chalk ; tyrus {completed}

chapter 11 - summer vacation

As the weeks passed, Cyrus found himself spending every other day with TJ. Eventually, he even stopped thinking about him as 'TJ Kippen', fully getting rid of all the things he had once associated with that name.

Instead - he was just TJ. The boy who drove him to flea markets and bookshops, the boy who shamelessly sang along to his favourite 80's CD's with the car window down and the boy who always seemed to forget where he had left important things (including his car keys - which had resulted in an hour long raid of his house on one particularly hot Sunday afternoon.)

He blamed the fact that they lived right next to each other, but really, he just didn't want to admit that he had begun to crave the boy's company when they weren't together.

By the third week of summer vacation, the knock on Cyrus' door came as no surprise to anyone. He immediately rushed downstairs to fling it open, fixing his hair as he went.

"Hey there." he greeted.

TJ stepped inside, an apologetic smile on his lips. "Hey! Sorry I'm late."

Cyrus laughed slightly as he closed the door. "No, you're on time," he assured. "I invited you at 4:30 because I knew you'd get here around 5."

Another thing about TJ - he was always fashionably late to social events. Amber had insisted to Cyrus one that he spends longer in the bathroom getting ready than she does.

"Smart move." He remarked.

They settled down on the couch after TJ had dashed upstairs to put his bag away.

"So...what do people usually do during sleepovers?" Cyrus inquired, shifting slightly to lay down.

"Play video games?" TJ suggested.

"I only have Mario kart though - and I'm afraid you'll be angry when I beat you. Which is inevitable, of course."

The athlete smirked slightly at that. "Cyrus Goodman, is that a challenge?"

"Nope!" he responded cheerily. "It's just fact."

The boy glared at Cyrus for a moment, before moving forward to give him a playful shove. "You sure do know how rile someone up, don't you?"

"Oh I'm sorry, have you already forgotten about that disastrous game of Uno?"

TJ narrowed his eyes. "Alright. Where are the fucking controllers? We're playing Mario kart."

Cyrus laughed at that, sitting up and walking over to the TV cabinet to rummage around for the controllers.

As Cyrus had quickly discovered, TJ also happened to be a compulsive swearer. It had taken about a week of constantly hanging out to realise that the boy had obviously just been censoring himself during their first few interactions.

Although Cyrus didn't usually swear himself (out loud, anyway), he had passed the point of caring when others did. That was definitely a middle school thing.

"Found them!" he called triumphantly.

He pulled the controllers out, only to find that-

"Wow. Do you need some help untangling that?"

Cyrus laughed in disbelief. "Uh. Yeah. That'd be nice."

The two boys eventually managed to untangle the cables and set up the game, settling back down on the couch about 10 minutes later.

"Cable untangling should be a professional sport," TJ remarked, wiping the non-existent sweat off his forehead.

"Are you sure you're not just being a drama queen?" Cyrus quipped, sending the boy a teasing smile.