Page 81 of Exrated
My mother is in the kitchen washing dishes, and she stops to look over her shoulder at me. “Something wrong, honey?”
“No.”
“You slammed the door.”
“Tyler’s just annoying.”
“Yeah, most boys are. It’s their penis that makes them annoying,” she says with a laugh.
My lip snarls. “Gross, mother. Just gross.”
I stomp up the stairs to my bedroom and peek out the window. It’s started raining, but he is still sitting on the bench in his yard, glaring up at my window. I flip him the bird, and he flips one back.Right as I lie down in my bed, the bottom falls out. Rain is pounding on the roof, thunder is shaking the house. I can’t help but snicker at the idea of Tyler sitting out there getting drenched. A few seconds later there’s a knock on my window. I hop out of bed and pull the curtains back, laughing hysterically at the sight of Tyler perched on the branch. He looks like a drowned rat. His eyes widen. Shaking his head, he shrugs. “Let me in,” he says.
I cup my hand to my ear, pretending I can’t hear him.
“Don’t make me break your window.”
I open the window, and he clamors inside, dripping water all over my floor. He pulls his wet shirt over his head and drops it to the floor before peeling his jeans off as well.
“Tyler…what the—” I quickly cross the room and lock my bedroom door.
“I got tired of waiting.” He takes a step toward me and grabs my chin, running his wet fingertip over my cheek. “I figured it’d be better if I just made you change your mind.” He slams his lips over mine, backing me toward my bed. He pulls away from me, sliding his hands down my side to my hips and inching the waist of my yoga pants down. “You can’t stay mad at the person your heart belongs to.”
The door to the auditorium slams shut, jarring me from that memory. I watch Tyler as he fidgets with his hands. One of the security guards approach him, most likely to tell him to leave. Right now, I can do one of two things: I can let that guard tell him to leave, and I can watch him walk out of my life forever, or I can suck it up and go out there.
Tyler glances up at the guard, says something and shrugs. The guard shakes his head and points toward the exit. My heart is hammering in my chest, my mind jumbled.
“He’s fine,” I say, stepping out from the side of the set. “He’s my friend.”
“Well, Ms. Morgan, that’s fine, but he needs a pass to stay.”
“I said he’s my friend.”
The guard shrugs. “And that’s fine, but if he’s going to stay in here, he needs a pass.”
“Fine,” I say and walk off the set and into the seating area. “We’ll go somewhere else.”
The crotchety guard nods, mumbling to himself as he walks off.
And here I stand, in front of that boy that shouldn’t still mean everything to me, but somehow does.
Clearing my throat, I point toward the exit. “We can go for a walk or something.”
“Okay.”
We walk up the stairs in silence. My pulse is going haywire, my skin heating.
“Hey,” he says. “I need to get my bag from security.
“Uh, okay.” We turn right and come out by the entrance of the studios. Bertha is leaned against the turnstile. “Hey, Bertha.”
“I knew it was a woman,” Tyler mumbles beneath his breath and I cut my eyes over at him.
“Can we get his bag?”
She nods, opens the door to the office and drags out his bag, winking at him as she hands it to him.
“Thanks,” he says and quickly turns away.
