sweet as a flower. (Joshler)

🌼 thirty four

Y'all just gonna say now that you have no clue how bad I feel for portraying Chris Joseph as a bad guy in this story Bc I needed more than one antagonist for the sake of the plot but Chris is is actually a really sweet and pure hearted man in real life :[
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Stirring in his sleep, Tyler felt around him for that warm body he was holding onto the night before, but his eyes opened a little when he felt nothing but the cold sheets of a bed. The room was brightly illuminated by the morning sun from the opened blinds above the window, which made it difficult for Tyler to open his eyes fully to look around.

He heard murmuring on the other side of the room as he sat up, he yawned softly and rubbed his open hands up and down his face.

"Good morning, Tyler." He heard a familiar voice say, looking up with squinted lashes and mirroring Laura's smile when he saw it. She was standing on the opposite side of the other bed, holding Kelly's hand with her own.

"G'mornin."

"How'd you sleep, hon?"

"Okay. You?"

"The same. If you're wondering where Josh went, he left before I woke up and texted me about thirty minutes ago to say he was running errands. He'll be back soon enough, though."

He nodded in reply, his stomach twisting when he made sleepy eye contact with the woman in the other bed. Though she had been through so much the last few months especially, she looked better than she had in years at that moment. The color had returned to her face, her blonde hair was carefully pulled back into a bun that was presumably done by Laura. Despite the red line down her bottom lip and the tear stains on her cheeks, she was radiating beauty.

She gave him a sad shaky smile, and that's all it took for Tyler to burst into tears. He stood on gelatinous legs and made his way to her bed, leaning down to hug her, but she pulled him down so he was practically laying on top of her frail body. He sobbed into her shoulder violently, so many things he didn't understand anymore hurt so badly as they tore out of him with every breath.

He couldn't remember the exact reason he was in so much pain, but god, he could hardly breathe.

As he started to suck in sharp, hyperventilated breaths, he pulled away to see the pretty blonde woman was crying, too. She smiled at him, one hand on his upper arm and the other rested on his reddened cheek.

"Sweetheart," she started shakily, "I love you, so very much. I-I'm so sorry I never stepped in to help you. I didn't know what to do, honey, I.. I wanted to support your decisions in how you dressed, who you fell in love with, how you acted.. I wanted to be your number one fan in life but I let him get in the way of that."

"Momma.." his voice cracked, his face was so contorted with unidentified devastation his eyes were squinted and full of tears. "Please don't apologize. I-I don't know exactly what you're talking about but.. whatever happened, I don't care. I don't want to say I forgive you b-because that'd be saying you did something wrong in the first place.." he rambled softly before he fell into her chest again and Kelly had a hard time keeping her composure. She looked up confusedly at Laura when he said he doesn't know what she's talking about, who's mouth softly opened and then closed when she realized Kelly was told absolutely nothing about her sons condition.

All she did was nod at the woman clutching her sons body and hope she understood.

"Sweetheart, I want to make sure you know that just because you're my only adopted son doesn't change how much I love you." She reassured when he sat up again, he gave her a soft smile past a sob and nodded frantically. Tyler placed his hand atop the one laying on his feverish cheek.