“Can you clean up Tyler’s hand?” I ask quickly, changing the subject. I’m kind of done with Dad and Ella right now. I’m too tired to deal with them, and Tyler’s hand is still busted up, so I focus on that instead. Gently, I reach for his hand and hold it up for Mom to examine.
“God, what the hell did you do?” she blurts as her eyes flash up to meet Tyler’s. Now he looks embarrassed.
“He hit Dad,” I answer for him. “Twice.”
“That’s too bad for Dave,” Mom murmurs, but she’s suppressing a smile. “Tyler, come on over to the sink.”
Mom only takes a few minutes to fix up Tyler’s hand. In those minutes, however, Jack manages to offer Tyler a beer and I manage to awkwardly ask if Tyler can spend the night, and Mom agrees. According to her, anyone who can throw a punch at Dad is more than welcome to stay. Tyler’s thankful for the hospitality, although he does decline the beer. He’s too tired.
“We’re gonna get some sleep,” I tell Mom as she tidies up in the kitchen while Tyler tightens and relaxes his hand repeatedly, as though the exercise will make the cuts disappear. “It’s late in New York.”
“Well, I hope you both feel a little better about everything in the morning,” Mom says, angling her body to face me as she pulls me into a brief hug, and then both she and Jack wish us goodnight as they return to their movie.
I reach for Tyler’s hand, interlocking our fingers as I pull him toward the hall. My room is the very first door, yet I’ve barely even touched the handle when I hear Mom clear her throat from behind us. I quickly let go of Tyler and turn around.
“I know I’m a super-cool mom and all, but I’m not that cool,” she says, giving Tyler a pointed glance, her expression stern. “Tyler gets the guest room.”
“No problem,” Tyler says.
Rolling my eyes, I turn back and head straight down the hall. The guest room is the last room on the left and it’s the one room in the house that’s hardly ever used, so I lead Tyler over and then halt by the door. The lights in the hall are off too, so when I turn to face him, I end up looking at him through the faint darkness. I keep quiet for a moment while I allow my eyes to adjust, and when they do, I realize that Tyler’s staring at the floor.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” I ask, now growing more concerned than anything else. I try to force his gaze to meet mine, but it doesn’t.
Instead, Tyler reaches for the door and pushes it open, walking past me and into the guest room without even glancing up. “I’ll talk to you later,” he says quietly.
“Hey,” I say sharply, folding my arms across my chest as I follow him into the room and flick on the light. I stand and wait, pressing my lips into a firm line. “I asked you if you were okay.”
Tyler sighs as he tilts his face down, his back still turned to me. He throws his bag onto the center of the bed and runs his hand through his hair, softly tugging on the ends before he turns his body to face mine. “I’m not gonna lie and tell you that I’m okay when I’m not,” he finally says.
“Then talk to me.” I take a few steps toward him, closing the distance between us, and I press a hand to his chest. I look up at him from beneath my eyelashes, feeling his heart beating slow and hard beneath my palm.
But Tyler clearly doesn’t want to talk about it, because he carefully reaches for my wrist and moves my hand away as he takes a step back from me. “I said I’ll talk to you later,” he says with a firm edge to his voice, like he really means it and doesn’t want me to push the matter any further. Spinning back around, he sits down on the edge of the bed and bends forward, interlocking his hands. “Can you shut the door on the way out?” he asks, his voice so low and so quiet that it’s almost a whisper.
I’m not entirely sure what’s up with Tyler right now, but he’s making it pretty clear that he wants some space, so I bite my lip and force myself to leave, despite how much I’d rather stay. When I reach the door, I press my hand to the frame and glance back over my shoulder at him. He’s sitting still, hardly blinking, just breathing.
“If you want, you can sneak over to my room any time after midnight,” I whisper, but he doesn’t even react, let alone respond, so I shut the door and leave him alone.
I don’t know what time it is when I flinch awake and I don’t know how long Tyler’s been nudging me for, but I do know that it startles the hell out of me. I almost roll completely off my bed, so surprised by the intruder in my room that I suffer heart palpitations. Pushing back my comforter, I push my body up and lean over to my bedside table, fumbling around with the light switch in the darkness. Finally, I find it, and the corner of my room brightens up with a warm glow.