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"Allie!"

Allie slowed to a stop and turned around. Her eyes latched onto the brunette and she bit back a sigh. It wasn't that she didn't like to see him, or that she didn't get butterflies at the sight of him; but she was frustrated. At times she saw glimpses of the Tyler she thought she could really like, but then he would turn into someone completely different. It wasn't that he changed, exactly; his words changed. What he said, the way he acted - it was just a switch that turned on when he felt it was needed. Why he felt it was needed, Allie didn't know.

"Hey, Tyler."

The man stopped in front of her, a smile on his face. "How are you?"

Allie couldn't help the slight sigh that passed through her lips. She looked away from him before looking back and running a hand through her hair. "Awesome, you?"

Tyler's smile slowly dropped into a frown. "Fine," he replied. He looked at her with furrowed eyebrows, seeming to mull over something before asking, "You okay?"

Allie nodded dramatically, her ponytail flying around as she did so. "Great." She gave him an exaggerated thumbs up and turned away.

"Allie." Tyler's voice came out sounding exasperated, causing Allie to turn around again. She brushed her bangs behind her ear, looking down at the ground, arms crossed. "Did I do something?" Allie shrugged, and Tyler was silent for a moment before saying, "Well if you're mad at me I think I deserve to at least know why."

Allie bit her lip. "I don't think it's my place to say it, Tyler. I don't know you that well."

Tyler scrunched his eyebrows together. "Aren't we friends?" Allie didn't reply, and Tyler continued quietly, "What's up, Allie?"

Allie's foot tapped up and down on the sidewalk. She inhaled deeply before letting it out noisily and meeting Tyler's confused gaze. "Why do you have to hide behind all of this 'I'm a hockey player so I'm hot' business? It's not attractive!" Allie's hands flew up in the air. "I mean, I don't know. Do that, be whoever you want, it's not up to me, but I don't know. I feel like... It's all stupid. All that stuff about being a hot shot who has money and can land any girl he wants... Ugh! The other day, we were having a conversation!" Allie inhaled sharply. "And you had to bring that up. I mean, why couldn't we have just had a conversation?" Tyler was silent, and Allie tugged on her ponytail again before breathing out noisily and saying, "I told you I shouldn't have said anything." She didn't meet his eyes as she turned away and hurried in the opposite direction, not once hearing Tyler call her name.

***

Allie lay on her back, staring at the ceiling, listening to CSI playing on the TV. She faintly heard the speech coming from the screen, but her mind was swirling with schoolwork, things to do... and somewhere in there was Tyler. After she had said what she had, she wasn't sure their relationship would ever pan out.

She sighed, turning her head to glance at what was happening on the television. A character was halfway through his accusation when Allie heard the ringing of the house phone. She hopped up, jogging into the kitchen to grab it.

"Hello?"

Pause. "Hey, Allie."

Allie scrunched her eyebrows together. "Tyler?"

"Yeah."

Alllie's eyebrows stayed together as she tried to process the call. "Um, hey...?" Her mind couldn't wrap itself around the fact that he had actually called her.

"Hey, um," Tyler sighed. "I wanted to apologize."

Allie bit her lip. "For?"

"You were right," he admitted. "I'm sorry."

"Oh," was all Allie could manage.

It was silent. "Yeah." Allie knew Tyler had pushed through his pride to apologize to her, and even though it was a short and sweet apology, she felt herself relax all the same. She felt a smile tug at the side of her lips as Tyler added, "Still friends?"

"Yeah."