For twenty minutes, I walked in the chill air before Tyler's house came into view.

There was light escaping from his room outside, and I hesitantly stepped forward until I was standing in front of his house.

I only had to wait a few seconds after I rang the doorbell before the door was swung open. "Amanda? What are you doing here?" Tyler's mom, Marianne, asked when she opened the door.

My tear stained cheeks must have been noticeable once the light from inside her house came to contact with my appearance.

Her eyes widened before opening the door wider. "Come in," she said quickly, and I followed her order.

Once Marianne closed the front door, she turned to face me just as footsteps jogged downstairs.

Without looking over my shoulder, I stared at her pleadingly. "Could I stay the night possibly?"

"Is everything alright at home?" Her brows furrowed, and my eyes tightly closed when the memories swarmed back.

"Can I? Please?" I asked once more, and she sighed in defeat.

"Of course, but... you'll be staying with Erin. Not Tyler, alright?" She asked.

Although I'd rather be with Tyler at the moment, I understood that we weren't five years old anymore. "Okay," I said with a smile.

Marianne sighed before looking over my shoulder, seeing whoever was standing there. "I'm getting dinner ready. We'll sit down in thirty or so minutes."

I nodded and thanked her once more before turning around, only to see Tyler's face scrunched up with worry.

Without saying a word, I rushed passed him and went up the stairs, reaching his room within seconds.

"What the hell's going on, Amanda?" Tyler hissed once he got inside of his room before shutting the door shut, leaving us alone in his room.

I took a seat on his bed and he followed my actions shortly after. "You were right," I breathed out.

Tyler's eyes widened, already knowing what I was talking about, but refused to register it. "What do you mean?"

"He crashed into you," I whispered, and Tyler's eyes closed shut painfully, as if he was reliving what happened that exact day.

"I'm so sorry," I said, my voice wavering.

Tyler opened his eyes and started to shake his head. "You have no reason to be sorry, baby," he whispered.

"But I am. I'm sorry that this all happened. Especially to you," I started but Tyler stopped me from saying anymore when he wrapped his arms around my waist, bringing me closer to him.

My arms slowly wrapped themselves around his waist before burying my head into his neck.

I'm not sure how long we were both in each other's hold for, but when we slowly began to pull away from each other, I felt at shortness of breath once his eyes met mine.

Tyler looked at me intensely before looking down to my lips, which happened to part automatically.

When Tyler looked back to meet my gaze, he slowly moved forward, removing the space between us before our lips met.

My eyes fluttered shut on command as my hands moved so they were now cupping his cheeks.

Our lips moved in sync and I felt his hands tighten on my waist before moving lower until they reached the hem of my shirt.

My lips parted as a sight moan left me at the feeling of his extremely warm hands moving under my shirt.

Tyler began to massage my hip with one hand while I moved my hands around so I was now threading my fingers on the hair by the nape of his neck.

The kiss began to increase more harder, and before I knew it, I was on my back with Tyler looming over me.

One of my legs opened, giving him enough room to come lower. "Amanda," he breathed out once he pulled away from my lips.

His head landed on the crook of my neck while he was breathing heavily.

"Holy shit," someone laughed by the doorway, and my head immediately snapped to the direction from where the voice came from, only to see Erin grinning from ear to ear.

"Um, just came to say dinner's starting," she choked on a single laugh once more before leaving us alone.

Well shit.

I bit my lip and moved out from under Tyler before standing up on my wobbly two feet.

"Let's go," I chuckled nervously before leaving his bedroom without looking back.

While I rushed down the stairs, I pretended that my lips didn't tingle from the kiss he marked on my lips.

➸

After we spent less than an hour eating and chatting with the Evans family, Erin and I rushed to her room, where she began to laugh again at the memory of what she saw in Tyler's room.

She claimed that without her, none of this would have ever happened — seeing that I found out about Tyler when I came over to hang out with her.

But instead of provoking her to laugh some more, I decided to bring up the topic of watching a movie, which we happened to do right before falling asleep.

Around midnight, I was woken up with a slight shake, I growled, getting ready to yell at Erin.

However, when my eyes opened, I saw Tyler standing by the ledge of the bed, looming over me with a small smile.

"Happy birthday baby," he grinned and I laughed as he dived forward to hug me.

Of course, Tyler was clueless to the other person in the room, so when Erin woke up next to me, she wasn't happy.

Without even opening her eyes, she reached behind her and grabbed the closest thing she could reach before throwing it right at Tyler's face.

Lucky for him, it was a pillow.

"Let's go," he laughed before grabbing my hand to lift me so I was sitting up.

He quickly guided us to the joined bathroom, and in seconds we were surrounded by darkness in his room.

Tyler's hand went from my shoulder, and slowly guided itself down my arm slowly, leaving goosebumps on its trail before it reached my hand.

Suddenly, he spun around, heading somewhere in the darkness, and my eyes widened, hoping to see him in the darkness.

"Tyler," I hissed. "Where are you?"

In seconds, I felt his presence standing in front of me once more, but before I could question where he went, he handed me a circular object.

When I felt the dents from what I'm holding, I sucked in a harsh breath. "Is this..."

"A soccer ball?" He laughed. "Yeah."

When I didn't respond, Tyler cupped my cheek so I was looking right at him. "You have to play, Amanda. You know you're amazing, so don't stop because of that accident," he whispered, and I slowly nodded.

When I looked down, the moonlight helped me see the brand new soccer ball he just handed me.

Suddenly, he placed something else in my hand, and I latched onto the envelop.

"What's inside?" I whispered, and he chuckled.

"Open it and see," he said and I bit my lower lip as I placed the soccer ball down before opening up the envelop slowly.

When I finally opened it, I pulled out two tickets, but I couldn't see what was written on it.

Right as I brought it closer to my face, I saw the words, New York Red Bulls and Atlanta United.

I screeched, not caring if anyone heard me before jumping into his arms, giving him a hug.

"Thank you," I whispered happily before moving away from him.

"How did you know I still like them?" I asked breathlessly, and he shrugged, but I didn't miss the small smirk on his lips.

"I remember," he confessed, and I couldn't help but dive once more into his hold.

"Thank you," I said, not only for his gift, but for just being... alive.

➸

I'm woken up by the feeling of someone moving behind me, which they then ended up by putting their heavy arm over my waist.

A yawn left me before I turned around, immediately brushing noses with Tyler, who was still sleeping soundly.

"Tyler," I whispered, but his eyes stayed shut.

Deciding to play around a little, I took his arm off of me before slapping himself in the face.

That, he woke up from.

"Baby, what the hell?" He grumbled before stretching his arms out with a yawn.

Before I could even take a moment to laugh, his door was thrown open, revealing an annoyed Marianne.

"Imagine my surprise when I went to go wake up Erin and saw that Amanda wasn't there," she said with a clenched jaw and I cringed before sitting up.

"I'm so, so sorry," I said quickly before jumping out of Tyler's bed and running to the connected bathroom.

Behind me, I heard Marianne yelling at Tyler, but just as I reached Erin's bedroom, it was muffled.

Erin stood in front of me with cheeks puffed with air. She couldn't last ten seconds without bursting with laughter. "When my mom saw you weren't in my room, you should have heard her. She started cussing in french! I never even knew she spoke french!"

My eyes narrowed into a glare, and she raised her hands in surrender briefly before putting them back down with a smirk. "So did you guys do it?"

"What?" I asked with wide eyes.

She simply shrugged. "Well if you guys kissed, why wouldn't you have... you know."

"You're talking to me about having sex with your brother, you know that right?" I asked with narrowed eyes.

Erin widened her eyes before beginning to choke. "Yeah, uh, I'm just gonna go to the bathroom. Check my closet for clothes... yeah bye."

I chuckled as I watched her sprint to the bathroom. Once she was out of sight, I heard a loud laugh leave her from the bathroom, followed by a loud cuss from Tyler.

Once I heard the door slam shut from his side, I rushed to her closet, and to no surprise, it was ninety percent black clothes.

After choosing to wear black joggers and shirt, I waited for Erin to leave the bathroom before it was my turn to brush my teeth with the spare toothbrush Marianne gave to me last night.

Five minutes later, I was descending down the stairs, but froze halfway down when I heard my father's voice coming from the kitchen.

The next few steps I took were taken cautiously.

When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I hesitantly walked to where the voices were coming from, and stopped when I saw that he was sitting on the opposite side from Marianne and Timothy, who were both crying, Mari more than anyone.

"Dad?" I whispered, and his head snapped towards me with wide eyes.

I looked back to Tyler's parents once more before keeping my gaze looked on him.

"You told them the truth?" I breathed out, walking as he stood up from his seat before standing in front of me.

"Yes," he began quietly. "The police is next. I want to get my full punishment, honey."

"You're confessing today?" I asked, and he looked over his shoulder once before looking back to me with a small smile.

He chose to ignore my question. "If my punishment is jail time, they agreed to let you stay here until you go off to university," he said quietly.

Once I nodded, he leaned down to kiss me on my forehead. "I love you honey," he whispered before leaving the Evans household without a second look back.

I stared at the door as a shaky breath left me. Before I knew it, someone took the empty space next to me.

"Let's go to school," Tyler whispered next to me, and made sure his parents weren't looking before lacing his fingers with mine.

I kept my eyes on the door before nodding.

"Let's go," I whispered.

➸

Throughout the whole school day, I was sitting anxiously in front of my desk while waiting for someone to tell me anything about my father.

When lunch finished and Tyler and I went to our English classroom, I couldn't help but check my phone every so often.

Thankfully I did because then, because I would have never seen the text right when it was sent.

Hey Amanda, it's Greg. Before you ask, I got your number from Dean.

What is it?

I bit my lip anxiously as I watched the three dots show while he was typing.

Your father just got his sentence.

My eyes widened in frustration that he didn't specify what it was.

And?

He's got a one year suspension and has to pay Tyler's family back for all the surgeries they had to spend for Tyler. Including the therapy.

I let out a breath that seemed to be building up inside of me for ages. Tyler heard my sigh of relief and looked at me with his brows furrowed.

"What's wrong?" He asked, and I cracked a small smile.

"It's... all over," I sighed, but he raised his eyebrows, waiting for an explanation.

"Finding out you were alive this whole time... my dad being the one who crashed into you... it's all over," I smiled, and Tyler rolled his eyes.

"Did he find out his penalty?"

I nodded my head before repeating what Greg had told me.

Tyler nodded before smiling, followed by him putting his hand on my thigh under the desk, preventing the teacher from seeing. "I'm happy it all worked out, baby," he whispered.

His gaze went down to my lips, and he leaned slightly forward, but before either of us could move a single inch, Mr. Aventura caught us.

"Mr. Evans! Lips to yourself," he shouted and Tyler choked on a laugh before moving back to direct a lazy glare to him.

I bit my lower lip to prevent myself from grinning any further. Tyler noticed, and tightened his hold on my thigh before we both paid attention to the lesson given in front of us.

And while we were sitting next to each other, fully happy, I couldn't even imagine myself being lost a few months ago without him.

➸