12| Press the Forbidden Button
THE party was perfect. Just so perfect.
The floor was black and white checker-print and elegant red velvet curtains lined the walls while black and white balloons floated up at the top of the ceiling. Neon red signs with James Bond quotes and hearts were placed around the room, and the entire place was lit in a hue of red to fit with the theme. Not to mention, everyone was dressed in all red.
The big chandelier in the middle of the ceiling was still my favorite part. The elegant pearl touches and soft white decor made the James Bond theme ten times better.
I was looking around the room, making sure everything was perfect. This was Jeremy's third 22nd birthday, after all. I had to make sure it was just as extra as he wanted it to be.
He hadn't shown up yet. He was arriving with Cayden hopefully soon, though, and had a plan to make his extravagant entrance. Which I couldn't wait to see. I knew he would kill it.
"Porkchop!" I heard Noah's voice and caught him walking over with Logan, their arms latched together. They were both in red, and I couldn't help but be envious of them each time I saw them. They were just perfect. I mean, they had the best real-life enemies to lovers origin story of their love, and I lived for every second of it.
"It looks wonderful, PC," Logan said, wrapping her arm around me for a quick hug.
"I can't believe you made it! Do you have to leave early?" I asked. Usually, Logan and Noah's parental duties for Hunter prevented them from being able to come to events like this. Because this wasn't exactly a child-friendly party.
"Luckily for you, we got Amelia to babysit," Noah said. "My little sister is a gem."
"She is," Logan agreed, then squeezed my arm. "And so are you. I can't wait to see Jeremy's face. He hasn't seen it yet, has he?"
"Just the sketches and the mood boards. But not the full product. Not even Cayden has," I said.
That was going to be half of the magic of tonight. Seeing Jeremy's big entrance and raw reaction to the party I'd created just for him. Besides, I made sure that one of the helpers I hired for the party stayed outside to greet the guests, and she was going to send the DJ a message when Jeremy and Cayden arrived. All so that I could make sure "22" by Taylor Swift was playing right as they walked in. Because it was Jeremy's walk-in song to pretend he was still turning 22, when in reality, he was turning 25.
"I assumed Cayden hadn't. He seemed busy all day with work, and he dropped by our apartment earlier in a rush," Logan said.
"Yeah, and he mentioned something like 30 minutes ago about being preoccupied, which is why they're running a little late," Noah added.
"Preoccupied? Is everything all good?" I asked. "I hope it's not something with Jeremy."
"I'm sure it's not. But I'm just as curious as you are," Noah said, shrugging. "Anyway, PC, this looks great. What are we drinking tonight?"
"Ooh! I have some fun cocktails and mocktails. Which would you like to hear about first?"
"Cocktails!" Logan exclaimed. "Please."
I grinned. "Well, we've got a lovely red velvet shortcake cocktail with vodka, lemon juice–"
I was cut off when Taylor Swift's song started to play, meaning Jeremy was making his big entrance. The song got quieter as the DJ announced Jeremy's arrival, causing everyone's attention to turn to the double-doors where a single spotlight was ready to shine on Jeremy and Cayden.
"Introducing the man of the night..." The DJ called out, playing a drumroll sound effect before yelling out, "The birthday man, 22 years old today, Jeremy Williams!"
The double doors opened and the spotlight caught Jeremy, his arms spread out wide with a huge grin on his face. The spotlight also caught Cayden off guard, but that wasn't the only person walking in alongside them.
I gulped and moved to stand behind Logan, clutching the back of her shirt and trying my best to make myself disappear.
"Why in the hell are you standing behind me like that?" she asked. "Oh my god. You're hiding!"
"Yup!" I agreed.
"Oh, from Tyler," Noah said, nodding towards the entrance where Tyler walked in side-by-side with Jeremy and Cayden. "Wait a minute. I didn't think they invited Tyler."
"Maybe that's why Cayden was preoccupied," Logan suggested, then spun around with Noah to look at me. "You can't hide forever. Especially now. This is a pretty big party, PC, but it's not that big."
I was partially squatting behind Noah and Logan's bodies, but my eyes peeked over their shoulders so I could see Tyler. The worst part about it was that he looked so good, and it was practically impossible to want to look away. His brown hair fell messily, with a few rogue strands here and there, but it didn't even look remotely bad. He'd even dressed up for the occasion in all red: a red t-shirt and a red jean jacket that just did him wonders.
I gulped and ducked down. I knew that Jeremy and Cayden would make their way over to us soon enough, and Tyler would undoubtedly come with them. But my heart was racing and even though I'd been ready to see Tyler at the club, I knew that I just couldn't do it. Not here, not tonight. You know, possibly not ever.
"Didn't anyone ever tell you not to run away from the truth?" Noah said.
"Only Tyler James Williams. Ugh! And he has the same name as the Tyler I'm avoiding!" I exclaimed. "I have to find a place to hide."
"For the entire night? PC, you're insane," Logan said. "You need to be able to enjoy the party you planned without feeling the need to run away. Sure, Tyler's here. But–"
My eyes widened because I spotted Cayden, Jeremy, and Tyler walking straight towards us.
"Okay, yeah, nope!" I said. "Goodbye, pretend I'm busy!"
"Porkchop! Get your ass back here!"
Logan's voice was fading away because I was running fast. And hopefully stealthy, as well. Because if one thing was true, I wasn't going to be able to face Tyler at the moment. No amount of faked confidence would allow me to be ready to see him right now at this very moment.
I was going to have to disappear, but the good news was that everything was red, including my outfit. So like, I was basically camoflauged.
✿✿✿
So far, I had managed to lay low while still enjoying the party. I mean, I mainly stayed anywhere I felt I blended in with the decor, which was mostly near the red curtains. But I enjoyed my mocktails when I could sneak away to the drinks table, knowing that Tyler wasn't in sight.
Mainly, I kept my gaze on him. I tracked him, you could say. I don't know, maybe it was a little creepy. But I had to make sure he wasn't going to sneak up on me. And I also kind of liked looking at him. So I had a good excuse.
It was about an hour into my hiding that I got a text from Logan while I was standing by the curtains yet again. I had lost Tyler a while ago, but he was nowhere in sight, and I assumed he had left. Which would be a relief, despite the fact that I simultaneously wanted him to still be here. For whatever reason.
Logan's text told me that Jeremy was looking for me, and I just remembered that I hadn't even spoken to him tonight. But he wanted to thank me for the party and see me, and I felt bad for hiding away. It was Jeremy's birthday, and I should have been able to hang out with him and Cayden without being fearful. Yet, here I was.
I sent her a text and told her that I would find Jeremy, and Logan responded immediately.
LOGAN: he's headed to the photo booth with cayden
CLAY: But is tyler with them?
The text came in a minute later.
LOGAN: he went home, no need to worry
I smiled and slid my phone back into my pocket, heading across the room towards where the photobooth was. It was a small photobooth fit for only a small group of people, but Jeremy really wanted one, and I loved them. They were great for memories. And pictures were always a good time.
When I got to the photo booth, Logan and Noah were standing outside of it, as well. Logan was smiling and Noah just gave me this... weird look. One I didn't really know how to describe.
"Are they in the middle of pictures?" I asked, pointing to the booth.
"Nope, they're waiting on you!" Logan said, a little too enthusiastically. I didn't really know how to respond, so I just shrugged and peeled back the curtain, moving to step inside the little photo booth.
Until I stopped mid-squat to sit down and realized that Cayden and Jeremy weren't alone. Tyler was, in fact, sitting with them. His eyes pierced into mine and he smiled, which made my heart stop. And I was just totally frozen there. In a weird half-squat position that was kind of starting to make my legs tense up because I worked out the other day and well, it had been leg day. So my legs were already sore. And this position was nothing if not compromising.
"I, uh," I stammered, suddenly standing back up and accidentally hitting my head on the frame of the entrance. I groaned and touched my head. "I think I have the wrong photo booth."
And then I booked it.
I mean, I ran. And I never really run because, well, volleyball doesn't require anything too intense, and definitely not anything long-distance. So the only reason I ever ran was if I was on the treadmill at the gym or doing the bare minimum on the court, especially since my position as a middle didn't require really any running at all.
Except now I was running. Despite the sore legs and the slight pang on my head from hitting it on the booth, I ran. I could hear Logan go, "Oh goodness. There he goes."
I understood why Noah gave me that weird look: the photo booth was a big set-up so I would be forced into facing Tyler. Bet they hadn't been prepared for me to literally run away like my life depended on it.
I ran straight out of the room where Cayden's party was being held and into the lobby of my apartment complex. There was one place I could go that would be safe, and that was my room. So I ran down the hall towards the elevators, pressing the button to take me up and away before someone could catch me.
Before I would be forced to come face-to-face with Tyler, who looked so good that I probably could have passed out.
Well, he looked so good that I might have gotten a concussion just my making eye contact.
I looked behind me and didn't see Tyler, which was a relief. But my heart was beating out of my chest as I stepped into the elevator. I pressed the button for my floor and then leaned back against the corner of the elevator while the doors closed and breathed—
BOOM! HAND!
A hand in the elevator doors stopped them from closing, and they reopened again.
Oh.
Oh no.
"Going up?" Tyler said, sliding his hand away from the entrance and stepping into the elevator. He stood in the corner opposite to me, offering a little bit of space but not much. This was still an elevator, aka the most compact form of upward transportation.
I gulped.
"What–what floor are you going to?" I asked, stepping forward to press whichever button he said.
"What floor are you going to?" he retorted.
I gulped again and stepped back into my corner. Okay... I should have known that was a dumb question. He didn't even live here. Obviously, he wasn't heading up to some random floor, he was here to corner me. And this, of course, had to be the best place he could have cornered me. There were 4 very small corners in this magic lifting mechanism.
Do not make eye contact, do not make eye contact, do not...
Shoot, I made eye contact. Tyler was looking right at me and smirking. He did have a lovely smirk. It reminded me of the Damon Salvatore smirk except Tyler's wasn't even a little creepy. He was just... really attractive. It didn't help my heart race any slower, and I felt like I was burning up, so I quickly looked away and fiddled with my hands. Just to have something to do.
There had to be a way through this.
When the elevator dinged and we reached my floor, I stepped into the hallway. So did Tyler.
I was completely bamboozled.
I kind of just stood there, still refusing to look at him, and I realized he was just going to continue to follow me. I was at a loss, completely unsure of what to do. There would be no evading him even if I went to my apartment, because I'm sure he would find a way to slip inside. And if not, I'd probably get tricked by Cayden or Jeremy or Logan again later tonight, and somehow end up facing Tyler. So I stepped back into the elevator and sighed.
"I think... I think I'm going down, actually," I said.
"Oh, are you?" Tyler challenged and got back into the elevator with me. Again. He winked. "I think I'd like to go down, too."
I blushed and had to look away, but I could feel Tyler's eyes on me. I don't know what my move was here but I needed to think of a plan quickly. Probably I could have just walked into my apartment and slammed the door really quickly in his face... But I wouldn't have been able to do that. It would have made me feel bad and I don't like to feel bad. It was too mean. So here I was, back into the corner of the elevator.
Okay. Planning time:
I could get to the lobby, then break out into a sprint, run out of the building and into the streets to try and escape; except I knew Tyler played basketball and there was more running in that sport than in volleyball. He had to have been faster than I was. And he was younger than me which meant that his bones were probably, like, fresher or something. Dammit, he always had the advantage.
I could–
Before my brain could think up another escape plan, Tyler walked over to the set of buttons and pressed the big red one that said STOP. The elevator stopped and Tyler leaned back against the doors with his arms crossed over his chest. I gulped again. I was doing a lot of gulping. Gulp was a weird word. It didn't really sound like a real word the more I thought about it. Gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp.
"You can't hide from me forever," Tyler said.
Gulp.
"I'm not... hiding from you," I lied. Maybe I could trick him. Yeah, I could totally trick him. I wasn't hiding I was just... uh, I don't know, playing chase?
That was a dog thing, though. I was not a dog.
"Really? It's just a coincidence that every event I'm invited to that you're supposed to attend, you end up not showing or disappearing as soon as I arrive?" Tyler said.
Okay so maybe I couldn't trick him. He was kind of smart.
"Why are you running from me, Clay?"
It was like all I needed was to hear him speak my name, and I was set back about a year. I was transported back to Newport Beach, to the graduation party I'd set up, to the moment I'd spilled my heap of rubber duckies and Tyler kissed me. And he called me Clay. Not Porkchop, which I liked and was used to by now. It was basically my name. But he called me my real name. He'd called me my real name for the entire 3 days we'd spent together in Newport before I came back to Georgia.
"Are you scared of me?" Tyler asked. His tone was playful and I knew he was joking because he was still smirking. Really, he had a great smirk. I remember that was the exact face he'd made after the first time he kissed me. He'd caught me off guard completely. It was a year ago but literally, I could not wipe the memory from my brain. The 3 days with Tyler had been 3 of the most amazing and eye-opening days. It made me question why I'd been trying to avoid him for so long now, but I guess there were still reasons for that, too.
"You know," Tyler said and then he took a step forward so he was just barely a foot away. Ohhh, gulping time. "You never told me that you hadn't kissed a dude before. You totally just let me make out with you for 3 days and the subject never came up that it was your first time." He was less teasing and more serious now.
I didn't know what to say and when I opened my mouth to say something, not a thing came out. Not even a weird random sound. Just silence.
Tyler smiled. He reached forward with his hand and traced his thumb along my bottom lip, then his hand fell and rested at his side. I felt shivers. The good shivers.
"Are you hiding and running away from me because I'm the first guy you've kissed? Is it because you weren't ready for all of that and I overstepped some boundaries?"
My eyes widened. "No!" There was a word. Tyler looked pleased at my loud and sudden response. "Uh... No. No to that. You didn't overstep. But, yeah... You're the first guy I've kissed."
"Am I the only?"
I sucked in a deep breath and nodded. Tyler then tilted his head at me with his eyebrows furrowed in a subtle way.
"Why are you running from me, then?"
Uh, how to explain...
How to explain that I was running and hiding from him because I was afraid of what could happen. I was afraid he would remember me and make fun of me or something because I'd been with him for 3 days and we'd pretty much just made out and what if I was actually really bad at kissing dudes? (Was kissing dudes different than with girls?) I was afraid that he might just want to make out with me again (if I didn't suck), which in one sense, I wouldn't mind, but in the other sense, I didn't want.
I wanted love, I wanted a lasting relationship, I wanted something concrete. I didn't want a fling (I guess that was what me and Tyler had last year). So I guess I was ignoring him for all of those reasons.
I sighed.
"Can you press that forbidden button again?"
Tyler raised his eyebrows and reeled back. "The forbidden button? Is that an innuendo?"
"An innuendo... What is that again?"
Tyler waved me off. "Never mind. Do you want me to press the forbidden button?"
"The red one," I said, pointing at the button.
"Are you going to run away from me?" he asked. "Because if so, I'm not going to press the button and we're going to be in here until you talk to me."
"I'm not going to run. You'd probably catch me anyway," I admitted. Tyler smiled and pressed the button, and I reached forward to press the button for my floor, and the elevator started taking us up.
"So we are going up," Tyler said, looking over at me. "Damn. I kind of liked the idea of going down."
I gulped again and I could feel my cheeks redden immensely. Tyler winked and I could barely figure out how I was supposed to breathe normally. I switched from automatic to manual. Dammit. How in the world was I supposed to do this? And what was I doing in the first place? Taking Tyler up to my apartment after literally trying to run away from him seemed impulsive and terrifying.
I didn't know what Tyler wanted. If he was expecting to... hook up with me. But I didn't want anything like that. And maybe that just meant this was an opportunity to talk to him, to communicate. Even though this kind of communication was freaking me out.
The elevator dinged and stopped on my floor, and when I stepped out, I stopped in front of Tyler and dared to meet his eyes.
"I... I'm not really good at this. I don't know how to explain everything, and I don't know where to start," I admitted.
"You don't have to be good at it," he said, and he said it in a way that made me feel a bit more comfortable. His gentle smile brought a sort of ease into my otherwise anxiety-filled mind. "Let's just start by talking about why you're running away from me. And then we'll go from there."
I nodded. "I can do that."
"Good. So can I," Tyler said, then motioned towards the hallway ahead of us. "After you, Clay."
One more gulp for the road.
✿✿✿
You've gotta love a fun little elevator moment. I mean, we usually opt for the makeout-in-the-elevator type scene, but we'll take what we can get for now.
Aaaaanyway he's done it folks. The man Tyler Hamilton has officially cracked down on our boy Porkchop. And they're going up to talk. How. Exciting. Is. That.
You're not ready.
You're not.
It's cute, it's fun, it's spicy. S P I C Y.
Butttttttt you'll have to wait for next week. OOPS IM SORRY!! Gotta keep the tension alive.
ILY ALL.