In the end it gets derailed by sabotage and tricks, but it doesn’t matter. By the end of the course, they were all too busy ughing as their shots got crazier to care. Also, no one kept count of the scores after a while, so they didn’t know who won. Tyler will admit that had a lot to do with the light mood.

  Hard to stay mad or even care when no one does. So safe to say when they got back inside, the mood was still happy. Thank god. Tyler had been half-expecting for it to all go wrong. And they did end up showing her the board of pictures. He was happy to report it had gone how they’d hoped and she’d burst out ughing.

  There was knocking on the door not long after it, and the guests started rolling in. He was annoyed to note that they had invited other people as well, but Tori didn’t seem to mind, so he decided to just leave it be. He stayed only long enough to be assured nothing was going wrong before heading upstairs.

  As fun as it was to py the game, it didn’t help the exhaustion slowly creeping into his bones. The others could take it from here. He wondered whether Lia’s parents had managed to get good pictures, maybe he should ask them ter.

  Swinging past the gss doors, he flopped onto the outdoor couch on their balcony, leaning back with a heavy sigh. Ah. Much better. The wind brushed past him in a soothing lull, music a dull hum at this distance.

  If he focused, he could hear faint ughter and cheers. Tyler smiles, eyes blinking open again, staring up at the sky. Good. There were only a few clouds up there today, and none that looked stormy.

  He hoped the asshole weather wouldn’t suddenly change its mind. The st thing he wants is for this to turn into a repeat of her actual birthday. Not that all of it was bad. No. Tyler sits upright, still rexed but not as zy. Some of it had been pretty good.

  The sound of the door banging open had him look backwards in arm, his legs moving before he consciously decided to head to the stairs. His mind races, a hundred different thing popping up. What-

  “Sorry!”

  He stops, tension bleeding out as soon as it came. It’s just someone who accidentally hit against it. Thank god. He sighs, running a hand through his hair as he sits back on the balcony. Jesus christ. He needs to stop being so paranoid.

  However, the st time people had come into this house, things hadn’t turned out so great. He hadn’t forgotten how that asshole hadsnuckpast the guests and almost attacked the girls. HowTorihad flipped him before she could.

  Tyler huffs a ugh. Yeah. That was another thing he didn’t need a repeat of.

  Both the unwanted guest and the need for defense. It had been, still was, a cool thing for her to do. However, the longer he had to think about it, the more he realised how dangerous of an action it had been. If he had been a little faster or Tori a little more slow…

  He shudders. Yeah. Better not to put her in that situation to begin with.

  Hopefully the many warnings he’d passed along to people Lia had invited had worked and there would be no unwanted guests. Still…His lips thinned. Maybe he should have convinced her parents to hire those guards after all.

  Even if it would get him an earful from Lia, it would be a small price to pay. Ah! He didn’t know. This was all too much. His eyes were starting to droop. Maybe taking a small nap wouldn’t be so bad after all.

  “Feeling tired?” He jolts, eyes snapping open to meet amused blue.

  “I…Nah,” he tries for a smile, “I’m fine.”

  She takes a seat beside him, shooting him an amused gre. “Liar.”

  “Why aren’t you down there, enjoying your party?”

  “The better question is, why aren’t you? You worked so hard to make it happen, and now you’re holed up here on a balcony?” She tuts, spreading her legs on the long lounge chair, face resting on her hand as she looks up at him.

  So not going to let it go then. He sighs. “I was just getting some air, I’d have come down eventually. Besides, there are far too many people down there already.”

  Her eyes narrow on him as she hums, but thankfully she doesn’t press the issue. She’d probably tease him for worrying too much if she knew the thoughts that had just been racing through his head. It is a little ironic, he’ll admit that just earlier he’d been telling her not to worry so much.

  “Ty?” She draws his attention away from a very interesting tree.

  He tilts his head in question as she draws closer. “Yes?”

  “Thank you. Really.”

  Tyler shakes his head with huffed ugh, hand rubbing the back of his neck. “You’ve already said that.”

  “I know,” she smiles softly, “I just wanted to say it again. You didn’t really answer me the first time.”

  “You moved away before I could,” he reminds her. Then shrugs, smiling back. “It’s no trouble really. You having fun?” Was she enjoying this day? It was a question that had been circling his head all morning.

  It certainly seemed like she was. But he’d learned long ago not to take things for granted, so he needed her to tell him how she felt. And he supposed the opposite also held true.

  “Yeah,” she says, the smile growing, “I am. I didn’t really think about it, you know? After what happened, I’d sort of just stopped caring as much. But this is nice.” She turns back to him, eyes and smile soft. “Maybe this is what Jade meant by moving forward even if the past lingers. It certainly feels like it.”

  “Moving forward?” Tyler only really understood half of that.

  She nods her head with a hum. “Yeah. I didn’t really feel like I could before, but now…” Tori grins. “I think I can start celebrating my birthday again without being so guilty.”

  Ah. So that’s what she meant. There’s many things he could say to that of course. Tell her she should have done that before. Or remind her that her parents wouldn’t have wanted her to be sad for this long. But those are things she already knows. She doesn’t need to hear them from him.

  “Yeah,” he says instead, “you totally should. Not that can you beat this super awesome party though.” He grins teasingly toemphasisethe point, gently nudging at her foot with his own. Expression softening when she ughs.

  “Nina called it that, didn’t she?” The words are just a little difficult to understand around the ughs.

  “Yeah,” he says, shaking his head softly. “God. It’s a little scary that you can guess that even after all this time. You really do know us, huh?” The st sentence comes out sadder than he intended, smile turning wry.

  She could guess that so easily, yet they’d spent the better part of half a year not picking up on anything. He internally sighs. He really does feel like an idiot for not noticing. For not recognising her to begin with.

  “Of course I do,” she says on a ugh. “If I didn’t know you all so well, I would never have known about that stupid bet. Not that it did me any good this time. I wasn’t expecting this at all.”

  “Good,” he grins. “It wouldn’t have been much of a surprise if you had.” Speaking of the bet though…“Why did you go along with it anyway?” He doesn’t recall if she mentioned it. Surely he’d have remembered if she did?

  Tori stays silent as she looks at him, biting her lower lip nervously. Then she sighs, hand rubbing the back of her neck as she leans back, and moves it to cover her eyes. “Figures that you wouldn’t remember.” Another sigh. “Because I promised.”

  “What?” He frowns, moving closer. A promise? “What do you mean?”

  She huffs a exasperated ugh, arm moving so she can look at him. “You know, I really thought you’d remember this. But then again, I also thought you’d immediately recognise me, so I suppose my expectations are skewed.”

  “Tori?” She waves off him, sitting fully upright again. Tyler still has no idea what she’s talking about and now feels like an idiot again. And lost. Very lost.

  “I mean the promise I made to you that day at the ke. When we were little and you were compining about losing your game to Nina in a bet. I remember you being really upset and honestly it was a little over dramatic now that I’m remembering it. Really…Alight. Alright. I’ll get to the point.”

  Tyler waits patiently as she gives him a small gres and sighs in annoyance. Hopefully she doesn’t talk herself into a corner this time.

  “You were upset,” she reiterates, “and I’d just been reading one of those fae books and was really into promises. So, I might have channeled it a little too much.” She covers her mouth with her hand, ears turning red. “Actually. You know what? It’s fine if you don’t remember. Let’s keep it that way.”

  Wait…“You pulled me to that big oak tree and told me to give it an offering,” he smiles. Ah. Now he remembers. “I do vaguely remember a promise of taking my side in a bet. Did you really go along with it just for that?”

  She’d been very serious then too, all of nine years old and telling him to sacrifice a chicken if she didn’t keep her word. He doesn’t know how he forgot it? He definitely remembered the earful they’d gotten for being so muddy. Not that he was very concerned with that. However, that wasn’t the only promise that had been made.

  “I…” She clears her throat, head tilting up stubbornly, “I made you a promise, so I wasn’t about to break it.”

  “You didn’t make it easy for me either,” he reminds her, “wasn’t that a part of that frankly much more over dramatic ritual thing?”

  “No,” she says with a pleased smile. “I promised you’d win. I never said you wouldn’t have to work for it.”

  Tyler’s eyes narrow on her. “You were just having too much fun messing with me. Weren’t you?”

  “I will neither confirm nor deny that statement,” she says with a shark like grin that really does make her look like a woodnd sprite.

  “I’ll that as a yes,” he says tiredly. Then gres at her when she ughs. Unfortunately he can’t keep the gre up when his heart skips a beat at her joy. Oh well. “In any case,” he says rolling his eyes, ugh still in the background. “I’m gd.”

  “You should be,” she replies with teasing grin.

  They could almost drift off into a comfortable silence this way. Even if he can hear the noise of people getting louder. Songs and cheers still going even if the subject of them sits in front of him. Yet, sitting here, Tyler feels it isn’t enough.

  “That wasn’t the only promise made that day,” he says, fully getting out of the chair and kneeling in front of her. Just as she’d told him to do on that day. “I recall promising to keep you safe as well.”

  She blinks at him, confusedly, eyes following his movements.“And happy,” she reminds him after a moment.

  “And happy,” he repeats. “Little you really didn’t do things halfway, huh?” He shakes his head with a ugh. “Anyway, safe to say neither of those were kept very well. So I’m going to make you a new promise.”

  “What? Tyler you know you don’t have to. Really. What are you doing?”

  “I know,” he says on a sigh. The problem is he knows if he doesn’t do this now, he might not have the courage to ter. Moving forward, was it? “I want to.”

  “Okay,” she says slowly, eyes furrowed.

  “Okay,” he repeats, still smiling. Maybe it’ll help disguise the rapid beating of his heart. “So anyway, as I was saying,” he makes a show of clearing his throat. “I promise that…” Words. Come on. Where were the words? “I promise to keep annoying you if you ever get too sad. And that I’ll…” Ah, to hell with it.

  He inhales deeply. “I know that the st time was less than ideal. But what do you think about giving it a try for real?” Tyler was much better at being straightforward anyway.

  “Giving what a try?”

  “This. Us,” he sighs. “I’m not getting this out well at all. Am I?” She shakes his head, getting up and sitting right beside her, taking her hand. “Nina said I should do something really dramatic.”

  “What?”

  “Don’t worry, Lia vetoed it. But then she also overshot our pns for this party and told me to hurry up and do it, so what does she know?”

  “Do what? Ty, I have no clue where you’re going with this.” Yeah. He really isn’t good at this at all. He’s even starting to confuse himself. But he can’t exactly stop now, can he? That would be far too anticlimactic.

  “I like you,” he tells her. “I mean really like you, butterflies and all.” It feels closer to love, but he’s not quite that clueless to just outright say that. Not yet anyway. “So, what I’m trying to say is, if you feel the same way…”

  She cuts him off with a hug. “Of course I like you, you big idiot,” she says, sounding a little exasperated. “Do you think I let Brooke think we were dating for no reason at all? Honestly.”

  Toripulls back and gives him a gre. “You’re making this far too complicated. Again. You’re my friend, aren’t you?” He nods, words a little scarce. “So what made you think this was going to go badly? I mean, surely you know me better than that. Why didn’t you just say something?”

  “I…” He doesn’t know what to say, brain feeling a little fuzzy. Personally, he thinks she’s making this seem a little too simple.

  Torigives him a fond smile, turning her hand so it rests in his more comfortably. “Anyway. We’ve always been friends, so I suppose I can see where the hesitance might be. But Ty, it’s been six years. There’s not really anything to ruin.”

  “Yeah, but…”

  “I know. I know. We’re still friends. But since I’ve been back, even for that bet thing, you’ve been treating this like it’s more than ptonic, so I figured you’d already clocked that.” A pause. “I thought we were already in that stage, to be honest,” she says underneath her breath.

  Tyler still hears her. “We are?” He blinks, hand squeezing slightly. “You did? Why didn’t you tell me?” It would have saved him a lot of confusion and perceived heartache.

  She shoots him an annoyed gre. “I thought admitting to our friends that we were would be enough. Apparently not.”

  “But you went to deny it!”

  “Only for a second before I realised it made perfect sense,” she corrects. A sigh. “I guess we could both work on our communication.”

  Tyler nods. That he can agree with. “You like me in a not-so-ptonic way?” His mind still refuses to believe it.

  Her lips twitch in her efforts to smother a ugh or a smile, he can’t tell which. “Yes.”

  “Since when!?”

  “I couldn’t tell you when, I just know that I do,” she smiles, uncharacteristically shy now. “I’m gd you feel the same way. I mean I already thought you did, but having the confirmation is…It’s nice.”

  “Yeah,” he says, smiling now. “So date, date. Friday? We still haven’t had a chance to have that redo since you kept avoiding me and then I forgot.”

  “Hey! I was busy with Raine! And it’s not like I knew if it was sincere at the time. Or ask you about it, since-”

  “Yeah, yeah,” he says indulgently, feeling warmth spread now that he realises this is real. “Friday?”

  Her eyes meet his. Annoyance giving way to a rge grin, “Friday.” Then a beat. “Maybe go somewhere that’s not a house this time.”

  He gives her a deadpan look for that comment, and then decides it’s not enough and gently taps her face with a cushion instead. “Shush, you.”

  She ughs again at that, loud and happy. “Come on,” she tugs at his hands, “Let’s rejoin that party.” Tyler’s not sure if he really wants to, but he lets her pull him up regardless.

  The tiredness doesn’t seem as heavy anymore. There’s a skip in his step as they walk back in. Pns already forming.