It Should Have Been Him

Chapter 27

Then

Tyler and I lit a bonfire and sat in front of it. We were both caught in a daze, staring at the ocean, as the waves toppled over each other, and the fire cracked in the wind. He put his arm around me.

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened to your dad?" he asked. A little part of my mind felt devastated, but I pushed it away, I taught myself over the years to just let it go.

"When I was 2, he didn't come back home one day, I asked my mom why he wasn't there, and she told me he wasn't going to be back for a while. A few years later I asked her again if he was coming home, and she told me that he died in a car accident." I go quiet, it's hard to try to remember, I just get frustrated. Wishing I knew him, or had at least one childhood memory of him getting me a bike, or taking me to the zoo.

"Aw man, I'm sorry," he said. I shrugged.

"It's fine, I barely knew him anyways," I said. I played with a single grain of sand in my fingertips, rolling it around.

"What about you? What's your family like?" I asked. He focused his eyes down on the flames again.

"They're good, my parents put a lot of pressure on me. They're extremely wealthy, and they want me to go to some great ivy-league school with a scholarship, so they can brag about me, but it's not what I want," he said. I dart my eyes curioiusly at him.

"What do you want?" Tyler's eyes lit up, and he grabbed my hands, he opened his mouth to speak and then a dramatic voice made its way to us. Cutting him off completely.

"Okay, you know that jackass Tyler? I think he left this note in my locker," we both heard Katherine's voice, "ugh I can't believe I was ever in love with him, he's probably just jealous because he can't have me now, remember I used to go to his house and stalk him?" I cringed my forehead, feeling like I should have stopped Katherine from speaking, "he left it in my locker to mock me and I am so-" her sentence ended early when she saw Tyler sitting beside me. He looked back towards her, his eyes wide.

"You went to my house and stalked me?" he asked alarmed. I took a heavy sigh, feeling it was necessary. He waited for Katherine's response, but she stood there, frozen, "what's wrong with you?" he added. Her face went extremely pale, and I could see her choke a bit. 

"What are you doing here? You shouldn't be here," she snapped, she hid it pretty well, but I could see how desperate she was to change the subject.

"Well, I hope he should be here, he's my boyfriend," I said. It felt weird, it was the first time I had referred to Tyler as my boyfriend. I saw Katherine stumble back a few steps, being the drama queen she was.

"You were in love with me? I don't even know who you are," Tyler chuckled.

"Well I'm glad you guys are finding this funny," Katherine scoffed.

"Oh come on, relax, we're just teasing you," I said innocently. Tyler nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, take an aspirin or something," Tyler mumbled under his breath while Katherine walked over and sat beside me.

"I was right," she whispered in my ear when Tyler wasn't listening. I hated to admit it, but she was right. I was wrong. Damn that felt foreign. I. Was. Wrong. 

We spent the rest of the day watching the ocean until the fire went out.

When Tyler finally left, I walked back up to my room and saw the lined paper folded in half. I picked it up from off the desk, and saw my name neatly printed on the top. I carefully unfolded it and read Tyler's messy handwriting.

Hey Corrin,

By the time you read this I'll be gone,

Back at my house probably being lectured by my parents.

Just know that I'm thinking about you right now.

At this very second.

I can guarantee you I am.

And I'm missing you.

-Tyler

I smiled and folded the paper back in half and put it back on my desk. I took the pink sticky notes out of my backpack, suddenly coming up with a fun idea.