“The last thing I ever wanted was to keep you from happiness, Ry.”
“Then next time, let Tyson take me home.”
I didn’t give him a chance to respond. I was mad at him, and not because of Tyson. I was mad because I wanted to share those experiences with him, and yet all he did was remind me of the fact he couldn’t be that guy for me.
Tyler wasn’t mine to have.
After prom things went back to our normal again, just as they always did. We finished the school year and then spent the summer at the beach and camping with our friends.
He kept seeing Crystal, even when he started at the community college that next year. It was the first girlfriend he’d stayed with long term, and I was faced with the realization that one day a girl would become a permanent fixture in his life.
Tyler had taken me to school every morning since his seventeenth birthday. His parents got him an old Camaro that year, and he demanded I let him take me.
Today, was no different.
Even though he was nineteen now, and going to college, he still insisted on taking me to school each morning.
Except this time, when we pulled in, he parked the car and got out with me.
“Walking me in today?” I asked with a smile.
“You better believe it. I need to do my monthly assessment and make sure the losers are kept at a distance.”
I laughed. It was true, Tyler did ward off most of the guys at school still. Sometimes with intimidation, and other times by just making them assume I was taken, by him. In the past it had made me mad, but now I enjoyed playing into the fantasy that I was his.
We walked down the hall once we made our way into the building and several of the girls who knew Tyler from last year, came up to make small talk. In true Tyler nature, he just put his arm around me and ignored them.
They all waved bye to him, as we walked away, oblivious to the fact he’d brushed them off.
“How you have friends, or girls, that flock to you...I'll never understand. You're such a jerk.”
He grinned as we reached my locker and he leaned his back against the others next to it. “Hey, I am a nice guy.” He argued with an unconvincing smirk.
“Only to me, or to others when you want something.” I laughed.
“Who says I don’t want something from you?” He asked, and chuckled.
I shot him a glare as I shut my locker. “I have to get to class, Ty.”
“I’ll walk you.” He offered.
“I don’t want you getting in trouble for being here.”
“It will be fine. The teachers haven't even noticed me yet. I blend in.” He grabbed my books and moved his hand around my waist.
I knew he was doing it to place a fake claim on me, but I didn’t mind. So, I tucked myself under his arm and leaned against him as we walked, playing into the illusion of us being a couple.
I felt him tense a bit, and I knew it was because he wasn’t used to me playing along so easily.
“Everything okay, Ry?” He questioned.
"Yeah, but if you are going to repel all my options then I'm going to reap the benefits of all your fake affection.”
He chuckled.
It was nearly the end of my senior year and, to my surprise, he'd finally broken things off with Crystal after nearly a year and a half together. A part of me was hopeful that maybe when we went to college together, he might see me differently. That we’d have our chance.
Sadie hated when I talked like that, she always told me that sometimes two people weren’t supposed to cross paths until later on in life. She’d always tell me that I met Tyler a few decades to soon and that he’d make a better man, than boy.
I never really knew what she meant, I’d already met Tyler and it wasn’t like I could rewind the last eighteen years of my life.
When we finally reached my classroom, it was still empty. I wasn’t surprised considering I was fifteen minutes early. Tyler had a morning class to get to, and the only way he got to walk me in was if we got to class early.
“You know, it's not entirely fake.” He said, as he set my books down on a desk in the back of the room.
I looked up at him, confused. “What are you talking about?”
I peeled myself out of his grasp and hooked my bag on the back of the chair. By the time I cast my gaze back up at him, he was looking down at me with that heart shattering grin of his.
“The affection, I don’t fake that. You will always have a piece of my heart, Ry.” He swallowed as he heard his own words. “You know, as a friend of course.”
There it was. The constant reminder he always had to voice to me.
I offered a forced smile as silence fell between us. These moments were always the most threatening, the silent ones.
“You should probably get to school.” I broke the silence first.
He hesitated. “Yeah.”
One of the guys from my class came in and smiled at me.
“Hey, Ryder.” He greeted me as he took his seat.
Tyler glared at him. “Who’s the loser?”
I gently shoved his chest. “Be nice, he's my friend.”
“Friend, like what kind?” He questioned.
“The friend kind. What kind of question is that?”
“Like, you and Sadie friends? Or, like you and I, are friends?”
I raised an eyebrow at his choice of comparisons. “Is there a difference in
