Living Life With The Parker Boys

Chapter Twenty-Four- Tyler Time

Chapter Twenty-Four

Tyler Time

“I have great news!” Beth said, coming into the games room where I along side the boys were sprawled out on the sofa and chairs. We all directed our attention to Beth who stood with her phone in her hand. It was Saturday and surprisingly none of us had day plans.

“I’m going home?” I asked. She shook her head and the tiny sliver of hope in me died.

“We’re having pizza for dinner?” I tried again. She shook her head. I sulked, pizza sounded great.

“Oh, I know! You’re finally putting Ash up for adoption.” I joked. The boys sniggered except for Ash who glared at me. The corners of Beth’s lips tugged into a smile.

“Not quite. The principal called and said that your suspension is over.” She said. I stared at her as she waited for me to do something. There had to be a punch line, right? When there wasn’t I threw my head back in annoyance.

“You said it was good news!” I complained.

“It is! Now you don’t have to do nothing everyday.” She said. Admittedly, it was getting a bit tiring waking up to an empty house and spending hours doing nothing but I wasn’t exactly ecstatic to go back to school. After that Beth left to go to work.

“Are you guys going to that carnival tonight?” I asked.

“Yeah there’s a big group of us going, you can tag along if you want.” Max said.

“She’s already going, Brooklyn here has got herself a hot date.” Logan said, wiggling his eyebrows at me. I threw a cushion at him, hitting him square in the face.

“Aw, our little Brooklyn’s growing up.” Max cooed, wiping away a fake tear. As I scowled at the two of them.

“First of all, I’m not your little Brooklyn and I’ll never be yours and second of all, don’t you have some hearts to go break?” I said. Logan smirked nodding whilst Max looked offended claiming that he was nothing like his pig of a brother. 

After five minutes of aimlessly watching cartoons on TV the doorbell rung. I jumped up to go answer, anything was better than sitting around doing nothing and letting boredom consume me. I was surprised when I opened the door to see Tyler who sent me a sheepish smile. 

“What’s up?” I asked, leaning against the door frame. He rubbed the back of his neck, something I’d noticed he did when he was nervous.

“Uh, I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out, you know without the books.” He said. Behind me there was a loud crash and bunch of shouting. “It’s fine if you’re busy, I probably should have called before coming.” He finished, taking a step back as if getting ready to leave. I rose an eyebrow at him. He shuffled under my gaze, I smirked as I watched him squirm. “I brought food?” He offered, bringing my attention to the bags of chips in his arms and gummy bears. 

“Then by all means, do come in Mr Woods.” I joked, stepping aside. He stared at me momentarily before his face broke out into a grin which was so contagious that it had the corners of my lips tugging into a smile. He followed me to the games room where we walked in on Max, Logan, Tristan and Charlie piled on top of a struggling Ash. Tyler let out an amused laugh which brought their attention to him. Logan was the first to come forward.

“Who’s this?” He asked. 

“Tyler, he tutors me.” I said. 

“So, the two of you are friends?” He asked. There was that word again. Friends. Why did everything have to have a label on it? Couldn’t we just be two people who hung out occasionally instead of having this title that ties us together?  I glanced over at Tyler who nodded his head without hesitation. When he saw me looking at him he sent me a reassuring smile.