Chapter Seventeen #2
I tap my finger to my chin, thinking dramatically. “I could always take up Jack on his offer and stay in his dorm room. He’ll probably be kind enough to go stay with Lilly for the night. You know, make that sacrifice for my sake.”
He chuckles. “She’d love that.”
“Probably not, actually,” I reply, thinking about the look on her face when she stormed out of his dorm room. “I have a feeling he’s going to be in the doghouse with her for quite a bit.”
This gets a snort out of Tyler as we flop belly-first onto the bed, pulling out his laptop to change my flight.
Even though what’s happening right now is totally platonic, the fact that we’re on the bed together has my stomach swirling with nerves.
I force myself to focus on the task at hand, logging into the airline website and scrolling to find a new flight to switch to.
“Perfect,” I murmur, my eyes scanning the screen. “There’s a three p.m. flight back to New York tomorrow.” But Tyler is clearly having none of it, because he gives me a look.
“Stay one more day, Olive,” he says, voice even. “You came all this way to see Hawai?i for the first time, and you’re not even giving yourself a chance to enjoy it.”
I’m already shaking my head before he finishes the sentence. “Nope. As beautiful as this place is, I’m not going to put your family out like that.”
“It’s not putting us out,” he emphasizes, “because we offered. It’s not a problem at all.”
“It is a problem!” I protest, frustrated. “I don’t want to be a nuisance.”
“You’re never a nuisance!” Tyler’s answer explodes out of him so quickly that we both lean back from each other a little bit, startled into silence.
He runs a hand through his hair and takes a slow breath before continuing.
“You’re always welcome here, Olive. Or anywhere I am. You know I’d never turn you out.”
“But I’m not your girlfriend anymore, Tyler. It isn’t your responsibility to take care of me.” The words are like a sharp razor cut to our conversation, bleeding out silence.
He waits a beat before answering. “That doesn’t mean I stopped caring about you.
Or that I ever will, honestly. So do whatever you want, but all I’m going to say is that if you need somewhere to stay, or a ride to the airport, or help with anything else, I’m here.
I’d do it for any of my friends, and we both know that.
You deserve to enjoy the beautiful island that you traveled so far to see.
” With those final parting words, he pushes off the bed and stalks out of the room, a tidal wave of sadness following in his wake. I watch him go, feeling helpless.
I’d do it for any of my friends.
He confirmed what I wanted—that whatever happened between us in the past is dead and buried, that all we are now is friends. So then why does hearing it feel less like relief and more like a sucker punch?
But I don’t have much time to dwell on it, because before I can stop myself, I launch off the bed and pad into the hallway.
Tyler’s standing at the hall closet, riffling through the spare sheets and blankets. When he turns and spots me, his frown deepens.
“Fine,” I blurt. “I’ll stay.”
Immediately, that frown tilts upward, and his eyes light up. “You will?”
“Yes, but,” I emphasize, holding up a finger.
“For one day only. I’ll let myself enjoy at least one day of this tropical paradise before I head back home.
” He does have a point. All I’ve managed to see of O?ahu so far were the lush rolling hills of the mountains by the highway, the dorm building on the University of Hawai?i campus, and the concrete and steel of the airport.
I spent way too much time in the sky battling my fear of turbulence to not get at least one good vacation day out of it.
Tyler mulls it over for a second, shrugging before shoving the sheets he was holding back in the closet. “I can make do with one day. We’ll have to squeeze a lot of stuff in, but we can still make it happen.”
And as angry as I want to feel about my situation—everything with Jack, coming all this way just to have egg on my face—I can’t help but feel a little zing of excitement at the thought of a Hawaiian adventure.
A Hawaiian adventure with Tyler, my brain tries to unhelpfully point out. But I bat the thought away and go back to helping him figure out which sheets to put on the couch.
The rest of the evening passes uneventfully—Tyler and I both agree that we’ll head out tomorrow to start adventuring, but that this evening should be spent catching up with Lucas and Ella (and little baby Mele).
I book a return flight, Lucas grills some chicken and pineapple skewers for an after-dinner treat, and Tyler and I follow Mele as she crawls around the backyard picking up sticks and marveling at bugs.
Eventually, the exhaustion of the day—and the fact that I’ve been awake for almost twenty-four hours—gets to me, and my body becomes so heavy that it feels like a Herculean feat just to get changed and brush my teeth.
On my way back to the guest room to get into bed, I walk past Ella, who is cradling Mele on her hip in the hallway.
She turns and looks at me with a gentle warmth in her eyes.
“Getting settled okay?” she asks me. “I heard that you’ll be staying for an adventure day tomorrow.”
I nod. “Seriously, I can’t thank you enough for your hospitality.
You and Lucas. You’ve both been so generous, especially with the extra day added on, and I really appreciate it.
” And I also desperately try to shove down the reminder of Tyler’s plane story and Mele’s conception, now that I’m face to face with Ella again after all of this time.
I’m going to strangle Tyler the next time I cross paths with him, I swear.
“It’s not a problem.” She adjusts Mele on her hip, and the baby starts focusing on her mother’s long braid. An obsession with hair, this one. “You’re always welcome here, Olive. And Lucas…” She sighs and trails off, collecting her words.
“Don’t worry about it.” I totally understand his neutrality toward the whole thing. “It…Tyler and I have a past. I don’t blame him for being a little wary of inviting me back here.”
She waves her hand to swat away the thought. “Ah, don’t worry about that. He’ll be fine. And it’s all in the past now—you and Tyler are getting your second chance, and that’s what matters.”
Her words stop me in my tracks, toothbrush hanging limply from my hand. “What?” It’s so absurd that I have to laugh. “Tyler and I? No, that’s not…that’s not what happened. We’re not…” I swallow the lump in my throat. “We’re not back together. We’re just friends.”
Ella clucks her tongue and shakes her head.
“Always oblivious, you two.” She wishes me good night and trails off down the hallway, murmuring to her daughter as she goes.
I catch snippets of my and Tyler’s names, along with the repetition of oblivious a few times.
Sheepishly, I scamper back into the guest room and flop onto the bed, my brain a tornado of confusing emotions.
My phone screen is alight with notifications, the missed texts and calls and voicemails from earlier today. All from Jack. Seeing his name on my screen ignites a new angry fire in me, so I delete every single one without opening or reading any of them.
Instead, I do one of the things I’ve been putting off all day: I call Mom.
“Olive?” She sounds slightly panicked when she picks up, and I check the time on my phone, mentally kicking myself for forgetting that it’s 4:00 a.m. there. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, Mom, everything’s fine.” It’s not a total lie, because I am fine in the sense that I’m not physically harmed. But that doesn’t mean everything’s really okay. “I’m not hurt or in trouble, if that’s what you’re wondering.”
She reads me like a book, as she always does, taking no time to beat around the bush. “But something’s wrong in another way, isn’t it?”
For a few seconds, it feels like time slows down, like we’re swimming in molasses. It’s the last few seconds before I have to find my voice and force the words out of my mouth, and join my mother in the pit of shattered hearts.
“Kinda,” I hedge. “Something happened with Jack.” And then, not wanting to let the lies fester inside of me any longer, I spit them out—everything about the flight in, sitting next to Tyler, going to see Jack, the Lilly incident, being left in the dust, where I am now…
all of it. I come clean about every last thing.
Mom listens intently without saying a single word, to the point that I have to look at my phone screen several times to confirm that the call didn’t drop.
When I’m done, it’s silent for a few more seconds, and I swear I’ve lost her again, before she finally speaks.
“Of all the people in the world to run into on the plane,” she muses, interrupted by a yawn. “Tyler Ferris.”
I immediately sense where she’s going with this, and my hackles rise. “Mom, no.”
“I’m just saying, that’s too good to be a coincidence. Maybe it’s—”
“It’s not fate,” I interrupt, at the same time she finishes her sentence with “fate.” “It’s literally two people having the same place to go. And somehow getting the same seats next to each other on the plane. It’s not a big deal. It doesn’t mean we’re going to get back together or anything.”
She sounds amused when she responds. “I didn’t say anything about you two getting back together.
I said that it sounds like fate is bringing you two back together for something.
” I feel a burning sensation in my chest at being called out, but she continues.
“I’m just saying, pea, it seems like you lucked out by having him as your seatmate.
At least you aren’t stuck in some last-minute motel nursing a broken heart on an island in the middle of the ocean. ”
“I am still nursing a broken heart,” I remind her, even though it suddenly hits me that I don’t quite feel that way. I’m pissed at Jack and want to punt him off the top of a volcano, sure, but I’m not sure if heartbroken is the way to describe how I’m feeling.
I should probably look into that further, but it’s late, I’m exhausted, and all I want to do after this shitstorm of a day is go to bed.
It actually wasn’t a total shitstorm of a day, I muse. It was just a shitty bump in the road, but the rest of the afternoon turned out pretty okay.
“Well, I’m glad to hear that.” Mom’s voice coming through the receiver startles me and points out that I actually said that last part out loud. “So go to sleep, honey, and then try to let yourself enjoy your adventure tomorrow.”
“I’ll try.” Though I suspect that with Tyler involved, it won’t be very hard. He was always the best at planning our adventure days. “I love you, Mom. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“I love you too, pea.” She yawns. “Be safe, and have fun.” She wishes me good night and by the time we hang up, I’m staring at the dark ceiling with my phone pressed against my chest, my thoughts swirling at a million miles per hour.
Jack.
Jack and Lilly.
Tyler.
Tyler’s family taking me in.
Our adventure day tomorrow.
Jack.
Things failing with Jack.
What the fuck am I going to do now?
“What I’m going to do is try to keep it together,” I sigh into the dark, feeling the edges of my vision get fuzzy as I drift off to sleep.
As if that’s ever worked out for me in the past.