'Why explore the universe when we don't know ourselves?'

"What are you worried about?" Anna asks as I finish straightening my hair.

"That she is still angry at me for sleeping with Tate..."

"It was before you knew they were ever a thing, plus she is your cousin; she can't stay angry at you." Anna says as she takes another sip from her wine glass.

"I know it's just that...well Charlotte has always been a little different. I don't know I just always found it hard to get close to her, especially as we got older. I hit puberty and became interested in boys, but she sort of never became interested in anyone and we drifted apart."

"Well now she's clearly interested in Tate, so use have that in common." I roll my eyes at Anna who is smiling like she just made the funniest joke ever.

We both hear a knock at the door. "Your boyfriend is here," Anna says as she makes her eyebrows dance around suggestively.

Ever since Tyson and I had become exclusive she wont even use his first name, just refers to him as the boyfriend. I switch my straightener off and grab my backpack, I knew I would be staying at Tyson's tonight.

I open the door to him in is black leather jacket, white shirt and black skinny jeans. I smile nervously at him. Why I still got nervous around him I didn't understand. "Hey," he smiles before leaning in and gently pressing his lips to mine. "I missed you," he whispers.

"I missed you too," I say.

"Oh please it's been three days!" Anna calls out from behind us.

We both smile at each other uncontrollably. To be honest I missed him after an hour of him being gone. "Goodbye!" I call back to Anna.

"Have fun being all cute and shit!"

"Who could say Anna isn't a romantic," Tyson says as we walk to his bike.

"Oh yes, poetry and flowers are her calling," I reply sarcastically.

He stops and turns to me, "did you want flowers?" He asks worriedly.

My cheeks feel instantly warm, the fact that he worries about what I want is such a nice change. "Just the poetry," I say as his hand goes around my waist; pulling me closer to him.

He rests his forehead against mine, "Bella..." He sucks in a deep breath and I find that my own is trapped in my throat. "I'm falling hard for you," he says nervously.

"I feel the same about you," I whisper back. Because it was the truth, I think about him all the time; Tyson had crawled under my skin and I didn't want him going anywhere.

He parts my lips with his and kisses me senseless, my hand going to the back of his head as his stays at my waist, lightly squeezing into my skin. He pulls away and rests his head back to mine. "We better stop or we won't be making it to this dinner," he says with a little smile.

"Would that be such a bad thing?" I raise my eyebrows at him

"Feeling nervous?" He asks as he hands me the smaller helmet.

"A little," I admit.

"Don't worry, Tate wouldn't have invited us tonight unless things would be okay," Tyson starts the bike back up and I slide on behind him.

I was starting to get use to the death trap, the way it vibrated beneath me pumped adrenalin through my body. I always got excited now when Tyson takes me for a ride.

As we pull up to Tate's, the nerves form back in my stomach. It will be fine, I tell myself. Tyson links his hand with mine, giving me a light squeeze to let me know that everything will be fine.

We open the door to big smiles, Lillie and Jace are in the kitchen and Charlotte comes straight up to me, wrapping her arms around my body. I return her hug with relief.

We all sit down at the table together, Tyson immediately resting his hand on my leg, he pretty much leaves it there the entire time too. Even as we eat the roast chicken.

"So, how did you two meet?" Lillie asks.

"At his Uni," I answer. "I'm the photographer for his show," I smile.

"You didn't tell us you had a show coming up," Jace says, almost in an annoyed way.

Tyson shrugs. "It will be boring for you guys," he says simply.

"Bro, I love that theatre shit," Jace says enthusiastically.

"Yeah, like we would miss it," Tate adds.

"I've never seen a play," Charlotte says.

"We should all go!" Lillie says.

It was kind of strange watching Charlotte this way. The looks her and Tate steal every now and then, the fact that I knew his hand is also on her thigh under the table. They are completely in love, that much was obvious, but it was something more. She is happy. There always seemed like there was this cloud hanging over her, even as kids but now- it's like that misery has gone and she seems free.

It warmed my heart to watch her, and maybe now we have a real shot at getting close. The kind of close I always wanted us to be.

Tyson slowly begins moving his hand higher up my thigh and I drop my fork.

Everyone turns their head to me.

I cough, "sorry I'm clumsy."

I can feel Tyson smiling from the corner of my eye. Prick, he knows what his touch can do to me.

He continues his moving but I grab his hand to stop him, and give him a look that says 'can you not wait half an hour!?'

It's like his eyes shrug innocently at me, acting like he had no idea what he was doing. Those coffee eyes will be the death of me I swear.

Tyson and Tate do the dishes together, Lillie and Jace have gone to their bedroom; leaving Charlotte and I on the couch together. My cheeks warm as I realise it's the couch where Tyson first went down on me.

Charlotte still has a few small cuts on her face from the crash. "How have you been feeling?"

"Fine now, although I do get a bit funny driving at night," she says as she tucks a strand of hair behind her ear.

"It must have been so scary," I say sincerely.

"The scariest part was Lillie not waking up, but luckily we were all okay."

Jace's arm is still in a cast, I guess he had a while yet before it could come off. "You seem happy," I say.

She looks to Tate who automatically feels her eyes on him, he gives her a quick smile before listening to Tyson again. "I am," she says proudly. I wonder then if there is more to Charlotte than I ever realised. People are good at hiding secrets when they needed to be.

"It seems serious with Tyson?" She says and asks, clearly wanting the subject off of her.

"I've definitely never felt this way about someone before."

"What happened with Chad?" She asks with concern.

It's sort of a slap in the face hearing his name again. I was so use to fuckface, and not just use to it but I could handle it. Hearing his real name for the first time in months was hard to swallow.

"Sorry- you don't need to talk about it," Charlotte says, obviously reading the discomfort on my face.

"It's okay, he cheated on me," it wasn't a lie, it just wasn't the whole truth either.

"You didn't deserve that," she says and it almost looked like she wanted to grab my hand but stops herself. She never was overly good at physical touch, but I didn't mind; her words are genuine enough.

Jace and Lillie come back from their room, "want to watch a movie?" Lillie addresses everyone.

I go to say sure as Tyson says "we can't." The four of them looking back and forth between us. Tate makes this small smile before slapping Tyson on the back, clearly knowing why Tyson doesn't want to watch a movie. My cheeks go bright red.

"See you around brother," Jace says before pulling him in to a half hug. I didn't know what it was about those three together but they really do seem to treat Tyson like an actual brother. I've seen bromances before, but theirs is stronger than others.

I was starting to realise that there is a lot I don't know about Tyson.