Before that, something had gone down between her, and them because they didn’t seem to be as close as they once were which I didn’t care about either since I was too busy trying to get myself together taking on more and more extracurricular activities and studying my ass off so that I could graduate early with Tyler.
We still haven’t told our parents yet, which is why we’re still sneaking around in the dark. The truth is, I think I’m going to miss this once we get around to telling them. Tyler had asked to hold off until after our little sister was born, and she’s going to be a month in a few days so I think we’ll be telling them soon.
I’m not as afraid as I was in the beginning, though I still have no idea how mom’s going to react. I guess being in love and knowing that you’re loved in return makes you not worry too much about such things. All I feel these days is excitement for the future.
I felt his arms squeeze around me and his lips at my temple, which meant that he was getting ready to leave me for the night. “No, don’t go.” I snuggled in, wrapping my arm tighter around his middle and inhaled his scent. I got the tingly feeling and had to squeeze my legs together.
Though we’ve been at it for months, the newness has yet to wear off. I still await him with anticipation, still, always get butterflies at the sight of him or the sound of him outside my door. Sometimes the hunger is almost too much to hold inside, and I’m always afraid of giving us away when we’re around others.
Tyler, who always seems to sense when I’m in trouble, usually comes to my rescue; he’s become like an old pro at this. The only thing I won’t miss when we come clean with our parents and no longer need to hide according to their reactions is having to hide our true feelings at school.
No one seems to have caught on; most seem to accept that we’re just close as stepsiblings, which is the vibe we give off when we’re there. Only Paul knows the truth, so he’s the one we hang out with most when we’re away from home because then we can be ourselves.
But since no one else knows, the females have not yet let up on their antics. There’s even been buzz about him no longer putting out like he used to, and they damn near started a petition to rectify it. Tyler thinks it’s funny, but I just want to gouge their eyes out when they start in on that shit.
I still have issues with jealousy and don’t see them resolving themselves anytime soon, so revealing the truth, I think, will go a long way to alleviating that particular stress. As for now, Tyler does his best to keep his groupies at bay, and he’s always conscious of not letting things get to the point where it’ll affect me, i.e., letting someone run their fingers through his hair. Something they used to be rather fond of but which I told him one night in bed that I hated beyond reason.
I’ve found in the last few months that there’s so much more to Tyler than just his surface attributes, which I must admit is what I’d fallen for. Beneath his handsome good looks beat the heart of a real man. Even as young as he is at eighteen, he seems to have a pretty good handle on how to treat the woman in his life. I have no doubt he’d learned it from Eric because I see the same in him as well.
But seeing it and experiencing it for oneself are two different things. To know that someone loves you so much that they’re aware of your every need and works to fulfill it before you even have to ask is something I am not familiar with. I’ve never had that before.
Whether it’s fair or not, when the first blush of romance had settled down, I’d started comparing him to the only man I know, my dad, and I’m proud to say he has him beat in all ways. He’s so involved, even the girls at school who used to give me shit have backed down. I know he did something, but I don’t know what since no one would tell me.
Sherry is the one who surprises me the most. It’s been some time since she came to the house at least that I know of, and at school, she pretends she hasn’t seen me whenever our paths cross. Only yesterday, I noticed that she doesn’t seem as happy and sure of herself as she once did, but when she saw Tyler, she looked almost afraid. When I asked Tyler what that was about, he just shrugged and played dumb.