3 Days Later~

“Come on, come and sit.” Sky said, patting the folding chair next to him.

“Thanks.” I thanked him, curling up in the round saucer chair.

All of Issues, Ricky, Chris, Tyler Burgess and I were gathered around a huge fire pit as a competition of bean bag toss was being held, dinner was being cooked over the fire, and plenty of drinks were being made.

I took part in the latter.

“What are you drinking?” Sky asked me, looking over at my glass curiously.

“It’s called a funky monkey. It’s banana vodka, coconut rum, and pineapple juice. Super yummy, and it’s getting me just a tad bit buzzed.” I chuckled, leaning over to whisper to him.

“Easy there tiger, I don’t need you falling into the fire later.” Chris told me, overhearing my comments to Sky.

Just as I was about to respond I felt a buzz in my lap. Who was texting me at this hour, it was past 11pm.

Once I saw the contact image I put my phone right back away in the sweatshirt front pocket.

I wasn’t in the right mindset to deal with that right now.

Tyler B. shot me a look that said who was that?

“It’s no one.” I lied.

“You’re such a bad liar.” He groaned, shaking his head, getting up and walking towards me.

Tyler stood behind me, wrapping his arms around me, with his head resting on my shoulder.

Suddenly he grabbed my drink and started to drink it.

“Hey.” I exclaimed, reaching out for the glass.

“Come get it.” He said, taking a few big steps back and raising the glass far above his head.

I sighed, he never took a break from reminding me of my height compared to his.

He constantly told me it was cute, it honestly got a little annoying though.

“Tyler.” I groaned, turning around in my chair and reaching my hand out as far as I could.

Once more my phone buzzed.

“Woah, someone’s popular tonight.” Chris exclaimed, throwing his hands up playfully.

“Trust me, it’s not good.” I sighed, seeing Chance’s number pop up on my screen.

“Where are you” popped up on my screen all in bold red letters from him.

He had balls, or a death wish, maybe a bit of both.

There was no way I was letting him pull off his disappearing act, and then stand for him being pissed off at me for leaving.

“Hey, no feeling bad tonight, only good vibes!” Michael Bohn yelled from across the fire.

“Yeah, I’m going to need my booze for that.” I giggled, looking back at Tyler and extending my arm towards him.

“Come on, come get it.” He taunted me, wagging the glass a few feet away.

“I’m not going to chase you down.” I stated, now fully turned around in my chair.

“Oh, that’s right…..you’re not that good at running, are you?” He said, a full blown shit eating grin on his face.

“Oh, shit. Bells, you need some ice for that burn?” Ricky asked me, starting to laugh alongside Chris and Tyler B.

“May I remind you, even though I can’t necessarily run, I’ve still managed to get away countless times. I’ll take smart over fast any day.” I said back to Tyler.

“Oooohhhhh!” Ty Acord yelled, as if wanting to start a fight.

“Besides that, I haven’t ran against you yet, so there’s a chance I could actually be faster than you.” I told him.

“That sounds like a challenge to me.” Tyler said, wagging his eyebrows at me.

“Give me back my drink and I’ll think about it.” I replied.

“No, no, come race me and I’ll give it back.” He chuckled.

I let out a groan and rolled my eyes, he was a three year old.

“Remind me why I tolerate you?” I grumbled, walking back to him.

“Because I’m warm, cute, nice, oh and there’s the fact that I let you get away with a ton of shit.” Tyler responded, pulling me in tight for an embrace.

“Oh yeah.” I joked back with him, a smile sneaking onto my lips.

“Are you going to fucking race or just give googly eyes to each other?” Sky yelled at us.

“Oh she’ll race, after all Bella likes being beat.” Ricky snickered.

“Hey Rick?” I called back to him.

“What?” He snapped, obviously not happy with me.

“Go fuck yourself.” I cheerfully stated, giving him a huge grin and one of my middle fingers in the air.

“Hey, hey, that’s not ok. Please watch yourself just a little bit.” Tyler corrected me, almost begging.

“Fine.” I groaned, watching AJ walk over to us.

“Ok, kiddos. Here are the rules, whoever runs to that weeping willow, touches it, and comes back wins. No horseplay, no bullshit, just running, got it?” AJ asked us.

“Yeah, Bells, don’t fight dirty.” Tyler stated.

“No promises.” I giggled.

“On three……..” AJ told us.

“Two.”

All of a sudden Tyler bolted in front of me, taking an early leave.

“Hey!” I screamed, my legs kicking my body into action as I chased after him, my sight on winning.

Within the matter of seconds the thumping of my feet on the grass became a steady beat, one of determination and strength.

“Come on Tyler!” Everyone around the fire cheered as I exerted myself to my limit and was recognizing that he was so much faster than me.

By the time I reached the willow tree, he was already more than halfway back to the pit.

Damn it.

Accepting my fate, I walked the rest of the way back to the fire as I watched Chris, Ricky, and the Issues guys cheer around Tyler B.

I rolled my eyes and chuckled a bit to myself, it was such a funny little bromance they all had.

“Aww, Bella. It’s ok, you did your best.” Tyler cooed, coming over to me and wrapping his arms around my waist, picking me up off my feet.

“First of all, you cheated. Secondly, I told you it was all about being smarter, not faster.” I replied.

“What are you talking about?” He asked, confused.

That’s when I pulled the key ring I had snuck out of his pocket from mine and dangled it in front of me.

“I managed to….let’s say ‘sneak’ these away from you.” I giggled, finding his confused face priceless.

“How the fuck……?” Michael asked, obviously unaware of how I pulled that off.

“I can’t give my secrets away, especially to the new guys, you’re the easiest to pull that kind of stuff off on.” I replied.

“I told you she’s a pain in the ass.” Tyler laughed, setting me down and quickly rifling his hand through my hair, messing it up.

“Knock it off.” I groaned.

Finally we settled back into our places around the campsite, occupied by silly tales and stories of all of our lives through the past year and a half or so.

However, my night was interrupted once more by the obnoxious buzz of my phone.

“Damn, tell him to relax and have a beer with us.” Tyler Burgess told me, trying to make light of the situation.

All I had to do was turn around and give him a quick glare so he realized how dumb of an idea that would truly be.

“Fuck.” I exclaimed, reading over the texts and finding out that Chance knew where I was and with whom I was with.

He also made it clear that he would be here tomorrow morning to come and get me, no ifs ands or buts.

“What’s up?” Chris asked, noticing the sudden change in attitude as I shutdown my phone and headed towards the bus to get some sleep.

“Someone gave me up, Chance knows I’m with you guys and he told me to be ready around 11 am tomorrow so he can come and pick me up.” I explained.

“Don’t fucking go, it’s a total shitstorm of a double standard. He leaves and comes back as he wishes, no explanation given, yet you leave to deal with his own disappearance and suddenly he’s painted you as the bad guy. Just stay with us for a few more days, make that asshole wait.” Chris replied, his voice starting to rise which always has and always will put me on edge.

I shook my head no.

“I can’t.”

“Give me one good reason why.” Tyler B stated.

I needed a visual representation for this one.

“Ok, imagine that this line is me and my alliances if you will, i.e, my mom.” I started off, drawing a line at my toes.

I then walked away about 50 feet and drew another line on the ground.

“Now this line represents you, all of you that are involved in this….this whole thing.”

I then drew a line directly in the middle of the two previous lines.

“This line is my safety line. If I’m on my side of this ‘field’ I’m safe because I’m with people I know have my back and will keep me protected from, um…….well you guys. However, if I were on that side of the line, that means I’m not safe and subject to you guys and anything you have to throw at me. Right now, I’m still on my side, but I’m right on the edge, dangerously dancing on that line. If I step over that……..you and I all know what would happen after that. I simply couldn’t bear the fact that I put myself in that situation, and that’s why I have to pull myself back onto my side. I have to be what I consider safe, even if it involves me dealing with Chance’s shit.” I explained, getting more flustered with every word coming out of my mouth.

Honestly, I had expected some sort of response from them, but as I looked up I saw shocked faces all around, and one heart broken one, Tyler’s.

“Fuck!” Tyler screamed, coming to all of our surprise.

I clutched my hands to my chest and shook with the power that came from his voice.

“He’s fucking using you Bella, why can’t you see that? You’re so fucking naive and stubborn.” Tyler continued to yell at me, now scaring me like he never had before.

I quickly went to walk backwards as he continuously approached me and before I knew it my back and slammed into the side of the bus.

“Stop!” I screamed, attempting to reach my arms out and push him back.

That only angered him further, as he pinned my arms up above my head.

“Don’t you get it, he keeps hurting you, more and more each time, and if you just dance right back into his arms, he’s going to hurt you so fucking bad one day Bella that you can’t come running to me for a quick fix. There won’t fucking be one.” He continued on with his rampage, and every word shook me to my core as his anger was punching into me.

First it was the shaking, and then I lost it as I kept yelling for him to stop, tears ran down my face, and I kept trying to wiggle out of his grip.

“Tyler, knock it off!” Chris screamed.

“You can’t keep blindly painting us as the bad guys!” He growled.

A few more seconds of shouting directly at me occurred until thankfully Chris came and shoved him off of me.

I fell to the ground with a loud thud, but that noise was quickly drowned out by my sobbing.

“Hey, you’re ok, it’s ok.” Josh cooed to me, as he rushed over and kneeled right next to me.

Josh gripped my wrists with his hands and I was disgusted with how badly I was shaking and how out of breath I was.

Why did I have to be this fucking fragile.

“No, it’s not ok. I trusted him, but I realize now that was a mistake, none of you are any different.” I hissed, pulling my wrists away from his touch and pushing myself further against the bus.

“Bella, don’t say that.” He whispered, his head hanging.

“You know what? Do me a favor and tell Tyler I’ll see him in hell with the rest of you guys.” I growled, pushing myself up and off the dirt.

I unlocked the door to Issues’ bus, slipped inside and then made sure to lock every door, so that no one else could come in.

Dropping to the middle of the floor, I just sat down and sobbed.

Every emotion I had ever felt hit me in that second, and ten-fold, I’d never wanted to just slip away from existence as bad as I did right now.

As the time passed on and the sun hid its face from the Earth, Tyler came to the front of the bus steps, sat down and started crying himself.

That sound was something I never expected to hear, and it shattered every part of my heart into even smaller pieces, which left both of us a sobbing mess, separated by 2 doors and 6 locks.

We both were crying for what we wanted, however I also cried for what I feared.

Ironically, what I feared and what Tyler wanted were mirror images of each other.

Notes

Oh dear, shit's going to really start hitting the fan soon enough.

Sorry this chapter took so long to get out, writer's block kind of crept up on me for a scene or two.

Thank you guys again for reading, I hope you're continuing to enjoy!

Also, have a wonderful weekend :)

~BlackVeilsinWhite