The Bad Boy's Sleepover

Chapter 36

Eva felt nauseous. There was a tingling feeling in her toes and fingers that reverberated along her limbs. She briefly wondered if this was what a nervous breakdown felt like but then she realised she been sitting so stiffly, her hands and feet had cramped up. 

She flexed her fingers while Tyler swore under his breath for what felt like the hundredth time. 

"You were right," She said, her voice a whisper that carried through the tense atmosphere in the car. 

Tyler fell silent and turned to her. She ignored his penetrating stare, focusing on the dark road ahead. 

He put his hand on hers and she flinched like he had just given her frostbite. He was angry, she could tell but it didn't stop her from slipping her hand out from under his. Tyler has been trying his luck for years and she wondered if he would ever get the picture that she was never going to be interested in him. 

He was nothing like him, despite them being related. Tyler always tried too hard and fell too flat. She was certain he had scared off that Lola girl as well with his disturbing intensity and enthusiasm. 

Everyone at school only saw the show Tyler put on for them but only the people who got to know him knew what he was really like. Still it burned her up that he had missed his chance with Lola, when the opportunity had presented itself at the party a few weeks ago.

"You should have dated her instead. Dragged her away from Julian and his mess," Eva muttered bitterly. 

"She's too plain for me. Even being in the same room with her was a struggle." Tyler looked away, unable to face her after his failure. 

Lola had been in his house. Tyler had the perfect opportunity to dig out information but instead he had revealed their biggest secret; that Tyler had a brother who had taught them in school. 

Who was now conveniently off the radar. Anybody who really paid attention would be able to put two and two together; that Tyler's brother had gone missing after the exam leak. But everyone had been too occupied with the murders to bother about a substitute teacher's absence.

"Do you think Lola told Julian about your brother?" The answer was obvious, considering they now knew Lola was involved with Julian somehow but Eva didn't want to accept it. She'd locked away all memories of that incident and now everything was crawling back out to haunt her.

"She probably reported everything to him the moment she climbed through her window. She looks like the type," Tyler replied, his tone implying how annoyed he was with Lola.

This was not good. Lennox was supposed to disappear. He was supposed to vanish into thin air. It was what he had promised. 

The thought of Lennox made Eva shiver with fear even though she remembered admiring him and confiding in him in the begining. She had been younger and more naive at the time, believing that his kindness was something genuine. 

He was the only person who saw through her every insecurity and he had used her trust to fuel his own psychotic desires. 

"Does he know?" Eva's voice cracked with vulnerability. "That Julian's back and the case has been reopened?" 

"What do you think?" Tyler's bitter resentment for his brother always shone through with his words. 

Lennox was better looking, smarter and more charming than Tyler ever would be. But he was also a psycho, something Tyler always seemed to overlook. 

"Do you think he's coming back?" The very thought of seeing him again was enough to give her goosebumps.

"Don't you want him back to sort out this mess?" Tyler countered.