The storm calms. Not by much, but the rain doesn’t beat down as heavily and the air seems to calm down. A steady downfall but no thunder in the background. Tyler can feel his shirt clinging to his skin, but doesn’t pay it too much attention.

  His arms feel bereft as she pulls back with a shuddering sigh, wiping at her eyes. It doesn’t help much with the water dripping from her hair, but it seems to soothe her. The smile she shoots him is calm. It’s not happiness. Closer to acceptance than anything else.

  Tentative as it is, he’s not sure what he should say. Tyler feels a little useless standing there so he can only imagine how the other feel standing even further back. He has a beat to wonder whether she has noticed their presence before she shoots a tentative smile their way.

  “So,” she tilts her head, “Are you just gonna stand there? Or come over here and give me the hugs you assholes owe me?”

  Tyler has to cover his mouth to hide his spreading grin, shoulders falling in a sense of renewed relief. The familiar words giving him a sense of peace. It’s what she always used to say when she thought they’d been doing something stupid.

  Silence. Then…

  “You…” Lia rushes forward in a fsh, uncaring of the puddle at our feet and almost knocks Tori over as her arms wrap around her. “You absolute…“ She sniffs and Tyler can see her arms tighten just a little.

  “I know,” Tori says with an amused huff, “I missed you too.” She pats her on the back as Lia bursts into sobs. “There. There. I won’t hold this over you forever.”

  “Doesn’t that mean you’ll still hold it over her?” Nina grins after the quip, already walking forward as well.

  “You know I will, so why even ask?”

  “Yeah,” the grin melts into a fond smile, “I do.” She finishes her words by throwing her arms around her and the still sobbing Lia. “You already know I missed you, so I don’t need to say it again.”

  “Yeah. When you basically accosted me after css and kidnapped me to the nearest Cafe,” Tori says with a huff. “And you’ve got no room to stand on if you’re thinking of making fun of her (which I know you are), you sobbed for a full hour before I got you to make any sentences.”

  “You never let me win anything,” Nina says with a mock gre. However she makes no attempts to pull away, so Tyler’s just gonna keep standing where he is.

  “Why would I do that?” Tori says, pulling away a little. It doesn’t work,Lia is still clinging onto her like a spider monkey. Tyler huffs a ugh at the helpless look she gives her before giving Nina a questioning look. “Someone’s got to stop you all from doing stupid things.”

  “Hey!” Tyler points a finger, “I’ve been doing a great job of that.”

  “I never said you haven’t.”

  “You implied it!”

  “Yeah well,” she rolls her eyes, “when you’re being over dramatic and taking advice from generic romance books, there’s not really anything else to be said.”

  “I haven’t been-”

  “Oh yeah?” She quirks her eyebrows midst pattingLiaon the back, “then what was the whole bet thing about?”

  “You…I…” Tyler settles for giving her a gre. He doesn’t really have any excuses for that. Except…. “It was Zach’s idea?”

  “I know,” she says shooting a look in his direction before giving him an unimpressed look. “Haven’t we already established I’m aware of this while you guys were being creepy eavesdroppers?”

  “…” Yeah. No. Tyler can’t think of a single thing he could say to refute that.

  “That’s what I thought,” she says with a smile. Another gnce towards Zach, “I’d tell you to remind me to punch him for it, but that would just be overkill now.”

  Said boy is looking like a lost puppy in the rain, pout and all as he stares at her. The way the waters drips from his clothes only adds to the effect. His hands are interlocked even as he fiddles with them.

  Torigives him a deadpan look before huffing a ugh. “Get over here you big lug.”

  He doesn’t need to be told twice. It only takes him a few seconds to rush towards her and wrap his arms around her in a hug, dislodgingLiain the middle. She blinks, clearly not expecting being scooped up into the air before patting him on the hug.

  Only that seems to be the exact wrong thing to do. He bursts into tears on the spot and holds her closer. Arms holding her close as his dirty blonde hair brushed over her shoulders.

  “Zach…” She says after a few seconds of this, “it’s okay. I’m not going anywhere.”

  He sniffles, barely able to speak through his sobs. “But…”

  “I know. I know. You can keep hugging me,” she says in resignation. “But you’re kinda cutting off my circution, so ease up on the grip.

  “Okay.”

  Tyler shares a look with Nina and finds the same bewilderment on her features as he feels. Lia’s gre eases in the face of her exasperation as she leans back on the stone bench. Clearly, she’s not happy about him stealing her pce.

  He can understand the feeling. But right now, he’s a little busy processing the sobbing mess that he’s become. Also, he feels like he’s forgetting something, but he can’t put his finger on it. A buzz in his pocket has him frowning and pulling out his phone.

  Cursing under his breath, he moves to a shaded are before opening the case. A breath of relief leaves him when it turns on and doesn’t have raindrops clinging to it. Good. He hasn’t ruined his phone.

  Tyler takes a moment to let himself bask in that relief. His parents might have killed him if he had ruined another phone so soon after the st one was smashed on their trip. He holds the phone to his chest until it buzzes again and he’s reminded why he took it out to begin with.

  Jade’s name stares back at him with a dozen messages asking him where they are. He scrolls through them, feeling his heartbeat faster. She starts of by telling them to stay safe which gradually changes to asking them where they are. He can practically feel the concern emanating from them.

  His thumb stops scrolling at one of the most recent ones telling him that they’ve finished setting up. Shit. He roughly runs a hand through his hair. That’s what he forgot. The party. Right, that was the entire reason they’d gone out to begin with.

  Then again, the revetions after had left very little room for thinking about much of anything. Tyler couldn’t even remember what he’d been doing in the past few minutes, let alone hours ago. Well, he could, but it was mostly a blur now.

  “Well,” Tori says just as he arrives next to them, “I think that’s quite enough for now.” She shoots him a small smile, pulling away from the hug and swatting Zach’s hand when he doesn’t immediately let go. “The rain might have let up, but I have no doubt it’s gonna start storming again soon.”

  “Then why did you decide to go to a cemetery,” Lia asks, voice still a little hoarse.

  Tori gives her a deadpan look, “Well, I wasn’t exactly pnning on staying this long. I just got a little…distracted.”

  “Distracted?”Liarepeats the word with a frown, having some sort of internal argument before she just shakes her head with a sigh. “Fair enough.”

  “Well I for one would really like to get out of this rain,” Nina adds, “I’m fucking freezing here.” Thunder rumbles and a lightning strike follows as if to emphasise the point.

  “Okay,” he hides a smile as she turns a wide-eyed look to the sky, “Let’s get out of here.”

  “Hope you have towels in your car,” Tori says with a tilt of her head.

  “I….” He doesn’t actually. Tyler winces. Shit.

  “I thought not,” she shakes her head with a ugh and then pulls out a bag from behind a stone pilr behind the graves. “Which is why I bought some on the way here.” She gives him a smug smile, when he just stares at her with a wide-eyed stare. “I figured you’d follow me.”

  “When and how did you even buy those!?” Nina gives her a bewildered look, “Your purse is in the car!”

  “I still have my phone, remember?” She grins, “I admit walking out was a little dramatic, but I’m not stupid enough to leave with nothing.”

  Tyler stays silent. Because…that smile doesn’t reach her eyes. It’s like she’s trying to lighten the mood but is screaming on the inside. His lips thin. He wants to tell her she doesn’t have to pretend to be alright when she doesn’t feel it. But…

  He looks at the others and sees the way they’re looking at her. the guilt still lingering their gazes, but lessened even if just a little. And herealisesthat perhaps she simply doesn’t want to talk about it any more.

  “Yeah, yeah,” he says instead with an exaggerated sigh. “You’re so smart and the rest of us just need to follow along.” He rolls his eyes. “Let’s go already. Jade called anyway.”

  That gets her attention and she frowns. “She did? What did she say?”

  “Just that she’s concerned about the storm. Don’t worry, everything’s fine and the world didn’t fall apart just because you weren’t there.”

  “Ass,” she mutters. “That was not what I was asking.”

  “Yes it was,” Tyler says with a soft smile the same time as Nina does.

  She stills on in her step, gaze lingering on them for just a second before a smile spreads over her lips as well. “Yes it was.”

  The rest of the walk passes in silence, the towels in her bag being spread over the seats as they all get in. Nina sits in the front with him whilst Lia and Zach sit on either side of her after a silent argument which was only settled by Tori offering to with an amused smile. Tyler’s starting to remember why he missed her so much.

  Honestly, everything is running a lot smoother since she got back. It was fine before of course, but there was always an undertone of chaos with their pns, little details that always fell through. Which was why they’d gotten caught many times. It was nice to have her back.

  However, after the initial shock and reunion, he didn’t know what to say. He felt like he should apologise for forgetting about her. But he hadn’t. Not really. He’d just pushed it aside to not raise his hopes for nothing. Maybe he should apologise for that?

  Tyler didn’t know whether that was any better. His grip on the steering wheel tightened slightly before he shook it off. He took a discrete breath to settle himself, and turned his attention back to the road. Dad had always said to focus on the road, especially when it was raining.

  And considering the st time a car had driven on a rainy night on this date…yeah. Better to think about his fuck ups ter.

  Except it nowdwelledinto an awkward silence. None of the others were talking either and he didn’t want to risk taking his eyes of the road to turn the radio on. The lights in front turned red, making him halt to a stop with a little skip. The road didn’t have many cars on it.

  Or people for that matter. Tyler kept his eyes on the light. When was it going to turn green? This silence was starting to be a little uncomfortable. Maybe he should just ask-

  “Hey! Wait just a minute,” Lia excims with a gasp. Tyler saw her turn an accusing stare towardsTorithrough the mirror.

  She doesn’t seem affected by it, simply tilting her head in askance. “Yes?”

  “You’ve been calling me Cece!”

  “Yes I have,” Tori says, grin spreading.

  Lia’seyes narrow. “You,” she pokes her, “little shit. You know I hate being called that!” A pause as the grin gets even bigger. Lia gasps again. “That’s why you’ve been calling me that, isn’t it?”

  Another poke on her now shaking shoulders.Torigives her a grin through the silent ughter. “Maybe,” she singsongs. Lia’s practically fuming now, but there’s nothing to be said. Still, Tyler thinks she might try as she opens her mouth.

  “Hang on,” Zach interrupts, turning to the girls with wide eyes. “The spider was on purpose!”

  “I will neither confirm nor deny that statement.” Tyler stifles a ugh. Ah. He gets it now.

  “Victoria Jones!”

  “Yeah?” She gives him deadpan look. “Who told you to make a bet anyway? And a stupid one to boot.” She rolls her eyes. “And a month time limit? I see Nina’s not the only romance novel enthusiast.”

  “I’ve only read some of them and that’s besides the point,”Zach tells her. “How do you even know that!?”

  “It’s a lot more obvious than you think when someone asks you out on a specific date,” Tyler sees her gnce towards him knowingly. Heat rushes to his cheeks but he can’t stop a grin from spreading. Tori tilts her head questioningly, face turning back to Zach. “What did you bet on anyway?”

  Zachmeets his eyes in the mirror and they collectively decide to remain silent. Yet it all goes to waste as Nina turns in her seat to tattle. “Video games.”

  “Ah, I see.” She ughs, “I should have known.”

  “But wait,” Lia says, “Why do the teachers call you Vicky Fleming?”

  “Well, Jade did adopt me,” she shrugs. Then sighs when they all unanimously turn to give her a look. “Because I wanted to leave the past behind. Don’t worry, it will still say Victoria Jones on the grad certificate.”

  “Yeah, but…”

  “The light’s green,” Nina says tapping him on the shoulder.

  “Okay, thanks.”

  Tyler tunes out the very loud conversation in the backseat, but still catches enough to knowLiais making pns to make up for lost time. Nina and Zach interject every so often to add their own ideas while Tori just smiles. It seems the next few weeks are going to be very busy. He wouldn’t have it any other way.

  When they get to her house, Jade takes one look at them and ushers them past the living room. Taking only a second to give them fresh towels and dry clothes. He’s grateful for it and tells her as much.

  “Well,” she says as they walk back out, “I had other pns for this day, but the storm basically ruined that. Still,” she pulls a birthday hat from behind her back and pces it on her head. “It doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate how we can. Happy birthday, sweetheart.”

  “You didn’t need to-”

  “Just sit down,” Lia says, guiding her to the cake. “you’re not allowed to be sad on your birthday anymore.”

  “Yeah,” Nina says, already taking a seat beside George. She takes a second to coo at Raine in his arms before turning a stern gre onTori. “No more sadness.”

  “It’s your birthday,” is the only thing Zach says before taking a seat on the table.

  Tyler grins, “Yep. Time to blow on the candles, birthday girl.”

  “Well, not yet,” Jade interjects, moving closer to light them, “We still need to sing the birthday song. But, I’m gd we’re all on the same page.” They all turn a gnce towards Tori at the end of it. She tries to look annoyed but the smile spreading over her lips gives her away.

  “Alright fine,” she ughs, “I guess a cake and dinner wouldn’t hurt.”

  They do all that and more, cheering as she blows out the candles on “you” and not letting her get lost in her own head. Pying games and eating dinner around the TV pying Totoro. Not that they do much watching, but it makes great background for their conversation.

  Tyler turns his head to see Nina talking her ear off and Lia engaged in conversation with Jade as she coos over Raine. Zach is looking through a photo album with George. He’s pretty sure they’re looking at old artist photos and autographs, but he can’t be sure.

  He allows himself a moment to just soak it in.Torimeets his eyes over the chaos and he thinks he may just get used to this. All in all, he doesn’t think this day has been entirely terrible.

  And they have the rest of the week to spend with her. He smiles into his taco. He can’t wait.