seventy

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Still embarrassed but now calm, Tyler meets Marie where he left her, the woman offering another worried look as she notices him approaching.

"Everything's good now?"

"Yeah, sorry," Tyler smiles sheepishly as they head to where Marie had abandoned her cart.

"It's okay, you weirdo," Marie smiles in a way that expresses the light-heartedness behind her words, but that still doesn't stop Tyler from feeling worse about himself.

Marie lets out a relieved sigh as they approach the cart, "Thank God nobody took our shit. Did you want anything else other than the fruit snacks you dropped on the floor?"

"Popcorn," Tyler says, flushing from mild embarrassment from being called out.  Marie grabs the cart and leads the way to the popcorn, and Tyler gets increasingly nervous with each step they take closer to the aisle, only to let out his own relieved sigh upon the absence of his older brother.

But as they reach the end of the aisle where the popcorn should be, all they're greeted with is caramel popcorn, which really fucking pisses Tyler off, honestly; all that fucking drama for some damn caramel popcorn?

"what the fuck?" Marie seems to share his discontent towards the situation, "Since when does Walmart not have buttered popcorn? I don't want this bullshit!"

"Me neither," Tyler mumble, risking a glance Marie's way.  She looks to him in return, dropping her scowl to smile at the boy instead, said boy returning it genuinely.

"How about we just buy ice cream treats to make up for it?"

<>

"Alright," Marie sighs as she pulls into the driveway of her home, "Go tell your friends to help or they don't get ice cream."

Marie hands the keys to the boy before he goes, and—surprise, surprise—Pete and Brendon are exactly where they left them a couple hours ago.

"U-uh," Tyler stammers pitifully, flushing sheepishly at how ridiculous he sounds, "Marie said to help with groceries, or, like, you won't get any ice cream."

"Groceries," Pete repeats (re-petes) under his breath as a smirk pulls on his lips, but Brendon doesn't seem too impressed with his friend's teasing.

"That's what they are, Pete," Brendon defends his younger friend, wiping the smirk of his older's face.

"Who fucking asked you, Urinal?"

"Shut up, Pete, at least I'm graduating on time."

And that's Tyler's cue to leave, so he makes a full one-eighty and heads back to the car.

Marie's pulling as many bags as she can onto her elbows when she notices Tyler there alone, "Where are they, Noodles?"

"They're arguing," comes Tyler's answer just as the front door swings open, bringing light to the otherwise dark driveway.  As a matter of fact, these street lamps aren't on, Tyler's just now noticing this.

Shitty ass neighborhoods, man.  It's as if it's encouraging crime.

"The fuck are you guys arguing about?" Marie calls out as they descend the porch steps.

"Huh? We're not," Brendon says as he grabs a few bags.

"Yeah, banter, ma'am," Pete expands, grabbing a few himself before he and Brendon walk back to the house together, and Tyler's left out yet again.

Josh wouldn't exclude him, he can't help but conclude bitterly.

"Don't worry about those dick pumpers," Marie says, "They only get one ice cream cookie and you and I get two, because they're losers and we're awesome."

Marie pulls the bags out of the trunk, hunching over with a curse as the weight of the bags pulls down on her elbows, so Tyler takes enough bags from the struggling woman to help her bring in.

"Thanks, Noodles," Marie sends a smile Tyler's way, and they carry their groceries to the kitchen, where Pete and Brendon are already unloading their bags.

"Are there any more?" Brendon asks as he empties the bag currently in his hand, balling it up and tossing it towards the corner of the room where a few others have begun to accumulate.

"No, but the trunk is still open," Marie answers, nodding her head towards the door as she drops her bags onto the kitchen floor.  Brendon heads that way, and Pete gets started on unloading the bags Marie just delivered.  Tyler lowers his own to the floor with more ease than the older woman did, and leaves the groceries on the counter; he doesn't know where anything belongs.  But that's okay, because Brendon starts putting them away for him when he returns.

"What's gonna work?!" Brendon sings loudly and abruptly, and Tyler's ashamed to admit that, yes, he did flinch like the bitch he truly is.

"Teamwork!!" Pete joins in just as loudly.

"What's gonna work?!" Brendon sings again even louder, and Tyler braces himself as he knows Brendon's voice will only increase in volume again.

"TEAMWORK!!" Brendon and Pete fucking shout not even on key, and poor Tyler wasn't ready like he thought he would've been.

"Y'all shut your bitch asses up!" Marie shouts at them both as they proceed sing the music.  The assholes choose to ignore her and continue, and Tyler hopes for an additional ice cream for not being annoying.

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thank you and love you guys!  tbh i feel like i dont talk to you guys enough bc i also upload this fic to ao3 and i write stupid shit in the beginning notes for all the chapters and i dont do that on wattpad... idk man maybe thats a good thing bc im sure that shit gets annoying haha idk <3

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