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“Enid is pathetic,” Wednesday spat out. “I am surprised she did not urinate on Ajax with how territorial she was acting. Honestly ....”
Tyler listened to her rant, his arm around her shoulders as they walked together. He’d texted her earlier, coaxing her out of staying in her dorm for the rest of the evening, spitefully locking Enid out of it, so she could accompany him on a late night walk.
Apparently, and he’d only heard bits and pieces, Wednesday had been in the school library to work on an essay. She was interrupted by the arrival of Enid and her other friends, as well as Ajax and Xavier, nobody that she wanted to interact with. Sometime after, one of the other vampire girls that Wednesday did not know the name of came by the table, outright flirting with Ajax. Enid hadn’t taken it well, taking great measures to show the other girl that Ajax was hers , which included keeping her hand on the gorgon’s chest and a long, drawn out kiss that earned them a wolf whistle or two.
Wednesday thought the whole spectacle was ridiculous. And she let him know it.
“Wednesday, Wednesday,” he cut her off, his voice gentle. She didn’t like being interrupted, but he kept one hand on her lower back, lending down to kiss her head. “She was jealous, Sweetheart. It happens.”
“Only to weak minded individuals,” she said derisively. “I am not and will never become jealous.”
Well, that was a load of malarkey.
She glared up at him when he laughed. “Oh, come on,” he stopped, grinning. “That’s crap. You’re jealous too.”
“I am not and I will not take that insinuation lightly.”
“ Wednesday,” he said with fondness, “you’re definitely jealous.”
She reared back, greatly insulted.
“You hate when other girls talk to me,” he reminded her.
“I hate when they feel it is necessary to touch you without your consent.”
“Uh-huh,” Tyler said casually, “so if I gave them my consent, you’d be okay with that?”
“Of course,” Wednesday said through grit teeth.
Tyler smirked, an idea forming.
Wednesday could insist all she wanted that she didn't get jealous. Tyler thought it was best to put that to the test, because if she really wasn't then there'd be no problem. Naturally, he didn’t tell her this. All part of the fun. He’d not do anything to break her trust, of course, but messing with Wednesday was was too easy, and not to mention fun , for him not to do this.
He went easy on her at first. Waiting until a couple days later to enact his plan. They were sitting at the Weathervane while he was on his break when he broke the news to her.
“Oh, I just remembered,” he started, keeping his face into its usual smile but nothing to indicate that he was smiling evilly on the inside. “We can’t hang out tomorrow night.”
Saturday nights were the designated time they got together on the weekend. Sunday’s were off limits, as that was reserved time for Wednesday to write her novel. With him typically put on the opening shift, it allowed them to get dinner and spend a few hours in each other’s presence before he’d drive her back to Nevermore.
“Very well,” she didn’t bat an eye at this. Yet . “I assume your father is requesting your presence?”
“No,” he said, causing her to look up from her book. “Me and Jenny have a project to do for history.” It technically wasn’t that much of a lie. There was a girl named Jenny in his history class and they were partners for a project. It’s just that they’d already finished it in class and didn’t need to do anything else.
“Jenny?” Wednesday repeated with a slight edge.
“Yeah,” he nodded. “I have to go to her house tomorrow. It’s the only day she’s free so ....” he trailed off, shrugging. “Hope you don’t mind.”
She was gripping the sides of the book just a little bit tighter. “Of course not. That is perfectly fine. I will simply have Thing come along with me to explore that abandoned house.”
While she tries to find Jenny’s and spy on us , Tyler thought, suppressing a snort.
“Thanks for being understanding, Baby.”
Tyler waited a week to try again. That time, she surprised him by standing just outside the doors of his high school, waiting for him. He quickly figured out why, likely so she could have a glimpse of Jenny. Still, it was nice to see her after being mentally drained by this long day at school. He speed-walked over to her, greeting her with a kiss.
“Hey,” he said. “What are you doing here?”
“I came by to see you, of course,” Wednesday prided herself on being subtle, but to his amusement, she was anything but subtle right. Glancing behind him to look around.
“ Right ,” he said, “but I get out before you, so how’d you manage to escape class?”
“One of the teachers had an unfortunate accident.”
“Did they... survive this unfortunate accident?” They started to walk to his car.
“Yes.” By the sounds of things, Wednesday did not care if they did or not. “They will be fine, other than a possible month-long stay in the hospital.”
Ouch , he thought. He didn’t really plan on anyone getting hurt by this little experiment, but whatever. They didn't die , so that wasn’t that bad.
“Well, other than that, how was your day?” Tyler asked.
“It was fine.”
“Just fine?”
“Yes,” Wednesday permitted him to clasp her hand. She must have really been ticked for him to be able to do this in public. “I threw Enid’s cellular device out of our window so I am expecting Weems to call me down to her office.”
“Why-” He barely got the question out.
“She was disrupting me,” Wednesday snapped. “I could hardly hear myself think.”
“So you threw it out the window?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, geeze. You probably broke it.”
“No,” Wednesday looked particularly sour. “Do you remember those twin sirens? The ones that follow Barclay around like lap dogs? They are collecting blankets for some charity and her device landed on the pile. It was perfectly fine.”
Tyler could feel laughter building up in his chest and had to press his lips together.
“ Tyler!”
“I’m sorry,” he was not, actually. “That’s hilarious, though.”
She tried to yank her hand away, but he just pulled her into his side, body trembling slightly as he kissed her head. She was scowling to no one’s surprise.
“Do not tempt me to cut the brakes in your car.”
“Hey, just do it on my way to work,” he said, unfazed. “Least I won’t have to clock in that day.”
She ignored that last remark. “I suppose I should ask you how your day was.”
“That’d be nice.”
“Fine,” she said. “How was your day, Tyler? Did you make new enemies?”
“Unfortunately, no. Unless you count the guy in my PE class I accidentally bumped into. But in my defense, he was in the way,” Tyler said. By now, they reached his car. He unlocked it, threw his backpack in the back seat and hopped in the driver’s side without opening the passenger door for Wednesday. She’d cut off his hand and keep it as a trophy if he did.
“I see,” Wednesday said, sounding bored.
He didn’t leave right away. The school parking lot was a madhouse most days with everyone trying to get out at once. There was only one faculty member out there to deal with all this and make sure that no one died, the same guy who kept checking his phone instead of watching everyone and directing the traffic. Needless to say, Tyler was fine with waiting. He turned the engine on, keeping the heat on low and left his seatbelt unbuckled.
“I mean,” he started speaking again, “there was this one girl...”
As soon as he’d said the word girl , Wednesday was on alert. “What about her?”
Hook. Line. Sinker.
“It’s not a big deal,” he pretended to reassure her. “She was trying to ask me out, that’s all.”
“Is that right?” He could practically see the deep fire of hell behind her eyes. “Out of curiosity, what was her name?”
“Nice try, Wednesday,” he didn’t need some poor girl suffering from her wrath. “I told you, it’s not a big deal. She had a crush on me back in middle school and I guess it just came back.”
“I see,” her voice had noticeably hardened, but he pretended it didn’t.
“Yeah, I told her about you but said we could be friends,” Tyler put on a wide smile. “I thought we could all hang out sometime. What do you think?”
“That would be acceptable,” Wednesday’s hands were trembling from rage . “Might I suggest ax throwing?”
The grand finale came less than a week later. He didn’t even have to do anything. Tyler was working the front counter as per usual, Wednesday was in her booth watching him like a hawk. He felt her eyes on him. She wasn’t even bothering to hide it, which must have meant something.
In the door came someone he kind of knew by name. Martha or something like that. She sat behind him in his English class, but they’d never really talked. He didn’t really say much to anyone anymore when he was at school.
Glancing up, he put on his customer service smile as she approached the counter.
“Hi, Ty!” The girl said chipperly. At this point, Wednesday was openly watching them.
“Hi,” he said. “So, uh, what can I get you?”
Martha placed a piece of her behind her ear. “What do you recommend?”
“Well, if you like caramel-”
Martha’s hand was on his forearm. She clearly wasn’t concerned about her coffee order. “You know, I really like that color on you. It really brings out your eyes.”
Tyler was about to bring the conversation back to her order, but then out of the corner of his eye, he saw Wednesday glaring daggers at Martha. This was just too good of an opportunity to pass up. “Really? You think so?”
“Definitely,” Martha said with a flirty smile. “You make that shirt look good.” Taking one of the little cards that had the Weathervane’s information should someone want them to cater for a party or event, she took a pen and wrote down her number, giving it to him. “Here. In case you ever want to get together sometime.”
She walked out of the shop without even ordering anything.
Tyler sat down at his and Wednesday’s booth minutes later, having already thrown the number into the trash when his girlfriend wasn’t looking, smiling in spite of the glare sent his way. “Hey.”
“Who was that?” Her voice was deceptively calm.
“Eh,” he shrugged. “Just someone from school.”
“Would that happen to be the same girl who wished to partake in a relationship with you?”
“Nope. Different person,” Tyler rested his elbows on the table.
“I see,” Wednesday said. “I could not help but notice you didn’t ward off her advances on you.”
“Yeah,” he shrugged. “You know.”
She inhaled deeply to calm herself.
“S’always nice to be complimented,” he said offhandedly.
“I was not aware it was acceptable to be complimented like that by someone who is not your significant other.”
“Well, most people wouldn’t like that,” he said, “Most people would have a problem with it. Most people would be jealous.”
“Yes, I suppose they would,” she said stiffly.
“But you’re not,” Tyler smiled sweetly at her, “are you, Wednesday?”
She was clenching her to-go cup full of her usual quad so hard that it overflowed onto her hand. “Of course not.”
He took her clean hand into his, rubbing her knuckles. "Just admit it, Wen. "
"Perhaps," Wednesday loathed to do it. "I might exhibit some jealousy on occasion."
That was probably the best he'd get so Tyler would take it. "There. Was that so hard to say?"
"Watch it, Galpin. I should scalp you for that horrendous display."
"I'm sorry," he held her hand against his cheek. "If it makes you feel any better, I threw it away after she left."
She didn't seem any better. "There is still that girl to deal with."
"Nope," he shook his head. "I made her up."
"What?" Wednesday was taken aback by this.
"Mhm," he said smugly. "Remember when I said I had a project, too?"
"You did all this to-"
"To get you to admit that you're jealous? Yup. And it worked," he boasted.
The next thing he knew, Wednesday had slammed her hardcover book right over his head. He was pretty disoriented after that, vision blurry and barely making out her figure as she stormed out of the Weathervane.
But it was all worth it.