“Seriously?! I’m not opening this now!” I say to her, not even bothering with the mindlink.
“Either you open it or I am supposed to.” She shrugs. “Orders from the top.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. That means Xander is in on this too. Now I know it’s some kind of trap.
“What does she mean ‘orders from the top?”” Tyler asks me. “Is that code for something? And why do you look like you are terrified about opening a gift?”
“My friends are messing with me and unfortunately we have a hierarchy meaning Mina will cause a scene.” I look right at him then take a deep breath and spin the box to face me.
The dark blue velvet is soft and expensive with gold lining the edges of the box and the hinge. I slowly pull it open with Tyler sitting shoulder to shoulder with me and I gasp. Sitting on a dark blue satin pillow is a gold metal choker necklace. The metal circlet sits open with a gold moon charm hanging from one end, complete with the two little stars sitting on the bottom tip. Hanging from the other end is a delicate gold chain with star charms made of faceted colored glass attached every few links. There is one in each of the guys’ colors and I recognize the circle diamond hanging from the bottom as Xander’s. Tears fill my eyes as I look up to see Mina with her phone up, most likely taking a video of my reaction.
“This means something to you?” Tyler asks the question, but the way he asks lets me know he doesn’t need the answer. I just nod as he pulls it off the cushion and slides it around my neck on top of the necklace from my brother last year with the matching moon pendant that I never take off. The opening sits just above my collarbone so the moon dangles on one side of my neck and the star charms hang on the other. “This is not a gift from just a friend. And that is not a reaction from just a friend.” He says looking at me, shoulders slouched. His voice is thick and hurt.
“No, Tyler, stop. It’s really not like that. This is not what you think, but it is personal and yes it means something to me. No I’m not going to explain the significance, I can’t.” I close my eyes and will the tears away. I won’t let them fall, this is special and meant to be special. They are thinking of me too.
“I’m just going to go.” He gets up to leave, Mike following.
I got to Mike first. “Go sit with Mina, we will be right back.”
I follow Tyler outside. “So that’s it then, you are just going to get up and walk away?”
“What do you want me to do Sky? You clearly are leading someone else on at the same time you are playing with me. I have been as patient as I can, but waiting for you to figure out what you want is painful and I don’t believe for a second that you have no idea what you are doing here. No one sends a gift like that to their girlfriend’s best friend.” He’s getting more and more angry as he talks.
“I told you I knew Sam first, I have known him my whole life. I introduced him to Sierra. There has been and never will be anything between us. This necklace is special to me and I shouldn’t have to explain tha to a guy who has friend zoned me since he found out I have guys as friends. You don’t want to get to know me and you don’t want me to know you. You are the one holding back. You are letting your petty jealousy get in the way.” I shove him with each accusation. At least I can still feel anger towards him because as fake as this is I do care about him as a person, but I won’t take the blame for the distance.
“Sam has a funny way of showing his ‘friend’ affection. Does he buy you nice underwear too?” That was the last straw. I cocked my fist back and punched him with all of my strength. His head spun around, the rest of his body following with the force so he was facing away from me.
