“I know,” I say, my voice cracking. I’m nearly crying too. I don’t want to be here. I want to be in Portland with my mom and Amelia. I want to be sleeping until noon and I want to be watching reruns of my favorite TV shows. I don’t want this. “I’m a liar. I’m a bitch. I’m a terrible friend.”
Out of nowhere, Tyler steps in front of me and clears his throat. He’s been silent for a while, and it makes me wonder exactly what he’s preparing himself to say. “You know what, Tiffani?” he says, and she looks at him with wide, hurt eyes. “I don’t even want to be with you. I’ve wasted three years because you blackmailed me into staying with you. Do whatever you want. Tell everyone everything you know about me, because having you keep it a secret isn’t worth the effort it takes to put up with you.” His voice grows louder with each word. I can see Tiffani’s ego taking the hit. “We’re over. Sue me. Report me to the cops. I don’t care. I’m done.”
I certainly didn’t expect this. Just the other week Tyler was claiming it was almost impossible to break up with her. She could potentially ruin him if he did. But now… It’s like he doesn’t mind, like he just wants to get away from her. Perhaps being in a relationship with her is worse than having his life messed with.
“This is all your fault!” Tiffani screams at me. Her voice is so strained that I unconsciously take a step closer to Tyler, which probably doesn’t help in the slightest. “I don’t even care about the fact that you’re basically siblings, which I should, because it’s disgusting, but no, the only thing I care about is that you’ve ruined everything.”
I feel even worse than I did before. I stole her boyfriend. Unintentionally, but still. Shaking my head, I step out toward her again. No matter how many hurtful comments she’s thrown my way, I’m still drenched in guilt. “Tiffani, I didn’t mean for—”
Tyler holds up a hand to silence me. “It’s over, babe,” he tells her instead. With a callous shrug, he points to the gate. He’s being so harsh about it, and I feel terrible, both about my actions and for Tiffani. If she didn’t want to kill me, I’d hug her right now, like the friend I’m supposed to be to her. I didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt.
Frustrated and crying even harder, she throws her hands into her hair and screams, “But you can’t break up with me!”
He laughs. He actually laughs at her. I don’t think he’s processed the fact that she knows our secret and has every reason to tell it to the world. “Because I won’t be there to make you look cool? Because you won’t get to control me anymore?”
“Because I’m pregnant, Tyler!”
The second the words leave her lips, the atmosphere thickens so much that it’s almost suffocating. Tyler’s entire body deflates and the color drains from his face. I look back to Tiffani. She’s weeping now, and it’s the kind of crying that looks like it hurts, the kind that causes you to lose your breath. Now I really do think I’m going to hurl.
Tyler seems to lose his voice, the only sound he can breathe out being a minute whisper. “What?”
She starts backing away from us, her cheeks stained with tears and her heart broken. I can’t take it in. I feel like someone’s just punched me and knocked me out, because everything seems fuzzy and dull, the way your room feels when you first wake up.
I hear the patio doors slide open, but I’m too numb to even glance over. I make out Ella’s voice asking, “What’s all the screaming about?”
Tyler doesn’t say a word. I think he’s in shock. He’s just staring at Tiffani, his lips parted, his eyes an ocean of different emotions. I finally glance over to the patio doors, and Ella and my dad are staring at us. I know what they’re thinking. They’re wondering why Tyler looks like he’s having a heart attack and why Tiffani is a weeping mess that’s heading for the gate.
When she reaches it and pulls it open, she stops and turns back, sniffling back her sobs as she meets Ella’s eyes. “You should know that he’s hooked on coke!” she yells. “And he’s started dealing too!”
“You bitch!” Tyler snarls, snapping out of his frozen state just as she disappears through the gate, which slams shut behind her.
Her words echo through my mind so loudly that it hurts. That’s what she’s been holding over him the entire summer. It’s what Tyler was talking about when we were locked in the bathroom. It’s what she must have found out at the start of the summer, when she confronted him about it and angered him and caused him to storm into the barbecue in a horrible mood. That’s why he’s staying off the police’s radar.
Because he could go to jail for this.
If there is any way for today to get worse than it already is, then it’s this. There are too many things to deal with at once as the truth spills out: the truth about Tyler and the drugs, the truth about Tiffani, and, worst of all, the truth about Tyler and me.