Circles | Jody & Tyler | The Dumping Ground

Prom

Tyler POV

Yawning, I tried not to appear uninterested in the day's proceedings as everyone began to conglomerate in the living room. The DG was significantly a lot louder and chattier than it had ever been and Mike's charity prom was almost definitely to blame. It could have been mistaken that I'd been up half the night thinking about what to wear or who to take, but in truth, my thoughts were concerned with Jody. And not in a good way.

Perhaps I was being stupid for getting upset over her leaving me for her brothers that day.

She had no idea how wound up I'd gotten, counting down the minutes till she returned. Every time a bus had passed, I'd felt my hopes sink lower and lower with the prospect of her not returning. My mind had been busy with drafting explanations to Mike and May-Li about why I'd let her see them again.

It was her dad's grave, I knew that.

And they were her family. But if they'd gotten into her head again... I would never forgive myself. These days I was spending all my nights regretting leaving her behind with them. Alone.

Anything could have happened. I was only lucky that it didn't.

"Tyler, what's going on?"

The said person strolled into the room and sat down next to me on the mini table while we waited for Mike to brief us on preparations for the prom. I realised with a dread that she was later than usual from her training session at the gym. Though my suspicions were raised, I kept my mouth shut. I was probably being paranoid; she'd explained that she wouldn't see Kingsley or Luke anytime soon.

"Prom meeting."

"Ah. Um hey, don't you think Mike's been acting weird since you lot came back from Ireland? He accidentally called me 'Tracy' just now!"

Mike's trip to Ireland to meet his estranged mother and brother was certainly eventful, to say the least. It was one of the few times I'd seen Mike as more than just our carer, deep down he was still a child who'd longed for his parent and it was emotional to see the roles switched. It definitely explained now, why he'd remained so silent over his own upbringing.

I shrugged.

"It's probably just the stress of prom as well."

"Sasha told me you two really bonded that day. I'm proud of you, Ty."

I swallowed before muttering a quick 'thanks'. This was hopeless. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't mask the lingering hurt. And guilt. My phone buzzed in my pocket but I dared not look at it for fear that it was her again.

The fact that the whole time I'd stood at the bus stop fuming internally at what Jody had done, debating whether or not to call Mike and grass... and it had been Piper calling me and striking up a conversation which remarkably had managed to dissipate my emotions and keep me grounded and level-headed until Jody returned.

The one day when my attention should've solely been on Jody.

Except she'd left me. Left me to wait behind.

"Who wants to go to the prom tonight and have the best night of their lives?!"

Mike unravelled a poster as the DG whooped excitedly awaiting details about venue and catering, and most importantly music! The prom had definitely been the talk of the town, loads of other care homes were taking part as well as members of the public. It was truly an event to be anticipated.

I shook my negativity out of my head as Mike continued to explain (much to the disappointment of the others) that we would still have to finish up on our chores before the end of the day.