Colors // Joshler

// 73. "I Brought You Your Homework" //

Tyler was grounded for two days. After that, he was allowed to leave the house, but only to go to and from school.

His cell phone and laptop were both taken away, so he had no means of contacting Josh. Tyler was desperate enough to consider begging one of his brothers to pass on a message to Josh for him, but they probably wouldn't risk getting in trouble, and he wouldn't really want them to, anyway.

The perfect painting was still in pieces. Tyler had put it in an empty cardboard box, and left it open on the floor next to his bed.

It hurt to look at it.

On Sunday afternoon, Tyler was surprised to get a visitor. He hadn't felt like painting at all--his emotion and drive were a mix of blue and inky black--so he was just laying on his bed, staring at the ceiling. What else could he do?

A knock at the door, however, startled him from his exile. "Yo, Tyler, it's Brendon! Can I come in?"

"Sure," Tyler croaked, and the boy entered the room. His backpack was over his shoulder, but he wasn't wearing his school clothes. He shut the door behind him and approached Tyler, sitting on the bed near Tyler's feet. "Hey, man. You doing okay?"

Tyler shook his head slowly.

"I brought you your homework," Brendon said, but made no move to produce said homework.

"Brendon, it's a Sunday."

The boy shrugged. "Well, that's the excuse I gave your mom, anyway. Either she bought it or she felt sorry for us." A brief silence followed.

"Is Josh okay?" Tyler asked, not looking at his friend.

Brendon rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't know. He feels really guilty about all of this, I think; he was really quiet today, I'm pretty sure the only time he spoke was to give me your address. I know he must miss you." Brendon paused. "Hey, you want me to give him a message from you?"

Tyler felt a tiny spark of something besides black, and he nodded, pulling a notebook from his drawer and writing as Brendon went on. He talked about the clique, and all the 'drama' that Tyler was missing, although really, not much had happened. He talked about these two guys that he liked, Dallon and Ryan, and how his goal as of late was to have sex with the both of them before the end of the school year. He talked about Josh, too, and Tyler drank that up in particular.

After writing for a few minutes, Tyler finished his note and gave it to Brendon, who put it in his jacket pocket. "I'll be sure to give this to him. I'm going to his house after this, to keep him company."

Brendon left a moment later, wishing Tyler well, and telling him to keep hsi head up. It was only after he left that Tyler realized that Josh must have told the clique what they had done to get in all this trouble.

Tyler didn't get a wink of sleep that night. Nor the next, nor the next.