Page 88 of There's No Us Without You
I nod. “That’s true. My mum got addicted to painkillers a couple of years ago after surgery.”
“It’s easy to do. Is she okay now?”
Grinning, I shake my head. “Define okay.”
With an eyebrow raised, Tyler lifts his cup to his lips, pausing to speak. “I’m guessing you don’t have a great relationship with your mother?”
No way are we unpacking that tonight.
I throw back the rest of my drink. “We aren’t talking about her,” I say. “I want to know more about you. What changed . . . you know, with the drugs? You said you’re clean now, right?”
Tyler holds up a finger and finishes off his drink before wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Well,” he says, “about a year and a half ago, my dad took off. Told Will he was renting the house out and just left—no goodbye. Nothing. Ihadn’t lived there since I was seventeen, so Will packed up what little I had left there and dropped a box on my front doorstep.” He shakes his head as he clears his throat. “At first, I was pissed, then the more I thought about it, the more I regretted not trying harder for Will. So I told Brady I was done doing his dealings and cleaned myself up.”
“Brady? As in... that Brady?” I nod to the man surrounded by a crowd of stumbling, drunk people.
Tyler nods. “The one and only.”
“But if you’re clean, why do you still hang around him?”
For a moment, Tyler remains silent, contemplative while he stares off to the right. Sighing, he looks at me again, his eyes now a little glassy. “I have... ties—relationships with other people, and I can’t just leave them. I stay out of Brady’s business, and he mostly stays out of mine.”
“I’m guessing Will doesn’t approve of your friends, then?”
“They aren’t all bad.” He shrugs while staring at his cup as he twirls it in his hands. “It’s not that easy to walk away. Sometimes”—he glances to Jayden doing shots with a group over in the middle of the room—“you have to do some shitty things for the people you care about.”
I want to ask him what he means, but we’re interrupted by a flying football as it whirls past my head, the proximity of it blowing a few strands of hair over my face.
Tyler’s eyes widen before he narrows them on whoever threw it. He stands to pick it up off the ground about two metres from my feet and throws it back in the direction it came from. “Stop throwing balls in my house, arseholes.”
Someone yells back, but all I can make out over the music are the wordslazyanddick.
Tyler just shakes his head before sinking against the back of the couch. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s fine,” I say. “I’ve had worse thrown at me.”
Tyler smirks. “Do tell.”
I wave a hand dismissively. “I’m definitely not divulging any of that tonight. Trust me, you’re better off not knowing.”
“Fair enough,” he says, before dropping his head and pinching his bottom lip between his long fingers. When he lifts his eyes to search my face, he says, “How is he?”
“Who?”
“Will. How is he?” Tongue darting out to lick his lips, Tyler eyes me. “You know . . . is he okay?”
I frown at the way Tyler is searching my soul for all the answers I don’t have. I’ve only known Will for almost three weeks, and in that time all I’ve managed to do to get close to him is sleep right next to him—and attempt to get off while grinding on his thigh. Getting to actually know him is a very different story.
“He’s . . .” What the hell do I say?
Tyler sighs and picks at a loose thread on his jeans. “You don’t have to answer that.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, taking Tyler’s hand and giving it a squeeze.
He wipes a hand down his face, then plasters on a smile. “Anyway, let’s not talk about my shitty childhood. I didn’t bring you here so I can dump all my baggage on you. I want to know about you, things not many people know, though.”
“That doesn’t sound like fun,” I say, pouting. “Can we talk about anything else?”
“Nope.” Shuffling in his seat, he slaps my thigh. “I’ll go first. My favourite colour is green. I have a scar the whole way down the left side of my back from a skateboarding accident when I was ten. Will almost threw up from the amount of blood there was. I had two cats growing up, one died and one ran away. At least that’s what Will says.” He taps his chin. “What else? Oh, I’ve never actually told anyone I loved them.”
