Going Full Throttle

Chapter 21 - Tyler's POV

"Tyler?"

The wobble in Pia's voice stabbed into my chest. I had seen her pushing through the crowd and I had thought I saw tears but I wasn't sure. I'd been so pissed watching her all over Ryan all night I wanted to just ignore what I saw. The thought of her alone and potentially hurt though was enough to make me follow.

"W-Why are you glaring at me," she whispered.

I sighed and tried to relax my face. It was a bad idea to follow her up here. I was pissed at her and now I couldn't even act like it because her fricken tears were ripping at my heart.

I reached out and begrudgingly wiped the tears off her cheek. "Stop crying," I grumbled. My hand lingered against her face and she sucked in a breath as though she were trying really hard to listen. The tears didn't stop though.

"Did you have a fight with Ryan?" I asked even though I really didn't want to hear the answer.

Pia shook her head slowly and tilted her head. "No, of course not."

Right. With me, she's a little fighter 24/7 but I guess with Ryan it is crazy for me to assume they'd fight? I rubbed my eyes and tried to remind myself to be nice. "What's the matter then, Pia?" My voice came out sharper than I meant it to.

Pia narrowed her eyes at me and pulled her face away from my hand. "Why did you come up here? To make it worse? Where is Ashley anyway?"

Frustration swirled in my chest at her accusation. She didn't have any right to be upset about Ashley—not that anything was even happening there. "Why do you even care? Look, I'm not trying to make this worse. Do you just want me to go get Ryan for you?"

"Why do you keep bringing him up? What's going on with you?" Pia snapped.

"I just assumed since you've been all over him all night you'd probably want him up here to lick your wounds," I shot back.

Pia laughed mirthlessly and glared at me. "That's rich coming from you. Did you even wait until after I said no to sext Ashley? Or were you trying to sleep with me knowing she was on her way here?"

"Were you leading me on knowing that you were getting back together with Ryan?" Our voices were sharp and loud at this point. The jovial sounds of laughter and music in the yard over were an odd contrast to our fight.

"I'm not getting back together with Ryan!" Pia shot up on her knees so she was almost at the same height as me. Her chest heaved with frustration as she skewered me with a glare.

"Does he know that? Because the two of you look pretty fucking cozy," I challenged.

Pia let out a growl of frustration that was too loud and crass for such a small girl. She looked ready to push me off the damn roof. "You don't get to judge me for how I treat one of my closest friends when you obviously brought Ashley here to hook up and have been pulling her into dark corners all night," she hissed.

This was one of those moments in life where I could see the glimmer of hope that the two of us had some serious miscommunications. It's like I could see exactly where we'd both gone wrong. Except that my body was pumping full of adrenaline and anger and that's not the easiest thing to just let go of.

Every inch of my body wanted to keep fighting, and I couldn't calm myself down. My jaw was stubbornly locked and incapable of regaining composure. "Ashley is probably off with the guy she met earlier," I finally snapped.

"Karma," Pia said with a satisfied smile.

"For God's sake, Pia. Yes okay, I was pissed when you shot me down twice. I was angry that I couldn't have you when every bone in my fucking body wanted it. So I texted Ashley. I didn't think you'd care since you made it pretty obvious you just wanted to be friends. I didn't even think the damn plan through enough to realize you'd be around while she was here. Not that I have to defend my actions when you were the one who didn't want anything to happen with me."