``mate or date?,, {Jared\\Cass//Tyl\\BabyC}

[Cassandra Prewett]

Perching on the corner of Tyler's bed, Cassie used the mirror on his desk- one of many others around the room- to apply the final touches to her make up. A dab of lip gloss here, a sweeping line of liquid eye-liner there, et voilà! A masterpiece! Grinning, the seventeen year old picked up her favourite hoodie; the one she'd "borrowed" from Tyler ages ago without the intention of ever giving it back, and smiled warmly at the two boys sprawling out on Clarinet Boy's bed, with their muddy shoes making the perfect mess on the sheets.

"I'll see you both later." she said, in her flawlessly unaltered accent, winking to both of them. "Thanks for letting me use your hair-dryer, Ty... and you'd better keep an eye on him for me baby C." Cassie grinned, although she was deadly serious. If Tyler did anything to ruin this date for her, she would kill him.

With that she grabbed her tan, mock-leather bag from the bed and slipped out of the front door, taking out her phone and idly rattling off a text as she made her way out of the dorm building. hi, bby! change of plan... i'll meet you down on crystal beach in 20 minutes, alright? x she scrolled through her list of contacts and picked out Jared's name, before hitting "send". Crystal beach was one of about a dozen on this side of the island, but it was the most secluded, and is was also Cassandra's favourite. The long, unspoilt stretch of sand such a pure shade of white that the small traces of quartz in it looked more like diamonds embedded into the surface when the sunlight hit them, and the maze of caves in the surrounding cliffs were like something out of a fairytale.

When she reached the empty beach, Cassie strode purposefully over to one of the big rocks that sat beside a trickling stream of water flowing down from the hills somewhere, and scrambled up with moderate ease. She sat on the edge of it, her feet dangling slightly above the ground, and waited for Jared to arrive. Closing her eyes, Cassie leant back just a little, turning her face up to the sky and letting the glorious sunlight was over her. Normally, sitting up here was like a little piece of heaven, but today she just couldn't relax. Not completely, anyway. It was a mixture of nerves in case she messed up her date- something she'd never experienced before in her life, and panic in case Tyler found a way to ruin it for her.

[Jared Platt]

He was nervous. Very nervous. Jared imagined that this nervousness wasn’t too different from the feeling he might get if he were to meet The Beatles. This was going to be his first date ever. His first date in eighteen years out of his eighteen years. He still had a few hours to prepare, though. He woke up earlier than usual today to give his nerves more time to settle down. Sitting on the edge of his bed, he ran his fingers through his messy, un-brushed hair. Then suddenly, his cell phone began to vibrate in his pocket. The name ‘Cass’ popped up on the front screen of the phone. His heart skipped a beat. He opened the phone and read, ‘hi, bby! change of plan… i’ll meet you down on crystal beach in 20 minutes, alright? x’ His heart then skipped another beat, and, with his brain still set to texting lingo mode, he shouted “OMG!” aloud to himself.

Okay, so twenty minutes. That’s a third of an hour, two sets of ten minutes, four sets of five minutes, half an hour minus ten minutes. Not a long time. Jared’s brain was swimming in an ocean of panic and numbers. Shakily, he moved his thumbs over the buttons on his phone. ‘ok! i’ll be there!’ He flipped the device closed and placed it back into his pocket, quickly standing up and running for his suitcase to search for something he had yet to wear in awhile that was clean. A nice white, button-down shirt and one of his newer pairs of black skinny jeans were conveniently folded side by side each other in the depths of his bag. Jared grabbed them and slipped the jeans over his boxers and fumbled anxiously with the buttons of the shirt until all but the top two were buttoned. He glanced in a mirror. He looked okay. Was ‘okay’ enough? It had to be. What if it wasn’t? Well it was going to have to be. Fourteen minutes.

Jared rushed out the door of his dormitory. Twelve minutes. He speed-walked a bit of a distance. Ten minutes. And at seven minutes, he abruptly came to a stop. Damn, his heart was going to give out on him or something if it continued to skip beats like this. Jared had remembered that he planned on getting Cass flowers. She said he didn’t have to, but he wanted to. Plus he recalled hearing somewhere that women always mean the opposite of whatever they say. But now, he didn’t know how getting her flowers was going to be possible. He did not have the time to ride the ferry to the main land. He looked around. To his left was a small house of one of the camp’s staff, a cafeteria lady. She was gardening out front.

Finally stepping out onto the beach with a couple of white flowers in hand, Jared was glad he had good relations with the cafeteria ladies. Be nice to them, they’ll be nice to you. He didn’t know what kind of flowers they were, he hadn’t bothered asking, but they were pretty. They reminded him of Cass. Speaking of the girl, there she was, sitting alone. Jared’s heart melted this time. Oh, two minutes to spare. He climbed the rocks and sat beside her, greeting her with a shy “Hey.” Jared pulled out the flowers that he hid behind his back as he had approached and offered them to her, a warm smile on his face, “I, um… I hope you like these.”

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[Cassandra Prewett]

Lying in the sun, Cassie focussed on slowing her breathing, and struggled desperately to calm her erratic heartbeat to no effect. What's wrong with me? she thought, sitting up a little and frowning. why can't i relax? she'd been meditating to calm down for years, but suddenly it had no effect. The very idea of a date with Jared turned her knees to jelly.

It was then she heard the familiar voice, and she turned quickly, looking like a deer in headlights, to see Jared sitting behind her. God, he's.... she couldn't find the right word, so instead she just smiled and said a quick "Hi". He seemed nervous too, and part of that put Cassie's mind at ease. If he'd been confident, it would have just shaken her up even more. Cassie felt her jaw drop as she looked at the beautiful white flowers he now held out her.

"I told you not to!" she gushed, wrinkling her nose a little. It sort of made her feel bad. She hadn't brought anything at all for him. "I don't get it though... how did you know? Tyler wouldn't have told you, and I doubt C would either... White Orchids, Jared!" She laughed, taking them and hugging him. "I fucking love white orchids!"

There was a small, awkward silence as she shuffled on the rock, tugging at the black dress shorts she had on and fidgeting with the too-long sleeves of Tyler's hoodie. Is it weird to wear this on a date? she wondered vaguely, staring out at the waves as they broke on the shore without really seeing them. Suddenly, she snapped out of it and turned to Jared with a grin. "My grammy used to be a florist, you know." she told him, "she used to teach me what different flowers mean. White Orchids represent purity." she smirked. "Doesn't exactly fit me, huh? but giving a white orchid is a way to say you care about someone, or that you're thinking of them. It's supposed to show respect and adoration...." she wrinkled her nose again, laughing at herself. "that's why I love them so much. The message is really... beautiful." she smiled warmly and rested her head on his shoulder. "...Thank you."

[Jared Platt]

Jared felt like the luckiest guy in the world right now. Like, seriously. He had not had any clue at all of what kind of flowers the cafeteria lady had given him were. He had just simply asked politely for some, she generously allowed him a few, and then he was on his way after a quick thank you. That was it. And now he was getting such an extraordinary reaction from Cassandra, he just couldn’t believe it. When she hugged him, he couldn’t speak. He had only been hugged before by friends like Holly. Not… like this. Friendly hugs were great, yes, but this was amazing.

Listening to her talk about her grandmother and the meaning of flowers made Jared grin like a loony. It was cute. It was sweet. He really liked hearing about it. He was thrilled that—seemingly, at least—he hadn’t messed up. He did, however, tense up as Cassandra rested her head on his shoulder. ‘Ahh! What do I do now?’ He asked himself, beginning to panic slightly once again. His heart thumped rapidly within his chest, almost painfully bumping against it, but something still possessed him to wrap his arm around Cassandra’s waist. He began to relax a little more, and he was finally able to open his mouth and speak words. “You’re very welcome,” Jared told her softly, grinning once again, “I’m glad you like them.” He almost ended up admitting that he had no idea they were white orchids and had just gotten them from a friendly cafeteria lady’s yard, but he decided not to. He just laughed.

Oh yes. So far, he hadn’t messed this up at all which surprised him greatly. Jared felt like he always messed up everything, like he was destined to mess up everything, like nothing was meant to be for him except for good grades and musical talent. But right now, life finally felt like more than that. One of the best things about all this was that he could sense that Cassandra was just about as nervous as he was. It was relieving.

[Tyler Bradford]

Leaning back on the bed, Tyler sighed and glanced askance at Ciaran. Everything had suddenly spiralled madly out of proportion and had become incredibly awkward. He decided that following Cass as soon as possible would make things easier, and to cut any awkward chit chat with Ciaran.
“C’mon Baby C,” he muttered, getting up off the bed. Pulling his shirt off, he slung it round his neck and started chewing on the end of it. He needed his towel, but taking it down to the beach with him really would be ridiculous. Leaving the room, he walked in the direction that Cass had gone moments before. To be honest, he didn’t care if Ciaran was following or not. But he did put a lot on the fact that he would. Where Tyler lead, Ciaran nearly always followed.

Reaching the beach, Tyler peered down at the rock where two people were sitting. He watched the whole orchid fiasco with jealousy churning furiously in his gut. It took all the strength in his body to not run down and rip them apart. Looking behind him, he smiled falsely at Ciaran. Inside, he was raging like a brewing tornado. Tucking his shirt into the back of his shorts, he crept down through the scrub, closer to the beach. Now they were there, he wasn’t quite sure what to do. Hunkering down in a bush, he sat, and waited.

[Ciaran Noah Black]

Sitting crossed legged on the bed Ciaran pushed his hair out of his eyes and nodded blankly at Cass, not saying anything about her date, because he’d either say something that would annoy Tyler or give away something to her.
The slightly younger boy caught Tyler’s eyes with his and turned his head away silently, fiddling with his beanie trying to think of something to break the awkward silence. But in all honesty he couldn’t think of anything. Not right now anyway.

Obviously the situation bugged Tyler as much as it did Ciaran and the sixteen year old sighed silently as Tyler got up, planning to follow Cassandra down to the beach, where she was to meet Jared for her date. “Hmm” he mumbled, not entirely keen on sabotaging someone’s date, especially when that someone was one of his best friends, but he had nothing else to do, and he was kind of stuck in the middle anyway.
He uncrossed his legs and heaved himself up of the bed, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his black skinny jeans and trailing after Tyler, pretending to be unperturbed by the whole shirt taking off decision, he thought he managed it pretty well. C was best at being the side kick.

Ciaran actually thought the flower exchange was rather cute, and he dared say something about it, “Maybe he does care about her...” He said, but then laughed; regretting what he said after all, he could tell Tyler was more than freaking annoyed at the new couple. Hesitating on whether to stay further up the beach or follow Tyler as he dared walk closer, Ciaran sighed; they were going to get seen. “What the fuck are you going to do anyway?” he asked, tucking his hair behind his ear and under his hat.

[Cassandra Prewett]

As soon as she realised what she'd just said, Cassie began mentally kicking herself. Why the hell did I tell him that?! she thought, panicking. What if he thought she was some sort of crazy flower-obsessive....crazy person? The moment Jared's arm wrapped around her waist, Cassandra began to relax just a little. Being this close to him sent a strange, tingling current though her body, and her stomach felt all fizzy. In a good way though, she decided. It was good kind of strange, a good sort of fuzzy. This, she thought, is so damn insane. I've been on tonnes of dates before, what makes Jared so different?.

Another wave a silence seemed to wash over them then, but it was different to before. It was a comfortable silence. For the first time ever, Cassie was having an amazing time on a date without needing to make conversation. She'd have been happy to talk too, of course, but not talking felt just as nice right now, and she marveled at that fact. The only other people she could do this with- sit and not say a word without it feeling awkward, were C and Tyler. It was so amazing to think that, in such a short time she was as comfortable with Jared as she was with her best friends.

There was a rustling from somewhere behind them, and Cass turned just in time to see the leaves of a nearby bush twitch slightly. She smiled. It was just the breeze from the ocean. What had she expected to see? Tyler and Ciaran watching them? No, she'd been stupid to think that they would follow. Her friends wouldn't to that to her... she could trust them not to... oh, who was she kidding? Cassie was willing to bet that, if they weren't here already, they would be soon.

She turned back to Jared with a warm smile and kissed his cheek lightly before slipping gracefully down from the rock, pushing off with the heels of her hands and landing softly on the brilliant white sands below. It wasn't high, but the mixture of the small jump and just being here with Jared gave Cassie a buzz. Her smile faltered momentarily; she could have sworn she'd just heard Ciaran's voice, but she shook her head and tried to ignore it. Whatever she thought, smiling again. let them spy on me. I don't care.

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[Jared Platt]

The silence lingered. Normally Jared would have probably started to get really worried about it and start to feel as if he was, alas, messing up. But right now he still didn’t feel like that at all. The silence felt comfortable and right. But he wanted to talk to her. He wanted to get to know her more and more. He really wanted to know what instrument she played, he wanted to know her favorite kind of music, her favorite bands or artists. Hell, he even wanted to know the tiny things like what her favorite color was, and he also even wanted to know—cared to know—what else she knew about flowers. He couldn’t ask her all this at once of course, he realized that would be a bit more than just plain creepy.

Though before Jared could move on to his next train of thought, Cassandra was moving down from the rock they were sitting on. And whoa… wait. Hold the phone. Had she just kissed him on the cheek? She really had. Jared had just been kissed on the cheek by a girl that was not his mother. He could feel that his face was reddening, and he looked down at his shoes for a moment, smiling like the dork he was. Lifting his head, his eyes met Cassie’s and he felt like he was going to start blushing again; her eyes were so fucking captivatingly blue, they made his heart melt just as much as the rest of her did. “Your eyes… they’re—” he sputtered out as he stumbled down from the rock to the sand beside his date, “They’re gorgeous,” he finally said quietly, smiling as he gazed into them for a bit longer. Then he slightly looked to the side, feeling like he had to stop or otherwise she might get freaked out or something. He still managed to keep a comforting grin on his face, however. “Um. Now that we’re down here, uh… do you wanna walk?” he asked Cassandra, still determined to get to know her more, and he couldn’t help but look into her eyes once again.

And Jared was so distracted, in fact, if Tyler and Ciarian continued to stay right where they were, he wouldn’t ever notice them.

[Tyler Bradford]

It was getting hot, as the Mediterranean sun climbed higher in the sky. Tyler longed to have his surf board, and be able to run down into the sea and catch a few waves. But he was hunched under a bush watching his best friend (and ‘tiny’ crush) have a date with this weird eighteen year old who’d never even kissed anyone who wasn’t his mum. Tyler thought it was completely pathetic, to be honest, and couldn’t understand why Cass liked him. Hell, he was hurt that Cass seemed to like this Jared character more than him! Tyler watched the whole flower fiasco with a fierce glare fixed on his face. It was so soppy and pathetic he wanted to throw up. He looked round sharply when Ciaran spoke.
“Shut up!” he hissed angrily, pissed off that Ciaran was talking – it could have blown their cover – and also furious that Jared was seemingly getting the better of Cass’ smarts. Tyler frowned when Ciaran spoke again – he didn’t really know the answer to be honest.
“Um...I didn’t get that far,” he said sharply, “Don’t worry Baby C, I’ll think of something.” He was close to shaking now, nervous that she’d hear them talking. God, if she caught them she’d rip them limb from limb. And Tyler quite liked his limbs attached to his body, thanks very much.

When Cass pecked Jared on the cheek before hopping off the rock, Tyler ground his teeth together and had to use every ounce of will power in him not to jump out of the bush and beat Jared’s brains out. Jared was staring at his shoes and looking dorky. God, was this really the first time a girl had kissed him on the cheek?! Lame ass; Tyler thought. He had another I-might-just-puke-in-a-second moment when Jared gushed over the colour of Cass’ eyes. Rolling his own blue eyes, he glanced back at Ciaran. A weird little emotion popped up from the depths of his sub-consciousness and smacked him in the face. It was screaming at him to just get up and go, and take Ciaran with him. And maybe hold his hand, and have a cuddle. Shoving the emotion out the way with the much more virulent anger and jealousy that was burning like a furnace in his stomach, he narrowed his eyes towards Jared.
“Okay I’ve got nothing...” he admitted, for probably the first time in his life.

[Cassandra Prewett]

His staring made Cassandra nervous- did she have something on her face or something? Was her make up smudged? Her heart beat sped up under his gaze, even after his words had put her mind at rest. "My eyes?" she laughed nervously, and smiled. It was such a corny thing to say, but it made her glad to hear Jared say it all then same. "thanks?" she said, a little uncertainly. "yours are..." she paused, stopping to actually look at Jared's eyes for the first time; deep pools of a devastatingly warm shade of brown that made her go weak at the knees. "..amazing." she sighed, feeling her cheeks heating up. dammit, what's wrong with me? She thought, quickly lowering her gaze and tucking a stay strand of hair behind her ear. Cassandra Prewett never blushed. It was something she prided herself on. Her skin was always a smooth, unspoilt ivory, and she was pretty certain that the pinkish glow she now wore could not suit her the slightest bit.

"Um... sure?" Cassie smiled, her blue eyes meeting Jared's chocolate ones once again. A walk sounded... nice. When you took a walk with someone, you couldn't help but chat to them. The conversation just flowed better, somehow. And now that she was on her feet, Cassie felt like she'd had enough quiet for now. Well, almost. Before they actually started walking, another, even more appealing thought popped into the seventeen-year-old's head. She took a step in front of Jared, turning to face him and loosely draping her arms around his neck. "but first..." she murmured, her voice barely above a whisper as she moved closer to him, before she gently brushed her lips against his. It was barely even passable for a kiss, but it was enough to send Cassie's hear into overdrive. Her arms tightened around him, and her eyes slid closed as she smiled in content and liquid fire coursed through her veins.

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[Ciaran Noah Black]

After deciding that his hat was positioned fine Ciaran stuffed his hands into the pocket of his skinny jeans and continued walking down the beach slowly behind Tyler. Still thinking in his mind that this whole beach, date, spying thing wasn’t a good idea. Stopping beside his friend he peeked through a tiny gap in the bush in front of them again, he had to admit that they were kind of a cute couple. “Sorry” He mumbled, quieter and slightly sarcastic as Tyler snapped at him.

He held his breath for a second when Cassie glanced around to stare at the bush, then smiled slightly as she turned back around. They were going to get caught anytime soon, he could just feel it. Fiddling with his phone case inside his pocket Ciaran blew tossed the hair out of his eyes, and attempting on staying quiet, although really that shouldn’t have been such a task for him. He was usually quite quiet unless he was drunk out of his mind or anything similar.

It was obvious that Tyler was jealous, that or just plain angry about something or other, and once again Ciaran couldn’t help but feel slightly annoyed that Cassandra being with Jared was such a big deal, it was similar to the feeling in the canteen the other day. But Ciaran didn’t say anything on the things he’d picked up from watching Ty’s reactions. He shrugged, not wanting to talk again in case he was too loud and gave them away. His phone vibrated loudly in his pocket, but hopefully it wasn’t loud enough for either Jared or Cassie to hear. He couldn’t help but grin as they kissed, it was rather cute, and slightly romantic, but he didn't know what to think, and turned to look behind him before muttering to Tyler, “What are we doing here then?” he hadn’t any ideas on what to do either, they were just observing two people on a date, which was in all respects, kind of creepy.

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[Jared Platt]

Yes, Jared knew his compliment to Cassandra’s eyes was very corny and very, very cliché. But it was true! And god, he hoped he hadn’t made her uncomfortable now. She sure seemed like it. Just before he could say something along the lines of ‘you’re welcome,’ he stared like a deer in headlights back into her eyes as she began to search for words to compliment his own. He laughed, but it was a good laugh. His eyes were ‘amazing.’ This excited him. He’d never been complimented on his eyes before. “Thanks,” he said. Again, his face reddened along with Cassie’s and he felt comfortable.

He was deeply in shock now, more shock than any previous moment before. Cassandra actually had her arms draped over him, and she kissed him on the lips this time. That walk she had agreed on could wait a few moments. Jared wanted more than that one tiny kiss; he just couldn’t control himself. His silly, eighteen-year-old, boyish hormones took over his brain. Jared placed his hands onto Cassie’s waist, leaned his head forward, and pressed his lips into Cassandra’s hungrily. Once he had realized what he was doing, he stopped and pulled his head back again. Though he didn’t pull completely from Cassandra (he sure as hell didn’t want to) he still felt guilty. What if that was weird? What if it was too early for something like that? And how did he even know how to do that? How the fuck did he have the courage? He wanted to apologize, but the words just wouldn’t come out right now.

[Tyler Bradford]

Tyler, unlike Ciaran, was finding it incredibly hard to stay quiet. It just wasn’t in his nature to sit in silence and watch. Even when he’s on his own, he always has to mutter to himself or talk to inanimate objects to keep himself from going crazy. He just doesn’t have the capacity for saying quiet. Fidgeting uncomfortably, Tyler felt sand digging into his knees and tried hard not to grumble or complain about it. He chewed on the inside of his mouth to preoccupy his jaw. If it was chewing, it wasn’t speaking. When Ciaran’s phone vibrated, he almost jumped up. Glaring, he shoved his hand into Ciaran’s back pocket, fished out the phone and turned it off. He only realised after he’d put it back in Baby C’s pocket that he’d just done that. Looking away, Tyler felt his ears go slightly hot with embarrassment. Chewing his lip moodily, Tyler wondered what he was so worked up about. Shaking his head when Ciaran spoke, he tried to think of something useful to say but it didn’t come. Maybe he was right? Maybe Jared was good for Cassandra? Sighing, he stood up carefully so as not to alert Cass and Jared to their whereabouts.
“Let’s just go back...” he muttered, feeling a twinge of defeat.

Chewing on the t-shirt that he was wearing slung over his shoulders again, he started making his way back up the beach. Before he knew it, though, his feet were taking him back towards the two kissers. Walking briskly, he came to a stop a little way off and folded his arms.
“Wow you’re awfully confident all of a sudden,” Tyler said tersely, his blue eyes chips of icy hatred towards Jared. He didn’t know what he was doing, totally eaten up by his jealousy. It didn’t really matter that it was Cassandra – it was just the fact that someone had picked this looser instead of him. Because it was Cass that had picked this looser instead of him...well, that made him even madder.
“You’re such a fucking pretender, I see right through your little virgin front!” Tyler continued, “Why don’t you just go back to fucking America where you belong and fuck your own band camp girls and leave Cass alone! She doesn’t need stupid little twats like you!” Hardly thinking about it, he’d walked forwards again and grabbed Jared by the wrist, yanking him away from Cassandra. With even less thought process put into it, he swung a punch for Jared’s face. You didn’t want to get punched by Tyler even on a good day, but today was most certainly a very, very bad day.

[Jared Platt]

There was the voice of Tyler. Jared looked over abruptly, horrified, scared. Yes, he was scared of Tyler. Jared knew Tyler felt great hatred towards him, and he wouldn’t be surprised if Tyler ended up decapitating him or something. Jared listened as Tyler lashed out harsh words. He was used to harsh words, but not like this. Jared frowned. He didn’t know how to reply to any of that. He wanted to tell him he wasn’t pretending, he wanted to stand up for himself, but he was afraid of saying the wrong thing and afraid of making Tyler even more angry with him.

Then in seconds Jared’s wrist was grasped in an unnecessarily painful way and he was yanked away from Cassandra by a grip that was impossible to break. Suddenly a fist was in his face.

Jared clutched his face with his hands, moaning as the pain pulsated. In no time his hands felt wet; he held them out to look at them for a moment and he could tell blood was trickling from his nose with not much of an intention to stop. The inside of his lips felt raw and stung from where his teeth had scraped against them for just the brief moment of being punched. He didn’t know what to do. He just stood there like a fucking idiot. Jared wanted so much to stand up for himself, to look more like a man in front of Cassandra rather than a wimpy defenseless boy. He really was a wimp, though; he really was afraid of whatever else Tyler might do to him. He wasn’t going to fight back, no; he believed violence never solved anything.

Okay, he was going to talk. He had to say something, anything. He had to make himself look better than a wimpy idiot. Jared peeked from the fingers he had partially covering his eyes and he glared at Tyler. “Why do you even care, man?” Jared asked, though he knew the answer. It was now to his benefit that Tyler never really admitted that he liked Cassandra. “She’s your friend, I know, but you gotta let her make her own choices!” A bit of blood leaked from his nose and into his mouth between almost every word and his face still ached immensely, but Jared’s mind was swimming with too much to care. “If you’re worried I’m gonna hurt her or something… I’m not like that,” he ended, still glaring at Tyler (almost as if he was accusing him). He dared not look at Cassandra yet, he was too embarrassed.

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[Tyler Bradford]

Tyler let out a satisfied grunt when his fist made connection with Jared’s nose. The livid flow of blood that ensued made him feel a lot better already. Just to exercise his ego further, he shook Jared by the wrist, clenching his teeth. If Tyler had been anyone else at that moment, he would have commended Jared’s courage for attempting to stand up to him – but he was himself right at that moment in time so he didn’t give a shit.
“I care because she’s my best friend!” he raged, as if it was the most obvious reason in the world. That was only the half of it. Tyler snorted, who was Jared to tell him what he should and shouldn’t do?!
“Listen, you,” he spat, yanking on Jared’s arm again more violently, “I don’t know if you’re like that or not. I don’t know who the hell you are! Sure she’s dated some right assholes in the past and I never cared this much and do you know why?!” he paused for effect. Glancing to the side he searched for Ciaran. Was he backing him up or had he scarpered?
“Because we knew they were assholes! That’s my problem with you!” Tyler felt his ears heating up again, his rage fuelling his words mindlessly.