Always (Boyxboy)

Chapter Eight- Tyler

A/N Guys, I finished, so the rest of the story should be up by tonight. I have plans in like, 30 minutes, but I'm gonna post as many chapters as I can before then, so I hope you enjoy. <3 Ivy

"Wow man, you look like absolute shit".

If Tyler a dollar for every time someone said this to him, he figured he'd be able to afford some different kind of machine to help him sleep more often.

"Yeah, thanks," he grumbled, ducking under James's arm to get into his house. "You have coffee around here somewhere?"

"No, sorry," James answered, shutting his front door and turning to face Tyler. At the news, he dropped his head in defeat and whined somewhat pathetically. "The machine broke yesterday". Getting through the day without sleep was something Tyler was used to doing at this point, but he had never attempted to do so without coffee. Without caffeine, he didn't really know what would happen, though he had a feeling that it wouldn't be good. "Hey, I thought you've been sleeping better the last couple of weeks. What's going on?"

Ever since Tyler and Pierce had been meeting up on a biweekly basis, Tyler's issues with sleep had greatly dwindled, though he felt extremely conflicted about that fact after his conversation with James and Michael. He felt conflicted about a lot of things actually, and it frustrated him that a single annoying conversation had been able to bring up feelings Tyler had been suppressing for months.

It was no different from the conversations Tyler had with James and Michael on a regular basis, but for some reason this one just got to him more than the others.

"It's nothing," Tyler lied, dropping down on James's couch and passing a hand over his face. Lying was easier when he was over tired. All of his words came out unenthusiastic and flat, hiding most of his tells. The only thing he had to worry about hiding was his inability to maintain eye contact, but he was able to cover that with a hand over his face that typically was dismissed as an anxious habit. "Just didn't sleep well. Simple as that".

Then again, maybe he should just come to terms with the fact that lying to James was literally impossible at this point. Damn life long friendship.

He could feel James's eyes on the back of his head, watching him carefully. "Is it because of what I said yesterday? About Ace?"

For a long minute Tyler was silent, just staring ahead through the cracks of his fingers at the blank television screen as he considered this. The mention of Ace had been the main difference in the conversation from their usual ones— James typically avoided saying Pierce and Ace in the same sentence since Tyler had cried that one time– and it very well could be the cause of Tyler's most recent bout of anxiety.

He had spent his night thinking about how amazing Ace had been, about how happy he had made Tyler, and comparing that to Pierce's constant negativity that he somehow also enjoyed.

Ace had always been easy to smile at him, had laughed at his jokes and when they had kissed, that one time, it had been all soft touches and sweet caresses, and Tyler loved all of these things, but Pierce... ugh, fucking Pierce. "I-" he began, cutting off at the sound of James mom moving around in the kitchen. "I honestly don't know. Probably, I guess. You had pretty much stopped bringing him up at times like that so I was kind of shocked".

There was a heavy sigh from behind him, and a second later James's hand came to down down onto his shoulder, squeezing lightly. "I'm sorry. I won't bring him up again".

"No," Tyler said quickly, turning his face to look up at his best friend. "I don't want to never talk about him, I just... not when we're talking about Pierce". That seemed to be the clear point in the conversation where James offered to not talk about Pierce as well if would make him feel better– which it undoubtedly would– but he knew that James wouldn't do that. Tyler understood why his friend was so reluctant to reluctant to back down– because deep down James had to think what he was doing was what was best for Tyler, even if Tyler didn't agree.