Are you mine?

Chapter 22

On Friday night I park my car outside Jackson's place, music pouring out through the open windows of the house, as Syd and I get out of the car. We slowly make our way to the front door, the night breeze blowing on my hair as I turn to Syd. "Have you...Talked to Ty in the past few days at all?"

"Yeap," she replies, pursing her lips and avoiding eye contact.

"Did he tell you about...?"

"Yeap," she nods.

"Fuck, this is so messed up." I push my hair back in frustration.

I feel guilty about not telling Noah about my kiss with Tyler, but I'm justifying it by telling myself that it was a one-time thing, and it'll never happen again. We still haven't defined the boundaries of our maybe relationship so I'm thinking that confessing about the kiss will only make him worry about my relationship with Tyler and cause a mess that I'm not sure I can deal with. I just have to sort this out with Tyler in private and everything will be alright.

"Just give him time Mads," Syd offers with a hand on my shoulder.

"Everything happened so fast, it just came out of left field for me," I say knocking on the front door loudly enough to be heard over the blasting music.

"Did it really, though?" she questions, and I look at her confused, trying to figure out what that's supposed to mean. We hear shuffling coming from inside and a few seconds later, the door swings open and there stands Noah, looking dreamy as ever.

He's dressed in all black, from his sneakers, to his joggers, to his shirt. I'm not gonna lie, with his tall, broad frame, and dressed like this he looks pretty intimidating. It's kind of hot though.

"Hey guys, come on in," He says, gesturing for us to go inside with a dashing smile on his face.

"You really are always playing host," I tease.

He laughs, " Come on, everyone is chilling in the living room so make yourselves at home."

After closing the door behind us, Noah leads the way through the corridor into a lounging area where all the guys are. There's a big couch where Logan, Jackson, and Mason are sitting, and Noah goes over to join them. They're all facing a giant flat-screen TV and playing a video game. The coffee table in front of them is filled with cups containing mysterious liquids, chip crumbs, and cigarette buds. To the side, there are two empty, individual armchairs next to a window. A wave of relief washes over me as I see Tyler sitting on one of them, legs spread lazily and eyes focused on the screen.

He turns at the sound of our footsteps approaching, his eyes widening at the sight of Syd and me. He practically jumps out of his seat, rushing over to us, "What are you guys doing here?" he asks alarmed, trying to keep his voice down.

"Ty, please, you can't keep avoiding me forever," I whisper. "We really need to talk-"

"We're not doing this, Maddie," He says firmly, "Not here." Before I can argue he walks away towards the kitchen to pour himself a drink.

"That went well," Syd says sarcastically, trying to lighten the mood.

I glare at her, "Not the time."

"Yup, yeah, got it," she says, nodding her head awkwardly and biting down on her bottom lip.

As I take in this sight and the trap music pierces my eardrums, I'm thinking I probably shouldn't be here, but Syd grabs me by the hand and drags me farther into the room. We greet everybody, heading for the now empty armchairs, while Tyler joins the boys on the large couch and grabs himself a playstation controller to join their game. As soon as I sit, I can feel both Noah's and Mason's eyes drilling holes into me.