We walked into the party hand in hand, ignoring all the curious stares thrown our way and it felt oddly nice.

"Beer?" I asked him. "Oh, wait, sorry, I forgot that you don't drink. Uh, how about a glass of sparkling water."

"Yeah, sure." He grinned. 

But before I could lead him to the kitchen, his hand was abruptly ripped away from mine.

I turned around to see Courtney giving him a tight hug. "I have been looking for you, where have you been?" she asked pulling away from him.

"I had something to take care of, did you just get here?" he asked.

"No, it's been a while, come on my friends want to meet you," she said tugging at his hand.

"Court, I'm not in the mood to talk to them," he said.

"Oh Come on, this party was getting boring anyway, now that we both are here, we can spice it up a bit," she said taking his hand.

Childhood best friends and one of the most popular duo in our school, they both looked perfect for each other.
She wore a black figure-fitting dress with a sweetheart neckline. Her gorgeous strawberry blond hair was in a ponytail. She was elegant, stunning and too much.

People don't go out like that. They walked runways.

I didn't hear the rest of their conversation because I was already walking away from them and neither of them noticed.

He seemed at ease with her and I didn't want to intrude. But still, I felt a slight pang of disappointment, for some reason I could not comprehend. I shook the thoughts off my head and headed to where the others were and I found them standing where I had left them earlier, tucked away in a corner in the kitchen.

As soon as I rejoined the group Jace and Ash gave me a knowing smile, which I returned with a confused look of my own. What was that about?

"So...you did go look for Tyler, " Jace came over and stood beside the counter I was leaning on.

"Yes," I answered, slightly hesitant. 

"And somehow you managed to even convince him and made him come to the party."

"Yes."

When he didn't say anything for a while, I turned to face him and he had a weird look on his face.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing, I'm just a little surprised."

"Huh?"

"It's sometimes really hard to convince him when he makes up his mind about something. And he was pretty set on skipping the party today, he really was very upset."

"Maybe you underestimated my persuasion skills."

"Maybe I did." He smiled.

I couldn't hold the curiosity any longer so I asked him, "Jace, why was he so upset? What's going on?"

"I wish I could tell you, but it's really not my place to tell you about it," he sighed. 

Before I could try to dig a little more, Avi interrupted us, "Hey what are you guys talking about?"

"Nothing really, why?" I said

"It's cake time! It's close to 12 and I thought you would be the one most excited about it. Since you very clearly made it a point that we should have a cake." Avi grinned.

"Oh damn! I completely forgot about it. Ash get the candles!" I said and turned around to the refrigerator to get the cake out.

We stopped the music for a while and got the cake in the living room area, where Neil was. He blew out the candles and cut the cake. Everything went on as per the plan and it was perfect. Judging from the wide smile on Neil's face, I knew he was happy. And knowing that made me happy.

While I was sneaking in the last few pieces of the cake for safekeeping inside the kitchen, suddenly someone blocked my way. I looked up to find Tyler frowning at me.

"What?" I asked.

"You just left me by the door and completely disappeared," he said crossing his arms on his chest.

"Huh? So? It's not like you're a child. You had company," I said slightly irritated.

"Are you mad at me or something?" he asked with a confused look on his face.

Yes. But I didn't exactly know why, so I lied.

"No, I'm not mad."

He looked at me with a skeptical face the said, " As soon I noticed that you were gone I looked for you, but before I could find you, Courtney dragged me into playing some lame game. Where were you anyway? I couldn't find Jace or Ryan either."

"We were all here in the kitchen with the others. The crowd and the music is bearable here. Why were you looking for me anyway? I thought you had Courtney to keep you company," I asked as I walked past him into the kitchen.

He followed me into the kitchen but didn't say anything for a while. I put the cake in the refrigerator and turned to look at him, with a questioning look.

"I don't know. I just felt like being with you. You are the reason why I came to this party anyway," he shrugged, looking slightly uncomfortable admitting it.

And just like that, whatever it was that got me slightly annoyed at him, vanished into nothing. I couldn't help but smile at him, and he immediately brightened up at it.

"You still didn't give me that glass of sparkling water you promised." He grinned.

"Coming right up." 

The rest of the night went on smoothly, and all of us had a blast. I didn't see much of Courtney or anyone else from our class for the rest of the party, as we mostly stayed to ourselves. Tyler and the boys stayed over to help us clean long after all the others left.

"Alright, we better get going now, it's late and we have a long drive ahead of us," Jace said getting up from the couch.

"Yeah, it was a great party guys. We'll see you at school on Monday?" Ryan said and Tyler was already getting his keys out of his pocket.

"You guys could stay and we could all drive back together tomorrow," Neil offered.

"Yeah, you should stay. You guys are too drunk to drive anyway," Avi said.

Tyler looked at Jace and Ryan who just shrugged in response.

"You've been here since morning, you guys must be tired. We'll make the sleeping arrangements, and there is enough food for all of us too. So there is no problem at all," I said.

They finally agreed to stay. Ashley and I decided to share a room, Neil and Sam the other. The one remaining bedroom, the living room couch, and some spare mattresses were to be shared between the rest of the four boys.

Soon we were all in our beds and everyone was fast asleep. Except me. I tossed and turned on the bed, unable to sleep. Beside me, Ash had fallen asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. I finally gave up and made my way downstairs for a little midnight snack.

I slowly passed the sleeping forms of the boys in the dark and reached the kitchen. I opened the refrigerator and took out the cake that I had snuck in and saved for myself earlier. I tiptoed my way to the front porch and sat down on the old creaky bench.

It was so quiet outside that I could hear the sea waves crashing in the distance and the soft glow from the moonlight made everything look so beautiful. I let out a deep sigh and began eating my cake.

"Am I interrupting some big thinking?" A voice startled me out of my dreamy state.

I dropped my fork on the floor and got up, just about to scream, when the person closed the gap between us in the darkness and put a long finger on my lips, to silence me. Up close I immediately recognized who it was and let out a relieved sigh. Tyler.

"Damn you are too jumpy," he whispered with a grin.

I pushed his hand away and glared at him, "Excuse me? I was sitting here, living my best life, having a little midnight snack," I said and pointed at my cake, then pointed an accusing finger at him and continued, "And you decided to sneak up on me like a freaking ninja. You scared the shit out of me."

"Sorry, my bad. " He chuckled. I rolled my eyes and picked up the fork I had dropped and flopped back on the bench.

"Can't sleep?" I asked as he sat down beside me.

"No. Got a lot on my mind. " He sighed,  "I saw you sneaking into the kitchen and coming out here with a plate, so I decided to see what you were up to."

"Oh, " I said with my mouth full and he chuckled.

We sat there in silence, lost in our own thoughts for a long time.

"Can I ask you something?" I was the first one to break the silence.

"Anything."

"What's going on with you? Today, that day near the woods. I really want  to know Tyler, maybe I can help?"

"No, you can't really help me out here.  Hell, even I can't help myself out of the circus that my life has turned into." 

And there it was again. That look of defeat on his face, made my chest ache. He always looked like he had everything under control like he could handle anything. He was the guy you could rely on.

But now seeing him this helpless, freaked me out a little. I had the sudden urge to do something, anything so that I could see that charming smile back on his face.

"Maybe I can't help you, but I can at least try and be there for you, " I said softly. "Let's go for a midnight walk on the beach, shall we? And you can tell me everything."

Please say yes. Please say yes.

He looked at me for a while, seeming to contemplate something in his mind. His brown eyes searched mine. And after a long moment, he gave me a small smile, and I could see that he had made up his mind. To trust me.

"Alright. A walk it is, " he said.

He got up and extended his hand for me to take. Which I gladly accepted.

Hand in hand we started walking towards the beaten-down path that leads to the beach, for the second time today.