Be Alright

Fifteen

Fifteen: Yours

"Tell me," I whisper, my eyes scan his face, waiting for some type of apparent emotion to show.

"I guess you can already tell that I didn't grow up here," He starts.

That wasn't hard to tell at all. He didn't have a thick accent, but you could hear how he pronounces certain words differently than everybody else around here. While we were in the deep south, leaving off the g sound on every word that ended with -ing, Tyler spoke with proper form. It didn't mean he was more educated than anybody around here, he just spoke differently.

If the way he talked didn't give it away, the fact his first two mugshots that were listed in Philadelphia County did.

"How did you end up here?" I ask him.

"I was getting into a lot of trouble back home. Just bad things were happening and I didn't know how to make it stop. Nick had just moved down here to be with his girlfriend and suggested I come. Said there's no way I could get in any trouble down here."

Yet the second he shows up three people are murdered and he's a suspect.

"So I did that. I left everything behind and bought a house down here. I didn't want to look back on my past any longer."

I wondered what happened back home that had him like this. Was he always this closed off, or did some trauma happened that made him shut down?

I've seen Tyler interact with people on many occasions. He was charismatic and inviting. He had something about him that made everyone instantly like him. Once you get past friendly greetings though, he's cold. It's like you have to break wall after wall down to get him to be open about things.

I may have knocked one down, but I guarantee there's plenty more that I'm going to have to get through.

"I think you can tell by now that I have quite a bit of money," he says nervously. "I'm not going to tell you where it came from and how I got it. Not yet, at least."

"Why?"

"It's just better if you didn't know," he says, making me grow anxious.

Be patient, Octavia. It took you this long to get this information. Don't get frustrated when he's trying his best.

"I don't know why I acted how I did earlier. If I ruined the night, I'm really sorry," he apologizes.

I frown and reach my hand up to touch his face, the palm meeting the scratchy hairs along his jaw. He looks vulnerable, almost child like right now. His eyes were wide and hazy. He wasn't crying, but his eyes gave away how nervous he was.

"You didn't ruin the night. I had a good time," I promise him.

"When I moved here, I started investing, then I started purchasing. I bought Oliver's first. Then I bought a few bars. I have business partners for those. They were the ones who talked me into going for Joeli's."

"You were trying to buy Joeli's?" I ask, completely shocked.

I remembered he said he had business with Joeli, but I didn't think it was going to be that. Joeli has always been owned by Joeli. That's the point in the name. It's Joeli's bar. It didn't make any sense that Tyler would even consider buying it.

Nobody went to Joeli's for good drinks. It was cheap alcohol and a young crowd. Joeli was a sweet man and it just felt like home being there.