Not That Bad

NINETEEN

"Wait, what?"

Kaya pulled the phone from her ear as Lauren's voice rang out. It had been a week since Julian and Alison had broken up, and she was just now telling her friends. Olivia didn't really care; anything that Alison was involved in she didn't want to hear. Sometimes, Kaya forgot that Olivia and Alison had even been friends.

"I can't even believe it," Lauren said. "I mean, I don't know much about the girl, but from what I've heard and seen, she's a piece of work." She was quiet for a moment. "On second thought, I can believe it. Every time I saw her and Julian together he looked miserable."

"Yeah," Kaya said. She started folding clothes and put Lauren on speaker. Julian was at work and wouldn't be back until seven, so she was alone in the house. "But I don't really want to talk about it anymore." If Ty was coming, he usually texted her to let her know and he hadn't done that, so the conversation was safe.

"That's fine," Lauren said. "We can talk about you and Ty."

"I thought we decided to leave this alone," Kaya said, a whine in her voice.

"You and Olivia decided that," Lauren said. "Not me."

"Shouldn't you be getting back to work?"

"I'm working from home today."

"I hate you."

"I love you, too."

"I really don't want to talk about this, Lauren," Kaya said. "It's not something that I should be thinking about."

"Keep putting this off and he'll get away," Lauren said. "Trust me. I know a thing or two about letting people get away."

"Who'd you let get away?"

Kaya jumped and dropped the shirt that she was folding. Ty stood in the doorway of her laundry room, camera bag slung over his shoulder and a mischievous glint in his eyes. He leaned over and picked up Kaya's phone. She didn't tell him that Lauren was on speaker, and decided to let him figure out for himself.

"Hey Rennie," he said. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Ty!" Lauren squealed. Ty held the phone away from his ear. "How are you? How's life? Do you have any openings? When are you coming to visit?"

Ty just laughed and Kaya picked up what she had dropped and refolded it, letting her two friends talk to each other.

She was glad that Ty had shown up when he did. Kaya truly wasn't ready to talk about how she and Ty would progress from where they were at that moment, and if anything, she'd much rather be Ty's best friend rather than his girlfriend.

Dear lord, she thought to herself.

The two of them still hadn't talked about the elephant in the room—Kaya was too afraid to bring the subject up and she figured that Ty was just going with it—though she knew it would come up sooner or later. As he continued to talk to Lauren, he turned and winked at her. Her face started to burn. Oh god, she thought. He'd heard the conversation.

Taking Lauren off of speaker and covering the phone, Ty leaned over. "We really should talk," he said, his voice low. Kaya fought the shiver that went down her spine and continued to fold clothes. Ty chuckled, a knowing look on his face, and started back talking to Lauren.

At this point, right now, Kaya didn't know what to think, as she watched him leave the room, still talking to Lauren. He knew what she and Lauren were talking about, he wanted to talk, and she knew it was only a matter of time before they actually had to clear the air, figure out their feelings for each other. She wasn't ready for that. Sure, they'd hung out a lot, but Kaya didn't really put much into it, though others have.

Once she'd come back from vacation, they'd been practically glued at the hip. If Ty wasn't at work or with Julian he was with her. Cooking at her house, spending the night, at work, it didn't matter. And Julian had definitely noticed it. He'd even pulled her aside after Ty went home one night.

"Are the two of you dating?" he'd asked. His voice was hard, as if he were trying to be intimidating. But Julian wasn't intimidating, which she learned after living with him for only a week. The man scared easily and couldn't even beat Ty in a play fight.

"What?" she had asked in return, her voice hitching.

Julian had just looked at her, and she felt as if he could see deep into her soul. Though Julian wasn't intimidating, he was really good at reading and observing people. He was a horrible judge of character, though. 

He'd just taken a shower, and Kaya could still see the little droplets of water in his hair. He'd been letting it grow out, deciding to make some kind of change to his appearance now that he no longer had to appear clean-cut for the Harts.

"You heard me," Julian said. "You and Ty. Are you dating?"

Kaya had blinked once. Twice. "No," she finally answered, her voice small. "We're not."

"Mm," he'd said, clearly not believing her. "You should."

Kaya had blinked. "What?"

Julian rolled his eyes. "Come on," he said. "The two of you are very obviously into each other. I noticed it, Lauren and Olivia noticed it, and Ty has definitely noticed it. You two act like a couple already and people around town are talking about it."

Kaya had gulped.

"I don't want to talk about this," Kaya had said.

Julian had just cocked his head to the side. "Well, the two of you should. And soon."

Then he'd left and made his way to the living room.

Now, as Kaya was folding clothes, she realized that she could no longer hear Ty. And that he'd still had her phone. And that Lauren had sent Kaya a video from the night they got drunk and that the video had—in clear detail—Kaya telling her friends exactly how she felt about Ty.

Her face burning, she stumbled over her clothes and ran out of the room. As she power-walked down the hallway, she heard Ty's muffled voice. It was coming from the back yard, and she headed to her kitchen, which was facing that area. As she looked out the window, she saw Ty outside, still on the phone with Lauren, and breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't really care what they were talking about, as long as Ty didn't go through her phone, something that he did when he was bored.