Then Came You (22 page)

“Okay, that’s enough!” She snaps, before
gabbing
my arm and pulling me inside, shutting the door behind us. “Girl, do you know how cold it is out there? Not to mention I look like the hulk, and people could have been
walking by.
Oh, and that speech was bordering on politics-long. And
nobody
likes a speech that takes all night. Wow, do you have goosebumps too, or is it just me? Then again, you were outside for longer, you might have gotten used to it…” She looks up and grins at me. “Oh, and I forgive you.”

I blink at her. “Y-you do?”

She laughs at my expression and nods. “Of course I do! We’re sisters, silly. And besides, we all have our ups and downs. I’m just so happy that you’re finally going to give your sorry ass a break.”

“Dana,
was
it the pizza delivery dude?” A familiar voice screams from up the stairs. A pink haired girl in blue rainbow pants and a white vest top with a panda on it stops at the top and looks at me with a wild grin. “Oh! Darcy! You’ve returned to us at last!”

“H-hey Remy,” I blush. Before I can even finish her name, she’s running down the stairs and barrelling me down into a huge hug.

She giggles up at me. “Ah, have we made up now? Yay!
Friendship!”
She says friendship in a girly, childish voice before
skipping
into the kitchen. Dana shakes her head at her in amusement before turning to me.

“Well, Remy’s sleeping over, but you know it won’t be the same without you,” she says quietly, looking up at me from under her eyelashes, a hopeful grin on her face. “How about you stay the night and we get this party started?”

I nod slowly, a wild grin forming on my face. “That’d be great! But I haven’t brought any clothes with me.”

She waves it off and smirks. “No problem, you can borrow something of mine or Remy’s. We don’t mind. But it’s a choice between a rainbow tutu
or
a black leather miniskirt.” She jokes.
“Your choice.”

I shake my head at her in wonder. “I can’t believe we haven’t spoken all week – you’re the best friend in the world. I love you, Dana.”

“Love you too, babes.” She winks. “Now, we’ve been waiting for this super-cute delivery dude for, like,
ages.
I think he’s stood us up, though. Pity – we’re so hot, too. He’s really missing out.”

I giggle at her as we make our way upstairs and into her bedroom, where Remy is chewing on strawberry laces and ogling Jenson
Ackles
from Supernatural on the mini TV. “What about Alex?”

“Oh, he won’t mind, because he knows I love him.” She pauses suddenly, her face going bright red as she gapes at us like a fish out of water. “Bloody hell, I hope he
doesn’t
know I love him! Talk about embarrassing!”

Remy looks at me and giggles when I wink. “But, isn’t it good that you love him? It means you two are great together.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she scoffs, shoving a handful of Chilli
Heatwave
Doritos into her mouth in a very un-ladylike manner. “But speaking of two people being great together, what’s up with you and
Tyler?
” She waggles her eyebrows at me meaningfully, and I would have laughed if my heart hadn’t suddenly gotten lodged in my throat.

I look down at sigh. “We haven’t spoken this whole week either. After you and
me
argued, so did me and Tyler. I doubt he’ll take me back anymore.”

She sits up, her eyes wide with shock as she leans over to me. “No!” She gasps. “Why won’t her? You guys are crazy about each other!”

“Because he thinks I don’t trust him,” I whisper, pained at the thought.

Remy looks over absently and asks “do you?” She’s too distracted by the men on screen however to see my nod my head lovingly. Dana notices, though, and she smiles sadly.

“Then you need to tell him,” she tells me firmly. “Because you guys are perfect for each other, and I know he thinks the world of you. You need to let him know that you trust him.” I nod, but she isn’t finished.
“And Darcy?”
I look up and meet her eyes. “You need to
tell
him
,”
she says meaningfully.

I sigh, before nodding reluctantly. She’s right – I trust him, and I need to prove that to him. So, I say the two words she told me that night. “I promise.”

Chapter 33

After the promise to Dana and a phone call to Joey so I could catch up with him, we all decided on a movie marathon, complete with soppy movies and extra-buttery popcorn. I lay on a makeshift sofa of mattresses, pillows and blankets. Apparently, Meg was staying at a friend’s house, and she’d given Dana permission to have a slumber party.

Dana poked me in the side and giggled when I turned to look at her. She pointed at the screen, where Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis were in a heated make-out session. “
That 
will be you and Tyler tomorrow – I bet ya.” She winks.

“Um, no.”
I say firmly. “I will 
not 
be having sex tomorrow, at least not yet.” She
blush
, thinking of a great pair of warm, golden eyes, a crooked smile and brown, curly hair. I have to remember not to sigh dreamily, and I return my attention to the film.

All of a sudden, Remy begins to wolf whistle, and she jumps up to start dancing and doing little bunny hops, waving a lace in the air like a lasso.
“Yeah, Timberlake!
Get your shirt 
off,
 
 boy
!” Me and Dana giggle, before pulling her back down and throwing a pillow over her head.

“Not until he’s fully dressed, Remy,” I tease her.

Dana chuckles. “Yeah, we wouldn’t want you to spontaneously combust.”

“Hello?” He answered on the second ring. I gulp, looking over at Remy and Dana, who both nodded encouragingly, giving me thumbs up. “Hello?”

“Um, hi,” I stammer. “It’s me.”

He sighs over the line, and I can’t help but shiver. “I know who it is.”

“Oh.” I chew my lip, before blurting. “Can we meet up? I need to talk to you.”

He’s silent for a while, before he says “Sure, where do you want to meet?”

I take a deep breath, before saying. “If you really know me, then you know where I’ll be.” I hang up, not waiting for a reply as I turn to Dana and Remy with a huge smile. “Okay, so I 
really 
need to get dressed!”

“AAARGH!”
Remy screams with joy and she wraps her arms around me. Dana does the same, only without the screaming. “Remember your promise, and knock him dead,” she whispers in my ear, before pulling back with a grin.

Five minutes later, I’m dressed in a pair of Dana’s jeans and plain black vest top, and I hug them both once more before leaving. They stay at the door in their
pyjama’s
, waving madly at me. I laugh at them, as a woman in a robe walks past with a newspaper in her hand, and does a double take at the two crazy girls.

After a not-so-long walk, I’m at the lake, and I wall back against the familiar tree with a sigh, settling down to wait and see if he shows up. I feel nervous, giddy and scared all at the same time.

And then, I hear twigs snap behind me, and I turn around to see the most perfect guy ever watching me warily with bright, golden eyes and an anxious expression on his face that matches my own.

“Darcy?” He says simply, nodding at me and almost smiling – almost.

“Tyler.” I stand up and blink at him, and before I
loose
all willpower and crumple under his warm gaze, I begin. “I’m sorry. I took you for granted a little, and I know that was wrong of me. The truth is that I’m absolutely crazy about
you,
and that scared me a little. Actually, it scared me 
a lot. 
After losing people that I’d loved all my life, I was just too cowardly to open up again, and yet I still did when it came to you. 
I love you, 
Tyler.”

I close my eyes and take a deep breath. “You were mad and disappointed in me because you thought I didn’t trust you, and I suppose that’s true in a way. I was terrified to admit to myself that I could trust someone so much, and I was almost fully convinced that something would go horribly wrong.

“I guess it did,” I sighed. “Only I was the one who caused it all. But now, I want to prove to you that I trust you, so… Tyler,” I say, looking into his eyes and showing him every single emotion that I’ve ever felt and every emotion that I’m feeling right now. In my eyes, he sees me, Darcy. The girl he hopefully loves, and the feelings that make me 
me
.

His gaze softens, and he steps forward and takes my hand in his, squeezing it
reasuringly
. I smile up at him. “Go on,” he whispers. “I won’t interrupt.”

Alright.
I meet his eyes and I’m surprised to feel my own watering already. “Before my mum, uh, died, I was seeing this guy – Jason. He was a regular bad boy and everyone avoided him, but not me. We were
dating,
I guess you could say, for a few weeks. And then, one day I came home from one of our dates and – there were police 
everywhere. 
That was when I was told that my mum was dead.”

He nodded, and he leant down to kiss my head softly, gently telling me to carry on without even saying a word. I did as he asked. “I became a
loney
,
I had nobody except for Jason.

“One day, there was a party, and he dragged me upstairs, and he r-raped me.” I blurted out, before bursting into tears. He gasped, before pulling me into him and letting me cry into his chest. We held onto each other tightly and after a while, I’d eventually stopped crying. He moved a hand to lift my chin up, and when our eyes met, he smiled, before leaning down and pressing the softest kiss on my lips.

“Thank you for trusting me,” he breathes across them, making me shiver. “And I’m sorry that happened to you. Trust me when I say that I’m here for you if you ever need me. And also, if you don’t mind, I’d like to murder him.”

I chuckled lightly. “I wouldn’t really be happy to see you in jail,” I tease him lightly. He nods, kisses me once again, and pulls me into another tight hug almost like our lives depended on it.

“I love you, Darcy,” he murmurs into my head. “I always have, and I always will.”

I move my head to look up at him and grin. “I love you too.”

He chuckles and smiles crookedly at me. “Perfect, then we’re both loved and in love. Now how about we go do something romantic to celebrate?
A picnic in a library?
Dancing under the stars?”

I laugh and lean up to peck him lightly on the lips. “How about we do something simple,” I suggest. “Like, a movie and a dinner?”

He sighs at me and kisses me deeper, his arms slide around my waist and he lifts me up and against a tree. I wrap my legs around his waist and he moans as my hands reach up to tug on his hair. Eventually we calm down and he pulls away out of breath. “Sounds to me like the best date ever,” he breathes, with a twinkle in his eyes. He pulls back a bit, and takes my hand in his, before leading me out of the woods.

Chapter 34

“See? What did I tell you? I’m always right,” Dana smirks as she watches Tyler press a loving kiss to the top of my head. It’s Tuesday, and we’re all in my house, crowded in the livingroom after a boring day of school and putting off our homework.

Remy looked over and winked at me from where she was sat watching some funny video Joey was showing her on his phone. Dana was on the sofa with me and Tyler, occasionally talking to us, and occasionally texting Alex. On Monday, he’d picked her up from school and it was like they’d never broken up; they were so adorable together.

“Yeah, yeah – we got it already,” I tease her. “Your ego is just too big- Ow!” She laughs evilly as she hits me on the head for the second time with the cushion, before falling back on the couch.

“You’re just lucky I love you,” she retorts, sticking her tongue out at me playfully.

“She’s not the only one,” Tyler mutters in my ear as he kisses me. I smile back up at him before kissing him back. In the background, someone makes a dramatic retching noise, and we pull apart sheepishly.

“Sorry to interrupt your yuck-fest,” Joey smirks. “But I have some not-very-exciting news for you…”

I lean over and smile at him, “ooh, what is it?”

His eyes sparkle as he beams at me. “
Me
and Carl are official now – I worked up the courage to ask him last night, and I’m going to introduce him properly to my uncle this Friday.”

“That’s awesome!” I squeal, giving him a big hug. “I’m so happy for you, Joey.”

“Thanks Darcy,” he says quietly in my ear.

I wink at him as I lean back into Tyler’s arms and snuggle up into his chest. I’ve only just gotten comfortable, when there’s a harsh knock at the door. The guys give me a funny luck, but I shrug at them as I get up and go to answer it.

My eyes go wide when I see the police officer standing at me door with a frown on his face, his eyes dull. “Miss Low, I’m afraid I have some bad news for you.”

My world begins to crumple, but I hold strong as I open the door wider for him to come in, feeling numb as what I’d already expected to happen was finally happening. He blinks at all my friends in the livingroom, and turns to me to see if it’s alright. I shrug, “they’re my friends,
I
don’t mind what you say in front of him.”