Tyler was a liar.

I think there was no other way to justify his behavior as he lied twice after that about the ice-hockey practice. What I didn't understand is why he had to tell me lies? He'd already told me that he wanted me to study alone with him and yet I found him making up outrageous stories to get me to come to his house.

The third week when Tyler invited me to his house for the study date, I didn't turn up.

I guess that was the first time that I'd stood Tyler up for something. He needed to understand that I didn't like liars, especially when it was him. Archer was actually taking this much better than I and said that there was no way one could understand how Tyler's mind worked. He suspected that Tyler liked me back, and that could be the reason why he didn't want Archer to join us.

Today was Monday, Archer and I called it Doom-day. The car maneuvered into the school parking lot, my brother parked the car into an empty space and we saw Tyler's Royal blue Corvette parked in his usual VIP space.

Yeah, you heard me.

Some people here actually paid yearly for a VIP parking spot. Tyler obviously had the best space in the entire Cold-Bay High school.

"Oh look, Hazel forgot her lunch-Box in the car." Archer groaned, looking heavenward.

I sighed. "I'll go to the A-wing and drop it off."

Archer shook his head, "you go on ahead. I'll drop the lunch."

Now I had to walk the hallway alone, without my brother as a shield. That only meant one thing. Tyler would catch up to me, and then he would demand answers for not showing up at his house on Saturday.

Thankfully, there was no sign of Tyler. My first class was Creative Writing, and I knew Tyler was taking Advanced Mathematics. I'd heard that no one in his class could beat Tyler at oral math, which didn't surprise me. He was a guy who had all the qualities of a jock but was still a geek underneath all those layers. In fact, I'd seen him hang out more with his nerdy friends rather than the entire ice-hockey team.

The day dragged on slowly. The sky was a shade of inky blue when we'd arrived in the morning, it was almost mid-day now and it had blended into a shade of grey which only indicated towards a heavy rain. The weather settled me into an immediate melancholy. I didn't know why I just found the rainy weather depressing.

I was making my way towards English class when I felt a light tap on my head. I turned around to find Tyler walking beside me.

"Hey shorty," He called out to me.

I hated when he called me that. "I'm not that short," I argued.

"Your height barely comes till my chest." He pointed.

"That's because I'm not wearing heels today. If I did, I'd reach your face."

"Prove it. Wear your heels next time and if your lips touch mine, I'll stop calling you shorty." He grinned.

I rolled my eyes at him, but actually, my heart was going to leap out of my chest. I knew not to take anything coming from Tyler's mouth seriously, and yet that statement seemed more like an open invitation to kiss him rather than just plain old teasing.

"Friends don't kiss," I said as I gave him a sideways hit with the book I was holding in my hand.

"Hmm...well, we gotta do something about that."

"Are you flirting with me, Tyler Lockhart?" I asked.

"I'm and you're enjoying it."

I hit his back with my books, giggling. Some girls there at the corner, friends of Harper Woodley rolled their eyes. I ignored them.

Tyler was his usual cheerful-teasing self and it appeared like he had forgotten about our study date on Saturday, but knowing Tyler, he could be pretending to forget it.

The two of us sat together during English. I was taking notes as usual, but Tyler was writing something in his diary. The diary that he carried with him everywhere. When I tried to peek at it, he covered the page with his hand.

"What are you writing?" I asked.

"I can't tell you that," he said secretively.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because my mom says that I shouldn't. If I show it to you, there's a big possibility you would judge me and—"

I touched his arm lightly, "I will never judge you for anything, Tyler. You know that."

"And maybe even hate me." He completed his sentence, and turned his astonishing blue eyes to me, "I don't care about other people, but I would never want you to hate me for it, Victoria."

I stared at him trying to decipher the meaning of that last sentence. He always gave me subtle hints, and teased me twenty-four-seven and three-sixty-five days but never clearly shared his true feelings, and that really confused the hell outta me.

I wanted to know if Tyler liked me in any way, even if it was just a little bit. My mom always advised me against running after boys, she said that a girl should maintain her pride and instead let the boy chase after her. I agreed to that at some degree but with Tyler it was different. He was my best friend, we saw each other most of the time and it was hard to not feel anything or want something when we practically breathed the same air.

"Okay, class listen up," Mr. Brooks, our English teacher called. "You're getting a chance to do an assignment this term. The grades will be added in the final exam."

There were collective groans from the entire room.

Mr. Brooks was a chubby middle-aged man with a large belly and bushy mustache. Tyler joked that Mr. Brooks watered his mustache with his plants every morning. I'd laughed so loud in class that day and everyone had looked at me like I'd gone crazy.

Mr. Brooks mustache twitched as he said, "The assignment should be submitted in a pair of two students." He mentioned, "And, I'll be doing the choosing for your partners."

There were a collective 'Nooooooo's' from everyone.

"Oh, yes." Mr. Brooks said. "Last time I let you choose your partners and some of the students hadn't found suitable pairs. This time I've taken it upon myself to see to it that it is fair." He had a glass bowl ready with folded paper chits inside. He pushed his chubby hand into the round bowl, for a second I suspected his hand would get stuck but he successfully pulled out the first chit, and read. "Amelia Hall and..." he dug his hand in the bowl again and took out another one.

I prayed 'please not me. Please, not me.'

"Ian Rossi."

I sighed. Tyler passed me a look. "Who do you wish to be partnered with?"

"Naturally, you."

Tyler grinned, appearing pleased, "Naturally."

"What about you?"

Tyler's eyes roamed around the classroom, it reminded me of a predator, a very dangerous one. "I guess Harper Woodley."

"Of course. She's beautiful, head cheerleader, nice big boobs, drives a Porsche, and gives you the occasional fuck-eyes. I get it. She's totally your league," I said feeling a hurricane of jealousy inside me.

"Yeah, but you're in the cheerleading squad too." He pointed out.

"Yes, I am, but I don't have beautiful chocolate brown hair that people seem to love so much, and neither am I model slim like her."

"No, you're not." He said, "Because you're even better."

I narrowed my eyes at him. Tyler was staring at me with an unreadable expression on his face and then he burst into laughter. "How do you always fall for it?"

I turned away to look out the window to show him that I was in fact angry.

"My sweet angel Victoria," He said, "I was teasing you. I don't know why you would even ask me that question. It's you I want to be with, Vicky. Just you."

"Victoria Lane." Mr. Brooks called out to me and my heart began racing fast. Tyler caught my hand in his under the desk, his fingers tracing my hand. Mr. Brooks dug inside the bowl and shuffled the chits before pulling out one.

Please be Tyler. Please be Tyler.

"Victoria Lane and Noah McCloy,"

Tyler dropped my hand slowly and reluctantly. The rainy weather couldn't get any worse. Without a word, with a heavy heart, I collected my things and went to take my seat beside Noah who was seated the corner row on the right. He waved at me, flashing me a radiant smile.

"I'm glad that you were chosen as my partner. I guess Mr. Brooks doesn't give me a reason to hate him anymore, quite the contrary actually. " Noah grinned at me as I sat beside him.

I laughed, "Yeah me too."

I tried to tell myself that being paired up with Noah was still better than anyone else. At least Noah and I got along well.

I'd describe Noah as a fox who'd turned into a boy. His hair was a shade of copper-gold and he had matching green eyes that always reminded me of apples. Much like the entire jock team, Noah was also built like a bull and was tall, but Tyler still had a few inches on him. Even though he wasn't conventionally handsome, he still had a lazy grin and dimples that automatically made him attractive to most girls in our school. Noah was also a part of the ice-hockey team, so technically, he and Tyler were teammates, but I still failed to see why the two were always so hostile to each other.

Mr. Brooks droned on, choosing partners for every student. I turned sideways to look at Tyler but he was busy writing something in his diary. When he caught my eye, he just smiled. It was one of his empty smiles like he was completely disappointed.

"Harper Woodly and Tyler Lockhart," Mr. Brooks announced.

I watched Harper run to Tyler's desk as if she'd won an Oscar award; she took the seat that I'd vacated, and sat so close to Tyler, she could be practically sitting in his lap.

"Vicky..."

As soon as she'd taken a seat, she'd started to sink her claws into him because Tyler was laughing. I should have been the one on the receiving end of those smiles and laughs. That girl needed to know that Mr. Brooks had chosen us partners for projects not boys for a one-night-stand.

My eyes were stinging with the amount of pain this was causing me, and the pain was leading to tears.

"Vicky." Noah waved his hand in front of my face and then he followed my gaze. "Looks like Harper is going to finally get what she wants."

"Which is?"

"Hooking up with Lockhart."

Lunch was even worse. Archer sat between Tyler and me while casually discussing their upcoming hockey game. The two were so engaged in their boys-talk that I wondered if they knew I existed.

They probably thought I was a fly buzzing near their lunches.

Don't get me wrong, I loved my brother but he had this habit of stealing my best friend when I mostly wanted to talk to him. It also made me wish I had a female friend. The last time I'd tried to make friends with a girl, it had ended badly.

The reason?

Tyler.

My former female best friend's name was Bailey, and she'd been my good friend for about six months in total. We did what most girls our age did. We hung out at the mall, had a few sleepovers, talked about boys and that's exactly when things had turned to shit. Bailey liked Tyler and she was trying to get close to him by using me. When I found out the truth, we'd drifted apart and that was the end of me looking for a 'girl's' time. Now all my 'girl' time included me braiding a Barbie doll's hair, teaching my sister to ride a bicycle and babysitting her while my parents went out.

"Why do you guys seem so depressed today?" Archer asked eyeing me and Tyler.

"Mr. Brooks assigned partners for an English project," I said.

"So?" Archer asked with a mouthful of flavored yogurt.

"So Tyler and I got different partners," I explained him.

Archer rolled his eyes. That ass of a brother, "You're still in the same class. What's the big deal?"

Why was my brother so dense? Why did he need me to spell it out for him?

"I wanted to pair up with Tyler," I confessed.

Archer sighed and imitated my voice, "Of course. You wanted to pair up with Tyler, what shocking news. I'm sure the entire population of Cold-Bay High couldn't have guessed it." He mocked and I glared at him.

Tyler looked at me and started laughing. He was clearly enjoying this more than he should be.

My brother opened his fat mouth again. "If it came down to Vicky, she'd follow you to the end of this universe."

"Archer," I warned him.

"Forget the fucking universe; my sister would follow you into your toilet, man."

I was going to stab him with my fork because Tyler had doubled over with laughter.

"It's my number one mission in life. To find a girl who'd love me the way Vicky loves Tyler."

I felt like the entire lunchroom had stopped talking, but no, it was just that all the color had drained out of my face.

I dared a look at Tyler.

He'd had stopped laughing and he had an interesting look on his face. Dark, intense, wild and everything that made my heart beat wildly.

I couldn't sit here and wait until Tyler retorted with a joke, or said something that hinted that he didn't like me so in an act of cowardice I picked the half-eaten banana and the cartoon of milk and ran out of the cafeteria.