Tiffani turns around at the door of the living room to face him, her expression cold. “Where were you last night?”
“I told you,” he says. I can see half of his face from over Tiffani’s shoulder, and I watch him quickly swallow. “I was with the guys.”
“Tyler,” Ella snaps, stepping into his view. I can see him mentally curse. “You told me you were with her. Where did you go last night?”
“Oh my God,” he says. “What does it matter?”
Ella spins back around to meet my eyes. I’m still holding my breath at this point, and I fear I might turn blue. “Eden, where did he go?”
They all lock their eyes on me. Ella’s stare is stern, Tiffani’s expression is livid, and Tyler’s eyes are wide, like he’s begging me not to screw up, pleading for me to think of something. “Um, he dropped me off at Meghan’s and then he changed his plans,” I lie, praying that my thought process is logical. “He hung out with the guys instead.”
“See,” Tyler murmurs, reaching for Tiffani’s elbow as he takes a step toward her, but she shakes him off.
“Don’t talk to me,” she spits, placing a hand on his chest and shoving him back into the hall. “Eden, come with me. We need to talk to Rachael and Meghan. Right now.” The look in her eyes warns me not to object, so I don’t. Instead, I shove the photo albums off to the side and scramble to my feet. She grasps my wrist when I near her, yanking me out of the living room and into the hall. She purposely barges into Tyler as she pulls me past him.
I can tell that he is furious as he glares after us, his hands balled into fists as we disappear out of the front door. I don’t even have time to fetch my shoes, so I’m hauled across the lawn in my bare feet before Tiffani gives me no option but to get into her car.
And the second she gets into the driver’s seat and shuts the door, she bursts into tears. It’s a full-blown sob, and she buries her face into her hands and weeps against the steering wheel. Her chest rises and lowers at an erratic pace as she struggles to breathe.
“Are you okay?” I ask, but then angrily roll my eyes at myself. Of course she’s not okay. Turning around to face her, I stretch out my arm to soothingly rub her back. It doesn’t seem to do any good. “What’s wrong?”
There are some more long sobs before she lifts her head and wipes her eyes with her thumbs. Her breathing is still uneven as she puts the car in drive and pulls on her seat belt. “You’re not going to believe it,” she whimpers as her mascara leaves trails down her cheeks. “Rach and Meg are meeting us at my place. I need to just—I need to vent.”
We drive in silence down to her place, and I’m thankful that she lives in the same neighborhood. I don’t think I’d be able to cope with the sound of her crying for anything longer than ten minutes. But those whole ten minutes, nonetheless, are spent with my stomach in knots. I’m pretty sure Tyler is the reason for her tears.
Rachael’s and Meghan’s cars are already parked on Tiffani’s driveway when we get there, and they quickly step out of their vehicles and come rushing over to us the second we pull up.
“Aww, Tiff! Did it go wrong?” Rachael is the first to pull her into her arms, offering her a tight hug. “Remember, he’s my neighbor, so I can easily sneak across in the middle of the night and cut his balls off if you’d like.”
Now I know it’s definitely Tyler’s fault, and I wonder if perhaps she’s just upset that he ditched her to hang out with his friends. But even that seems too pathetic to be sobbing over. It must be something bigger.
“How many times have we warned you?” Meghan asks, taking Tiffani’s hand in hers and leading her up to the front door. “Tiff, you know this isn’t the first time.”
“Those other times were rumors,” Tiffani groans, letting out another tremendous sob. “This time there’s proof!”
“Proof of what?” I ask as we all shuffle inside the house. No one has yet explained why she’s crying.
“Oh my God, Eden, please stay in the loop,” Rachael mutters as she shoots me a glare, and then glances back at Tiffani with a sympathetic pout. She still doesn’t answer my question, and soon we’re all hauling ourselves up the huge staircase and into Tiffani’s room, where she collapses on her bed.
“Start from the beginning,” Meghan says softly as Tiffani inhales and exhales repeatedly. We’re all sitting before her on the mattress, like she is our queen and we are her servants. In a way, this is true.
“I already told you,” Tiffani snaps, a little agitated. “I was getting the mail in the morning when Austin Cameron drove past and pulled up. He asked if I enjoyed my night with Tyler, and he kept winking at me like the fucking pervert that he is. I asked him what his deal was, and he said he saw us late last night by the pier. I wasn’t at the pier.”
If I thought I wasn’t breathing before, I’m certainly not breathing now. My mouth drops open as I stare at her. I realize that Tyler isn’t the reason that she’s crying.