Price Check On Monogamy

"Tiger! Get your ass down here!"

I groaned, shaking my head and wanting to die. Running into Tyler at the movies had been a bad omen, I swear. The past week had just gotten progressively shittier as it wore on:

Mrs. Plum had phoned my parents, apparently, over the past appointments that I'd totally forgotten about, so I'd had to go see Ms. Calehay in an "emergency meeting".

Tandem had had to fly to California on Monday; his dad needed him there for some reason, meaning that I'd only been able to talk to him through quick phone calls whenever he had the time.

Karter had fired me at some point, apparently, without telling me, because when I went back into work, he almost flew a DVD at me trying to get me back out the door.

Tawny was having problems with Adam. Again. Problems she wouldn't tell me about-- probably because I'd fucking kill him, given the mood I'd been in lately and the fact that I can't stand his slimy ass.

Eli was on constant damage control, which I could tell was wearing on him. I'd been under huge amounts of bashing-- and when I say "huge amounts", I mean that yesterday, someone egged my locker.

Yeah, I know. How the fuck do you egg a locker? Beats me. But someone figured it out.

Apparently, Milo had been getting busy, because everyone thought that I'd slept with him. Poor, poor Milo; he slept with the emo girl who'd then betrayed him and run off with everyone's favourite eye candy. It was like a tag team; half the school trashed me because they thought Milo was a good guy and didn't deserve "what I'd done to him", and the other half trashed me because they thought making me even more unpopular would get me the hell away from Tandem.

And there was Eli, taking on the entire school to help keep my head above water. I love him so much.

Eli, in fact, was one of the only things that was going right for me. Katy was constantly out of the house because she'd found herself a new boyfriend-- that was another thing. And, finally, Caleb had his hands full-- probably literally-- with keeping Heather happy now that they were finally back together.

But looking on the bright side was getting old. It was after school on Friday, and all I wanted was to sleep. But did I get that? Not under tyrant Caleb.

"What could you possibly want from me, jack ass?" I snapped, stomping down the stairs. I was about to give him my usual "go to hell" greeting, when I froze.

Tandem was back. Tandem was in my living room. Tandem looked incredibly upset. Caleb looked pissed as shit.

And there was the last pieces of my life, falling apart: I knew it was too weird that Caleb had been leaving me alone all week. All I needed was for Eli to decide he hated me, Lexy to decide she was going to move across the country to be with her mother, and Katy to burst through the front door shouting about how she wanted to be a hairdresser again.

Who said feeling sorry for yourself couldn't make you feel better?

"Tiger, Tandem wants to talk to you. Don't bitch, I can't afford to argue with you right now, I have to go meet Heather at the mall." And there went Caleb, striding out the door. As soon as the front door clicked shut, I sighed and fell back on the stairs behind me. I had almost forgotten that Caleb had no idea that me and Tandem were capable of being civil around each other, much less dating each other. Caleb leaving saved me the trouble of having to pretend that I still hated his guts.

Thank God for small miracles.
"When did you get back?" I asked brightly, looking up at him and willing myself not to be tired anymore. I'd been waiting all week to see him.

Somehow, however, I'd imagined him a bit more... happy when I finally did see him.

"Listen, Tiger..." Oh. Beautiful. That was exactly the tone I didn't want to hear. Kneeling down in front of me, Tandem looked me straight in the eyes... and for the first time since we'd started dating, I felt uncomfortable. "I--"

"-- want to break up," I finished for him, feeling suddenly empty. Well, that was one way my week could get worse that I hadn't thought of-- but then again, I hadn't really thought much of us breaking up to begin with. It sounds weird, but I guess... I guess I just thought that our relationship was so weird that it might last a while. You know? Standing up and forcing a smile, I bit out a laugh. "It was actually really nice while it lasted, man. So what does this mean for the bet?"

"Dammit, Tiger, will you listen?!" My eyes widened as Tandem stood up and looked down at me, fire snapping in those golden eyes. This was definitely not what I was expecting. Grabbing me by the shoulders, Tandem kissed me-- and, with the height difference, he almost had to lift me up to manage it. It was quick and... well, slightly painful, but the same fire I'd seen in his eyes had bled into the kiss, and I couldn't help but kiss back. When we both finally broke for air, the flames in his eyes had cooled a bit... enough for me to know that he was definitely not interested in breaking up with me.

I must be a really slow learner to have gotten that from his eyes after the kiss, and not from the kiss.

"Tiger," it was almost a whisper, soft and urgent. "I got a call from Jeremy telling me that I needed to come back. When I got back, I heard some stuff. I'm here to tell you two things: one is that I've never felt this way about someone else before, because I most definitely would not have asked for anyone else's side of the story before coming to my own conclusions, and two is that I'm trusting you right now to tell me the truth and never say anything as stupid as that shit before again. Now that that's out of the way, here we go-- are you, or are you not, a virgin?"

Oh, tricky bastard. I don't even know how he managed to cram all that into one little speech, because there are currently a million different emotions roiling in me: euphoria, because he wasn't breaking up with me, giddiness, because he'd actually just said that he cared about me more than he'd cared about anyone before, frustration, because he actually had the gall to try and make it seem like I was the crazy one for thinking that he'd really break up with me, anger, because he'd apparently heard everything that had been going around, and, finally, amusement... how had he managed to totally cut out the Milo part of the story?

"I am completely, one hundred and ten percent a virgin. Any more questions?"

Seeing his eyes light up made the entire, crappy week seem worth it. Yup, I could definitely learn to live for making those eyes light up that way. The subsequent bear hug definitely helped make it even better.

"Thank you so much, Tiger. I believe you. I... I really believe you." Still holding me by the shoulders, Tandem suddenly held me away from himself-- and, suddenly, his eyes were narrowed and his face was back to looking pissed. "Which means... someone's been lying about you."

"Yes."

"Which means that someone actually wants to lie about you and make you look bad."

Where the hell was he going with this? "Yes."

And there was that fire again. I could definitely learn to live for that, too. "Which means I have to kick someone's ass for hurting you while I was gone."

I broke into a smile and started laughing-- laughing like I hadn't really laughed all week. Pulling out of his hands, I leaned forward fast and wrapped my arms around his neck. "Thanks, Tandem. Thanks for making my week better."

"What? I didn't even hurt anyone yet." I would have mocked him over that statement, but he was genuinely confused-- and that just made it even more sweet.

"You don't have to, Tandem. It makes me feel a lot better knowing you would."

He laughed and finally hugged me back, nuzzling his nose into my hair. "Well, then, how can I make you feel better, if you don't want me to kick anyone's ass for you?" Before I could even answer him, he held me away from him again, eyes bright. "I know! Come to California with me for the weekend!"