Going Full Throttle

Chapter 20

"Girl, you have to tell me what's happening with you and Tyler Westwood?" Marianne, a girl I went to high school with, pleaded. The other girls around us sat a little straighter and stared at me with brightly lit eyes—partially from Scotty's Go-Go Juice, but mostly from curiosity.

"Literally nothing," I laughed.

"That's impossible! You are all over his Instagram!" Tash said while pointing a well-manicured nail at me.

I shrugged my shoulder and took a sip of my bright pink drink to buy some time. "Well, we're always around each other obviously. He's right next door. So I end up in some of the videos, but that's it."

Marianne sighed and leaned back in her lawn chair. "Way to burst my bubble, Pia. The way you guys acted in those videos made it seem like way more."

Several girls made sounds of an agreement which made me frown into my drink. I hadn't thought the videos were that telling of much. If anything, to me it just made it look like Tyler and I were better friends than we were. What had the girls seen that I missed?

"I'm not buying it," Tash demanded. "I saw you guys dancing at the bar. That was straight-up foreplay."

A blush warmed my cheeks which made all the girls around me coo and giggle. I couldn't stop my eyes from wandering out to the dock where I'd seen Tyler go. He stood out there with Ashley, both glowing orange in the late afternoon sun as it dropped closer to the mountains. Tyler laughed at something Ashley said and I diverted my eyes.

A thought prickled the back of my neck and I snapped my head back towards Tash. "You weren't at The Rori that night, were you? I was drunk but I wasn't that drunk. I would have remembered seeing you."

Tash shook her head and pulled out her phone. "No, I saw it on Instagram this morning." A shiver ran up my legs and over my spine as she tapped on her screen then passed me her phone. I looked down and saw a darkly-lit video from that night at the bar. It looked like whoever filmed it had stood near the edge of the dance floor with their camera focused right on Tyler and me. The strobe lights highlighted the small smile on my lips when Tyler had leaned in and tucked his forehead against my temple. It was so weird to see myself like that and I had to look away.

"Oh my God," I mumbled as I passed Tash's phone to Grace and Gwen. They tucked their faces together and watched the video before looking back at me.

"Whoever posted it put a fuck ton of Tyler Westwood and Goon Rider hashtags," Gwen noted.

Grace smiled apologetically. "They hashtagged your name too, Pia."

I dropped my head into my hands and groaned, "I'm an idiot."

The girls around us buzzed with sympathy and excitement. They all passed around the phone so they could watch the video too. More than a few fanned themselves jokingly after watching Tyler and I dance.

"It's not like it's a nude or a sex tape," Marianne shrugged. "I don't really see what the big deal is."

"His followers were already making comments that we were together or something," I pouted. "Not to mention a lot of them didn't like me because of it. I just don't want more of that."

"Look on the bright side babygirl," Grace grinned. "Maybe you'll get those vitamin ads now."

"Who gives a fuck what people say about you?" Gwen added. "They're just random internet trolls you'll never meet."

"My mom is going to kill me," I sighed. "All those lectures about keeping my social media clean and now there's a video of me rubbing up against a man forever out there."