The Summer Moon
Chapter 26 -

Malia

Ty and I spent a little longer in the woods before heading back towards town. We found Liam, Jesse, and the rest of Ty's friends down on the beach and I cuddled into Ty's shoulder as we sat next to a bonfire. Everyone around us was shouting, dancing, drinking and partying but the whole world felt still in Ty's arms.

"Do you want to go home? You look tired," Ty looked down at me concerned, but I shook my head.

"Not at all, just enjoying tonight," I smiled up at him and his reaction mirrored me.

"I'll get us a drink?" He asked and I nodded my head. As soon as Ty left my side, I felt colder, so I shuffled closer to the fire. Suddenly, a girl with long black hair came to stand in front of me, blocking the fire in front of me. She crossed her arms over her chest and glared down.

"Uh hi?" I said, looking up at her, feeling a little nervous.

"Why are you hanging around Tyrese?" She asked me, her voice annoyed. I raised my eyebrows at her. Were they friends? I hadn't seen her with his usual crowd before.

I paused before replying to her, unsure of how to describe what was going on between Ty and I. We hadn't really talked about labels, but we were definitely behaving as more than friends. "We're sort of seeing each other?" I explained to her and watched as she rolled her eyes.

"Yeah right, Tyrese doesn't date." She placed her hands over her hips and I wondered at what she meant by that. "Listen, girl to girl, stay away from him. You're only gonna end up hurt," the girl gave me a small smile and walked away, leaving

my mind to start racing. What Ty and I had been doing felt a lot like dating, but I did wonder why he hadn't asked me to be his girlfriend yet. What did she mean by that?

"Hey girly," Emily came to join me at my side next, and pulled me into a half hug. I turned to smile at her and hugged back, attempting to push that strange conversation out of my head.

"Hey," I smiled back to her, but I wasn't really in the mood to talk right now.

"You okay? I saw you talking to Rachel, she's kind of a bitch, eh?" Emily continued and I laughed a little. Her attitude surely wasn't the greatest, but she seemed to be giving me a warning which was sort of nice, if it was true.

"Em can I ask you something?" I turned to ask her and she nodded, sipping her drink. I took a deep breath, "I've been hearing some stuff about Ty, is he like Liam?" I asked, my heart racing. Ty seemed nothing like Liam, but I couldn't help but wonder after what Rachel had just said. Ty and I have been hanging out for nearly 2 weeks now. Why would he keep me around this long if this was just something casual?

"Like Liam?" Emily raised her eyebrow at me.

"Well, people just say he doesn't date," I mumbled, looking down at the sand nervously. I wrung my hands in my lap.

"Oh, and by people you mean Rachel said that," Emily connected the dots and I nodded. "Ty's never had a girlfriend before, that I know of at least. He's..." Emily paused, then continued when she found the right word, "busy. I mean I've seen him with a few girls over the years at parties and stuff, but they're never around long. The girls usually make up rumours about them and Ty, and he never denies it, but I know it annoys him. Him and Jesse talk about it a lot," Emily rambled on, but it was too late, my heart already felt like it was breaking. What if I was just like one of those girls? Ty seemed to be so comfortable with me and caring, but he never took the step to make any actual type of commitment, that way he could just leave whenever he wanted.

"But Malia-" Emily started but was interrupted when Ty's arm slid around my waist and he came to kiss me on the cheek. An action I had once found so sweet, but right now it was only confusing me more.

"Emily," he nodded to her as he placed the cup in my hand. Emily nodded back and smiled towards me.

"I'll call you, okay?" Emily said to me and I nodded, but I couldn't bare to look at her. I was already feeling embarrassed enough to have fallen for this whole game.

Tingles spread through my body as Ty's hand slipped under my sweater to rest on my bare skin and he pulled me into his side. My body betrayed my mind as I leaned into him, feeling so comfortable by his side. "Everything okay?" Ty asked me, looking down at me. I nodded but didn't meet his eyes, everything felt far from okay right now.

We sat by the fire a while longer and I tried to forget about what I had just learned from Rachel and Emily. I was praying they were wrong, everything with Ty had felt so right up until then. But I needed to think this through on my own. I needed some space. Ty and I had been moving really fast, and I couldn't bare to relive the same pain I had gone through with Brayden.

"Ty, I'm kind of tired. Do you think we could go home?" I looked up to ask him and he smiled down at me.

"Of course," he took my hand and led me over to his bike. I climbed on the back and held him tight on the ride home. This had to be real, it felt so real.

My mind was still racing when we made it back to my house. Ty walked me up to the door and I turned to kiss him.

"Are you sure everything's okay? You've been sort of quiet since talking to Emily," Ty looked at me curiously as he tucked his hands in his pockets. I gave him another small smile and nodded.

"Just tired," I said, shrugging, and he nodded back.

"I'll text you in the morning, sweet dreams," he leaned in to kiss my forehead and I watched as he turned and walked back to the bike, then took off into the forest.

I climbed into my bed and felt frustrated with myself as I tossed and turned. I had gotten so used to sleeping in Ty's arms that I now found it hard to sleep without him. Chills continued to run through my body, but finally I forced myself to sleep.

When I woke up the next morning, my mind was still clouded by last night. I felt so confused. Ty and I had such a good night together but now I was doubting everything again. I just needed to take some time away from him and think things through before we went any further. So when Ty texted me good morning, I chose to ignore it. I turned my phone off, put in my headphones, and went for a run; something I hadn't done since I left New York.