Then Came You (14 page)

I think about the first time I laid eyes on Tyler, about how he managed to both annoy the hell out of me and yet make my heart flutter at the same time. I think about how much he’s been there for me, about how he’s always by my side and how sweet he is. I think about our first date, about how special it was and how magical every moment I spend with Tyler is, no matter how simple it is.

And then, I realise something. I’m in love with Tyler Masters.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Twenty

The next week, I spent every free moment with Tyler. After confessing our love, we’d grown closer and our bond had gotten stronger, almost to a point where we were almost inseparable. But don’t get me wrong – it’s not like we became that annoying couple that couldn’t be apart for more than an hour or two. We spent time with our friends as well. We’d just
became
more comfortable around each other and favoured our time together more.

And speaking of friends, it was now Saturday, and it was Joey’s birthday. I was at Remy’s with Dana and the crazy girl herself, preparing for the party and making sure everything was going to go great.

By half five, we went upstairs to get changed into the clothes we’d brought with us. Dana wore a tight red dress over fishnet tights and a cropped leather jacket, with leather high heeled shoes. Her white hair was curled over one side and she’d made her eyes smoky and outlined them thick and dark.

Remy looked bright and colourful as usual, with a multi-coloured dress that flared out and had what looked like fifty different coloured bows on it. She wore white doc martens and had her hair in two spikey pigtails, with a huge bow at the back.

I stood there next to them feeling normal and ordinary, in a cheap navy dress that clung to my upper body and rippled to my knees after my waist. I had on black wedges and my hair was natural and wavy, and I wore next to no make-up as usual. By the time we were ready, the party was ready to get started, and we danced down the stairs and set out the food and drinks, while Remy turned on the music to full blast. By the time we’d finished, the front door had already been opened, and people had started to pour inside.

After an hour, Dana finally went off to get Joey. Remy turned to me with a bright smile. “I can’t wait to see his face!” She squealed loudly over the music. “He’s going to be
so
excited!”

“I know,” I shout back to her.
A pair of hands slip
around my face and I look up to grin at Tyler. He returns the expression, before kissing me on the lips. “Hey.”

“Hey to you, too.”
He smirks. “Joey is going to be pretty shocked.”

“I hope so,” I say into his ear. He kisses me again. We’re getting into it when a hand sliced between our faces and someone makes a ninja noise in our ears. We turn to look at Remy, who smiles sheepishly at us and points to her phone.

“Dana just texted me; Joey is on his way. Get into positions, guys!” She turns around and screams it to everybody else. Someone turns off the music and we all duck down as we hear a car park outside the house. Remy waits patiently, and when someone knocks on the door, she goes to get it, an innocent smile on her face.

“Oh, hey guys!” She says casually, hugging them both. “Come in, sit down. I’m
so
bored in here,
all on my own.
” She and Dana walk in first, Joey after them. The moment we see him, everybody jumps up and screams surprise, happy birthdays flying at him from all directions. The music is turned up at full volume once more and Joey gapes at everyone in surprise, his eyes wide and his jaw almost hitting the ground.
Me
, Dana and Remy run up to him and envelope him in a tight hug.

“Surprise,” Remy repeats, giggling like a maniac.

Joey laughs loudly. “You
guys!
I can’t believe you did all this for me. And you got all my friends down here, too. You guys are the best!” We laugh and agree. The song changes to Nicki Minaj and Dana turns to Remy and raises and eyebrow.

“Really, Remy?
Really?”
Remy laughs and nods, turning to the crowd and starting to dance.
Dana shrugs and goes to join her, but not before making me promise to dance with them later.
I nod and watch them go and be crazy, before turning to Joey with a huge smile.

“So, do you like it?”

“Are you kidding?” He laughs in shock. “It’s crazy – you people are awesome. How many people did you invite?”

I shrug. “You’re entire friends list on Facebook.”

His eyes widen. “You’re shitting with me, right? Do you know who’s
on
that list?”

I pause and shake my head slowly. “Noooo….”

He sighs, turns around to face me, and drops his hands on my shoulders dramatically. “Darcy, I have people like Alex, Cam and even Remy’s
sister
on there.” He sucks in his cheeks and it looks like he’s sucked a lemon. “I hope to
God
none of those people have turned up. Talk about
awkward.
”

Someone clears their throat behind us, and we turn at the same time to see who it is. A guy with blonde hair and blue eyes behind his glasses shuffles awkwardly, a grin on his face as he looks at Joey.
“Happy birthday, man.”

Joey squeaks and his face turns bright red. I looked confused from one to the other, and I only get it when Joey manages to get out a “Hi, Cam.”

Oops.

Cam smiles at me and shakes my hand. “Hey, you must be…
Darcy, right?
Joey’s told me a lot about you. You’re a great girl, Darcy.”

I smile at his genuine personality, warming up to him straight away.
“You too, Cam.
Joey’s told me a lot about you, I mean. I feel like we’ve already met before.”

He chuckles. “I know what you mean.” He turns to look at Joey, a blush rising on his cheeks. “Um, do you think we could talk in private? It’s just I wanted to say some things and-“

“Of course!”
I burst out, stepping back already. “You two take all the time you need. Use protection!” I call the last part out stupidly, but thankfully no one else hears me over the music as I back away and head towards Tyler, who is talking to a guy with black hair and snake bites.

I run over and throw myself at Tyler, giggling as he wraps his arms around me. “Hello people.”

The guy Tyler was talking to smirks at me and nods in greeting, watching as Tyler kisses me gently before carrying on with the conversation. After a few minutes, I get bored, and head off into the kitchen to get a drink. It’s there that I see the bottle of vodka, and my curiosity and depression rises and takes over. If my dad can to it, why can’t I?

I knock it back and shudder at the taste, hating the way it feels in the back of my throat. It’s too strong and gross, but I repeat the action anyway, until my head feels warm and fuzzy, and I can’t feel any pain of the memories.

I giggle and stumble into the guy from before – the one with the snakebites. He smirks down and me and puts a hand on my arm, leading me to the corner where we sit down on empty seats.

“Why, hello there…” He mumbles. “I think you’ve had a bit too much to drink. Who are your friends?”

“J-Joey,” I slur. “Oh!
And D-Dana.
Man I love that bitch.”

His eyes widen in shock. “You’re friends with Dana?”

I nod sloppily.
“Uh huh.
We’re best buds – as tight as Lycra pants and close as sisters. Don’t you mess with her or I’ll – I’ll do something to you back…” He smiles sadly.

“Then I guess you won’t be happy when I tell you who I am, huh?”

I look at him – at all three of him – in confusion. “Who are you?”

“My name is Alex-
“ he
starts, but I cut him off with a slap to the face.

“You’re the
ass
who broke her heart!!” I yell loudly, and he rolls his eyes at me, rubbing the red side of his face. I feel proud as I watch him hurt, but anger takes over as I glare at the guy who hurt my friend. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Honestly?” He sighs. “I wanted to see her. I- I miss her, and I want to talk to her, sort it out. I regret hurting her, and I just want to fix it.”

“Well you can fix it from a distance, because she is
not
going to be happy to see you. I think you should leave.” I cross my arms and stand up, only to topple to the side and fall headfirst towards the marble floor.
A pair of tan, tattooed arms stop
me – practically saving my life – and I look up at him in confusion.
“Ur,
ch
-cheers.”

He shrugs, “No problem. Look, you really aren’t in a fit state and I ain’t gonna leave you on your own. I’m gonna help you find your friends.” He takes my arm and helps me stand up. I lean on his for support and groan.

“Why is the house moving? Houses aren’t supposed to move! It’s
broken!
” I cry as
he
half-drags me out of the kitchen and into the throngs of people dancing to the heavy bass. He looks around and suddenly his eyes light up.

“There’s your friend,” he tells me, and he waves his arms madly before walking my over – kinda. I look up to see a shocked Dana frozen on the ground, staring at Alex with hate, hurt and regret.

“What are you doing here?” She whispers, but we still manage to hear her over the music. Her voice is filled with pain and wariness.

He gestures to me. “I believe she belongs to you?” He jokes. “I-I was wondering if we could talk?”

“Alex-
“ She
starts, but is interrupted when Tyler steps in the way and pulls me into his arms.

“What the hell, dude? You got her
drunk
?” He glares at Alex, who holds his hands up in innocence. “Well then who the fuck did?”

They look at me and a shrug and giggle crazily, pressing a kiss to Tyler’s chest before letting my head fall down his body. He holds me up and hugs me tight to him so I don’t slip back down. He sighs. “Great, she’s out of it. I’m going to take her out of here.”

Dana and Alex both nod, and Tyler picks me up bridal style and carries me out of the room. He walks me upstairs and a make a ‘whoa’ noise with every step as my head moves. He chuckles and opens a door, and puts me down on a multi-coloured bed that smells like Remy. I close my eyes before a thought hits me suddenly.

“Tyler – we left Alex and Dana
on their own
. That’s no g-good…” I mumble.

He shushes me and stroked the hair back from my face, sitting down next to me as my eyes go heavy. “It’ll be alright,” he whispers. “Just let them talk it over. You need to sleep, Darcy. Close your eyes and sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

“You promise?” I ask him.

“I promise.” I believe him, and I close my eyes once more and let sleep take over. I try not to think about how much my head is going to hurt in the morning.

Twenty One

I
do
wake up the next morning with a horrible headache; my brain feeling like it’s going to burst. I hiss and lift a hand up to hold it in place, squeezing my eyes shut tight against the pain. Someone chuckles lightly near my ear, and I used my other hand to blindly hit them in the face.

“Gee thanks, says the night in shining armour.” A sarcastic voice rumbles. I reluctantly lift an eye open to look at Tyler, and immediately regret it when I’m blinded by sunlight. I make a sound like a mix between a vampire being burnt in the sun and a cat hitting the water as I roll away from the light and off the bed, hitting the floor with a thud.

Tyler rolls his eyes at me as he leans over the edge of the bed to look down at me. “Need a hand?”

“No. I
need
some ibuprofen. And water. Do you want to be the best boyfriend ever and get me some?” I
pout
up at him, batting my heavy eyelids and regretting it when it makes my head hurt even more.

He rolls his eyes at me again and rolls off the bed, heading out of the room. I grumble to myself and crawl back up on the brightly coloured bed and close my eyes again. A few minutes later, someone shakes my shoulder, and I open my eyes to see Tyler holding a glass of water and two mini pills.

“Yes!” I grab the stuff and pop the pills desperately, rubbing my head slowly to speed up the healing process. Tyler smiles at me, takes the glass to put on the bedside table, and sits on the bed besides me and begins to stroke my hair.

I sigh, “thank you.”

“It’s alright,” he breathes out. “But I think Remy has something to say about us taking her bed away from her.”

Just in time, the door slams open, and a rainbow mess walks into the room, wearing unicorn pants and a blue and purple vest top. She pouts at us under the pink mane of hair. “Thanks for stealing my bed, guys. I had to sleep in Patricia’s room. Dana and Joey are here, too. And some random guy called Carlos… I think his name was Carlos. Or Carlo or maybe even Kyle.” She shrugs. “Eh, I dunno. But we’re all downstairs now, so stop being lazy asses and get out of my bed. It’s midday, y’know.”