cups with small colourful paper umbrellas in them. Tammy gets some hibiscus and tucks one behind my right ear, another on Kaleen before placing one behind her own.
"Glow sticks!" Kaleen shouts over the music. "We need glow sticks!"
I look around and saw that some people were wearing colourful glow sticks around their necks and arms.
"Keli is giving out glow sticks to everyone," Gabe says.
"Cool. Let's go find him!"
We search the crowd for the guy Gabe said to look for. We soon found him and he handed us a bunch of glow sticks. We cracked them open. It was dark now and the light from the sticks glowed. I put two greens together and put it around my neck to make a necklace while I made these two blue ones for bracelets.
"Oh my gosh," Tammy said. "Look at what Shannah is wearing. I can't believe she is wearing that."
We look in the direction Tammy was looking. Shannah was standing over at the food table with Tyler. She was wearing a blue bikini top that showed a lot of cleavage, more than what Tammy's and Kaleen's, her breast almost sticking out. Clearly she wanted all of the attention on her. Shannah was standing in front of Tyler, saying something to him. She then started unbuttoning his shirt that he was wearing. He rolls his eyes, annoyed with her for doing it, but he doesn't say anything to stop her.
I couldn't help but feel a tiny bit jealous when she unbuttons his shirt, standing so close to him. Wait. Why am I having these thoughts?
"I can't believe that Tyler would even let her do that to him," Gabe was saying. "You can clearly see he is annoyed. She is basically controlling him."
"Yeah, he needs to dump her big time," Tammy says.
"Can you imagine it on the front page of a magazine? 'Biggest pro-surfers of the century dump each other after a two year relationship.'"
"He deserves someone better," Kaleen says.
I stare at Tyler. He looks really handsome with his hair spiked up and he was dressed in grey shorts with a white button-up shirt with a thick dark blue stripe around the middle of it. He had the fish hook necklace, as well as a yellow glow stick, around his neck. I wish I was in Shannah's position right this moment.
Tyler suddenly looks my way. My stomach does a somersault when our eyes locked together. It then drops with disappointment when he turned back to Shannah.
"Tyler likes you," I hear Kaleen say to me.
I turn to face her. She, Tammy and Gabe were all staring at me with smiles on their faces. I went to reach for my whiteboard to write something when I realise I didn't have it, and that I had left it back at the house.
Gabe realise what was wrong. "Shoot. We forgot the whiteboard for Ruby to write on. We aren't going to know what she is going to say without it."
"Okay, well we just have to ask her things that she can easily answer back to us," Tammy replies. "So, Ruby, what do you think of Tyler?"
I shrug. I don't know what to think about him. Sure, he is handsome, but how can I tell them about the attraction I feel towards him when I'm still trying to understand it myself?
"Do you have feelings for him?" Kaleen asks.
I don't answer. Instead I lock my eyes with Tyler again. Shannah was saying something to him. He nods and then she walks away. He looks in my direction, locking his eyes with mine. Kaleen says something but I wasn't sure what she said. Tyler looks in the direction of Shannah before making his way towards us. I feel my heart racing as he started to get closer. Why was it doing that?
I feel like a complete fool as I continue to stare at him and before I knew it, he was standing in front of me. My eyes went straight to his chest, staring at the little chest hair he had and his six pack abs.
"Tyler, you seriously need to stop letting my sister control you," Tammy says.
"I know," he agrees. "I didn't like her unbuttoning my shirt, but she says I look better with it unbutton."
"Where's Shannah?" Kaleen asks.
"She went to go talk to somebody."
"Without you?" Gabe asks.
Tyler seemed annoyed, like he didn't really want to be here. "Yeah, she went to talk to some friend of hers and didn't want to introduce me to her."
"You need to dump my sister, Tyler," Tammy says.
Tyler frowns at her. "No. She is my girlfriend, Tammy. I'm dating her whether you like it or not."
"Some girlfriend she is," she says in a soft voice that you could only just hear.
I think Tyler heard her but doesn't say anything. Instead he looks my way, staring at me. He made me feel nervous with his eyes on me. I should turn away, but I couldn't.
"Hey, Tyler, do you mind staying with Ruby?" Kaleen says. "We will be right back. Oh, and she left her board at the house so don't ask her complicated questions that she can't answer."
Tyler was about to open his mouth to protest when Kaleen, Tammy and Gabe quickly ran off, leaving the two of us. We stood there staring at each other for a second before turning away, unable to make eye contact with each other any longer. Everything suddenly feels awkward between us and I really wish Gabe and his friends didn't leave me alone with him.
A dance song began to play. Tyler recognises it.
"This is one of my favourite songs," he replies, forcing himself to make eye contact with me. "Do you want to dance?"
I stood there unsure about it. I wasn't even sure if I knew how to dance. What if I made a fool out of myself in front of him if I didn't know how to?
"If you don't know how to dance, follow my moves," he says. "I really want to dance to this. Shannah doesn't like me dancing at parties and I can't pass up a chance to dance to my favourite artist. Turn Me On is my favourite David Guetta song at the moment."
I smile. I guess this would be my only chance to dance with him anyway.
Tyler started moving his body to the music. I was unsure about it at first, but I soon got the hang of it, mirroring his moves. We both smile at each other.
I place my hands on his shoulders while Tyler rested his hands on my hips. We move to the music together, enjoying every moment of the song. It almost felt like we were the only ones on the dance floor. Tyler removes his hands from my hips and grabs my hands, twirling me around.
I put one hand on his shoulder and the other one I put it on his chest. He put his hands on my waist and started to slow as I move my hand down his chest, to his abdomen, over his abs. Tyler stops dancing and allows me to touch him. I could feel a connection between us and I think he could too. I was starting to get a nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach. I wanted to look up at him, but I was afraid to.
"Oh my gosh, those abs. I think I'm going to faint," I could hear Lex say at the back of my head. I don't even know why I was hearing her voice, but it freaked me out a little. I don't even remember her saying that. When did she say it?
I remove my hand from his abdomen and look up at him, locking my eyes with his. His eyes attracted me to him and for a moment I could have sworn that I knew him before the accident. The thought scared me a little and I quickly moved away from him, leaving a gap between us.
"Tyler!" I jump at the sound of Shannah's voice.
A/N: Thank you for reading the first 6 chapters of Silent Love. I hope you enjoy the story. To find out what happens to Ruby and Tyler, Silent Love is now available for purchase on Amazon.