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Part Sixteen

I ended up convincing Nate to head over to Tyler's house. I'm sure the guys would love to see him. They had probably been texting him all weekend, asking if they could come over. Nate had to dodge them somehow; they would go to his old house, and his parents would be put in the awkward position of sending them home or redirecting them to our new life.

I coaxed him out of bed and into the shower, and I brushed my tangled wet hair out as he did that. We met back in the foyer not twenty minutes later, and got on our way.

As we knocked on Tyler's front door, I said a silent prayer that nobody would question us showing up together. Or catch on to the fact that we show up everywhere together.

The front door flung open and Tyler's stocky figure filled up the entryway.

"Nathaniel!" Tyler exclaimed. "Bro, how are ya?"

Tyler pulled Nate in for a rough bro-hug as Nate attempted to smile and tell him he was good. I grimaced, but refrained from chastising Tyler for being too gruff. After he released Nate, Tyler turned on me and greeted, "Hey, Evie. You two show up together?" He glanced between the two of us, trying to piece some story together.

I smiled shortly and said, "Yes. I brought brownies." With a false smile, I handed the tray of chocolate treats to Tyler and pushed into the doorway, walking right on by the pair of boys. I wasn't giving Tyler anytime to react.

I realized when I walked in that I was unfamiliar with his house. I hadn't been here since freshman year, before Nate and I became estranged. Seeing me paused in Tyler's foyer, Nate placed a hand on my lower back to guide me. "Family room is this way."

I smiled slightly in thanks and let Nate show me to the other room. He dropped his hand just before we entered the other room. The team immediately all jumped up from the couches they were sitting on. Cheer of Nate! and There he is! rang out.

I rolled my eyes. He would get this reaction. Guys fist-bumped him as he walked by and I observed from a far. A few cheerleaders were flittering around, and they all waved to me, but seemed unwilling to move from their seats next to whichever boy they latched onto. I waved back to all of them before finding Paisley.

She was seated on a love seat next to Danny Evans, the jerk that got into a fight with Nate last week, leading to the gash on his ribcage. I internally growled, watching her laugh and flirt with him, but I supposed anything was better than Todd. I hadn't heard about him in awhile. Maybe Danny was the reason. I made a mental note to investigate later.

"What's with the stare down on Paisley and Evans?" a voice whispered in my ear. I jumped, startled. I turned around and came nose to nose with Tyler.

I laughed. "You scared me. I didn't know there was anyone behind me."

He ignored my comment and teased, "So, what? You like Evans or something? Jealous of your bestie, Paisley, are we?"

I shook my head honestly. "Absolutely not. Quite the opposite." Tyler's eyebrows raised in suspicious. "I haven't been the biggest fan of Danny lately."

"And why is that?" he forged on.

I shrugged vaguely. I couldn't exactly tell him I was enraged at the memory of finding Nate bleeding in our doorway and having to patch him up.

Tyler took a step closer to me. "So if you don't like Evans, who do you have your eye on?" His voice was low, slathered in flirtation and suggestion. I repressed the urge to cringe or gag or show any physical sign of my disgust at his implication. With him standing so close, I was in dangerous waters.

I shuffled backwards. "Nobody," I said shortly.

Tyler raised his eyebrows. "Nobody?" He clearly didn't believe me. A slight smile tugged at the corners of his lips.

"What are you hinting at, Tyler?" I questioned, squinting up at him. The annoying smirk playing across his face was getting under my skin, eating me from the inside out.

"I just feel like you're hiding something," he poked.

"Why would you think that?" I replied, doing my best to keep my voice nonchalant. My eyes flicked around the room to make sure we didn't have anyone's attention.

"Just a feeling," he lied. The smug look still plaster on, I knew that Tyler was attempting to get at something. Had Nate told him? I knew they were best friends, but Nate hadn't mentioned anything.

Then, it hit me. I froze up. Everything clicked when I remembered the moments before I climbed into the ambulance with Nate. I had told his coach and the athletic trainer that I was his wife.

I put both my hands on Tyler's chest and pushed him backwards, out of the family room and into his kitchen. Tyler laughed a full belly, hearty laugh, making fun of my reaction to my realization.

"What do you know?" I demanded.

He sneered, "I know everything, baby."

I blanched at the pet name. "Meaning?" My nerves knotted up, curling in my stomach and every muscle in my body. I could see our entire charade uncoiling in front of me.

"You and Nate have been hooking up for weeks," Tyler said.

I laughed, so loudly I was afraid it was coming out as more of a cackle. Tyler didn't know a damn thing.

"No," I insisted, "we're just friends." With that, I walked out of the kitchen and immediately involved myself in some cheerleading conversation, closing discussion with Tyler, hoping he would leave it at that.

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Later that night, after all of the excitement at Tyler's, I drove Nate and I home. It was Sunday and we had school the next day, so we both retired to our rooms with a simple goodnight.

I tossed and turned in my sheets, unable to fall asleep. Rolling over and glancing at the clock, I groaned, finding out it was nearing one o'clock. Throwing the covers back, I tugged myself out of bed and down the steps, hoping a cup of tea would help.

Rubbing the weariness out of my eyes , I stepped into the kitchen and was startled to find it wasn't empty. Nate sat at the island shirtless with a package of Oreos sitting in front of him.

Instead of questioning why I was awake at this time of night, Nate simply offered, "Oreos?"

I smiled slightly. "Sure."

I sat on the stool next to Nate's and grabbed one out of the package. Tea forgotten, Nate and I sat in silence for a long time, just munching on cookies.

The silence was fine for awhile, but as time drifted on I felt the desire to break it. So I did.

"Nate?" I said, trying to grab his attention. He looked up, letting me know he was listening. "I thought Tyler knew tonight." Nate didn't say anything, electing to raise his eyebrows in response. I continued, "I thought that your coach had told him for whatever reason, because he was teasing me and egging me on, acting like he knew something."

Nate knew that I had told his coach after an awkward encounter when he came to visit him in the hospital early Saturday morning. He understood it was unavoidable, and what we did avoid was talking about possible consequences. They were coming to a head now.

"And what did he know?" Nate asked.

"Nothing," I said, shaking my head. "He just thinks we're fooling around." I trailed my eyes on the ground, not trusting myself to look at Nate. I sighed. "If Tyler noticed how much time were spending together, then others are going to notice too. . ." I trailed off, not even bothering to mention the fact that everyone watched me ride off in the ambulance with him. "What are we going to do?"

Nate's eyes were blank. He just shrugged and said, "I don't know."

Then he got up.

And then he walked right out of the room.

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Hey, yeah, it's another chapter :)))) thanks for reading!!