"Don't get me wrong, he's bad news, like real bad, but there's something so strange about him that makes you wonder what he's hiding and you realize that you're going to get into trouble for following him around, and yet you can't stop yourself from wanting to get closer to danger. That feeling is exhilarating, isn't it?" Kayla Andrews said as she gave me a secretive smile.

We stared at each other for an awkward minute, and then I blurted out something before I could stop myself. "Do you have a crush on him?"

"You mean Tyler?"

"Yeah."

She made an adorable snort sound, "No. Of course, not. I do think he is attractive, although I wouldn't take any risks of dating him."

"Why?"

She raised her hands and rolled her eyes indicating ′isn't it obvious?′ "Because he's a Lockhart. Everyone in the town is aware that they are charming, and they get whatever they want. But they are also bat-shit crazy. I mean, serial-killer crazy, and I don't want to be involved in something like that, not even if the guy looks like a younger modern version of Elvis Presley. It's not worth all that money, either."

I instantly liked Kayla. I wondered why I hadn't talked to her before this. She seemed fun to talk to.

Everyone in school said Kayla resembled Rihanna with curly hair. She'd won one of those beauty pageants in town and pretty much half of the boys in our school were dying to have her attention. With her dark skin and brown almond-shaped eyes, not to mention those legs that ran a mile long, she looked exotic and almost made me seem like a potato. We'd sat through the same class for half of the year and never talked much because I thought she was one of those girls who pretended to buy a Pumpkin Latte just to seem cool but secretly preferred chocolate-chip mocha.

"Just to put it out there, I don't have feelings for Tyler so you have nothing to worry about. Plus, I already have a boyfriend."

"Sorry if my question offended you," I said quickly.

She waved her hand, "it's alright. And even if I did like him, it's pretty obvious that he's got hots for you."

My eyes widened in surprise. "You think Tyler likes me?"

"Girl, are you blind or what?" She laughed, "He totally digs you."

My heart began pumping in my chest. Kayla didn't seem like she was messing with me.

She gave me a pitiful look, "what? You still think I'm joking?"

I laughed, "it's just that, I've known Tyler all my life, and I've had a crush on him—

"...Since you were twelve, I know." She completed, grinning.

"Ten actually." I corrected her. "And he's never given me any signal that he likes me and he enjoys teasing me a lot and jokes often so I really don't know when to take him seriously." It felt so nice to unload all of my worries onto someone who actually understood how I was feeling. I couldn't talk about these deep feelings to Archer, that would surely be walking into Awkward Street.

Kayla listened to me, nodding her head, closely resembling a detective who was going to give me a detailed analysis of what was wrong. "I think it's time."

"Time for what?"

"Time to take him seriously. I feel like that's what he wants." She said confidently.

"I don't understand."

I pushed my chair closer to her. She leaned forward towards her desk and cleared her throat before saying, "Boys like Tyler are predators, they like playing games. For example, he knows that you have a die-hard crush on him, but he's waiting until you tell him that yourself. For him, it's a game and he teases you to push your buttons and see how far you go." She paused, "are you still with me?"

That was interesting because I never thought of it this way.

I nodded, "Yeah. Go on."

"He's torturing himself because he likes playing games, but remember, if you continue playing these games, it's going to get boring fast. You need the target to keep playing so what do you do?"

I felt like this was some kind of a test. A wrong answer would earn me a scowl from her.

"Up the game?" I asked hesitantly.

She grinned. "Very good. You're getting it, Vicky. I mean, you're a little slow but slow and steady wins the race, right? Anyway, if he asks you out today, don't say yes that would catch him off-guard. If you give him a yes right off the bat, and fall all over him, chances are he's going to get bored of you fast."

If Tyler asked me out today, I wasn't a hundred percent sure I could say the word no. On the contrary, I'd probably throw a ′Tyler said Yes' party and get the kiss that I'd been dying to get from him.

"And what if he doesn't ask me out?"

"I'm a hundred percent sure he will."

I passed Tyler in the hallway while I was going to my next class. He was being led by his Advanced Math nerd group. His eyes met mine once before he looked away.

My phone vibrated.

😝

Seriously? Does this boy ever get tired of ordering people around?

Tyler knew that Maya had a crush on Archer.

Oh. My. God.

It was clear that he didn't care, or he thought it was an infatuation. Either way, he was trusting Archer with the innocence of his sister and that spoke volumes of just how much trust Tyler had on my brother and that was really sweet. I knew Ty would never leave Maya alone with any other guy from school.

😘

I even sent him a Kiss emoji. Maybe I was drunk in the middle of the day.

😘🤗

And he sends back a kiss and a hug?! Am I dreaming or what?

I quickly texted Maya apologizing that I wouldn't be able to make it and that Archer would help her in my place.

She texted me back with kiss emojis. Yeah, plural. The girl had it bad for Archer.

I finished cheer practice at six-thirty p.m. I showered quickly and dressed in a clean pair of high-waist jeans and a cute off-shoulder beige top that I'd ordered online last month. I tied my hair up in a pony-tail and let some hair in the front loose. I also applied some blush that made my cheeks look naturally pink, along with a dark plum lipstick.

When I crossed the building towards the parking lot, I heard someone whistle, I rolled my eyes and didn't wait to see who that douchebag had been.

The time on the dashboard read six-fifty-two p.m. I had a few minutes until seven and I was already hyperventilating. I don't even know why.

I felt like I was running short of breath due to my anxiety so I dug inside my bag for my inhaler. I had learned to live with the fact that I had asthma and I couldn't do anything to change it. It's just that, it made me less confident about everything else.

If it were up to my mom, she would have banned me from becoming a cheerleader, because she thought I was to be treated like a flower, with delicate care and that's what I hated the most but thankfully, the doctors had said that exercise was good as long as I didn't overexert myself.

I pushed the inhaler into the bag, took one look in the mirror and stepped out of the car.

The place was packed with people, literally crawling like a group of ants on a large lump of sugar. The cafe had opened just last week, and Cold-Bay literally had two or three other places to hang-out so it was no wonder everyone wanted to visit the new place.

I spotted Tyler in the last booth. He was texting furiously and didn't even notice when I went and stood in front of him.

He looked up from his furious typing and smiled, "Hey."

Who was he chatting with?

"Girlfriend?" I teased.

He chuckled and showed me his phone screen. The messages were from Archer, all in shouty caps.

"Looks like he's mad that we set him up on a study date with my little sister." He laughed, that low masculine rumble that sounded so boyish and adorable, I wanted to ruffle his hair and pull his cheeks.

"You look nice." He complimented.

"Just nice?"

"You fishing for compliments?" He asked, clearly amused.

"Maybe I am." I flirted.

He did a thorough once over, his gaze moving from bottom and slowly to the top, which I wholeheartedly approved. "Hot." He said in a husky voice. For a second, I thought his eyes blazed with lust. "You look smoking hot."

I took a seat opposite him. "Thanks, But I hope that's a sincere compliment."

"Any compliments that come from me to you are always sincere, Victoria."

Swooooonnn...

I couldn't fall in love with him even deeper than I already have, right?

"You look as handsome as ever." I threw a compliment back.

"That's a fact, right? I mean, I always look fucking handsome."

I rolled my eyes. "You're so full of yourself."

"It's called confidence."

More like overconfidence.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" I asked I didn't think I could stand the suspense any longer.

He picked up the menu card and flipped the pages. "What's the hurry? We just got here. Let's order something first."

We ended up ordering a triple-layered chocolate-banana waffle with Vanilla ice-cream and heavy sprinkles of chocolate chips. According to the waitress, that was special here. It was a tower of a mess, to be honest, but Tyler was gobbling it down like it was nobody's business. Compared to him, I felt like a little bird pecking bits of it.

We'd eaten half of it when he stopped eating midway and declared, "I think I'm going to die of a sugar coma."

"I guess me too."

"Don't lie to me. You barely ate anything."

"I ate one full waffle," I argued.

He cut a big slice of the waffle and brought the fork to my lips, "say ah."

I opened my mouth as my gaze flicked to the few people on the other side of the cafe looking at me and Tyler and then whispering among themselves.

Town Gossip.

Tyler followed my gaze and when the group saw him looking, no, glaring at them, they quickly averted their eyes as if Tyler looking their way was going to give them a year full of bad omen.

"Let's go outside. This place is really crowded and we'd probably have to scream to hear each other."

"Right."

He called for a check and paid even though I suggested we split. There were rumors, I wasn't even sure if it was true but even though Tyler wasn't doing any part-time job or anything of that sort, I heard that he got a small cut from their company revenue as a monthly income. That small amount was a six-digit figure and that surely explained his wide collection of custom-made shoes, clothes, and expensive gold-plated watches.

Even though no one said it on my face, I knew what people said behind our backs. That Archer and I were friends with Tyler because he was a Billionaire's son. When we went out to eat together, he always paid. Archer would then slip in cash towards him but the biggest share always came from Tyler.

I wasn't saying that I was literally poor. We were doing well, with my dad working in a car dealership, and my mom running the best bakery in town, we had cash flow but we weren't making millions. Comparing our status and wealth with the Lockhart's was just out of question. If he wasn't such a big shot, he would have been attainable.

I let the thoughts slide, and concentrated on the present.

We stopped in front of a bright red Ferrari. Ty's gift from his dad for winning the inter-school national ice-hockey tournament. He made no move to unlock the car so we just stood there. I leaned against the passenger side of the door as he towered over me.

This is the moment.

There was only the sound of the wind gushing and the occasional zooming of the cars.

"Vicky..."

He looked at me in that intense way, his astonishing blue eyes glimmered in the darkness. He ran a hand through his hair, "I'm not blind or hard on hearing, you know."

Out of everything that I imagined, this wasn't what I expected him to say. Last night, I'd barely gotten any sleep as I twisted and turned until I picked up a book and by the time I actually fell asleep, my alarm blared in my ears. So whatever he was about to tell me, it better be good. "Stop talking in puzzles. Say what you want to."

"What I mean is, even though you haven't told me anything yourself, I hear things. In the hallways. In the classroom. Among our friends." When I stared at him in confusion, he said, "I know you like me."

My heart was pumping in my chest, and a cold sweat was breaking under my skin. "Okay."

"You do like me, don't you?" He whispered inching a little closer. "I mean, not just as a friend but something more."

"Yeah," I said looking down, staring at the buttons on his Varsity jacket, they were suddenly interesting.

Why was I having a bad feeling about this? Maybe it was the fear clawing inside me, the fear that this was another one of his jokes. He pushed his forefinger beneath my chin so I was forced to look into his eyes. "I want your eyes on me while we're talking."

I blinked. I couldn't stop the tears. It was embarrassing and foolish but there was hardly anything I could do about it. "It's alright, Tyler. You don't need to bribe me with waffles to tell me you don't like me."

His finger swiped over my cheek. I sniffled softly. "God, I'm so pathetic."

"First of all, Vicky, why are you crying?" His expressions displayed nonchalance. "I haven't even said anything hurtful yet."

"I know what you're going to say."

"Did you really think I would break my best friend's heart?"

I was thinking of picking up two cartons of Ben & Jerry's when I went home tonight and maybe watch a chick-flick on Netflix.

"Let me put you out of your misery." He declared, his smile turning cocky.

Maybe Ty had had enough of the teasing, and everything else. I imagined him walking the school hallways with some other girl and it broke my heart.

Well, I'll just have to suck it up and deal with it. You couldn't force anyone to love you back.

"I just wanted to say that I like you, too." He said finally.

"I'll take a wild guess. You like me, but as a friend?" That was the best line anyone could use to politely friendzone their best-friend.

"No, you idiot." He slapped my head playfully and then brought his mouth dangerously close to my ear. "I like you enough to want to fuck you. Is that good enough for you to believe?"

My eyes were the size of tennis balls.

My breath hitched in my throat.

I was close to hyperventilating.

We were going to start dating finally!

"But..."

Oh god, there was a 'but' there.

"There's a reason I haven't dated anyone. Do you know why?"

Because you were waiting for me?

"Why?"

"Because I really don't think there's any girl who can handle being with me, heck my parents can't handle me sometimes." He stared at me unabashed, his thumb tracing my jawline slowly and distracting me from my thoughts.

"I think I can handle you just fine," I said quickly. I was probably sounding desperate but I didn't care.

He circled his strong arms around me, so I was trapped between him and the car. Playing on the ice had benefited him a lot over the years, his shoulders were so broad, he practically blocked my vision so all I could see right now was his gorgeously chiseled face. My waist felt warm with his fingers splayed there and his blue eyes remained unwavering. "I'm not trying to insult you, but the fact that any girl can handle me, it's beyond the realm of possibility."

"Give me one chance." Now I'd resorted to begging. If Kayla Andrew's saw me like this, literally groveling for Tyler's affections, she would be so proud, note the sarcasm.

"The faces that I keep hidden, you'll start seeing them. One after the other."

"I'm not scared," I said bravely.

"You'll hate me, Vicky."

"I told you before. I would never hate you." I touched his cheek.

It seemed like he was having internal battles with himself. He caught my hand that was resting on his cheek and brought it to his lips. He kissed it and my heart plummeted. He closed his eyes and when he opened them, I saw pain within the depths. "Before you and Archer became my friends, I had no one. No real friends." He paused. "The ones I had, those were the kids my dad wanted me to mingle with but it's not the same. With you, I can be me. With them, I'm someone else."

I waited for him to continue.

"If we act upon our feelings, it's going to be chaos. You probably think that I'll be the same, but that's where you're dead wrong."

"I love you, Tyler," I whispered. "I've loved you since we were kids, and that's never going to change."

"Not even when we grow up and you get married to someone else?"

I wouldn't marry anyone if it's not you.

I didn't say that because I didn't want to scare him away. Instead, I said, "My feelings won't change."

"Victoria, you don't understand. If you're my girlfriend I would expect you to submit yourself completely to me. I'm fucking demanding as hell." He gave out a laugh, which looked almost evil. Almost. "and that's the tip of the ice-berg. Is that something you're willing to take on?"

I thought of it for a moment. "We could...we could try."

"No. There's no trying." His hands shook. "Because I can't fuck up our friendship. You're important to me as a friend, Vicky, you and Archer and I won't have that ruined for me."

I remained silent.

"I just wanted to tell you that your feelings are reciprocated. That I feel the same way for you. But, you're far too precious for me to want to see you hurt."

"Well, you're hurting me now," I said. When he tried to touch me, I slapped his hand away.

"Vicky...c'mon. Don't be like that. Let's continue what we have right now. As best friends."

I placed both my hands on his chest and pushed him hard, it took all my strength and he didn't even budge. Finally, he took pity on me and stepped aside.

When I settled down in my car, I sobbed uncontrollably, and then I had to use my inhaler because I couldn't breathe.