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Tyler didn’t waste much time once the waitress returned with the next bottle of wine.

“Alright,” he said after it was poured. “What happened next?”

“Well I was an idiot about it. I mean, obviously I’m happy I’m still here. Most of the time at least. But my biggest regret of it all is that Jeremy is the one who found me. He was about the age I was when I had lost my Grandma. And here I was basically doing the same thing to him. I was the only mother figure he had, really and I was trying to take it all away from him. He managed to remember the whole ‘call 911’ thing and the next thing I remembered was waking up in the hospital. Addy and her parents were there with Savannah and Jeremy. It took two days for them to get in contact with my parents so my brother and sister went to stay at Addy’s. When they finally found them my mom actually took it as a wake-up call and dropped everything then and there. Kicked my dad out, although he didn’t really stop coming around until a few years later when he hit me and mom made the divorce official.”

“He hit you?!” Tyler exclaimed, fuming.

“I decided I wanted to go away for school,” I said quietly. “He got mad and claimed that I was trying to cut them all out of my life because I hated them. To this day I think he honestly believes he was the best dad ever. I think he was too strung out to remember the fact that he wasn’t even around for over half my life. It doesn’t matter anyway. I don’t talk to him anymore. After mom got her shit together we all went back though. She did a better job with Jer and Savannah, I’ve gotta give her that. They had trouble actually seeing her as a parent for a while but I eventually made them understand that’s just how it was. I got help. Like, therapy wise and stuff. They got me on anti-depressants and I was doing really good for a while. I still wasn’t allowed to be around Jeremy and Savannah much though. That was my mom’s doing. I guess she thought I’d make them depressed or turn them against her or something. Basically the last couple years at home is when me and Addy became really close. I stayed at her house a lot and when she decided to come here for school I figured I deserved to get out too. I knew I could take care of myself. I’d done it for as long as I could remember. I was up and down in senior year. I was trying to get used to the anti-depressants and I had to talk about it all in therapy which was so hard. I had never talked to anyone about it really other than Addy. I hadn’t even told her everything. But knowing that I’d had to leave Jer and Savannah was probably the hardest thing. I mean, my mom isn’t exactly reliable. I know they’d tell me if something happened or if dad started coming around again but I just worry about them. But yeah. I guess that’s pretty much it really. It’s been a bit of a roller coaster but I’m mostly under control. My pills stopped working over the last month though so I’m working on getting back up to where I’ve been. You’re helping,” I said, smiling at him. “Scott and his shit really set me back a bit. He wasn’t good for me at all.”

“I want to know about him,” Tyler said gently. “He seemed a bit crazy that morning when I saw him. What’s his story?”

“I met him in first year and I mean, like you do in university, we all got to know each other and formed our new group of friends. Addy at the point knew everything and Ellie knew a lot of it.
Everyone else we met when we moved here so they didn’t know anything at all. I liked to keep it that way but the ones I’m closest to now know that some things have happened and most of them know I have depression. I’m not ashamed of it or anything. Sometimes I just have bad days and need them to pick me up. Anyway, me and Scott just started getting closer I guess. Everyone kinda assumed we were going to end up getting together. And he WAS really cool. I really liked him. We went on a few dates and always had fun and stuff. I had never had anything serious though so I didn’t really know how to handle him. And I mean, I still have… reservations? About relationship stuff. Might as well say it – I’m a virgin. Reasons behind that aren’t that complicated, I’m not the kind of person who’s going to just, go all in,” I paused, looking at Tyler nervously. I had never even fully admitted that fact to Scott, who I had been with for months.

“God, you think I’m judging you now?!” Tyler said with a smile. “You just told me everything about your childhood, Riley. I can understand you being nervous about getting close with people.”

I stared at Tyler for a few minutes while I drank some more. “I’m starting to wonder if you are way too good to be true,” I finally said.

Tyler laughed and rolled his eyes. “Riley, I’m a lot of things. But honestly, I’m not the asshole I’m made out to be. I know my reputation. I’m definitely not stupid but I have done a lot of stupid things. I’ll be the first to admit that. I love to have fun and sometimes I go a little overboard. 100% that’s who I am. But I never, ever judge anyone for things they do in the past. Or don’t do. I like you. When I like someone, I like to know what makes them who they are. Learning about you has been insanely fun tonight. There’s a lot I wish I could change about your past but it’s there and without it, maybe you wouldn’t be right here right now. So, that’s that. Now tell me the rest of Scott. I’d like to be prepared for when I have to deal with that asshole again.”

“Well, there isn’t a whole lot more to it,” I said, smiling. “Long story short, I knew I wasn’t going to sleep with him. I thought if I gave it time maybe I’d feel different so we kept dating. I didn’t straight up tell him I was a virgin though so I guess he took it as I didn’t want to sleep with HIM, not that I wasn’t ready to sleep with anyone at all. He went elsewhere. Basically the whole time we were dating he was sleeping his way through campus. Me being an idiot, I honestly didn’t have a clue. I was completely oblivious until I walked in on it myself. Don’t really want to talk about that but basically it ended then and there and he’s still bitter about it. I think you just pissed him off because he assumed we had sex that night. He felt like it was proven true that it was him that was a problem.”

“He better get over that,” Tyler said, finishing off his wine. “If he’s an ass to you again I won’t hesitate to shut him up.”

I laughed lightly and rolled my eyes. “He’s not worth it,” I replied, shaking my head. “He’ll get over it once he finds a new girl to terrorize. Now, can we get out of here? I’m exhausted.”

“Absolutely,” he said, giving me a huge grin. “Thank you for opening up to me,” he continued, quietly.
“I’m happy you feel comfortable enough to do that.”

“Honestly I’m surprised I told you that much,” I responded, shaking my head. “I wasn’t planning on going that far into it. But thank you for listening. And not hightailing it in the other direction. You have no idea how much that says about you.”

Tyler went to pay the cheque and we slowly walked back to his apartment. Halfway there he put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me in closer to him. “Stay the night, eh?” he said slowly. “It’s late. I won’t try anything. Promise. Tomorrow’s skate is optional anyway. I don’t have to be there.”

“I can stay the night AND you can go to skate, Tyler,” I replied, shaking my head. “I’m not going to be blamed for you being off your game,” I continued with a wink.

“Well, come then,” he said with a smile. “It’s an open practice. There’ll be fans everywhere but you can wait for me and then I’ll drive you back to campus.”

“That sounds excellent,” I replied as we finally made it to his building. We got to his apartment and immediately went into his room to put comfier clothes on.

“Wanna watch another movie?” he asked when we finally got all dressed.

“Sure. Nothing sappy though. And in here yeah? I really don’t want to fall asleep on the couch.”

“Sounds perfect. I’ll go grab one from the living room.”

After he left I pulled out my phone for the first time in hours and saw a few texts from Addy. The most recent was, “Riley, fucking text me back. We haven’t heard from you all day. We’re worried.”

“Sorry! I’m fine. I was with Tyler all day. I’m staying over here tonight. I’ll come see you when I get back tomorrow afternoon,” I typed back, feeling guilty. My phone immediately went off with a response.

“Oh, thank God. Be careful but have fun. We’ll see you tomorrow!”

Tyler finally came back with an armful of movies and looked at me guiltily. “I have too many favourites. I can’t pick,” he said sheepishly, holding the movies out to me. I laughed as I quickly flicked through them, finally finding my absolute favorite movie.

“Oh my God! This one. Definitely. Love this movie,” I said excitedly, handing him Fight Club.

He got it set up and we climbed into bed. “I don’t know if I’ve ever met a girl who liked Fight Club,” he said skeptically.

“Dude. Two words. Brad Pitt.”

He looked at me, pretending to be insulted and I couldn’t help but start laughing hysterically. “I’m sorry, hun. You’re good looking too!” I said when I finally stopped laughing. I leaned up and gave him a quick kiss before settling back down into the pillows.

“Damn right I am,” Tyler muttered, settling down next to me. “And for the record, Helena Bonham Carter has nothing on you,” he added with a sleazy wink and a grin.