Twisted Devil by Ivy Blake
Epilogue
A few months later
Ruby
Me and Tyler were sat on my colourful blanket on a warm, sunny day the week before we were meant to go off to college. Luckily, our colleges were only a brief train ride away from each other, which meant that the long distance wouldn’t be too bad.
I dipped my paintbrush in my water pot and selected a new colour as I sneakily tried to see how Tyler’s painting was going. This whole painting date was his idea, I think, because he wanted the chance to beat me at something after losing for so long- or at least that’s what I teased him about.
“Stop spying on me, Ruby,” said Tyler slowly without looking up from whatever masterpiece he was creating.
I’d spied his art in his room and uncovered new pieces every time I went around to his house- which had been a lot, especially over the summer break once school was out and the long days before college sprawled out before us.
I’d been encouraging Tyler to paint more because he was so good at it and now he dragged me into his hobby, too. It’s not that I was bad at painting per se, it was just that my paintings looked as if they were done by a sixth grader, which was saying a lot when my boyfriend’s pieces looked like they should be hanging up in a gallery or something.
I selected a nice blue colour and mixed it in with some white before applying the new colour to my picture. It hadn’t exactly turned out as I’d expected, but effort had definitely been involved.
As I painted, I thought about all the shit that had gone down over the past year. And boy was it a lot. I was surprised to have come out on the other end in one piece and with an amazing boyfriend and beautiful best friend.
As expected, Dad and Zoe had broken up but not for the reasons that I would have predicted. It was actually an opportunity that Zoe had gotten with some fashion company that wanted her in Australia for a year that had been the driving force for the split. The first week that she wasn’t in the house was quite weird, as were the messages and memes that she kept sending me on Instagram, but that was a whole other thing that I decided to keep from Dad to spare his feelings.
With Zoe being gone, something seemed to click in his mind that it was a good time to focus on himself again and I was really happy to see Dad going to the gym again, shaving regularly and eating properly. He didn’t let me know how much he was hurting, or not, so I couldn’t tell how much the breakup was actually impacting him. I respected the fact that he was going through a breakup and made sure not to jump with glee when he told me the news about him and Zoe.
The other big thing that had happened over summer was further information on Coach Jenkins’ sexual harassment case. We’d been horrified to find out on the news that Bella hadn’t been the only one that had been sexually assaulted by the swim coach and that there were some more girls at Valley High both new and old students that had also fallen victim to Coach Jenkins but hadn’t been able to come forward earlier. It had sparked a lot of conversation in the town and, in my opinion, Jenkins was almost lucky to be sent to prison instead of having to deal with the wrath of the townspeople here.
His trial wasn’t until fall and I knew Bella and her family had been asked to attend as well as some students and staff from school. Any time I’d been questioned by police or staff, I’d been completely transparent about my experience with that man, and I was glad that everyone had come together to get some form of justice against that sick individual.
Even though the sick things he had done couldn’t be reversed, the fact that the town was against him and not the girls he’d made his victims, was a start. Knowing that he was locked away and couldn’t hurt anyone gave me some peace of mind and even though it wouldn’t be forever, it was something.
“I think I’m done,” Tyler said, his voice cutting through my thoughts. I could tell from the sunshine emanating from his tanned face that he was particularly proud of this one.
“Let’s see it,” I said.
Tyler turned his canvas around dramatically and my hands came up to my mouth as I laid my eyes on the most beautiful portrait of me ever. Tyler had even made my ginger curls look more vibrant than they did in real life and had made me look ethereal! There was no way that he’d been able to produce that in the time that I’d made my shitty painting of him.
“It’s beautiful!” I exclaimed. I couldn’t take my eyes off the painting. Was I really that beautiful? There was no way I looked like this in real life.
“This is how I see you,” Tyler said with a shy, loving smile, as if he’d just read my thoughts.
“I love it!”
“It’s yours if you want it,” he said.
“Thank you!”
I held my portrait of him to my chest, now too embarrassed to show him the mess I’d made that could barely be called a painting. Tyler gestured to my painting with a smirk, and I reluctantly turned it over.
“Don’t say a word. I’m allowed to be bad at something,” I said, jabbing my fingers at him in warning. Tyler chuckled and took the painting from me, tilting it side to side as he examined it.
“I’m going to hang this up on my wall in my dorm,” he said after a moment before he leaned over and kissed me passionately on the lips. After we broke apart, we set our paintings down beside us, and Tyler gestured for me to climb into his lap.
“So when are you going to say you hate it?”
“I don’t hate it! I can’t hate anything you make for me, Ruby,” Tyler chuckled. “And besides, I’m just glad that we can paint together. And…”
“And what?” I asked sarcastically as I turned around to see his beautiful face.
“And I’m glad to beat you at something again,” Tyler smirked and pinched my nose.
“There it is,” I said, resting my head against his chest once again.
We sat and enjoyed each other’s company as Tyler stroked my hair and we people watched. The park we sat in was beautiful and the air was so crisp and summery, the flowers emitting their sweet floral scents that made me remember why I loved the season so much.
We loved coming to this park a lot together. To read, to paint, to chat and occasionally have sex (but only when it was really dark, of course, and we were sure that it was empty. Or at least pretty sure.)
“Ruby, I mean it when I say I promise I’ll never hurt you again,” Tyler said after a moment, his voice gentle and sincere.
“I know, Tyler, I know,” I said as I laced my fingers through his and brought his knuckles to my lips.
“Ruby, I’m being serious. I can’t believe I wasted all that time being a shit to you when we first met. It’s the biggest regret of my life.”
His eyes started to water, and he tightened his grip around me. My head found the crook of his neck and I nestled there and fit in perfectly, as if our bodies were specifically made for each other.
“I hate the person I used to be and I’m so fucking sorry that I ever put you through that shit.”
I nodded, even though this wasn’t Tyler’s first apology. I understood that he still felt guilty about the way that he had treated me and that the feeling wouldn’t go away for some time.
Even though I didn’t like seeing him upset and beating himself up over his past actions, I appreciated hearing these reassuring words and loved when he held me close to his body like he never wanted to let me go.
“We’re here now and that’s all that matters,” I whispered.
I felt a wetness drop onto my head and realised that Tyler was crying. I breathed in his scent and let him have his emotions out. We’d had a long, complicated journey and had each taken turns when it came to fucking up.
“You’re all that matters to me, Ruby. Not school, not valedictorian or my parents, you. Because you taught me what was actually important and worth it. You’re worth way more than any of the shit that I tried to keep up with to make myself happy. You don’t even have to try Ruby because you make me so fucking happy.”
“You make me happy too,” I said, feeling my bottom lip wobbling in response. Tyler tilted my chin up and brought his soft lips to mine.
“I love you so much,” he whispered against my mouth, and I could feel his lips curling up into an involuntary smile.
“I love you too.”
The End.
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