Price Check On Monogamy

Eli couldn't believe it.

I couldn't believe it.

It wasn't that it wasn't what I wanted to do-- it was exactly what I wanted to do. I just never thought I'd have to courage to tell Milo what he needed to hear-- and I never thought that, if I did get that courage, I'd have the self-restraint to not scream at him. Maybe I'd let him off to easy, then.

But at least I'd left him with the bill.

Eli skirted around the issue the entire day. I figure he was waiting for me to tell him what happened, especially since he still wasn't sure if I was mad at him or not.

We went to the movies, as always, and saw some horrible, cheesy horror flick that made both of us laugh way too hard. Eli took me out to lunch when I remembered that I hadn't waited around until the food had come back. It was a normal day, aside from what happened with Milo, and that made me ridiculously happy... up until I got home.

My room was in shreds.

The curtains were pulled down, the mattress had been flipped over, and my dresser drawers were pulled out, my clothes spewed everywhere. The only thing that had been left untouched was my closet, and that was probably only because I'd put a lock on it once I'd realized that Katy was never going to stop snooping through my things like the little brat she was.

"What the hell happened to my room?!" I screeched, running down the stairs. There hadn't been anyone in the house when Eli had dropped me off, or, at least, I hadn't seen or heard anyone. The living room was empty, and so was the kitchen.

Pounding started behind me, and I turned fast to see Caleb making his way violently down the stairs, his face bright red.

Oh, no. He was not going to be mad at me when he'd trashed my room.

"What did you do?" I yelled, trying to cut in before he had a chance to say anything to me. For a second, his face relaxed, like he didn't know what I was talking about, but then he was right back to being his same, angry self.

"Why weren't you at school?" He snapped. I couldn't help but balk; he tore up my room because I wasn't at school?

"Why does that matter? What did you do to my room?!" I shouted back.

Caleb just shook his head. "I was looking for something," He said flatly, definitively, like it answered every question in the word. "Now tell me where you were today."

"I wasn't at school," I snapped back; a lame ass answer for a lame ass answer.

"I heard what happened on Saturday," Caleb gritted out, his teeth clenched. Jesus, why was he getting so worked up?

"Good for you," I said snidely. "Took you long enough."

Caleb stalked toward me and grabbed my shoulders, staring me straight in the eyes. "Yeah. Took my long enough. Why didn't you let me know?"

"We aren't friends!" I screamed. "Why would I tell you anything? Tandem's your friend, Jeremy's your friend, I am not your friend. If you're gonna get mad about being the last to know, then next time, make sure your friends don't put you last on their lists."

Caleb opened his mouth, like he was going to keep yelling, but let me go abruptly, his face still on fire. Turning sharply on his heel, he started pounding his way back up the stairs.

"If you're mad about losing the bet, don't worry about it," I said, finally calming down now that Caleb was, too. "I'm not taking your money. I don't want it."

Caleb stopped abruptly and turned slowly to look at me. His face wasn't red anymore; it was like all the colour had drained out on command. He just stared at me for a long, long time-- before he started back up the stairs. I didn't move until I heard his bedroom door slam shut.

With a sigh, I started back up to my room. Apparently, I now had a lot to do.

- - -

The first thing Tawny and Lexy did when they found out about Milo was scream-- literally.

But they did it for different reasons. And at exactly the same time.

"You should have given him a chance," Lexy chided, making my jaw drop open. That was completely not what I'd been expecting.

"No, she did exactly the right thing!" Tawny snapped back instantly. There. That was more like it.

"No, if he had the balls to go see her, then she should have at least tried to hear him out." Lexy was only saying this because, like all members of happy couples, she was totally convinced that love was the cure-all solution for all sores and wounds. I couldn't even get mad at her because she was only trying to help me out-- it just so happened that, much like Eli, she was doing it in a way that was totally frustrating.

"He had the balls to have Eli trick her into meeting him," Tawny corrected. Tawny, as she was now in a not-so-happy couple, was on my side because, let's face it, love is not the cure-all solution for everything. Love is, in fact, usually what causes all ailments, anyway, so why should I rush back to it? "Then he didn't even try to stop her from leaving. I don't see any balls in that."

I sighed and put the phone on speaker, dropping it onto my bed. If it was going to be an awkward three-way-call, I was going to skip out and fix my curtains. I'd gotten most of the room fixed before I'd called them, but when the curtain rod had cut my hand, I'd given up on it and called Lexy and Tawny to tell them what'd happened.

Neither had been pleased. Obviously.

"Tiger? TIGER, ARE WE ON SPEAKER?" I jumped, dropping the curtain rod, and grabbed my phone.

"What, what, what?" I said fast. "Of course you weren't. I just tuned out the arguing."

"Yeah, sure," Lexy laughed. "Anyway, fine, I see your guys' point. But still. Don't you miss Milo? Even a little bit?"

"Lexy, I don't think that's the right question," Tawny said quietly.

"I'm on the line, you know," I said irritably. "Talking quietly doesn't mean I can't hear you."

"Look, I'm just saying that it's obvious that you miss Milo," Tawny sighed. "But the real question is, did you do it because you're really through with playing this back and forth game with him, or did you do it because you're still hoping that Tandem will come back and make everything better?"

I tensed back and leaned against the wall. Wasn't that the question everyone was just dying to have answered?

"I'm not hoping for him to come back and fix everything," I said finally, after a long pause. "He already tried coming back, remember? And I already told him that I believed him when he said that Kip started it."

"Then why didn't you try to fix it?" Lexy pressed. "You never have an answer to that one, Tigger."

I let out a long sigh. No, I had an answer. I just didn't feel like verbalizing it because, fact of the matter was, is, and will always be that it sucks realizing that, no matter how much you want something, it won't work out. Might as well just cut it off now and wait to get better.

"Look, I'm not waiting around for Tandem," I said finally. End of discussion. "But how's everyone expecting me to prove that? By going out with Milo? Not only is that using Milo-- because, sorry, guys, I just don't feel the same way about him anymore-- but that doesn't prove a thing. I did what I needed to do, and I don't want to talk about it anymore."

There was a long pause that almost convinced me that I had them exactly where I wanted-- away from the topic. But Lexy just had to go and ruin it.

"Well... there has got to be someone who you still care about as more than a friend."

I sighed. "I meant it when I said I don't think of Milo that way--"

"No, no, Tiggy," Tawny cut me off. "Someone else."

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "I'm not going back to Tandem, either."

"You're so dense!" Lexy snapped. "Tawny, you tell her."

"Tell me what?" I asked, suspicious already. Tawny and Lexy, though they loved each other to death, didn't agree on... well, matters of the heart, to put it simply. And they sure as hell hadn't been agreeing with each other just five minutes ago.

"Tiger, me and Lexy were talking today at school," Tawny said slowly, "And we do think that you should go out and have some fun to take your mind off things with Tandem, you know? So, we got to talking about it a little more, and, well... we think that you should give Tyler a call."

I shot off the wall, jaw dropped. Again. "Tyler-Tyler? Tyler that abandoned me when psycho, drunk frat boys were harassing me Tyler? THAT Tyler?"

"You're being too harsh on him," Lexy chided.

"What happened to not being able to believe that Tyler left me?" I yelped, suddenly pissed. "You can't just jump ship like that!"

"Oh yes we can," Tawny said. "Obviously, nothing else in the world makes sense right now, so maybe you should go back to something that makes sense. Admit it, Tiger, Tyler was your dream guy. You cared about Milo because he was one of your best friends and Eli wanted you two to be together. You cared about Tandem and, even though we all know Kip kissed him, fact stands that he kissed her back and broke your heart. Tyler's your dream guy, and you know it. So he slipped up once. Or twice. We both think that you should give him another shot."

I opened my mouth to argue, but suddenly realized just how tired I really was. I didn't want to argue with my friends anymore-- especially not when they were making sense, for once. I closed my mouth and chewed on my lip slowly.

"Well, Tiger/" Lexy pushed.

"Fine," I sighed out, after another long pause. "Fine, you two win. I'll give him a call later."