Alive

Surprisingly, Tyler didn’t wake me up this time

However, I’m slightly bothered by the fact that my body is now used to waking up at seven in the morning.

But you can’t really enjoy the summer when you’re sleeping it away, can you?

I grabbed my phone from the nightstand and dialed Tyler’s number.

Riiiiing. Riiiiing. Riiiiing.

Voicemail.

Well, I tried.

I settled with texting him a list of movies that I had – Hulk, Tenacious D, Mean Girls…We can always use Netflix too – and asking him what kind of toppings he wanted on the pizza.

I also texted him five seconds later asking him what time he was coming over.

Five minutes passed – no response.
Fifteen minutes passed – still no response.

Forty-five minutes passed – I gave up and decided to tidy up my room a little.

An hour and twenty minutes passed, and my phone finally rung.

But it wasn’t who I wanted to talk to at the moment.

“Hi, Mom.”
“Hi, Luke…How is my baby doing? How’s your summer so far?”

I smirked.

“Well, so far I vandalized an abandoned skate park and I may have gotten totally wasted two nights ago.”

And cue the horrified gasp.

“Y-You did…You did what?! Oh my BABY! My sweet innocent baby—”
“Mom! It’s okay! I was just joking!” – for the most part.

A moment of silence.

“Please…Don’t scare me like that again…Did you make some friends?”
“One. I’ve made one friend.”

“Oh. What is he…or she like?”

Before I could answer her, there was a knock on the door.

I walked towards it and looked through the peephole, spotting the familiar, platinum blonde hair.
I smiled and opened the door, but frowned shortly after.

A bruised cheek.
A busted lip.

Bloodied knuckles clenching the metal bat.

“Mom…I’m going to have to call you back.”

I hung up before she could protest.

“Tyler…?”
“I’m fine.”

He sighed and stepped in, closing the door behind him before leaning against it.

I still stared at him with wide eyes.
He noticed and smirked.

“What? Never seen blood before?”
“It’s not that…”

Now I know why he didn’t respond.

“Sit down. I’ll get something cold for the bruise and some ointment.”

He didn’t hesitate to drop the bat and plop onto the beanbag chair in front of the computer desk.

I didn’t hesitate to rush into the bathroom and grab the ointment and some Transformers band aids for his knuckles or to rush and grab a bag of frozen vegetables from the mini-freezer – thanks Mom.

I walked back to him and handed him the bag before kneeling down in front of him.
I squeezed some ointment onto my finger and gently applied it to the cut on his lip.

It was strangely silent between the two of us.

I moved my finger away and worked to place ointment and band aids onto his knuckles.

“Thank you, Nurse Luke.”
I glared at him as he smirked again.

“What? It’s not an insult. Nurses do more work than doctors.”
“What happened to you?”

The smirked disappeared and he looked away from me.

“I just took care of some business. That’s all.”

I decided not to ask any further and went to put the “nurse” stuff away.

“Sorry I didn’t respond to your text earlier. Pepperoni would be nice. You know, if you’re still up to watching movies and chilling…”

“Well…”
I pulled out another beanbag from under the bed and sat it next to him, plopping onto it as well.

“You’re already here, and we have a whole day ahead of us anyway.”
“True…Your movie list sucked though.”

“…We still have Netflix.”
He smirked again.

“Then, let the Netflix n’ Chill begin.”

✩ | ✩ | ✩

“Luke, I’m going to be honest: if I sit through one more movie, my head is going to explode.”
“…Same here,” I mumbled as I massaged my temples.

We’ve spent nine hours going through comedies, chick flicks, action films, classics.
Tyler even suggested a highly-rated horror film – it was a bad idea in the short run.

Let’s not forget the two boxes of pepperoni pizza that were gone within an hour and a half.

I shut off the monitor of the computer and now we were sprawled out on the floor, staring up at the ceiling as the beanbags became our pillows.

“Does it still hurt?”
“My cheek is still a little sore now, but my knuckles are fine thanks to your Transformers band aids.”

The blood rushed to my cheeks.

“I-I—”
“No need to explain. I see where your interests lie.”

I didn’t have to look at him to know that smirk was on his face.
I still turned to face him though.

“What happened, Tyler?”
“Can we talk about something else?”

That solemn expression was there again.

I bit down on my lip.

Then, I remembered what he mentioned yesterday.

“Alright then. You said you can sing?”
“Well…at least…I think I’m a decent singer. What of it?”

“I want you to sing for me.”

He looked at me, raising an eyebrow.

“Either you do that, or you tell me what happened to you. Your choice.”

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

“…Fine.”

He closed his eyes, and he did.

He wasn’t joking.
His voice was indescribable. Phenomenal.

And watching him sing his own words – I assumed they were – it was like he was a completely different person.

His voice cracked slightly, and he stopped immediately, not saying a word after.

“That was—”
“Horrible.”
“I was going to say ‘amazing’.”

He looked back to the ceiling.

“…It’s not like I sing much anyway.”
“Why not? You’re a phenomenal singer.”

No response.

“Well, what about you, Luke? You play drums, don’t you?”
“Exactly how do you know that?”
“Lucky guess.”

I didn’t question him only because he was smirking again.

And we moved on from there, talking about our favorite albums, video games, foods, our hobbies, that he’s a sophomore and I’m a freshman; simply breaking the ice in a more normal fashion.

But I needed to ask.

I felt like I really needed to ask.

“Tyler…Why do you always carry that bat with you?”

Silence.

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to—”
“Therapy. Defense. Mostly for defense though.”

“Oh.”

A part of me was telling me to leave the conversation there.
A larger part of me wanted to keep asking.

“About today…Was it for therapy? Or was it for defense?”
“…Both.”

I didn’t respond.

“I didn’t kill anyone, if that’s what you’re thinking. I’m not a murderer.”
“…I believe you.”

He sat up and ruffled my hair.

“Stop asking me this stuff! I didn’t come here for you to bum us both out!”
“Alright, alright! Note taken!”

He stopped and gave me a small smile.

“Are you up to skateboarding tonight?”

“It depends…”
I sat up.

“Are we going back to our glowing skate park?”
Another smirk before he stood up.

“Maybe.”

I smirked back.

“Count me in, then.”