Chapter 31
Tyler
The after-party flows with high-energy vibes and hype at Skyline’s homecoming win. Music spills out from the open door, blending with the murmurs of conversation and bursts of laughter. The room is an electric mix of hazy lights, living room turned dance floor, and scattered clusters of friends catching up over sodas and snacks.
I weave through the crowd, looking for her. I see my friends wave me over, slight chin nods to greet me, but my eyes catch Serena’s figure in the lively crowd. She’s by the snack table and engaged in conversation with friends. The subtle sway of her movements hints to me that she’s been drinking.
I wave back at my friends, then make my way towards her. As I inch closer to her, I soak in her stunning appearance. The oversized black leather jacket adds a touch of chic to her appearance. It’s casually draped over a blueish-gray shirt that complements her rosy cheeks .
“Ty!” Serena shrieks as she stumbles, literally, onto me. “You’re here!”
I wrap my arms around her waist. “Hey,” I pull back to meet her honey eyes. I see the red cup in her hand sloshing around. “When did you get here?”
“Maybe like an hour or two ago.” She takes a sip of her drink as she looks around her. “I wasn’t sure when you were coming.”
“So you were waiting on me?” I smirk.
A burst of giggles comes from her. “Maybe.” Another sip.
“Easy on that,” I tell her, concern slipping into my voice. “What is it?”
“Jungle juice.” Serena points the cup towards me, making the liquid slosh again. “Want some?”
“I’m good, I drove here.” I place a hand on the cup, gently guiding it downwards. “How many refills have you gotten?”
“This is my first cup.” She says quietly.
“Let’s slow down, alright?”
As we chat, Priya and Grant approach us from another room, exchanging nervous looks before joining our circle. “Serena, we got you water,” Priya says, waving the bottle in the air before handing it to her .
Silence looms between us despite the loud music surrounding us. Serena’s gaze meets mine, a quiet struggle unfolding within her eyes. There’s something unspoken, hiding beneath her eyes. A flash of uncertainty and hurt crosses over.
Did something happen before I showed up?
“Everything okay, sunshine?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine.” She concedes, her tone softening slightly. “You’re right, I’ll slow down.”
I remove the cup and set it down on the table behind her. “Let’s walk around for a bit,” I suggest, a lighthearted tone in my voice as I steer us away from the center of the party.
“I’ll find you guys later!” Serena says to Grant and Priya as we walk away.
The warm contact of our connected hands feels comforting despite the hustle and bustle of partygoers around us.
“I should say hey to Beckham,” I explain, nodding towards the group. “Come join me.”
As we approach my friend group, I notice the nonchalant smiles on Beckham, Jared, and a random girl who doesn’t seem familiar. Her presence raises my eyebrows–she’s not from our school, which means she must be Beckham’s date. His arm wrapped around her confirms my suspicion. Serena tenses beside me, her body stiffening ever so slightly, but I offer a reassuring squeeze of her hand. It’s clear she’s feeling uneasy, but I’m here with her, and that’s all that matters.
“Dude! Didn’t think you would show up.” Beckham juts out his hand for a bro-shake. “This is the legend himself,” Beckham adds with a grin, giving me a playful nudge.
“Legend?” Serena repeats with an arched brow.
Beckham laughs, nodding emphatically. “Serena, don’t you know? Tyler is a legend at parties.”
“Oh really?”
I give Beckham a don’t-you-fucking-dare look but he proceeds anyway. “He would get on any table, sing all the Justin Bieber songs he knows, and offer shots to anyone that walked by. Legend.”
“My rendition of As Long As You Love Me is,” I say, punctuating my claim with an exaggerated chef’s kiss gesture, “the best.”
“I didn’t know you were such a party animal.”
Serena’s gaze shifts to me, wearing an unknown expression I can’t decipher.
“Yeah, who knew Tyler was the life of the party,” Beckham chimes in, the teasing tone clear in his voice .
The unknown girl coughs to grab Beckham’s attention, “Guys, this is Emilie. Meet Tyler and Serena. She goes to school in Mooresville and cheers for their team.”
Beckham looks at Emilie and gestures towards Serena. “Serena also cheers. You girls already have a lot in common.”
Serena’s body stiffens even more beside me like she’s confronting Medusa. I wrap my arm around her shoulders to distract her. “You cheer too? Serena is a badass.”
“Really?” Emilie questions.
“She’s top girl or whatever that means,” Beckham notes.
“Didn’t know you were that good,” Emilie notes. There’s something about that compliment that rubs me off the wrong way. It sounds friendly but there’s a condescending undertone.
“Yeah, who knew,” Serena mutters under her breath. She shoots me a glance, “I, uh, need to find Alli. I’ll come find you later.”
My stomach knots at the realization she won’t be by my side for God knows how long. A whirlwind of emotions and thoughts succumb to me. Do I stop her? I have this urge to keep her by my side so the world knows she’s with me. Like with me, with me.
Instead of acting on those impulses, I swallow the words and the longing. I lower my gaze to meet hers. “I’ll catch up with you later, alright? ”
I press a soft kiss on her forehead before she backs away into the crowd, in search of her friend. I can feel her empty spot beside me burning. Is that clingy boyfriend level five? I want to take my time with her but at some point, I’ll want to announce to the world that Serena Inthavong is mine. But here I am, feeling like I should look for her and simply be with her .
Jared and Emilie leave after Serena to find their own groups of friends, leaving me to feed into Beckham’s nonsense.
“You’re totally whipped.” Beckham’s voice breaks through my internal thoughts.
“You haven’t met a girl like Serena. Once you do, you’ll join me in the Whipped Boyfriends Club.”
“Boyfriend? You popped the question?”
I shake my head. “Not yet.”
“What’s with the waiting? You like her, she likes you. I see it in the way she looks at you.”
I arch a brow. “People keep saying that.”
“It’s pretty clear to me, man. Looks at you like she adores you,” he insists, a grin teasing the corners of his mouth. Changing the subject, he gestures his beer at me. “Want one?”
I shake my head, declining his offer. “Nah, I’m good. ”
Beckham’s eyes widened a bit. “Since when did you start turning down drinks?”
“Since I stopped showing up for these parties.”
“Changed man.” He shrugs, a casual acceptance evident in his gesture. “Traded keg stands to be someone’s arm candy.”
The night swirls on, the atmosphere pulsating with energy and conversations from my classmates around me and the random bickering from Beckham.
“Wait, you believe in unicorns?” Beckham teases. How did we get to this conversation? I couldn’t tell you.
“Of course.”
“So, you believe in Santa too, then?”
“Yeah.”
“Again, why?”
“Well, how would you tell a little girl Santa doesn’t exist?” I counter, leaning back against the wall.
“You just do,” Beckham replies with a grin.
“And make her cry? Yeah, no thanks.” I look around the room, no Serena in sight. “Where’s your girl?”
“Not my girl,” Beckham clarifies, “And I don’t know, out and about with her tribe. ”
“Tribe?”
Beckham shrugs, “Her posse. I think her friends look up to her like she’s their leader.” He replies simply, leaving the conversation open-ended.
We revel more in our banter, now debating if tomatoes are considered fruit or vegetables. Sometimes I wonder why I’m friends with Beckham. As we’re bickering about the background of tomatoes, I can see his playful eyes turn into a look of concern. I catch his gaze when we see Cassie across the room. The air crackles with unspoken tension, and I can’t shake off the feeling that something’s about to unfold.
“Did you and Cass end well?” Beckham asks out of nowhere.
“As amicably as you could think.”
A flash of concern lights up in Beckham’s eyes. “You sure?”
My brows hike up an inch at his follow-up question. Does he know something that I don’t?
“Something I need to know?”
He takes a sip of his drink, “You should ask Jared.”
“I’m asking you.”
Beckham gestures toward the back deck, his expression a mix of concern and determination. Without a word, he leads me outside, the cool night air hitting us as we step onto the deck .
Once outside, he takes a deep breath, “Has Serena told you anything about people talking about her?”
I raise a brow, “Talking about her?” My voice echoes around us, laced with disbelief.
“Yeah,” he rubs the back of his neck, a troubled look in his eyes. “Like people talking shit about her, behind her back, or spreading rumors?”
I’m absolutely dumbfounded.
Beckham sees the look on my face, “I see she hasn’t told you yet.”
“Tell me,” I demand, my voice firm.
“Dude, I can’t–”
“Fucking tell me.”
He shifts uncomfortably, his gaze flits between mine and the party inside, the distant music creating a muffled backdrop to our conversation.
“Dude, I can’t just tell you. It’s not my business,” Beckham murmurs, his voice carrying a sense of unease.
“Look, if people are targeting her, I need to know.”
Beckham hesitates. “Okay, but don’t lose it, man,” he warns, lowering his voice. “I’ve heard that Cassie got dropped from the squad. ”
“Cassie got dropped from the squad?” I echo, trying to process the information.
“Yeah, something about a stunt failing,” he confirms, a troubled frown etched on his face. “And now Serena’s replacing her, and Cassie’s pissed as fuck. Now that Serena is top girl, she’s even more pissed.”
“I swear if Cassie’s starting shit–”
“There’s more,” Beckham’s voice cuts through. “I’m worried that she’s going to try something with Serena. There’s talk going around that people are digging into Serena’s past. I mean, we’ve all been around forever, but she’s been a mystery until now. So, people are… curious about her.”
My fists clench, an instinctive urge to protect her welling up inside me. “What kind of shit are they saying?”
“I haven’t heard anything yet. Jared’s trying to keep it at bay, but I just don’t know what Cassie will pull with the whole cheer drama now.”
“Damn it,” I mutter.
“I know, man,” he nods in agreement. “Jared’s trying to handle everything to keep everyone out of her business. Just let him handle it.”
“I need to look for her,” I say, my mind racing. “I’ll catch you later. ”
“Ty!” Beckham calls for me, but I hurriedly make my way back inside. My eyes frantically sweep across the room, searching for my girl. My heart pounds with a mix of worry and urgency, I finally catch sight of Serena near the corner of the room with her group of friends.
Good, she’s not alone and no one is bothering her.
I weave through the crowd to get to her and there’s this weird vibe. People shoot glances at their phones and whispers are spread through the crowd. It’s like a bad subplot in a teen rom-com, but I can’t figure out the plot twist.
I reach Serena at the same time as Alli, who hands her a chilled water bottle. “Here, drink this.” Alli takes the red cup away, making Serena pout at the removal. “You’re done, I’m cutting you off.”
“But–”
“Serena, stop drinking your emotions away.”
“You’re drinking again?” I ask, concern etch into my tone. “You said you were stopping earlier.”
“I need to not feel anything.” Serena says softly as she tries to reach out for the red cup again but stumbles in the process.
Grant and I catch her swiftly and steady her up. “Hey, hey, you’re okay, you’re with me,” I say, holding her gaze .
“I’m taking you home,” Alli says while reaching out for Serena.
“You’re homecoming queen, you should stay. We can stay.” Serena insists.
“Serena, we’re not staying here with these whack ass people. We’re leaving.”
“But–”
I pull Serena into my arms and wrap my arm around her shoulders, “I’m taking you home.” I turn to look at her friends, “I can take her home.”
Alli opens her mouth to interject, but Grant shoots her a look that settles the issue. “Alright, but straight home and please be careful. Text me when you get there.” She says as she asks for my phone and adds her number in it.
I nod at the group to say goodbye and we disappear into the crowd for the exit. People are staring, and by people, I mean everyone.
“That’s her?” Someone whispers as we near the exit.
Serena’s entire body tenses up and tears flush her eyes.
“It’s okay, you’re safe with me,” I whisper into her ear.
And so, I only have one thing on my mind: getting Serena the hell out of this party.