“It’s Ivy.” Kyle had appeared on my other shoulder, his eyes drifting down my body in a way that made me want to gag. When Tye had done the same move, at least there was restraint there. Kyle had no restraint.
“Ivy?” Benji repeated, his voice bewildered. “I swear no one has ever told me that.”
I shuffled slightly towards Tye, away from Kyle and his leering eyes. Tye didn’t notice, but Kyle very much did and glared at my efforts.
“I have definitely told you that,” Tye shook his head, still focused on Benji. I was too distracted to take any thrill from the idea that Tye had spoken about me to his friends. My fear was kind of stood on end, like a cat hunched and ready to attack. “Maybe you’re just too drunk to remember,” Tye continued.
I turned my head away from Kyle, wishing with every cell under my skin that he would stop looking at me like that. I was not Rosie.
My ears seemed to tune out of Tye’s and Benji’s conversation. I was suddenly one hundred percent focused on the foreign hand that was placed on my lower back. Kyle bowed his head to whisper in my ear, using his place on my back to bend nearer. I held my breath, feeling a wave of nausea at how close he was stood.
“Changed your mind yet, darling?” His creepy voice cooed in my ear. Goosebumps shot across my skin for all the wrong reasons.
The pressure of his hand increased. He was tangling his fingers in the lace of my shirt. I daydreamed for a minute of turning round and screaming a string of swear words in his face, but I decided to opt for a less over-the-top approach.
“What don’t you understand Kyle about the words ‘get lost.’” I spoke at a normal volume, loud enough to make both Tye and Benji look towards us sharply. “And get your hand off me.” In this public space, Kyle had no choice but to back off and he did – he snatched his hand away as though my shirt were on fire.
“What is going on?” Tye’s voice called me back to look at him. His eyes were narrowed on Kyle, his whole body suddenly tense.
“Come on, Kyle,” Benji attempted to laugh the scene off. “I told you back at that party. She’s still not interested.”
“Interested? What party?” Tye repeated, looking more than a little panicked and frantic. “Backtrack here. Kyle came on to you?” His eyes shot down to me, his whole body still taut.
“In a way.” I shrugged, still holding my arms across my body as if it could protect me. “If ‘came on to’ means ‘freaked out’ then yes.”
Tye now shifted his attention to Kyle.
“What did you do to her?”
“Whoa, nothing, Tye. Honest,” Kyle held up his hands in mock surrender. “Ivy and I go way back. Knew each other back home.”
“Haven’t seen each other for years.” I felt the need to put this in, yet it didn’t seem to make a difference.
“What did you do to freak her out?” Tye pressed the point.
Kyle smiled as if the whole thing was no big deal.
“I simply told her the truth that if she gave me five minutes on her back, I could turn her ‘no’ into a yes.’”
Tye’s eyebrows shot up. I don’t think I had ever seen them so high.
“It may surprise you,” I interjected, “but a girl usually wants a guy to last more than five minutes.” At my insult, Benji laughed wildly, finding the whole commotion something of a comedy sketch. Tye did not look so happy.
“When was this?” Tye looked back down at me, though part of him still seemed to be sizing Kyle up stood at my other shoulder. At the same height, they looked roughly matched to me.
“I think it was February, last month,” I tried to remember. “The same party where I was looking for Ellie.”
Tye cringed at the memory of how I had found him and Ellie under the fairy lights. This moment did not look like the best time to tell Tye that Kyle had creeped me out quite a few times.
“See, Kyle?” Benji moved to Kyle’s side, patting him on the shoulder and trying to calm the situation. “She isn’t interested.”
“I could still change her mind.” Kyle smirked, making me want to puke.
“No you can’t. Didn’t I make that clear in the supermarket?” I said with raised eyebrows, referring to when I had elbowed him in the stomach. Oops, that was a mistake. At the mention that there had been another incident, Tye made a move past me, heading for Kyle, but I saw it and put myself between the two of them to stop whatever the hell it was he intended to do. Kyle was still the little kind boy somewhere – he had to be. Rosie would never forgive me if I had let something happen to him. She had liked him so much.
“You-”
“Tye! Tye – what are you doing?” My hands were on his chest, pushing him back, but making no headway at all. He was frozen in place, leaning against my hands, his eyes trained on Kyle, his face as red as when he had been arguing with his dad.
“Leave it, Kyle,” Benji warned, pulling on his friend’s arm to drag him away. “She’s Tye’s girl now.”
If only that were true.
After a minute, Kyle relented. He raised an eyebrow at Tye, goading him further, then disappeared into the crowd with Benji pushing him away as he went. As they disappeared, Tye stopped pressing against my hands, though his face was still red.
“Tye, please,” I pulled on the black t-shirt he was wearing, trying to pull him down
