* ｡ ✧ — swim deep

The steps behind him made him want to groan, his eyes rolling heavy as a personal reminder   to collect his thoughts in order to box them like unwanted toys. He wanted to walk out of the event to find some peace of mind, to find something that could occupy his whole mind. She was always scratching on the back of it, no doubt laughing over her control. Taking a drag, a familiar voice made him look over his shoulder, eyes narrow to see if he was going crazy, but he wasn’t. “Andromeda” his voice was rather husky, each letter getting whirled up in the smoke and Autumn air. With his body slightly angled towards her, Ty ran his free hand through his tamed hair, a grunt quietly leaving his lips as he felt the gel. The comment made him smirk,  he couldn’t deny that, nor answer her right away. Like a whipped school boy, Tyler pulled the box from his waist coat before resting the lit cigarette between his thin lips. It had been three months and all that was between them now was the tension. Their reunions that consisted of hugs, pecks on the cheek and cheeky banter was now replaced with unspoken words, and unclear intentions. As he pulled the cigarette from the lightly crushed box, his index finger rolled over the filter with hesitation, unsure what to say to her. Instead of pondering whether his best friend, her boyfriend, was inside, Tyler placed his thumb on her lower plumped lip,dragging it down before it met his index finger that cupped her cheek before he brought the cigarette to her lips, his own still ablaze with the breeze. “Must do wonders to your million dollar smile.”

Stepping out into the cold air, Andi’s heels clicked against the pavement as she moved towards the silhouette at the very end. Even in the dim lighting, Andi could still make out his distinct cheekbones and angularly shaped face from a distance. She almost wanted to turn around and go back inside at that point, but he had already spotted her walking over to him. Lately, he’d been leaving her feeling all sorts of unkempt -- like he’d just ruffled her feathers, created a mess of her and left her to fend for herself. She didn’t know just how much Tyler’s presence affected her until it practically disappeared from her life altogether; sure, he was Sebastian’s best friend, but he was her friend too. A friend whose absence left a crack or two in her soul. On some nights, the thought of him filled her up all the way to the brim and she felt like she could overflow, and she couldn’t stand it; especially with her boyfriend sleeping in the same bed. Her fingers brushed over the concrete walls as she walked over to him, his facial features becoming as clear as day under the streetlamp. Her full name fell from his lips like a holy prayer and all Andi could do was roll her eyes and titter, a composed smirk taking residence on her lips “You know they’ll send a search party after you as soon as they realise you’re missing, right?” she spoke, taking a few steps closer to the boy. 

She couldn’t help but stare for a few moments -- he almost didn’t look like himself tonight. His usual unruly blond hair was now combed back and tamed into perfection, and the usual ripped threads that hugged his slim body were replaced with a slick suit. The gelled back hair only emphasised his already protruding cheekbones, and Andi fought the urge to trace them with her fingertips. He moved closer to her without saying another word. Without even a mere syllable uttered between the pair, Andi watched him move closer to her until he was close enough for her to count the different colours in his eyes. Her dark eyes fell down to the cigarette that was hanging from his lips and all she could think about was how they felt against hers; soft like the first snowfall at first, like melting and floating and being weightless in water before they turned hungry and needy and desperate--

Little did the world know, cool collective Tyler Bates was dying inside. His blue gaze scanned from table to table as the talks began, not a word registering while his mind drifted from face to face but she was not insight. Was this a blessing? Was she carried away to another duty or was she out with her beau? He hadn’t seen Andi in three weeks, three long weeks he spent the otherside of the world away from her. Their shared moments at the festival resulted in a guilt-like-parasite he could not outrun, so he sought to time to cool down. That was until he saw her tweet ‘bout the event. As the talks continued, he rose from his chair and made his exit for the nearest door to clench on the freshest wave of air he could get, while his fingers fumbled with the cigarette box and lighter. He was a light smoker but in recent days he fell into his nasty habit of stress smoking from the pressure of the media and his job. As he took a drag, a shadowing figure under the dim lights made its way towards him, resulting a grunt from his peached lips. “Please, no photos” he stated, knowing photographers crawled the event to satisfy their gossip-driven hunger. 

With the usual poised expression adorning her soft features, Andi’s glassy-brown eyes fluttered through the grand ballroom that was decorated with catty women in Balenciaga and Versace and dapperly-dressed men with swaggering stances. One of them being the man on her arm, charming everyone in sight and eating every bit of their attention up. And usually, she would have been just as taken aback as everyone else -- except she wasn’t tonight. Instead, she sought solace elsewhere. Her eyes, suddenly unblinking, stopped when they landed on a boy with tired eyes and unusually tidy blond hair making his way out through a door. Tuning out the static sounds around her, Andi’s eyes narrowed slightly when she watched his eyes dart around the room in alarm. Since the day she’d met him, her relationship Tyler wasn’t quite like the rest. Whenever she was around him, excitement and recklessness would pour out of her like sunshine through white linen. He was a person whose existence she thoroughly enjoyed and marvelled at, making him one of her very best friends. However, after Brazil, things quickly turned cold between them. She wanted to blame him for the distance between them, but she couldn’t. Not when the memory of him tangled up with her stopped her from pressing the ‘call’ button every time. Her renegade heart was aching for the comfort she once found in him, as opposed to how awkward and complicated things were right now.