serious is it?"
"It's not," I lie, adding a nonchalant shrug so she'll believe me. "We just like spending time together so we started dating. I knew it wouldn't last but I didn't want to give up the chance to be with someone who makes me feel the way he does, even knowing it'll end."
I wait for her to tell me how stupid I'm being. How I'm going to get hurt. How I shouldn't waste my time with someone I know I can only be with for a limited time. But instead of saying any of that, she says nothing, her gaze focused back on Walter's house.
"Grams?"
"How much do you know about him?"
"Who? Walter or Tyler?"
"Tyler."
"We talk all the time. I know a lot about him. Why?"
"Did you know he's been arrested?"
"Arrested? When?"
"When he was living in California. Walter said that's why he's here. He needed to get away from that life."
My stomach knots. Why didn't I know this? Why didn't Tyler tell me?
"Why was he arrested?" I ask.
Grams turns back to me. "For drugs. The arrest was for cocaine possession but who knows what else he had that they didn't find."
"That can't be true. Tyler doesn't do drugs."
"Perhaps not now, but he used to. And it's possible he could turn to that life again."
"This doesn't make sense. Tyler would've told me."
"He should've, but he didn't. What does that tell you, Faith?"
"That he lied to me," I say quietly to myself.
"Walter told me this just yesterday. Tyler didn't want anyone knowing about his past but I forced Walter to tell me after I had concerns you two were getting close."
"Was he in prison?" I ask, feeling sick to my stomach.
Why would Tyler not tell me this? After all the hours we've spent talking, he could've told me but he didn't.
"He was never convicted," Grams says. "A young woman was instead. The woman he was seeing at the time."
His ex-girlfriend. He never talks about her. I thought he was doing that out of respect to me but he was really doing it to avoid talking about his past.
Tyler was arrested for drugs? I still don't believe it.
Chapter Twenty-Three
"I'll be in my room," I say, getting up.
"You need to stop seeing him," Grams says. "I know you like the boy but you have such a bright future and he's nothing but trouble."
I walk out to the hall, no longer wanting to discuss it, or hear her tell me more bad things about Tyler. If he's been hiding things from me, I need to hear it from him.
When I'm in my room I get my phone out and text him, I need to talk to you.
He doesn't text back. He must still be talking to Walter.
Waiting for them to finish up isn't an option. I need answers now.
Walking over to his house, I check my phone. He still hasn't texted me back. When I get to the door, I knock but nobody answers. I go inside the house.
"Tyler?" I call out.
Voices are coming from upstairs.
"Why the hell would you tell her that?" Tyler yells.
"She asked about your past," Walter says in a stern tone. "I wasn't going to lie to her."
"But it's okay for you to lie about YOUR past?"
"I had planned to tell Cora, and now I have. Just as you should've told Faith about California and why you left."
"I was going to, but on MY timeframe, not yours. Thanks a lot, Pops." Tyler comes downstairs, stopping when he sees me.
"Hey," I say.
His eyes lock with mine. "You know."
"Yeah."
"Then I guess we're over." He storms past me and out the door.
Surprised by his reaction, I pause a moment, then follow him outside.
"Hey!" I yell at him. "Get back here!"
He ignores me and goes in the garage. I’m right behind him, furious he's acting mad at me when it should be the other way around. He's the one who lied.
"What the hell was that?" I ask, my hands on my hips. "You lie to me, then tell me it's over?"
He kicks an empty bucket, sending it flying against the room, hitting the wall with a thud.
"So you're just going to kick and throw things instead of talking to me?"
"What's there to talk about? I was an addict. End of story. I'm a fucked up druggie high school dropout, which is why I tried to keep you away from me when we met. But you refused to leave me alone."
I fold my arms over my chest. "So you just assumed I wouldn't date you because