Price Check On Monogamy

The world was tilting.

I must have been stumbling down the freaking road like a drunk, but I couldn’t stand up straight. For that matter, I couldn’t do anything straight. Milo’s face kept coming back to mind.

I hate myself. I hate myself.

”My heart broke when I saw you today.”

I hate myself.

At some point, while I was wandering around the streets aimlessly, it got dark. Err, darker. The streetlights came on, and I realized that it was Wednesday; I should probably get home.

Yeah, like there was any way that I was going to go to school tomorrow. Why was I fooling myself? No idea.

Somehow, I managed to stumble my way into a corner store. The very same corner store that, about a year ago, I’d bought all my alcohol from after seeing Milo cry.

Oh, what a coincidence.

Stumbling up to the counter, I tossed my wallet on it and went to the coolers in the back; I could barely hear the cashier ringing me up as I grabbed three huge bottles of Strawberry Smirnoff and weaved out the door.

- - -

“Tandem, you really fucked up this time.”

Tandem looked up at Jeremy through slitted, puffy eyes. He’d been sitting in the same place for the past three hours. Five in the morning, and they still had no idea where Tiger was.

“That’s a fucking understatement!” Closing his eyes and taking a deep breathe, Tandem tried desperately to keep himself calm. Tawny had almost killed him when she’d found out what had happened.

How was I supposed to know that she’d go sprinting down the damned road after him like a maniac?

Jeremy, on the other hand, just sighed and shook his head. The kitchen was full of people; a very worried looking Jason comforting a very near tears looking Lexy, a very, very pissed off looking Eli, a Tawny who looked like she could almost match Eli’s level pissed, and a very tired looking Jeremy. Caleb was still out driving through town looking for Tiger; he’d forced Tandem to go back to the house and wait for her with all of her psycho friends.

“What the hell were you thinking,” Eli asked slowly, “What you let her run down a road crying?”

Okay, so he’d tailored the story a little bit; but hey, he didn’t want that little bastard Milo anywhere in it. So he’d told them that him and Tiger had gotten into a little fight, she’d run down the street crying, and he’d thought she’d show up at the house. Tawny and Lexy didn’t seem to believe it, but they weren’t calling him out on it, and everyone else was too pissed at him to question it further.

“I don’t know, okay? I didn’t mean to make her cry. I didn’t mean to make her run down the street away from me. I didn’t mean it, and if I could take it back I would, but I can’t.”

Eli gripped his fist, and it almost looking like he was about to punch Tandem, but instead just shook his head and sighed. Grabbing Tawny, who was still pacing back and forth fuming, he mumbled, “Come on. We’re going to go back out and look for her. Unlike some people, I give a fuck about what happens to her.”

Tawny didn’t even say anything; just threw Tandem what was probably the dirtiest look he’d ever seen in his life over her shoulder before leaving, and that was definitely saying something.

“Yeah, us, too,” Jason piped up quickly, eager to take the chance at cheering Lexy up, at least just a little. Lexy nodded numbly, letting Jason lead her outside easily, her head hung the whole way. Once the door shut, Tandem dropped his head into his hands.

Aww, Christ.

Deciding to get up and get some water, Tandem slouched over to the sink. Honestly, he couldn’t care less that the little snowboarding bastard had gotten hurt, but he hadn’t meant to hurt Tiger. Hell, he hadn’t even planned to see her until Friday afternoon to tell her that they had to go to a party. He’d decided during lunch on Tuesday that he was done trying to act like a couple. They’d do the minimum, and that would have to be enough. But he’d seen her walking down the street, in that stupid dazed way she had and he couldn’t help himself. He had to scare her a little bit. Get her attention. Make her remember that he existed.

I just lost more than a fucking bet.

Hearing the door slam open behind him, Tandem sighed, bracing himself for another round of Caleb’s pissiness. Instead, though, he felt a small hand on his shoulder, grabbing him roughly and forcing him to turn around.

Right after he saw that it was Tiger, she punched him in the mouth.

- - -

I was still devastated, only now I was drunk and pissed as hell.

I can’t even remember much of what I did; I just know that I wandered streets randomly, taking huge swigs of Smirnoff as I went. Everywhere in the freaking universe, there seemed to be another reminder of Milo. Of what I fucked up.

But, the drunker I got, the more I started to wonder how it was my fault.

It wasn’t. I know it wasn’t. Sure, I agreed to the bet, but I’d been blackmailed into it, right? I hadn’t asked Tandem to pull me down an alley. I couldn’t help the fact that I’d started screaming, right? I couldn’t help the fact that he’d kissed me, right?

It was his fault. Because he hadn’t already torn my life apart; no, no, he needed to find new ways to make my existence a living hell.

At some point or another, I’d ran out of alcohol. Apparently, right after that had happened, I’d been on my street. I wasn’t too drunk to not realize where I was. Stumbling into my house, I’d been about to start up some tea to at least numb the headache I would have in a couple hours, and then I’d seen it. Him. The bane of my fucking existence, standing over my sink, hunched over like he was in pain.

Like he was in pain.

Oh my God, I hated him so damn much.

Stumbling over, I’d grabbed his shoulder and punched him in the mouth. The blood on his lips and the dazed expression in his eyes made me want to laugh. Laugh as hard as I possibly could.

Instead, I started sobbing.

“It’s your fault! It’s all fucking your fault, you stupid fucking asshole!”

I attacked him. In eighth grade, I’d learned how to fight; Tai Kwon Dou was fun, but my Master had told me to learn to control myself. I fought with too much rage, according to him. Instead, of learning to control myself, I quit. He’d said it was a loss, but he couldn’t keep training someone who only fought well when she was angry.

And, oh, I was so past angry right now.

- - -

Tandem stared at Tiger with slack-jawed amazement. Not only had she found her way back home after hours of wandering the streets, apparently drunk, she knew how to hit. She’d busted his lip on that first swing, and now he was dodging as well as he could, pinned up against the sink.

“Tiger!”

Part of him was pissed. Why was she hitting him? She was the one who’d caused all this hell, running away on him like that. Another part of him, though…

Grabbing her arms and, surprisingly with some difficulty keeping them in his grip, Tandem pulled Tiger into him and held her tight.

“I’m sorry, Tiger. I’m so sorry.”