drown.

there's a screen øn my chest ↠ chapter xiv

//t

patrick walked josh and me around the house, trying to introduce us -- well, me -- to everyone at the party, holding conversations at the same damn time.

"tyler!" he'd sing, "meet my pal so-and-so!"
"hi--" i'd whisper, uneasily.
"so-and-so, is your girlfriend still being a bitch?"
so-and-so: "yeah man, it's getting a little old."
"fuck her, man! you deserve better!"
"i will tonight," so-and-so would say, winking. they'd clink their glass, like true generic white teenagers. to be honest, they all scared the shit out of me.

after awhile, josh ran off. "hey ty, i'm gonna go talk to that girl hayley. you know her, right?"
"yeah."
"alright, well, have fun with patrick!"

my throat tensed a little.

one guy, though, was a little different from all the rest of them, all of those shallow future frat boys.

"hey brendon, this is josh's friend tyler!"
"yo tyler, what's good?" brendon smiled. a genuine smile. he held a cigarette that burned with almost as much confidence as he did. patrick ran off to go talk to god knows who.
"h-hey," i said quietly, feeling that shadow on my shoulder, tilting its head at me. i wobbled a bit, trying to catch breath, catch air;

justyoujustyoudontlethimdowndontletthemdown

brendon noticed.
"you okay?" he asked, cocking his head and raising an eyebrow.
"i'm--" i started, choking on smoke.
"come on, man. there's no one in the basement, you can chill there," he said, taking my arm and walking me down the stairs.

i kept breathing raggedly, staring up at the dark ceiling as we went down the steps. pleading with darkness.