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She was avoiding Tyler. Avoiding the Weathervane. Avoiding leaving the Nevermore campus to venture into Jericho.
It was easier that way than to explain why . She didn’t think she could if she had to. It hardly made sense to her own mind, she wouldn’t dare say any of it aloud for anyone else to hear.
It was irrational to feel so strongly over it.
It left her flustered. And she hated it.
You see, it was all from a dream. A dream that continued to plague her even when she was awake. No matter how hard she tried, no matter how she told herself she was being ridiculous, Wednesday couldn’t shake off the gnawing sensation in her stomach or how her muscles kept clenching every time it came back to her.
Images of what she had witnessed flashes to her mind again and again.
Images of Tyler and Enid.
Heavy kissing; their bodies melting into each other’s and the moans of pleasure reaching her ears. There, off to the side where the dream versions of them did not notice her, she could not move. She could not speak. She could do nothing but watch.
Abruptly she’d awakened and across the room, Enid slept peacefully while Wednesday’s eyes filled with unexplained rage. She had contemplated on getting rid of Enid before. Her cheerfulness grated on Wednesday’s nerves and it would not take much for her to resort to....other methods of dealing with it. But this was far different. Never had the urge been so strong , so all encompassing. Of course, her roommate was none the wiser. She chirped out a good morning to Wednesday as she did every morning, practically skipping around their room like a child. If Wednesday’s frostiness towards her was bothersome, she didn’t remark on it.
That only infuriated Wednesday more.
She absolutely refused to speak to her all morning, refusing to glance in her direction or acknowledge her presence altogether. It took some time before it occurred to Enid that this wasn’t Wednesday’s typical antisocial behavior. Of course, at that point, she was determined to figure out what was wrong.
“Have I done something?” Enid began on their way to class. “Was I too loud on the phone last night?” A red flush bloomed over her face. “Ajax and I can get a bit wild...”
Wednesday had to resist the urge to stab her.
It didn’t get better as the day went on. Wednesday’s mood was thoroughly soured. She had no desire to leave her dorm today and did not have enough patience either. If only she had a choice. Weems would know if she faked being ill and while the woman did not intimidate her in the least, she was in no mood to deal with the aftermath.
She made it to beekeeping later on that day. Eugene was waiting for her, beaming as he often was and chirping to her about this new bee species he’d read about the night before. The noise all blended together for Wednesday, a point of overstimulation for her until she snapped.
She snapped several times at him that day. He talked too much, his bees buzzed too much and gave her a headache. She’d been able to feel her blood pressure steadily rise, able to feel her head pounding until a wave of lightheadedness hit her.
All the while, Eugene had observed her. He suggested she go take a walk.
So she could feel better .
Eventually, Wednesday’s attempt at avoiding Enid came to a halt.
Her roommate was following her again, not taking heed to Wednesday’s warning for her to leave her alone. She’d been on her way back to Ophelia Hall when she spotted Wednesday crossing the quad.
Stopping suddenly, Wednesday turned her steely glare onto Enid, who remained unaffected. “I believe I told you to stop following me.”
“You don’t mean that,” Enid shook her head, her hair swaying. “Besides, you never told me what was wrong earlier.”
“Ty,” Dream Enid was breathless, her fingers treading through his hair. “I...I need you.”
“It’s none of your business,” Wednesday said coldly.
Enid shrugged, springing a wide grin at her. “Can you at least tell me about you and Tyler? I want to hear all the details!”
“What details?” Wednesday said tersely, keeping her voice to its normal tone.
“What happened when he took you to see that movie the other day?” Enid was bouncing on her heels, eager for a good piece of gossip.
It had been nothing. It had meant nothing. Tyler was keen on torturing her with films full of pastel colors and squealing teenage girls. They had gone to his house to watch them, all the lights turned off. It had been late, she should have been at Nevermore since it was past curfew. Than again, Wednesday never cared about adhering to the rules.
Tyler had dozed off. It had been a long week for him. Wednesday had glanced at him, noticing that he was out with half of the movie remaining. Her eyes were also drawn to the curl that fell right in his face. It irritated her for some reason. Before she knew what she was doing, her hand reached out to move it-
And then the sheriff came home. Wednesday quickly retracted her hand back and by that time, Tyler stirred awake.
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?” Enid echoed in disappointment. “But I know there’s something going on between you two.”
“You’re incorrect.”
“That’s not true,’ Enid argued. “I’ve seen the way you look at him and how he looks at you. It means something!”
“There is nothing to tell,” Wednesday stated plainly. “Not that I would tell you as I don’t consider you privy to such information.”
“But Wennie!” Enid whined, causing Wednesday’s jaw to tighten. That blasted nickname stuck and no threat on her part could stop it. “We’re best friends. Best friends tell each other everything and you won’t tell me anything about you two!”
Wednesday would not indulge in what Enid referred to as girl talk on any given day, let alone after after last night. In fact, she decided right then and there that Enid would never know anything about Tyler as long as she had a say in it.
“Perhaps you should take it as a hint,” Wednesday told the clueless girl before turning on her heel and departing.
She just didn’t understand, which she didn’t like either. Wednesday preferred to always be one step ahead of everyone.
But now? Now she felt tremendously behind.
It became increasingly difficult for her to maintain concentration to work on her novel. Every word, every sentence she typed up felt unworthy to use. In a rare display, aggravating was clouding her face just as much as it coursed through her veins. She’d done well to ignore both Enid’s pathetic attempts at getting through to her and Tyler’s incessant messages that seemed to come through every five minutes.
Wednesday had sworn not to be a slave to technology. What had happened to her? Alas, it was all Tyler’s fault. He’d pointed out it would be far easier to keep in touch without having to rely on borrowing Enid’s phone, especially when she was back home.
She pushed the typewriter away. Wednesday was not one to ever admit defeat; however, there was nothing else to describe this moment. This feeling , this feeling that tore at her innermost being had won.
All day her stomach had been uneasy. Caught up in a tangle of knots whenever her mind drifted back to the dream. It shouldn’t bother her as much as it did. She has no reason to feel anything about it. Without a courtship between them, nothing is tethering them together. Wednesday had no claim to him. In fact, the mere idea was enough to repulse her. Why should she care about what she’d seen? As far as she knew, Enid and Tyler were acquaintances at best. They talked on occasion, getting along just fine, but her roommate tended to stick around Ajax or even Yoko. There was hardly any time for them to form a friendship, let alone a romantic connection. Not to mention, Enid was still with Ajax. They were nauseatingly in love, making a spectacle of themselves often.
After all it took for Enid to gather up her courage and ask him out, after all the time she’d spent pining over him from afar, would she be so willing to throw it all away?
Unless, what she experienced was not a dream at all. It could have been a vision. Wednesday mulled over the idea. She’d never had one come in that form before. It certainly hadn’t felt like a vision. She wasn’t even sure if it was possible to experience one like that.
Even so, could the dream have held some truth to it? Could it have been foreshadowing what the future held if Enid and Ajax didn’t work out?
Wednesday’s hands formed fists. That peculiar feeling was coming out again, seeping through her bones. It ate away at her, mocked her.
Enid would be well suited for him , a voice came to her.
Would she? She pondered it. Enid was certainly well versed with how relationships were supposed to go, not to mention-
She didn’t want to think about it anymore, the very real possibility she kept pushing away. It humiliated her down to the depths of her soul.
There was just something about the idea of Enid being with Tyler that bothered her more than she ever wanted to admit.
“Okay, what’s wrong?” Enid came back to their dorm, looking tentative but determined. “Something’s clearly wrong and as your roomie, you should tell me.”
“I have nothing to say to you,” Wednesday put the previous pages of her manuscript away for safekeeping.
“You have to tell me something !” Enid exclaimed. “You’re avoiding me more than usual and I don’t know what I did! Please, Wednesday, just tell me.”
Wednesday kept her back to Enid, doing her best to tune her out. Unfortunately, Enid did not get the hint and kept trying to guess. “Did you not get enough sleep last night? Is Xavier bothering you? Did you and Tyler fight?”
Against her will, Wednesday stiffened at the mention of Tyler.
“You did , didn’t you?” Enid gasped. “Oh, Wednesday, I’m so sorry! What was it about?”
Wednesday let the room become silent before she posed her question. “Do you have feelings for him, Enid?”
Enid went completely still. Had she been looking over her shoulder, she would have seen her staring in disbelief. “What?”
Wednesday did turn around this time, coming out from around the chair. “I don’t like to repeat myself. Answer the question.”
“I’m with Ajax!” Her voice went up an octave, coming out shrilly.
“As evident by our less than upstanding classmates, it’s entirely possible to hold feelings for both.”
“You’re crazy !” Enid cried. “I only talk to Tyler when I’m with you now that you have your own phone.”
“So you say,” Wednesday retorted easily.
“Why would you even accuse me of that?” Enid looked hurt. “I’d never cheat on Ajax!”
Wednesday only crossed her arms.
“Did you have a vision or something?” Enid suddenly looked severely distressed. “Did you have a vision that I broke up with Ajax? O.M.G! O.M.G! Why would I do that? And with Tyler -”
“It wasn’t a vision,” Wednesday was forced to admit. After careful consideration, she came to the conclusion that it was most not likely not that. “It was a dream.”
Enid stopped her fretting and blinked at her.
“You and Tyler were kissing. Quite heavily, I might add.”
Silence hung heavily over the dorm. Wednesday cursed herself for that show of weakness. Before Nevermore, she would have never given in like that.
A look of understanding suddenly came over Enid’s face. She did not look smug nor did she emit any of those infuriating screeching noises she made when she was excited. “Is that why you’ve been mad at me all day? Because of your dream?” It made Wednesday sound incredibly foolish and impractual, just like all those other people she swore she wasn’t like. Without waiting for a response, she asked another question. “Wednesday?” She said tentatively. “Is it possible you.... like Tyler and you’re jealous?”
“What?” Wednesday said sharply.
“I’m just saying,” Enid was hesitating, shifting her footing. “You wouldn’t be this upset if you weren’t.”
“Tyler is merely a friend,” Wednesday said. “One of the few acceptable choices for one, in fact. His presence is as irritating as the rest but tolerable.”
“You spend a lot of time with him, though,” Enid was visibly doubtful. “Like, a lot .”
“It doesn’t mean anything.”
“ Wednesday !” Enid whined. “Just admit it! You’re totally in love with Tyler. It’s okay to say it. I know he likes you too. It’s so obvious. He probably just doesn’t think you feel the same way.”
“I don’t wish to discuss this any further,” Wednesday said abruptly.
Ever since her arrival in Jericho, Tyler had stuck around to help her become situated and was not put off by her sense of humor or remarks that sent other people running off in the other direction. At first, she tried doing whatever she could to see how far she could push him, merely to see if he would actually want to still be around her or if it would be too much for him. It intrigued her when her initial suspicions were not proven correct. Since than, Wednesday begrudgingly acknowledged him as her friend.
But that’s all they were.
There was no reason for her to think otherwise. He’d never acted differently when they were together. Enid must be mistaken. She clearly did not know what she was talking about.
Unfortunately for her, Enid was determined to see this conversation through. “Does it bother you when he talks to other girls?” She asked pointedly.
“Why should I care who he talks to?”
“I’d get jealous if Ajax was talking to other girls. But I’m also trying to work on jealousy issues so I’m like probably not the best example here,” she rambled. “Anyway, hasn’t anyone from his normie school come into the Weathervane before?”
This made Wednesday stop and think.
Well, there was one incident. One girl with an annoying high pitch laugh who thought Tyler was so funny and told him as much. Wednesday watched her from afar, not understanding why she felt such a burning sensation in her chest whenever that girl kept touching Tyler on the arm.
“And don’t you enjoy talking to him?” Enid asked.
“You’re confusing my tolerance for him as enjoyment,” Wednesday said.
“I think you’re confusing yourself,” Enid said stubbornly. “He’s like the only other person besides me and Eugene you tolerate . That says something if you ask me.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
Enid huffed. “And don’t you feel funny when he’s around or when he laughs or smiles?”
Wednesday’s brain tuned out the sound of her roommate’s chatter, having started to ramble about how she’d fallen for Ajax.
It was true, she did feel something when Tyler was present. She’d always assumed it meant nothing. She assumed the warmth that blossomed through had nothing to do with that smile he often gave her or the low chuckle that was once nearby her ear. She assumed the strange pink hue in her cheeks had nothing to do with the compliments he’d give her here and there. She assumed the way he was able to get the slightest hint of a smile out of her had nothing to do with him at all.
And now, Wednesday was beginning to see it.
She was seeing that she may have been wrong.
Abruptly, she grabbed her jacket and left the dorm, ignoring Enid’s cry of where are you going.
She knew what she had to do.
The lights in the Weathervane were dimmed. The seats bare, the coffee machines turned off, Tyler was in the midst of wiping everything down when she arrived. For a moment, she stared at him on the other side of the window.
The soft chime of the door gave her away soon after.
Tyler turned, a smile breaking out. “Hi, Wednesday. I was wondering if you were going to show up. You’ll have to wait for your quad ‘till tomorrow. I already turned off the espresso machine and it's a pain to turn back on.”
She said nothing. She did nothing but stand there near the door.
The smile vanished, replaced by a frown. “Wednesday?”
“You can’t interrupt,” she told him. “Promise me.”
Tyler was in a bewildered state but nonetheless, he nodded, letting the broom lean against a table. “Okay, I promise.”
“I feel strange around you,” she started, feeling uncharacteristically hesitant, “I feel strange when you smile at me or simply sit me. I find myself making exceptions for you, such as during the rare occasions I have permitted you to touch me. I don’t want that from anyone else. It repulses me, in fact. But I’ve found that your touch doesn’t make me feel the same way.”
His eyebrows flew up to his hairline, but she wasn’t done.
“When other girls speak to you, I want to get rid of them,” she ignored his snort. “I want to pour acid on them and watch them burn. I want to run them over repeatedly with a motor vehicle. I want to-” She stopped herself. Taking a deep breath, she resumed. “I have no reason to feel such territorial feelings. I have no right. However, I do feel them.”
He opened his mouth, but Wednesday wasn’t letting him get a word in yet.
“I suppose these.....feelings are nothing new. I’ve told myself everything that surfaces around you has meant nothing but I can see that I was wrong.”
She knew why it bothered her to think of Enid and Tyler together. She knew why the dream had made her want to stab someone--Enid, preferably-- viciously. She knew why these past few months had her feeling a strange fluttering sensation whenever she was around him.
She supposed the reason was right there all along.
Smiling softly, Tyler took a few steps toward her. “Wednesday, are you trying to tell me that you like me?”
“I suppose I am,” her mouth was dry all of the sudden. Then came a rapidly beating heart that she was not used to. “I realize the likelihood of you reciprocating is slim-”
“Addams,” he whispered, his lips brushing against hers. “Shut up.”
Wednesday’s body felt loose and wobbly. Never in all her life had she ever experienced this. Overcome with pleasant tingles. With the fluttering returning at full force. With him being the closest he’d ever been.
She didn’t know what to do with her hands, so her arms hung down by her sides limply. Tyler’s own were cupping her face. It was a gentle hold that she could not recall ever being done to her before.
And as they pulled away, Wednesday found herself unable to breathe at the sight of Tyler’s smile.
“I like you too, Wednesday. I always have.”
“Always?” Her brain, under a haze of pleasure she never knew she was capable of feeling, caught onto that specific word. “But that would imply-”
“How crazy in love with you I am?” He laughed softly. “I mean it, Wednesday; I think I’ve loved you since we met.”
“That’s a mistake,” the words came tumbling out of her.
“Is it?” Tyler had yet to move away, had yet to tear his gaze, full of adoration, off of her.
“You’re going to regret it,” she felt the need to warn him.
“I haven’t regretted anything yet."