Needless to say Caroline did not make it to her class in the morning. As soon as she got back she fell right to sleep and was awoke by a knock on her dorm door. She opened it without looking up and almost stopped breathing when she finally looked. She smiled while biting her lip. “You came.”she said quietly throwing her arms around him. “God I missed you.”Tyler said picking her up off the ground kissing her. It had been a few months since she had seen him and all of those old feelings rushed back into her. “I missed you too.”she said as he shut the door behind them and he continued to kiss her. “Where is this coming from?”she asked laughing as he pulled her tshirt over her head. “Well I haven’t seen my girlfriend in three months.”he said as she layed back on her bed. Tyler rubbed his hands up her stomach and kissed her hard. “Marry me?”Tyler said after a few minutes of being inside her. She opened her eyes and looked at him. “What?”she said sitting up. “Marry me…come on baby.”he said rubbing his hands over his newly buzzed hair cut. “You are crazy.”she said as he pulled a tiny box out of his pocket and opened it for her. “I’m serious.”he said smiling. She swallowed the lump that was forming in her throat. The ring was pretty huge. “Now hows this gonna work if you live in NC right now to do the show and I live here.”she said being rational. “I stopped doing the show. My time was up. I’ll move wherever you want me to now.”he said putting his hand on the side of her face. “Tyler this is SO big and unexpected. I thought you were coming to break up with me.”she said about to throw up thinking about her and Aaron the night before. “Why would I do that? I love you.”he said making her smile. “Because our relationship is weird and very open and I don’t know.”she said shaking her head. “Just say yes baby.”he said. His accent had gotten more Southern just from being in North Carolina for that short of a period. “I can’t say no to those eyes and that voice.”she said kissing him. He pulled away from her and smiled. “You’re going to be Mrs. Tyler Hilton.”he said laughing. “I know you wanna do this wedding all Priscilla and Elvis don’t you…and don’t even lie.”she said making him continue to laugh. “Whatever you want.”he said as her phone rang beside her. It was Nick.
“I’m just going to say you wanted to see the show that’s all.”Caroline said as Nick followed her into a tavern type setting. “Hey is Tyler busy?”Caroline said to one of his band members who was up onstage. “I don’t think so…probably just warming up.Hey let her through.”the guy said to the door guard. “He’s got more security than I do.”Nick said making her laugh. “Just be really nice please Nick.”Caroline said turning to beg him. “Don’t worry.”Nick said as she knocked on the door to his backstage room. He opened the door slowly and the strong odor or marijuana drifted out the door. “Hey baby.”Tyler said putting his arms around her waist, giving her a kiss on the cheek. “Whats up Nick?”Tyler said giving Nick a hug. Tyler looked over at Caroline as another head popped in the door. Tyler scratched the back of his head as Aaron slowly walked in. “What’s he doing here?”Tyler said pulling her to the side of the room. “He just wanted to see the show that’s all.”Caroline said. He was really pissed. “Whatever.”he said and pushed passed her. He picked up his acoustic guitar and sat down on the couch. “We can just leave.”Nick said looking over at Caroline. She had promised him it would be okay if they came along. “It’s fine.”Caroline said looking over at Tyler. He rolled his eyes and started strumming some chords. “Let’s just go get a drink and wait for the show to start.”Nick said motioning for her to come on. “Thanks.”Caroline said breathing out hard as she looked over at Tyler. “You can’t expect for me to be okay with this…a warning would have been nice.”he yelled as she walked out the door. “What a jerk.”Aaron said as they walked upstairs to the bar area. “Not usually…”Caroline said shrugging as she grabbed her beer. Tyler walked out onto the stage to plug in his guitar and make sure everything was set for the night. Caroline and him made eye contact and she quickly looked away. He pulled out his cellphone and hers was soon vibrating
THAcoustic: Come down here
EastCoastNFG: You can’t act like that towards them Ty. Their my best friends.
TH Acoustic: I can act towards HIM however I feel like.
She layed down her phone and refused to text him back. “Should we just go?”Nick asked drinking some of his beer. “No Nick its fine. He’s just being stubborn. I want ya’ll to be here….God I said ya’ll. I’m hanging out with country people too much.”Caroline said making the boys laugh. “Well he’s retarded to be acting like that towards you when you look so beautiful tonight.”Aaron said making Caroline blush. “God cheap.”Nick said making fun of Aaron. “Man shut up.”Aaron said pushing his brother lightly.
“Are you just gonna leave?”Tyler said into the microphone as he saw Caroline, Nick and Aaron head for the door as the show had ended and they had finished up their beers. There weren’t very many people in there at all. He jumped down from the stage and walked towards them as they exited into the parking lot. “Hey talk to me.”Tyler said walking up behind her. “Forgive me if I don’t really feel like it.”Caroline said turning around to face him. Aaron and Nick stopped a little bit behind her. “Where’s your ring?”Tyler asked. Caroline hid her hands behind her back. “Store…getting cleaned.”she lied. “What ring?!?”Nick asked loudly as Aaron sighed. “Oh she didn’t tell you guys huh? Figures.”Tyler said shaking his head in disgrace at her. Caroline looked back at Nick and Aaron. “Tell us what?”they both asked in unison. “Tyler asked me to marry him….”Caroline said quickly looking away from Aaron. “Oh my God.”Aaron said turning to walk towards the car. “Aaron wait!”Caroline yelled running towards him. “Fuckin Great!”Tyler said throwing his hands up. “I was gonna tell you.”she said catching his arm. “When after it happened so I wouldn’t freak out?!?”Aaron yelled at her. “It doesn’t really concern you anyways…”Tyler said walking up behind her. “Oh it concerns me…I thought you guys were gonna break up anyways. That’s what you said at your dorm.”Aaron said. “When was he at your dorm?”Tyler asked looking over at her. Caroline was silent. “So you didn’t tell him…unbelieveable….”Aaron said shaking his head. “Tell me what?”Tyler said waiting on her to say anything. “While you were in North Carolina, Aaron came to visit me, we went to a party it wasn’t a big deal.”Caroline said grabbing his hand. He quickly moved it away from her. “It was a pretty big deal.”Aaron said and Caroline looked over at him as quick as possible to make him shut up. “Hey this is enough!”Nick said coming in between all of them finally. Her eyes swelled up with tears as Aaron kept talking. “She cheated on you with me. That’s why she didn’t want you to come out that weekend to stay with her…..”Aaron said and Tyler looked over at her as the tears fell from her face. “The same weekend I asked you to marry me…babe how could you?”Tyler said. He wasn’t even mad. He just couldn’t find any words. “Aaron that is enough.”Nick said putting his arm around him dragging him into the Navigator. Tyler turned to walk away from her. “Ty wait up! At least let me explain.”Caroline yelled running up behind him. “I can’t…just…just go.”Tyler said standing in the doorway to the venue. “It was while you were in NC. I told you I thought you were gonna break up with me. I hadn’t seen you for three months…”Caroline said holding the door so he couldn’t go in. “I hadn’t seen you for three months either, but I didn’t go fuck my ex girlfriend.”Tyler said. “oh WHATEVER! You think I don’t know about you and Bethany all those late studio nights and shit…you can’t write me a song and expect me to think that nothing ever happened.”Caroline said reffering to one of his castmastes on One Tree Hill and he looked away from her. “You’ve always had such a double standard for us Ty. I guess it just doesn’t count when you do it does it?”Caroline said shaking her head lookin down at the ground. “I don’t…”Tyler said but couldn’t form words. “You didn’t even say that it didn’t happen.”she said rolling her eyes kinda smiling in disbelief. “What the hell are we doing?”Tyler asked looking over at her. “I don’t know.”she said as he grabbed her hand. “I shouldn’t have brought them…”Caroline said as her phone vibrated.
NCarter: Just leave his stupid ass.
EastCoastNFG: Im coming.
“Look they are waiting on me.”she said looking up at him. “Stay and go home with me.”Tyler said hopeful. “Not after all this babe. We got too much to talk about and I don’t have the energy to do it tonight.”Caroline said as he had finally calmed down. “Tomorrow then?”he asked. “I don’t know Ty…”she said shrugging. “I love you P.”he said. He always called her that as short for Priscilla, because he was Elvis. She gave him a side smile as he kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll call you.”she said turning to walk back to the car. “I told you we should not have come.”Nick said as she shut the door to the backseat. “Can we just not talk right now?”Caroline said rubbing her forehead rom the headache she was getting. “No we are gonna talk right now.”Nick said apparently angry. She rolled her eyes. “Why would you not tell me of all people something like that?”Nick asked. “It doesn’t matter anymore anyways. It’s not gonna happen.”she said. “Okay whatever.”Aaron said breathing out hard. “I love him okay ya’ll. I don’t feel like I should have to be ridiculed for being engaged to somebody I love. He respects me. He takes care of me and he loves me more than anything. Things are different between me and him than before. We live together now and I cook us dinner and he cuts the grass and I know it all sounds so stupid, but we have a life together…”Caroline said. “Perfect.”Aaron said huffing. “You know you are being so childish about this!”Caroline said looking over at Aaron. “”BECAUSE THAT”S SUPPOSED TO BE US!”Aaron yelled at her and the driver almost swerved off the road. “Chill man.”Nick said putting his hand on his brother’s leg. “It’s never gonna be us.”she said quietly staring out the window. The rest of the car ride was quiet and uncomfortable. “I don’t think we should talk for a while after tonight…”Caroline said as she opened the door to get out of the car. “Whatever Caroline.”Aaron said not looking at her. “I’m going to marry Tyler Aaron, and you can accept it and be a part of my life or you can’t choose not to be. It’s your fuckin choice.”Caroline said and shut the door as they pulled up to her house. Nick waved at her as the car drove off. She walked into her dark and quiet house. Tyler wouldn’t be home until after the bar closed. She walked into the kitchen and poured a glass of Chardonnay and sat down on the porch outside.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Caroline, Aaron and Nick attend a Tyler Hilton show...you can imagine how this turns out.
