shit is about to go down
warning: explicit language
She'd discovered Tyler's little secret on a Saturday.
It had began Friday afternoon, with Mona shaking Charlie awake from her after-work nap with three tickets in one hand and brightly smiling.
"Hermana, Davo got these tickets for this local band and we're going!"
Charlie rolled over, reaching up to rub the sleep from her eyes. Local bands were always playing around campus, it wasn't anything special. So what was so special about this group? "What?"
"A show! It's these two guys apparently. The show is sold out." Mona shrugged and the bed dipped as she sat beside Charlie's legs. "Davo says they're pretty good. The only reason he got tickets was because he knows one of the guys."
"Why can't you just go with him? I have to work a double tomorrow."
Mona simply tossed her hair over her shoulder. "No way. You've been working way too much lately and you need a break. Maybe get drunk a little."
Though the idea of getting a little buzzed sounded appealing, her brother's text was still at the forefront of her mind. "I really have to work. Besides, I don't want to be your third-wheel with your new boyfriend."
Mona sighed and Charlie caught her whisper, "He's not my boyfriend" before she continued with, "What if I told you Tyler would be there?"
She hated to admit that the thought of going sounded much more attractive.
Mona took her silence as an acceptance. "Buenos! Be ready by eight." Just before Mona stepped out of their dorm, most likely going to talk to Davo, she spun around and pointed an accusing finger at Charlie. "And dress nice. Maybe you'll catch someone's eye." With a wink and an obnoxious laugh, Mona disappeared — just like Tyler had so many times before.
—
When she arrived to the venue with Mona and Davo (Mona's dark-skinned, blue-eyed new toy), the building appeared to already be filled to the absolute brim. Many bodies were already surrounding the stage, each and every body pressed flushed against another.
Charlie didn't do crowds.
"I need a beer."
"They should be coming on in a few minutes," Davo yelled over the crowd, pointing a thumb behind him and towards the stage. "I'm gonna go see if I can talk to Josh." Mona followed, claiming she wanted to speak with Davo's friend as well and left Charlie pushing her way towards the bar.
The atmosphere was, well, different. Many shows she'd attended were usually filled with angry, drunk adults, but many faces she'd seen so far looked barely old enough to drive a car.
Though she had nothing against them, she really hoped she wasn't about to waste precious time listening to teeny-boppers when she could be making money. "What can I get ya?" Charlie leaned over the bar, bracing her elbows on the wood and balancing her chin on her hands. "Budlight."
The bartender eyed her for a second. "You old enough to get one?"
She watched him with unamused eyes. "You really gonna make me pull out my ID?"
She swore she caught a hint of a smirk before he dipped down to retrieve the drink. Charlie turned back towards the stage, only just noticing how the lights had dimmed and the pit had began to scream maniacally.
"Enjoy the show." She slid a five over and took her beer, drawn towards the movement on stage. There were definitely two of them, one who was clumsily making their way onto the drums in the dark and the other lurking in the shadows behind the piano.
Then it was as if chaos has erupted.
The singer leaped from the piano clad in all white, simultaneously singing even in mid-air and as he landed back gracefully onto his feet. He didn't seem phased in the slightest, never pausing or off-key as he continued.
Her breath caught.
"I ponder of something great
My lungs will fill and then deflate
They fill will fire
Exhale desire"
It was them — the same band who Tyler and her had been listening to in her dorm.
Both the drummer and singer were hidden by masks, only revealing their eyes and mouths.
She couldn't help but join in with the crowd, the lyrics falling from her lips sooner than she could think them. Her heart drummed along with the beat, her gaze never wavering from the beautiful singer. He leaped and flailed about, his movements matching his voice so well that tears swelled up in Charlie's eyes.
She wished she loved something that much.
So much so that she could just.. Let go and never fear judgment.
The song ended as soon as it had began and the audience cheered with everything they had. Only, unlike the others, Charlie's world spun from its axis when the singer lifted his hand to rip off his mask. It was a simple thing, something that only aimed to give the crowd the entrance they would remember forever.
Charlie's heart jumped into her throat when his face was revealed. Dark eyes framed with long eyelashes, brown, messy hair and most of all, that crooked smile she'd come to love so, so much.
"Tyler?"
She didn't know what to think. How could she be upset? How couldn't she be upset?
Tyler was singing, singing in front of at least five hundred people when she'd only heard him sing a handful of times. He was full-out grinning that shit-eating smile she wanted to smack and kiss off every time he did it.
But he was enjoying himself — it was so easy to see. How could she be upset when Tyler was obviously on top of the world?
He hadn't told her though. Why hadn't he told her? Why had he kept something so big a secret?
Then, everything made sense.
His constant disappearances, the random calls from Josh (who, she realized, was friends with Mona) and how he was always leaving for multiple days at a time. He was playing shows as much as he possibly could. He was leaving his education, team and his other friends for an entirely different life.
A life she wasn't a part of.
—
Mona stood beside her, their hands laced together as her best friend waited beside her. Tyler and Josh's had ended almost an hour ago and Davo promised he'd get them both to come out 'to meet some fans' before they left. The said-fans being Mona and Charlie.
Charlie couldn't seem to think of what to say.
She had so much to say that there wasn't enough time in the world for her to ask them all.
"I'm sorry, mi hermana," Mona whispered.
Charlie summoned a small, obviously-forced smile. "Thanks, Mon. It was bound to happen sooner or later. I'm glad you did it." Turns out, Mona had planned the entire thing. She'd met Josh a couple weeks prior and since then, she'd been (impatiently) waiting for Tyler to spill the beans. When he never did, Mona being Mona, she took the situation in her own hands.
Though Charlie knew a part of her was angry with her best friend, she was glad it was done and over with. Mona had always been the nosy-type and it rarely phased her when she stuck her nose in Charlie's business.
Charlie caught sight of Tyler, Davo and Josh before they saw her. They were all laughing about something and she didn't know how to feel about the butterflies fluttering in her stomach at the sound of Tyler's melodic laugh.
Then his dark eyes caught hers and it was as if he was Atlas and the Earth had finally managed to crush him with it's weight.
"Charlie."
"We'll be outside," Davo mumbled and led Josh and Mona away to leave the two to talk.
"What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same question."
Tyler's hand brushed through his sweaty hair. "You weren't supposed to find out like this—"
"Oh," she interrupted, her previous disappointment boiling into a hot rage. "So you were going to tell me eventually? That's real fucking weird Tyler because Davo somehow got the impression that you weren't going to tell me."
Tyler sighed. "Charlie—"
"No, Tyler! How could you keep this from me? Were you afraid I'd treat you differently? That I'd suddenly begin parading you around like some sort of prize? Because if that's so, clearly we don't know each other that fucking well."
Tyler tried to interrupt but she wasn't having any of it. "No, I—"
"I mean, seriously, I'm happy that you've got something going like this but why wouldn't you tell me?" Her tone softened, tears springing in her eyes. "Why wouldn't I want to be a part of this? You don't understand how proud I am I just.. I just don't understand why you kept it from me."
Tyler mumbled a curse under his breath before stepping into her space and kissing the breath out of her. His hands cradled her neck and chin, lips crashing against hers until she could do nothing but be silent.
When he was pleased with her silence, he slowly pulled away and met her eyes. "I'm sorry I never told you. I wanted to.. I promise. I just.. This thing is so new. With us and the band thing. I didn't want to ruin two good things and lose them both."
He wiped away her tears as she looked at him. His own were rimmed red, clearly fighting his own urge to cry. It made her heart cry out that she was inflicting that pain on him. Still, he had severed her trust and she wasn't sure she was ready to give it back to him so soon.
As if sensing the internal battle she was fighting, Mona appeared. "Charlie? Ready to go?"
Charlie could see the desperation in Tyler's eyes, silently pleading for her to not leave him.
Every fiber in her body wanted to listen to him.
"I'm sorry Ty. I have to go."
If it wasn't for Mona's secure hold, she was sure she would have fallen over as she left him.
ha... ha....... ha