No Troye, I Love You

12

Tyler’s  P.O.V.

After Ward’s threats, I decided to advance my flight to the end of the week. That was the only way to keep Troye safe. Maybe. I hadn’t received any calls or texts from Ward after that day and was beginning to feel a bit better. But I still had to tell Troye’s family about leaving the coming weekend. How was I going to make a good enough excuse for that?

“I,” I started to say “I’ve advanced my flight to this Saturday.”

“You what?” Troye almost spat out water on me.

“My mother’s sick.”

“Oh my god!” Mrs. Mellet spoke up, “Is she alright? I’ll call her and check.”

“No!” that couldn’t happen “Its no big deal. She’s not all that sick.”

“Then are you sure you want to go?” Mr. Mellet asked.

“She asked me too.”

---

I had convinced Mr. and Mrs. Mellet to not call mum, but that didn’t stop Troye from not speaking to me and being a drama queen. The Mellets had decided to give us some private time and had gone out somewhere.

“Troye?” I asked.

Silence.

“Troye, you don’t understand, I need to leave.”

“I understand,” he said coldly “I understand all right. You just want to get away from me. What we had wasn’t real. I get it.”

“Hell, no!” I exclaimed, walking into Troye’s room. He was hopelessly lying on his bed. But he wasn’t crying. He just looked mad. Very mad.

“Hell yeah.”

“I wasn’t pretending. It was all real. You couldn’t possibly think otherwise, could you?” I asked, cautiously sitting down next to Troye.

“I could, and I do. I’m going out to clear my head a little bit.’” After this, he got up and walked out of the room. I could feel the tears threatening to pour out. Why was Troye being like this? What was wrong with him? This is why I had been afraid to date Troye.  Just then, my phone rang. Damn. Blocked number.  It was Ward.

“What do you want now?” I asked, trying to sound all bold and dangerous but just sounding like a two year old.

“Someone’s eager to get started.” Ward said, sounding amused, “I just need some help.”

“What kind of help?” my voice was trembling now.

“I have this friend in Australia. Well, had. We used to be partners.”

“What do you want me to do, kill him?” I had meant to sound sarcastic but Ward’s answer took me by surprise.

“Yeah,” he said.

“I-I’m not killing anyone. Do what you want.” I was sobbing by now, “I’m coming back to the States day after. I left Troye. WHAT MORE COULD YOU POSSIBLY WANT?”

“Let’s not shout shall we-”

“WHY NOT?!” all that fear and sadness had now turned into anger.

“Because your mother’s life’s at stake.” how Ward remained so calm all the time was weird. Maybe it was a serial killer thing.

“What if I get caught by the police?”

“I suggest you don’t. Everything you need will be at the address I text you. His family is away so you shouldn’t have a problem.” he stopped for a moment, “Oh, and I’ll text you his house address, too.” he added as an afterthought.

“Why do you want me to kill him?” I choked, “You said you used to be partners.”

“Used to. Until he met that stupid little wife of his. He wanted to clean up his act for her. Impress her. ‘She was different’.  But people like us never change, do they? Once a criminal, always a criminal. He owes me stuff.”

“Money?”

“Amongst other things.” Ward said  thoughtfully, “Get the job done, or you know what. And you said you’re coming back to the States day after? I’m looking forward to seeing you again.” with that, Ward cut the call.

Only then did the truth dawn upon me. I had to kill a man. My hands were trembling, my vision was blurry. Murder was going to take this thing to a whole new level.

Calm down Tyler, think positive, I told myself, but that never helps, does it? I just had to kill a random man. How hard could that possibly be?