My Happy Ending

Chapter 38

“You’re what?!” Alice and I scream at the same time. We glance at each other and exchange a brief silent laugh but then we’re back to complete shock.

I can’t believe he’s engaged! He didn’t have a girlfriend before he went to college and he’s only been there a month. At the most, they’ve known each other for a month and now they’re engaged?

“Tyler, can I talk to you in the kitchen for a second?” I tried to ask sweetly, but my voice was harsh and threatening. He winced.

“Can we talk somewhere that doesn’t have any knifes nearby?” He asked. I ignored his question and pulled him away. I basically shoved him upstairs and into his room. I didn’t want to go into my room because I had a baseball bat in there and I didn’t want to tempt myself.

“I can’t believe you’re engaged!” I shrieked so loudly I was positive that everyone downstairs heard me. He sighed.

“I know, I know. It happened really fast. But there is no doubt in my mind that she is the one,” He said.

If I wasn’t so mad at him right now, I would have taken a moment to gush about how cute they are. But now isn’t the time for gushing.

“You only met a month ago!” I screamed

“So?”

So? People sometimes don’t get engaged until they’ve been dating for five years! I wanted to scream more at him but I took a long and deep breath.

“So, I’ve known Noah for a month. Actually, he’s been in my class since kindergarten! Does that mean that I should marry him too?” I asked. I managed to keep my voice low enough so that we won’t be heard by listening ears.

Tyler frowned. “Of course not. Do you not like Mia? Is that it?” He asked. I tried not to roll my eyes.

“How could I not like her already? She seems nice, but I barely know her. How well do you know her anyway? And how well does she know you? Does she know about dad?” I asked. My voice broke at the end and some of my anger vanished.

I was mad at him. No I was furious. He’d always said that we needed to be careful after everything with our father, but he is getting married to a girl who he’d only known for a month. How could he tell me to be careful about my relationships when he was rushing into one of his own?

“Yes, she knows about everything that happened with him. She said it made her love me even more. She said she admired me for being so strong,” He said. His confident voice was suddenly softer and quieter.

We stared at each other and it was obvious he was trying very hard not to cry. I’d seen this expression before. It came often when our dad was still around. His mouth would press together and his eyes would tighten as he struggled not to cry. You could see the sadness in his eyes and I could somehow tell the tears were there, but they remained unseen. Always. I only had one memory of him crying, and that was a month ago, we he had thought he had lost me, when I didn’t call.