Red Butterflies

Chapter 24

I woke up to my blankets tucked around me. I got myself ready for school and caught the bus into town to school instead of driving. When I got there Tye bounded up to me smiling. "Hey beautiful, how are you?" He said happily. I let out a small smile before answering him. "I'm good, better now I'm with you." The day dragged on and on and when the final bell rang to go home I was overwhelmed with excitement. Tye met me at my last class and carried my bag out to the bus. He let me go in first, I sat, him following me in afterwards. Tye didn't say much to me, I just sat there looking out the window watching the trees pass by while he was playing a car game on his phone. I had never noticed how beautiful trees were, the green looked splendid against the bright blue sky that wasn't covered in dark, grey storm clouds. I turned my head and watched his hands. He had nice hands. I wanted to hold his hand but they were too preoccupied with his game. "Tye." I said to him. "Yeah?" "Are you at all almost done with that?" I asked. He locked his phone and put it on his lap. I reached out my hand and slowly slid it into the palm of his in twining our fingers. "I'm happy now." I said letting out a small smile. Our hands stayed fixed like that until we were dropped off at his house. I walked into his house after him awkwardly, greeted his parents and followed him to his bedroom. I laid on the bed, he shut his door, and came over to the bed and laid down wrapping his arms around me. It was nice, but didn't last long because soon enough there was a knock on his bedroom door. He quickly jumped up and opened his door leaving me alone on the bed. It was his dad asking what Tye wanted for dinner, and still, it was as awkward as ever, being in the same house, sleeping under the same roof as the man who knew how much I wanted to kill myself, the man who got paid to hear my problems; my psychologist.

Sitting at the dinner table with him was at first awkward as well but things got better after dinner. I went and had a shower and then came back to a Tye eating starburst lollies. We spent the night together eating lollies and watching horror movies. "Stay still and open your mouth." He said to me. "That sounds dodgy." I replied. He pulled a seductive face before laughing. "Seriously though." He held a lolly up and threw it at me but completely missed me each time. That's when I discovered that he wasn't aiming for my mouth. "Yes!" He called out when he got a strawberry lolly down my cleavage. "Serious?" I asked. He started laughing. "Yep." I pulled it out and threw it at him and after it ricocheted off his forehead landing on his bed he picked it up and ate it. "Ew." I said. "Tastes like lolly to me." It was about eleven o'clock and we were on our third horror movie; The Exorcist, and slowly and peacefully I drifted off to sleep. After some time I woke up slightly to him tucking me in and getting closer to me. As he put his arm over my stomach and grabbed his hand and tightened my grip around his fingers. I remember the second night I spent with him, I was lying on my back and he fell asleep first. He looked so peaceful, so easy to love, I couldn't stop starting at him taking in every fine detail of him, and after admiring all the fine details I noticed how perfect his jaw line was. It was more structured than my life and as I smiled at that though he rolled over wrapping one of his arms around my stomach, so many emotions were going through my head, he then woke up a little and pulled me closer and said softly, "stop worrying." I couldn't understand how he knew I was worried. Before I could even answer him, he fell back to sleep letting out a loud snore, and that was when I realised I loved him, and I was scared, scared but safe.

We slept in until twelve o'clock, well I did anyway, I rolled over stretching out my arm to realise Tye wasn't lying next to me. I grabbed my phone and sent him a text asking where he was. "I'm outside." He replied. I got up out of bed and grabbed his jumper. After putting it on I walked out of his bedroom and down the hall to where I was blocked by his father. "How are you going?" He asked me. "Uh, good." I said back awkwardly. "Seriously? I'm not asking now as a job, I'm asking because I can tell you're very close to Tye, I'm asking because I physically and emotionally care about you." To be completely honest I wasn't sure how I was supposed to respond but an "I'm alright, after meeting Tye, I've felt a lot better. He's remarkable." Seemed to do. He kept me held up until Tye walked through the front door asking why I wasn't with him. He sent me back to my room and said he would return soon, so there I sat, on his bed, on Facebook, on his laptop and not long after he did return, with a plate full of bacon, eggs and pancakes. I opened my mouth to say something, but just smiled saying," thanks." "A late breakfast." He said to me. I cut the egg and picked it up with a fork. "These eggs. They're amazing." I said before shovelling the rest into my mouth. "What time does this party start?" I asked. "Six." He replied. "But we'll have to leave around five fifteen for peek hour and I need to get some drinks." At about two o'clock I went in for a shower and it took me about an hour and a half to do my makeup. I pulled out my dress and carefully put it over my shoulders and walked out of the bathroom and into Tye's bedroom. "Can you please do the back up?" I asked. He smiled and walked over to me and started doing the back of my corset up. "You look, wow. Great." He said to me. "Thanks." I said back blushing slightly. My brown hair was out and teased; I had smoking eye makeup and splashed blood over my neck and chest. My dark eye shadow and eyeliner brought out my green eyes. I looked like a horror scene. I looked like death. After he finished my corset he went into the bathroom to shower and get himself ready. He was out of the bathroom and ready at four fifty. Before we left I had a good look at myself in the mirror and re did my lip stick. The red made my lips look perfect. I took a few photos, said good bye to his parents and then followed him to his car. We drove into town and parked outside the shopping centre.

We walked into Dan Murphys casually, the cheapest alcohol store in Australia. Automatically every eye in the shop gazed at us. "Halloween shouldn't be celebrated in Australia." I heard an old lady said. "American Hill billies." Another snorted. I felt small, my anxiety was trying to jump out of my skin. Tye could see what was happening and grabbed my hand pulling me behind a shelf of spirits. "Don't listen to them darl. You look great." He said to me. I smiled slightly and looked at the shelf. "What are you getting?" I asked. "Smirnoff and rum." He said. "What do you want?" "Mango liquor." I asked. "And can I have some of your vodka?" "Sure." We walked up to the counter where a young lady in her mid twentys with bright red hair in a bun and a Monroe piercing was standing waiting to serve us. "Going to a party?" She asked. "Yes." Tye replied to her. "I think it's really stupid when Aussies celebrate American traditions or holidays." She said. I opened my mouth to say something but under the counter Tye pulled my wrist as to say "leave it." I turned and walked out to the shop with Tye walking behind me. "I hate it when people are like that." "Yeah I know, but you're going to have to deal with it." He said "maybe I don't want to." I replied. He only shrugged his shoulders. We drove to the party in silence with the bright orange sun beams blinding my eyes, illuminating the shadows of the trees on the sides of the roads.

As we turned the last corner the bass of the music playing up the road echoed through the car. As we pulled up in the drive way Tye turned his head and looked at me before saying, "tonight is going to be a good night." I carefully stepped out of the car, making sure not to rip my dress and followed Tye to the front of the house. As we opened the door the house erupted with music. The bass flowed throughout bodies making our hearts jump. It was crowded and there were so many people. We walked towards the kitchen to where he greeted his mate Logan. "This is Skylar." He said introducing me to him. "Logan." He said reaching out his hand to shake mine. "Girlfriend?" Logan asked Tye. There was a slight pause before Tye responded. "No, best friend." He said. "Shame. She's quite attractive, I might eat her if you don't keep her on a leash. Big bad wolf is a little hungry. Enjoy the party, Red." Logan said taking off walking behind my slapping my ass as his left.

I felt slightly uncomfortable and didn't know what to say. "Let's keep you away from him." Tye said. We each started the night with vodka. I spent the first couple of hours just following Tye around like a lost dog as he greeted all his friends and chatted with them. I felt like I didn't belong and that I wasn't wanted and even though all his friends tried to convince me to dance with them I was being antisocial. It was hard trying to hammer my anxiety down, but it was creeping up on me like a hairy spider. We all sat on a couch, Tye and his friends engaged in deep, drunken conversation, and I, I sat there alone staring at my phone, well, until the alcohol started kicking in. Once I started to feel it, it kept getting worse. Before I knew it I was grabbed by the wrist by Tyes friend Rachael into the middle of the dance floor with her dancing on me, it was fun until Tye interrupted. "Mind if I take over?" He asked her. She instantly stepped aside. Soon he was slut dropping and grinding on my leg, but I didn't care. I was happy and I was having fun.

It was about eleven o'clock and Tye pulled me over to a corner where the music wasn't as loud so he could speak to me. With a drink in both his and my hand, we leant up to a wall to keep balance. He was a lot more sober than I was but he was heavily intoxicated. He put his unsteady hand up to my cheek and caressed it. "Have I ever told out how beautiful I think you are?" He said softly to me. "Quite a few times." I responded. "Really, you are. And I just want you to be okay, I don't want you to hurt, I don't want you cry. I want you to be happy and smile your beautiful smile. Someone like you doesn't deserve to be so sad. I love you and I can say it so easily now because I know it's true. I don't have to pretend, and I'm so glad that you're here with me." I was speechless, I couldn't think of any words to say, all I knew is that every inch of me wanted to kiss him. His lips were slightly apart and not touching; they stood out in his face. "Nothing to say?" He asked. I shook my head and slowly I started to lean in to kiss him. Our lips were about a centimetre away, I could feel his warm breath on my lips and just as we were about to lock our mouths a voice called out.