Play Pretend | ✓

21 | take 1

"Oh my god, Liz, you look....argh, I feel so jealous of your looks right now!"

I rolled my eyes at Ris' obvious gawking and gushing over my supposed beauty. She'd come over, insisting she'd choose a dress for me and style my hair a little bit. For what, you might ask? Yep, you guessed it right, a pizza hangout with Tyler. Freaking Tyler. It's not like we were going out or something. It was a simple hangout at his home, maybe to catch up or something, and I mean, he was Tyler. He'd seen me at my best and worst, so there was no need to act conscious about my looks around him. But of course, Paris being Paris wouldn't listen, amd she'd grab any chance she got to doll me up. Hah.

She made me wear a pair of boyfriend jeans and a black crop top, along with a light pink choker she'd lent me. My hair was in a messy side braid. She'd applied light eyeliner, blush and a bit of nude lipstick to my face. Overall, I'll admit it wasn't over the top at all. It was quite okay, it suited my taste.

"Now I think it's time for Liz to go, don't you think, Ris dear?" my mom smiled in an amused manner, standing at the doorway. I exhaled in relief, thanking mom mentally.

Paris chuckled. "All right, if you say so, Ms Townsend."
"Paris, exactly how many times have I asked you to call me Sharon? I think I've lost count."
Paris grinned cheekily. "Me too."

I shook my head, smiling. Some people never change.

*********
I rang the doorbell of Tyler's parents' house. It had been quite some time since I'd been here. Of course, I'd visited his parents, Dean and Natalie, even when Tyler was away, but off late I hadn't found time to see them.

The door opened and there stood Natalie, covered in flour as usual. She loved baking and you could almost always see her with traces of flour or baking powder in her clothes and face.
She hugged me tight, and almost squealed. "Oh, Liz darling! I haven't seen you in sooo long! How are you, m'dear?"
I smiled. "Hi, Natalie. Yeah I'm just peachy. I came to see Tyler."
"Oh yes! I'm so happy Tyler's acting like before and not being such a silly boy anymore. Please, you know the way. Just go up to his room and make yourself comfortable."

I excused myself and went up the familiar creaky wooden stairs to Tyler's bedroom. His room had always been spacious and well-arranged. The walls were painted a dark grey and his bed was smack in the middle, with a flat screen TV on the wall opposite. A bedside table, a closet, a couch, an en suite bathroom, and a study table filled the room as well. But what was most striking about it was the hundreds of polaroid pictures of Tyler, me, and his family stuck on the wall behind his bed. All of them were messily put up by me and him, but together they looked awesome. I still remembered the room like I'd been there yesterday. I wondered if anything had changed.

I knocked on his door and heard a deep "come in!"

I entered and saw Tyler sitting on the couch and browsing through his phone. He looked up and smiled. I grinned at him and made myself comfortable on his soft carpet, like old times. He noticed this and smiled.

"Old habits die hard, right?"
"Right."
He chuckled quietly to himself. "Okay. So I realised we need to catch up. I'm sorry I didn't keep in touch with you for two years, and now to make up in whatever little way I can, I'll find out about what you did in these years. I know almost everything about you except this gap, so now I'm gonna fill it up."

I felt my stomach tighten. I did not feel like telling him about this past time because it reminded me of bad memories and heartbreak. But I decided I'd leave out the part about the heartbreak and tell him the rest, because he was trying to be a good friend, and the least I could do was cooperate.

I took a deep breath. "Okay, so I entered college, like I wanted to. I never really had any big dreams about going to a famous uni, so I stuck to the community college. But it's a bit far from my home, so I rented an apartment with a classmate of mine called Paris. She and I became best friends while you were away. She helped me get through the void you left me in, to be quite honest and blunt. But it's okay now, Tyler, really, so don't beat yourself up about it. I understand why you did what you did, so no need to tell me sorry again and again. So, anyway, Paris and I did a lot of things together. She took me to my first frat party, we even went clubbing, though I didn't really want to. Paris forced me and it was to try out a new experience, as she called it. After that one stint, we both swore together that we'd never go clubbing again."
Tyler laughed. "Why, what happened?"
"Well, for starters, the bouncer thought we were underage and our IDs were fake. We spent about 15 minutes convincing him that what we were trying to do was legal. Then as soon as we went inside, men with beer bellies started hitting on us. After we brushed them off, Paris started drinking. She took several shots of tequila and became utterly and totally drunk. She started dancing weirdly with some random guy and then proceeded to take a mic and scream, "Damn it Neil, the name is Nuwanda!" into it. Yep, she's that crazy. I literally had to drag her out of the club at one in the morning and strap her to the passenger seat in my car like a prisoner. I even turned on the car radio to its loudest volume to drown out the alcoholic gibberish spewing out of her mouth. After that experience, hell will freeze over before I even consider clubbing." I shuddered.

Tyler was guffawing by the time I finished, clutching his stomach as he laughed uncontrollably. "God, and I thought such comedy only happened in movies!"
I glared at him. "Not funny."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Lizzie."

Again, my heart warmed at his nickname. Seemed like my old feelings were coming back at full force. This was not good. Not good at all.

I countered, "Okay, so what did you do these past two years? I mean, I already know what you did, but anything worth recounting to me?"

He grinned at me. "Oh, so much. I got to meet so many famous celebrities, like, well, Tanner Osborne and Maysie Niven."

I narrowed my eyes at him. He didn't just spring that on me. Tanner Osborne and Maysie Niven were my all time favourite actors. They had costarred in my favourite movie Reaching the Never. They were my ultimate idols and I'd always wanted to meet them, at least admire them from a distance, even. And now, obviously, Tyler had met them and he was flaunting that in my face. That little devil!

"Ty, you didn't just say that. YOU DIDN'T JUST SAY THAT! Oh my god! You met them! Why? Why? Why not me? Oh, god, no! Screw you, Ty!"

I started pummeling him with the pillow from his bed. He ducked, laughing his butt off. Suddenly, he sprang up on me from nowhere and pushed me against the foot of the bed. His nose was inches apart from mine as he whispered softly, "You just called me Ty."

I stared up at him, my cheeks flaming at our close proximity. Suddenly there was a knock on the door and it opened to reveal Dean, standing with his salt and pepper hair, slightly protruding belly, and mega-watt smile.

Tyler jumped away from me in no time. I ran up to hug Dean. "Hey there, Dean! It's so great to see you! What's up in life?"

Dean smiled and hugged me back. "Hiya, Liz dear. Great to see you too, my girl. And life's great now, what with Ty back home and you two friends again."
I nodded, smiling. "Yeah, I know."
"Okay, I just came here to see you. I'll now leave you two to do whatever catching up you were doing. And Ty, behave okay? I don't wanna see you hurting my Liz all over again!"

Tyler's gaze burned into mine as he shook his head slowly. "No, dad, I won't."

(A/N: To be continued! So how was this chapter? I tried to insert a 'moment' between Tyler and Liz here, hope you liked it! And who else caught that reference to one of my all time favourite movies? *cough* DPS *cough*
Comment, and don't forget to vote! xx)