Circles | Jody & Tyler | The Dumping Ground

Ex

Tyler POV

"It's like she completely forgot I was there!"

I grinned, as I quickly kissed my mum goodbye and hurried down the road to catch the bus that was due any minute now. I switched my phone to my other hand as I fumbled for my bus pass and plopped myself down onto the nearest seat as Jody continued to rant about Sasha. The two of them had been visiting a college fair when Sasha had bumped into her ex.

Josh the Plumber.

And now Jody was left raging about being the third wheel while the two of them flirted away...

"...it's like she thinks I owe her or something, because of well, you and me! But seriously, there's a time and place for these things! And I really need her help deciding; do I even want to do Sports Psychology? I mean, there are so many options out there... there's this breakdance course, but I haven't danced in so long so I don't know if I can still do all that, and there's this Creative Writing one..."

"Jody!" I exclaimed. "Breathe."

I sighed, she was getting herself worked up about her future like I had. And even though deciding what you wanted to do was a big deal, it wasn't something to lose your mind over. Jody knew her own strengths and I knew that her experience at the gym had been a breakthrough for her.

"Boxing's your thing; just 'cause you didn't get through the trials it doesn't mean you have to rethink everything!" I reminded her, "Sorry..."

"For what?"

I smiled grimly. "I should've come with you."

"No, you're right," she muttered back. "I'm just overthinking it as usual."

There was a pause at the end of the line and I could hear her let out a somewhat frustrated sigh; I realised then, that this wasn't about the college fair or Sasha spending all her time with Josh.

"Is something wrong?" I asked, recalling her tense behaviour of the past two days. I knew that the trials had meant an awful lot to her but she'd worked herself to the bone for it and despite her improving health, there was something else playing on her mind.

"Yeah," she admitted.

I frowned as I stood up to press the stop button. "What is it?"

She seemed hesitant to answer but eventually decided to out with it, "I thought I could handle it myself, but... well, that's never worked so well in the past has it?"

"Jody?"

"Luke called me," she stated eventually, "Left a voicemail..."

"And?"

"And nothing. I want nothing to do with him or any of my family!" she stated firmly.

I gave the situation a little thought. Jody's family had dragged her into tons of troubles over the past few years and it'd always been me who'd tried to pick up the pieces and give Jody the confidence to believe that she was better than them. I knew that if I ever saw Kingsley again, it wouldn't take much for me to punch him in the face for everything he'd done to her.

Then there was Luke... he'd been different. For one, he'd always treated Jody with the respect she'd deserved and had stood up to Kingsley when he kept involving her in his messed-up schemes. He'd even supported Jody giving her witness statement against him even though he'd been reluctant to do it in the first place. And overall, he'd been a decent bloke. Never judged any of us care kids or tried to make Jody do stuff against her will.

"But I thought you liked Luke..?"

There was another pause at the end of the line, and I heard Jody swear under her breath before returning to talk to me.