What Happens Tomorrow (28 page)

She snatches the picture to take a closer look. “What the fuck are you doing with a picture of you and that creepy guy from the bar?” Furiously waving the picture in her hand, I watch the anger in her face building. “Don’t you dare tell me this is Tyler’s brother because if it is I’ll be going to jail for manslaughter after I kill that mother fucker for drugging you!”

I look up at her. Could it be? “What are you talking about, Jenna?”

“Maybe you’ve forgotten what the creepy asshat who was hitting on you that night, looked like…
because you were drugged!
But I haven’t. I’m sure this is the guy.”

Mortified, I look up at her. “Oh my god, Jenna! How did I not realize this before now!” I scream, frantically rubbing my hands over my eyes.

“What do you mean why didn’t you realize this before now?”

“I don’t remember much from that night, it’s all kind of a blur. But I knew there was something about him that set off internal warning bells. I mean, I remember sitting on the beach this one morning and a guy, who later turned out to be Ethan, ran past me. He smiled and something in me felt so spooked that I nearly got up and ran back into the beach house. I never told Tyler.”

Jenna looks like she’s listening to me, but I’m sure she’s so angry she’s plotting his murder. “Let me get this right. You felt creeped out by this guy, found out he was your boyfriend’s brother and never mentioned anything to your boyfriend about the way he made you feel? Why the fuck not, Brooke!”

“Well, they hadn’t spoken to each other for years—”

“Because Tyler knows how much of a douchebag his own brother is!” Jenna interjects.

“Okay, but I wasn’t going to add to their problems just because his brother, who I didn’t realize was the guy from the bar, was kind of creepy.”

She puts a hand up. “Stop, Brooke. You need to call Tyler this minute and get him down here.”

I freeze.

He told me he wanted space.

He doesn’t want to come down and talk to me.

He thinks I cheated on him.

“Oh, that boy will get his ass down here and talk to you, no worries about that. Where’s your phone?” she asks, searching around my living room. Jenna calls things as she sees them, one of the traits I
usually
love about her. She doesn’t call a spade a spade. She calls it a fucking shovel.

“Please, Jenn. Leave it alone. Maybe it’s better this way, especially if he thinks I cheated on him. If he can’t trust me, maybe we shouldn’t be together.”

Finding my phone, she walks back over to me. “Don’t you get it? I really thought you were smarter than that, Brooke. You told me, when you got back from Oregon, that he had his heart broken once because of his brother and now the douche bag is trying to make it seem like it’s happening all over again. He’s hurt, that’s all. We all say dumb shit when we’re mad, and lord knows I’m the queen of verbal diarrhea at the wrong time. I’m calling him.”

I walk into the bathroom to take a hot shower while Jenna makes the phone call. I can’t be in the same room when he tells her he doesn’t want to talk to me. Feeling emotionally and physically drained, I dry off and put some comfy clothes on, ready to tell Jenna to go home because I really need to sleep this headache and night off. As I walk out of the bathroom and into the kitchen I see him—ice blues looking so sad. I want nothing more than to run and wrap my arms around him. But I can’t.

Embarrassed, he saunters over, stopping just before he crashes into me, his sombre eyes thick with guilt. “I’m so sorry, Brooke. I’m such an ass.” He pauses, tenderly leaning his head against mine before continuing, “Jenna just filled me in on everything. Please, baby, forgive me. I know you didn’t cheat on me. I just saw red after he showed me the picture of the two of you. You didn’t tell me that you even knew him—”

“But that’s just it, Tyler, I didn’t know him, and you wouldn’t listen to me.” Again with the quivering lip, “I’m not Dev —”

He cuts me off, pressing his finger to my lips. “You’ll never know how sorry I am that I said that to you,” he confesses, pulling away from me. “I know that you’re nothing like her. I was just so angry that…well, he made it seem like you knew each other and then he had this picture…I guess I’m still dealing with my own insecurities and I let my asshole of a brother get the better of me.”

Closing his eyes, he shakes his head. I see by his pained expression just how genuinely sorry he is for tonight. “Forgive me, please…give us another chance?”

I reach for him and pull him so close to me that I can almost climb into his body. I take a deep breath, breathing in the familiar scent of the fabric softener in his shirt from when we did laundry the other day, mixed with the musky and manly smell of his skin.

Home.

I’m home.

Jenna noisily clears her throat. We’d both forgotten that she was still in the room. “So…um, I’m just gonna let myself out,” Jenna says awkwardly as she walks toward the door, “and leave you to it.” She flashes me a warm-hearted smile as she winks. I love her more than I can put into words.

Turning, with one hand on the door knob she informs me very matter-of-factly, “Oh, and just in case you’re wondering, I made lover boy here promise to stay away from his brother tonight.”

With raised eyebrows, she shoots a ‘
break your promise and I will kill you
’ look at Tyler. “I told him you need him more than his future cell mate would because, lets face it, we all know he would end up in jail if he went to see his brother tonight, don’t we, Tyler? Plus, there is no way in hell that I’m going to miss that ass kicking!”

With that, I hear the door close behind Jenna.

“Don’t think for one damn minute that because I’m not going over right now, Ethan is off the hook for what he did to you,” Tyler says to me, his body tense.

I shake my head against his chest. “Shhh…I know. Please, stay with me tonight. I need to feel your arms around me and hear your heartbeat when I fall asleep.”

Picking me up in his arms, I nuzzle my head into his neck as he carries me down the hallway towards my bedroom. “I’m not going anywhere, baby. I’m right here with you.” Relief floods my senses as I climb into bed and feel the warmth of his skin against mine. My head is still pounding, and my body and mind feel completely exhausted. Leaning down to kiss the crown of my head, Tyler softly whispers, “Close your eyes, Brooke. I’m here and you’re safe. No one will ever hurt you again.”

I ROLL OVER and wake to the feel of cool cotton where Tyler’s warm naked body should be. I rub my eyes, trying to wake them enough to focus on the alarm clock.

2:20am

Maybe he couldn’t sleep.

The night has been filled with so much tension…maybe he couldn’t relax enough to sleep. Lord knows I can relate to that. Slowly, I get up out of bed and pad down the hallway into my living room. I yawn as I try to focus in the darkness. I expect to find Ty sitting on my couch, but all I find is a dark and empty room.

Maybe he went for a walk to clear his head; he likes to do that, although two in the morning is not the ideal time to be wandering the streets by yourself and he knows that. Wracking my brain, I try to think of every place he could have possibly gone. He didn’t take out Charlie because he’s passed out cold on my bed, which is where Tyler and I should be right now. Suddenly, as though someone flicked on a light switch, I realize exactly where he’s gone…

Ethan!

I remember his last words to me as I drifted off to sleep, “N
o one will ever hurt you again.”

“Damn him!”

I thought he’d handled tonight ridiculously well, and I believed him when he told me he wouldn’t go. How could I have been so stupid? Of course he was going to beat the shit out of his brother. I would do the same if I were in his shoes.

Worry sets in as I realize I need to get to him before he does something stupid. Panic-stricken, I call and wake a groggy sounding Jenna, filling her in on what happened. I throw on my jean shorts and a T-shirt, the entire time feeling sick to my stomach with worry. God, I pray he hasn’t done something stupid; something he can’t take back.

Every cell in my body is on red alert as I quickly look up Ethan’s address on the internet.

Anxiety.

I’m so anxious I want to crawl out of my skin. I need to get out of here and find him.

I have no idea what time he left. It couldn’t have been that long ago. Roughly dragging my fingers through my hair, I stop to gently massage my temples, trying to rub away some of the tension. Why the hell couldn’t he have waited until morning to pull this crap?

There’s a knock at my door as Charlie bolts down the hallway full steam and barking loudly. “Shhh, little man, it’s just Jenna.” I pick him up and try to quiet him so we don’t wake the entire complex.

Opening the door, Jenna waves her keys in my face. “Let’s go. Did you grab the address?” I nod as I put Charlie down and lock the door behind me.

WE PULL UP in front of Ethan’s townhouse. The lights are on and Tyler’s SUV is parked a few vehicles away from us. I prayed the entire drive over that he wouldn’t be here, but there’s the proof sitting right in front of me. How will I ever face his parents when they find out that I’m the cause of this fight?

Burying my face in my hands, I don’t think I can move from the passenger seat of Jenna’s car. “God, Jenna…this is all my fault. I can’t go in there,” I cry, my head involuntarily shaking as if that will magically fix the situation. “What if something really bad happened? You saw how angry he was tonight.”

She leans over from her side of the car and pulls me into a tight embrace. In the calmest voice I’ve ever heard come out of her mouth, she tries to comfort me. “None of this is your fault, do you understand? You’ve done nothing wrong. This is all on that fucktard Ethan.” As she releases me from her embrace, she continues, “Fine, you can stay here, but I’m going to see whats going on, all right? I promise I’ll come back and give you an update. This is all gonna be okay, Brooke. Ty might be mad, but he’s not stupid.”

I grab her hand. “Please, Jenna,” I beg, “I know you were just as mad at Ethan earlier, but please, don’t let Tyler do anything he’ll regret for the rest of his life. He won’t be able to live with himself if he does.”

Without a word, she pulls her lips in tight and nods her head in agreement. The next thing I know she walks up the side of the townhouse and completely disappears from sight. Every muscle in my body has painfully seized and I feel like throwing up.

I don’t like confrontation.

I hate it.

Given their history, I’m terrified one of them has beaten the other to a bloody pulp. Without warning, the car door flies open and Jenna painfully grabs my arm, pulling me from the car.

“You need to get in there
now,
Brooke. No one’s bloody yet, but Tyler’s pretty worked up and I think Ethan’s about to call the cops.” Jenna drags me out of the car and up the driveway towards the door. I hear Ty’s voice furiously shouting at his brother.

“You aren’t getting off this time, brother! Not this time! I’m gonna make sure you get all that’s fucking coming to you, mister officer of the courts!” I timidly peer into the doorway to see Ethan standing in his kitchen leaned up against the counter, looking at Tyler with a shit eating grin plastered across his face.