Bex

Chapter 28:

  Thankfully no heard me sneaking inside the house through the back door. When I got upstairs- undetected- I sighed in relief. My shoes were soundless on the carpet; my hand was halfway to the doorknob.

  "Where have you been?" I cringed and my shoulders slumped down in defeat at the sound of the familiar voice behind me.

  Note to self: develop better spy skills.

  I reluctantly turned around to face Tyler. He had his arms crossed, and his brow was furrowed in disappointment. He took in the sight of my wet hair with a look of apprehension. I looked down both ends of the hallway, hoping no one else was around to hear him except me, but he was probably going to tell our parents anyway.

  "I went to the carnival with a friend." I crossed my arms over my chest, too- mostly because I was cold, though.

  "And when you say friend, you mean Axel."

  I opened my mouth, ready to deny his assumption, but I closed it with a sigh. "Go ahead and yell at me- get it out of your system."

  "I'm not going to yell at you." He raised a blond eyebrow.

  "Fine, then go ahead and run to mom and dad and bust me." I flung an arm in the direction of the end of the hall.

  "I'm not going to do that either." He leaned his back against his bedroom door.

  "What? Why not?"

  "I've been looking out for you since day one," He said like it was an obvious fact of the universe- like how we need oxygen to breathe. "Besides, I owe you one."

"You owe me one? What are you talking about, Tyler?"

  He ran a hand through his styled, blond hair. "You had the courage to stand up to mom and dad and tell them that we both don't want to work in their company. I've never had the guts to say it to their faces before... and you just did it." He looked at me in awe.

  "I'm tired of living the life they want for me," I shrugged. "What time I have, I'm going to spend it my way." I gave Tyler a quirk of a smile, getting ready to go in my room, but he stopped me.

  "But for future reference, if you sneak out again, I will ground you till you're thirty myself." He switched from his loving big brother voice to his stern third parent voice.

  "It won't happen again." I gave him a small smile.

  Maybe... no promises.

  "You really like him, don't you?"

  I knew he was talking about Axel. Just the mention of Axel made a warm feeling bloom in my chest. His words still played in my head: "You're more beautiful than starlight, Bex Woods." I could feel a blush form on my cheeks, and I bit my lip around my smile. Then I realized what I was doing and stopped; I looked up to find Tyler staring at me.

"Yeah. I guess I do." I said distractedly.

"You guess?" Tyler sounded exasperated.

"Goodnight, Ty." I turned around to enter my room.

"Goodnight, pipsqueak."

Even though he couldn't see my face, I smiled at the nickname he has for me. If I'm being honest, I kinda missed him calling me that. I quickly got in my room and shut the door. I leaned my back against my bedroom door and tried to process what just happened.