Chapter ８

I rolled my eyes at his childishness. I found it hilarious, but I wasn't going to let him know that.

“Fine, I'll leave him down there for a few days. Maybe starving him will make him talk. Now, go and get Cassie. We need to leave,” I ordered my brother.

He nodded and ran up the stairs. A few minutes later he returned with Cassie in tow.

“I'll go wait in the car,” Tyler shouted as he ran past me and out the front door.

Cassie greeted me with a hug.

“Hey T,” she said softly.

“Hiya Cass, you ready?” I asked as I turned to face the front door. She ran over to the couch and grabbed her purse, then walked back towards me and said,

“Now I am.”

She placed her hand on my shoulder and stood up on her tiptoes, then softly kissed my cheek. She lowered herself back down to the ground and began to strut away. As she strode out of the front door, she turned to me and asked,

“Oh, Tristan. Have you told Freya about us yet?”

Freya Rose

I finished getting ready for my graduation and made my way downstairs. My mom was at the stove cooking, and as I walked past her, I leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“Breakfast smells amazing, Mom,” I said while secretly swiping a piece of cooked bacon from the plate beside her.

“Oi, you cheeky madam.”

She tried to swat my hand away, but I was too fast for her, and was already tucking into my stolen goods. She laughed while I walked away and headed towards the dining table. I sat down at the end of the table and then asked her,

“Where's, Tristan?”

She turned her head and answered me,

“He's gone to pick up Cassie and Tyler. He said he'd be back in a bit.”

“Ah, okay, cool.”

I grabbed my phone out of my bag and opened up the photo gallery. I liked looking over all the old pictures I'd taken over the years. I was obsessed with making sure I had pictures of all the important people in my life, much to their dismay. I scrolled through lots of pictures of Tristan and me.

He had asked me out on my sixteenth birthday. It was so cute. He'd bought me flowers and a gorgeous gold necklace with a heart locket pendant. Inside the locket was a picture of him on one side and a picture of me on the other. Inscribed on the back was the date of my sixteenth birthday and the words,

I Love You Always,

Forever Be Mine.

I held my hand up and gently pulled the locket away from my neck. I opened it up to look at the pictures inside of Tristan and me.

Still the best present ever, I thought to myself.

Tristan was so adorable standing in front of me at my birthday party. He was twitching and shuffling his feet nervously, acting all shy and scared while he waited for my answer. I remember telling him, of course, I was always going to say yes. He asked me why. So, I told him the truth. I told him that I'd had a huge crush on him since I was thirteen years old. He pulled me in tight and kissed the top of my head. I then heard him say under his breath that he was a fool for not noticing me sooner.

I giggled to myself as I thought about how much I had wished for him to notice me while I was growing up. You see, Tristan was my best friend Tyler's, older brother.

I used to make up any excuse I could to go over to Tyler's house, just so that I could catch a glimpse of Tristan. Whenever I saw him my heart pounded, and my belly filled with butterflies. I could barely function around him but being three years older than us he hardly ever noticed me.

I was sure that he just saw me as his annoying little brothers, best friend. I didn't blame him really, I was a bit of a tomboy back then, and had the body to match. I was all skinny and straight. No curves or assets to speak of, not like the girls that he used to bring back to his parent’s house.

I screwed up my face as I began to remember those skanks all over my man. I knew I shouldn't have been jealous, because he was all mine now, but I couldn't help it. I loved him so much, and the thought of any other girl touching him made me feel sick.

The girls back then were sexy, and they knew exactly how to flirt with him. A flip of the hair here, a slight touch there. They even knew how to perfectly time a giggle when he told one of his corny jokes. And trust me, his jokes were never funny, and still aren't. He had them fawning all over him, and why wouldn't he? He was super sexy, smart, ripped, and the captain of the football team, what wasn't there to fawn over. I was just so jealous of the girls and wished he would look at me the way he looked at them.

I giggled to myself again and flipped my hair all sexy like. My mom turned her head away from the stove and raised her eyebrows at me like I was crazy. I chuckled and swished my hand in the air like I was saying, just ignore me. She laughed and went back to cooking the bacon.

It took him a while, but Tyler finally realized that I had a huge crush on his big brother, and he found it absolutely hilarious. Any opportunity he got, he would use it to embarrass me in front of Tristan. I'd have to jab him in his ribs, or wrestle him to the ground to get him to stop. I was so scared of the thought of Tristan finding out, because I knew he didn't think of me that way, and I would have been mortified if he started teasing me about it too.

I scrolled through some more of my photos and laughed when I saw some of me and Tyler pulling funny faces.

I really do love that crazy clown.

“What's so funny hon?” My mom asked while placing the plate of bacon on the dining table.

“Just looking at old pictures of me and Tyler,” I replied while turning my phone around for her to see.