She Will Be Loved

Chapter 11

"What do you mean you're grounded?" Tyler yelled at me.

We were standing outside pre-calc and I was regretting not having texted it to him. That would not only have minimized the yelling but it also would have meant that I wouldn't have to worry about teachers and snitchy students overhearing the situation.

Why did it matter?

Because I had a plan.

"How am I supposed to find another date?" Tyler demanded.

"You're not." I said, talking out of the corner of my mouth.

"What?"

"Tyler, I'm telling you this so you know why I ask you to pick me up halfway down the block." I muttered.

"Wait..."

"I'm sneaking out, Tyler. So you'll have to text me where to meet you and I'll walk over there." I looked up at him and then shrugged.

Tyler pinched the bridge of his nose and began to shake his head. "How are you going to sneak out in a dress?" He asked. He knew already that I had quite a lot of practice climbing out of the second floor window—the window that now belonged to Isabella. I'd been forbidden from going to quite a few late night parties my freshmen year due to a C in speech.

"Ok." I said, nodding at his point. "You'll have to come a little earlier so I have time to change. But I'll have hair and make-up ready."

"Gen..."

"It's doable!"

"It's not going to be dark out." Tyler moaned. "People are going to notice you climbing down the front of your house with a dress hanging over your shoulder and a pair of shoes in your mouth—don't act like that wasn't your plan—and they're going to talk to your dad."

"Screw him." I said grumpily. "I don't care what happens after the dance at this point. I just want to go." This was not quite true: I was afraid of being banned from prom. But I figured that it was far enough away Dad wouldn't think of it when he punished me and also that it wasn't worth angering Tyler. "You in or not?"

"Damn it, Swan."

"Give me an answer or I'm going to show Coach those pictures I took of you last year." I said, only half teasing. "You know how he feels about having a dry season." I finished pointedly.

Tyler frowned, considering. Then he swore at me.

"Is that a yes or a no?"

Tyler shook his head and began heading into class. "Fine."

"Yes?"

"Yes."

"Yay!" I bounced over and gave him a quick hug. "You're the best."

"You're blackmailing me." Tyler grumbled.

"It's not blackmail if you know they'll say yes anyway." I told him. "Besides, if I sneak out you'll have blackmail on me so I have to have something to hold against you."

"Yeah." Tyler said. "Or you could, you know, trust me."

"Yeah, there's that." I agreed, blinking a little at the strange idea.

"Whatever, Gen." Tyler sighed. "We'll talk about it later."

"Ok." I said, shrugging carelessly before bouncing off to class.

...

The rest of the day was fairly normal. I went through the day on autopilot, chased an annoyed looking Mike away from Isabella but otherwise stayed away from her as well. That night I skipped dinner, claiming I'd eaten a big lunch but really just unable to stomach the crabby look on Dad's face. Later I went down to the kitchen for a snack and passed Bella doing a ridiculous amount of laundry. I ended up sitting against the hallway wall outside the laundry room while she worked, trying to annoy her by quoting action movies and replacing key words with something about detergent or dryer sheets. The only downside was that it was exactly the type of thing Tyler would have enjoyed and I didn't feel comfortable texting him anymore. So instead I made a doofy reference to the 'Tide's of evil' Isabella had faced and then collapsed across the hallway floor.