Price Check On Monogamy

"How did you even get a reservation here?"

I had no idea where Tandem had taken me, but we were in an oceanside... castle, waiting for our waiter, instead of outside, in line, waiting like the million other people who had been glaring at us as we just strolled in.

Tandem smirked at me from across the table and I had to fight down the yet-to-die instinct to flip the table on top of him. "I told you, I have connections."

Smug bastard. Taking a sip of water, I rolled my eyes at him. "Whatever, jack ass."

Tandem laughed and winked at me as the waiter finally came... carrying our food.

"We didn't order, right?" I asked, head tilted to the side. It couldn't have been our food, and that definitely wasn't our wine they were setting down in the middle of the table. The waiter, however, just laughed at my obvious confusion.

Which turned my obvious confusion into obvious irritation.

"Calm down, Tiger," Tandem laughed as the waiter, still chuckling, popped the cork out of the wine bottle and filled our glasses. Nodding to the waiter, Tandem added, "Thank you, Brian, that's enough. I forgot to tell her."

"Thank you, sir," the waiter-- Brian, I guess-- smiled at me like I was a five year old before walking back toward the kitchen.

"We can't drink," I raised an eyebrow at Tandem as he took a sip of the wine.

"In my defense, I've never seen you turn down alcohol before," Tandem countered, raising his glass to me before taking another sip and going to cut the steak at the center of the table. He made my plate for me, which made me smile-- even though I don't drink wine, and I try to stay away from alcohol in general because of my tendency to... overdue it. And even though I don't really like steak. And even though I'm allergic to the chives that were in the potatoes.

It was a sweet thought.

"Hey, I meant to ask a while ago," I turned, a little startled, to look at Tandem. I hadn't even realized that I'd been zoning out.

"Hmm?" I asked, taking another sip of wine. I was determined to get down enough of everything so that he didn't notice that I wasn't really interested in the food, but drinking the wine... well, that was a little bit dangerous.

"That necklace... where did you get it from?"

Tugging at my necklace, I chewed on my lip. "Well... it was a gift, actually. I've had it since last year. Never take it off."

"Yeah, I noticed," Tandem was all smiles and sunshine, now; I hadn't even really been keeping track of how much wine he was having, but he was pretty buzzed. It was nice, though. And it was definitely helping my uneasy with this conversation. "Who gave it to you? Your parents?"

"Umm, no one." I started tugging on it, as was my typical nervous habit. It wasn't even a special necklace-- at least, to anyone but me. I couldn't even really understand why he was asking me about it. Just a little key on a thin silver necklace. I hadn't taken it off, well...

"C'mon, tell me!" I didn't want to deny those puppy eyes. Or, more specifically, I didn't want to risk putting this off until he was sober.

"Milo." Milo had gotten it for me on the one year anniversary that we'd known each other. Yep, that's right, Milo memorized the day we met. And he bought me a gift. And he'd put that gift around my neck himself.

And I hadn't taken it off since.

The smile on Tandem's face was gone-- apparently, so were all traces of any alcohol. Pushing his plate away from himself, he stood. "Are you finished?" The tone was flat, and it scared me. Was he really going to hold a necklace against me?

Refusing to back down to something so stupid, I stood, too. "Yeah, I'm all done."

Tandem walked around the table and stood right in front of me. For a full thirty seconds, neither of us moved; it was a stare down the likes of which we hadn't had since before, when I hated him and he was a self-pleasing asshole. It was right about now, back then, that he would kiss me.

But, instead, he did the unthinkable.

Tandem grabbed my hand.

We never held hands. Never. It just wasn't something that we, as people, did. But he was doing it now. And he was still doing it when he lead me out of the restaurant, out past the people who were still probably waiting in line, and out to the car.

- - -

"Tandem? Tandem, where are we going?"

We'd been driving around for ages and, honestly, all I wanted to do was go back to the mansion and go to sleep.It was like every time we pulled into a parking lot, Tandem would look around, shake his head, and just keep right on moving. It was getting frustrating.

But, since he held my hand on the way out of the restaurant, I didn't really want to complain and ruin the evening.

"Just hold on, babe, I'll find a good place eventually," Tandem turned fast to wink at me before finally breaking out in a huge smile. "Finally! There we go! See what patience can do for you?"

"What are you..." I didn't even finish the question; I was too distracted by the mob of people in front of the car. Tandem had to ease into the parking lot and there was literally no place where there weren't any people.

Where the fuck was I?

"Tandem...?" I squeaked when he opened my door for me. Stepping out of the car hesitantly, I clung to his arm like I would drown in all the people if I let go.

And, honestly, chances were pretty high that I would.

"Relax, Tiger," Tandem smiled down at me, easing me off of his arm, which he wrapped around my shoulders. "I told you I would show you the best that California has to offer." Winking at me again, he tightened his arm fast around my shoulders. "I never disappoint."

I raised my eyebrows at him skeptically. "How are we even supposed to get to the door? This place is packed!"

Tandem laughed. "Oh, ye of little faith. Excuse me!" And that was it. That was all it took; one clear shout.

The people in front of us parted like the freaking Red Sea.

The bouncers didn't even ask questions. Tandem just nodded to them and they let him by. It would have been almost funny... had the inside of the club not been almost twice as packed as the parking lot, and a million times louder.

"What do you think?" Tandem almost had to shout into my ear for me to hear him. It was just like how it looked in the movies-- crowded, sweaty, strobe light-lit, and hot. And it smelt like booze.

"It's... alright," I forced a smile back at him. He was trying so hard; why would I ruin that?

Tandem beamed down at me. "Look, I'll go get us some drinks. Do me a favour and wait at that table, alright? It's kind of a designated table for me. I used to come here a lot back when I lived here." And, just like that, he was gone, weaving through the people easily, like he owned the place.

Psh. Chances were pretty high that he did.

Sighing and ducking my way over to the table, I plopped down on the seat; at least it was a million times better than having to stand awkwardly in the middle of the crowd, even if it was still really... awkward. I pulled out my phone and started fiddling with it to pass the time; there wasn't any service in the club, but I hadn't been able to let Lexy, Tawny, or Eli know what was going on since I had called them while I was packing. They'd both seemed pretty psyched for me, but I hadn't really had too much time to talk... and I'd forgotten to call them back when we'd landed.

Looking up suddenly and realizing that a good fifteen, twenty minutes had passed while I'd been stuck in reverse, I glanced around for Tandem. No where to be found... that was weird. I could see the bar from where I was sitting. There was no way in hell it was taking him this long to get us drinks.

Go look for him...? No, he told me to stay here... The internal battle raged, but I was frozen to my seat. Who was I kidding? I wasn't going anywhere. There were way too many people here, and, besides, Tandem knew the place way better than I ever would. He'd probably gone to a different bar or something. Or ran into old friends. Or...

"Wanna dance?" I flinched and raised an eyebrow at the guy who had apparently invited himself to sit across the table from me. Mid twenties, he looked like an overgrown frat boy and reeked of cheap beer.

"No. Kinda waiting for someone."

Hint taken? Of course not. I could feel his disgusting eyes on the front of my dress as he continued, as if I'd never said anything, with, "Nice dress. It'd look better on my bedroom floor."

"Where did you get your lines from, MTV?" I snapped. I wasn't in the mood to deal with random drunk men, especially seeing as that had turned out so well for me last time. Getting up, I was about to head over to the bar to take a quick look around, when a hand clamped down on my wrist and jerked me back.

"Listen, you stuck up little bitch--"

"Let go of me, you fucking pig--" I turned around and yanked my arm back hard-- I successfully got my arm back... and I successfully was drenched in the beer that, thrown off balance, the disgusting asshole had spilled all over me.

And, dammit, this was my favourite black dress.

"I'm giving you three seconds to disappear," I hissed, staring straight into his suddenly sober, suddenly very scared eyes. "One... two..."

And, poof! He was gone.

Turning and stalking toward the bar, I smiled wearily at the bartender. "Can I have a rag, please?"

The man, barely paying attention, tossed one at me-- well, at least it wasn't a wet rag. I dried myself off fast, and was mourning the fact that I would probably have to wash the dress three times to get the disgusting smell out when I looked up and found Tandem. Talking to a bunch of beautiful, bleach-blonde, built-like-a-model Barbies.

And I couldn't, for the life of me, move an inch.

There's a reason. Calm down. Old friends. Rational. Think rational.

I don't even know how long I stood there, looking like an idiot, trying to think it through. Long enough for him to order them all a round of drinks. Long enough for him to ward off one of them when she tried to mess with his hair, laughing. Long enough for him to order them another round of drinks.

When he was taking off his jacket and offering it to one of them, that's when it happened: the unexplainable eye contact that brought me back to life and sobered him the hell up.

See ya.

Turning fast and weaving out of the club, I was on the street and almost jogging away from the club by the time he caught up to me.

"Tiger! Tiger, wait, you don't know where you're going!" Tandem, being the athlete he is, caught my wrist before I could get any further. Forcing me to a stop and twirling me to face him, he opened his mouth-- probably to give me an explanation-- when he stopped. Nose twitching, he asked fast, "Did someone buy you a beer?"

Did someone buy you a beer? It would have made me laugh had there not been blatant accusation in his eyes. The same accusation that was there the night I met Tyler.

Same double standards, too.

I don't even know what happened, but... suddenly, it was like a dam breaking. Did someone buy you a beer? The simple accusation in that statement sent me off and, for the first time, I realized just how different I'd been all day. How I'd gone along with everything, just because I didn't want to ruin anything. How I'd accepted all the shit, just because it had always been followed by good: his dad, the dinner, leaving me at the table. Something about California had really messed with me.

Or something about Tandem was really changing me.

Twisting my wrist out of his hand, I didn't even say anything at first. Just stared up into his eyes and steeled myself. "I am not your friend," I said quietly. Glaring daggers at him when he opened his mouth to speak, I waiting until he closed it again to continue. "I am, by your own admission, your girlfriend. Supposedly, I'm not only a girlfriend, I'm one that you care quite a bit about-- but not enough about to admit to your father that I'm anything other than some chick you happened to bring home. I don't like steak. You've known me for literally years, and you don't know that I don't like steak. I'm allergic to chives. I don't drink alcohol because I always drink too much of it. I absolutely cannot stand overly crowded places. They freak me out to no end. People terrify me. Being alone in a huge crowd terrifies me," I stared at him, long and hard, feeling everything that I'd been forcing down all day building up. "Fuck you, Tandem."

As soon as he was sure that it was okay to open it again, Tandem was blurting, "Tiger, please--"

"Shut. Up. SHUT. UP. You know why I smell like beer, Tandem? Some asshole spilled it on me. While I was waiting for your dumb ass. Why was I waiting for your dumb ass? Because you were buying drinks for a bunch of Barbie dolls," I stopped, my mouth still open; I couldn't even finish the thought. I had no idea where it was headed. I guess Tandem took that as a cue, because he leaned in and was almost kissing me when I pulled back.

"Isn't it funny?" I whispered, finally totally eye level with him. There wasn't even a breeze between us anymore. "Dating you or not, it always seems to end the same: you end up with that stupid smile on your face, and I end up soaked and on the street. I think it's time to call it a night, Tandem."

He didn't try to kiss me. He didn't try to explain. He straightened up; he turned around.

And Tandem walked straight to his car, opened my door, and waited for me to get inside.