The Lost Ones Book 2: Welcome Home

Chapter 36

It was a while until Tyler finally spoke up again.

"Hey Sqaishey...?"

"Hmm?" She asked curiously.

"Am I useless...?" His voice was empty.

"No! You're helping me find Jordan, and you've been helping us through this situation the whole time too!"

"But have I really done anything? I can't help but feel like I'm just dead weight to you guys..."

"Tyler..." she sighed. "You're our friend. Even if you were, and you're not, we wouldn't leave you behind. You know, if Jason were here he'd probably beat ya over the head for thinking that." She replied with a small chuckle. "But I promise. It's fine. You don't need to prove yourself. You've been helping us protect each other, right?"

"I couldn't even do that!" Tyler exclaimed. "The reason Mitch got slashed right across the chest was because I stood there and did nothing! And who's the reason that Mitch just left us? Me!"

"Well... I did slap him and call him a child so I think that one's on both of us. And Mitch is kinda at fault for getting hurt too, Tyler. You helped protect Jordan from that thing earlier, right? Realized it wasn't trying to hurt him and went a pacifist route. I know not a lot of people would have done that or even noticed it."

Tyler looked over at Sqaishey, his eyes looking a bit teary. "I-I guess... but that's mostly just because I was too afraid to hurt it..."

"Tyler, if I hear one more belittling thing from you, I'm going to smack the back of your head and beat you into submission with how much I care about you and how important you are to everyone. Understand?" She scolded, seriously but there was a look of scolding care about him.

Tyler's face turned red and he looked away. "But I..." he seemed to be struggling to find his words.

She sighed. "Tyler, everyone doubts themselves. It's natural. But trust me when I say you shouldn't spare it a thought. Use it like motivation to do better, to prove those doubts wrong. But don't be so eager to try to match other people's standards. It's unhealthy cause it's likely you'll never match their ever changing standards." She explained to him, giving him a warm smile.

Tyler fell silent and sighed before glancing back at her and giving a small smile back. "I uh... I guess I can try..."

"That's the spirit." She smiled. "Come on, we gotta be getting close..."

He nodded and continued to walk a bit more before speaking. "Oh and Sqaishey...?"

"Hmm?" She turned to him.

"Thanks..."

"Of course!"

"And for the record... Being a duck is pretty cool, you know what I'd give to be part chicken?"

She giggled. "Chicken?" She asked.

"Yeah, I got one at home! It'd be cool to be like Drumstick..." Tyler chuckled before looking a bit concerned. "I hope he's doing ok... I don't think I've been away from home for so long without getting anyone to watch him..."

Sqaishey hummed. "Me and Stampy have pets too... I hope they are alright as well..."

"Yeah... Hopefully someone realizes that we're gone and goes to check in..."

She nodded.

They continued to walk in silence with only the sound of the grass beneath their feet being audible. Despite the events that had just occurred the forest seemed peaceful as the sun rose among the trees.

"I hope Jordan is here somewhere... We've been moving for a while now."

"Gosh, I hope he's okay... I'm starting to get worried..."

"Yeah..."

Tyler squinted his eyes as he scanned ahead of them. "Is that...?"

Sqaishey narrowed her eyes. "Jordan?" she called.

The figure flinched and looked up, turning towards them. "S-Sqaishey?"

Tyler ran over to Jordan and nearly tackled him into a hug. "Oh my gosh! Jordan you're okay!"

Jordan tensed in surprise at stared at Tyler and looked up at Sqaishey who also seemed relieved to see him. "You... You guys came looking for me? What about Mitch and Jerome?"

Sqaishey sighed. "They wandered off after I called Mitch out on being a child..." She answered.

Jordan just stared at her.

"Don't worry about it we'll go find them." Tyler reassured him. "But we had to find you first."

"Th-Thanks..."

"You doing okay?"

".... Honestly? Not really..."

Tyler pulled away and looked Jordan in the eyes. "You wanna talk about it?"

Jordan diverted his eyes quickly. "I... I don't know..."

"Jordan you can't keep running from yourself..."

"I wish I could." he muttered.

"You need to embrace yourself, I mean look at you! You've got freaking enderman powers! How cool is that?!"

"Tyler, I can't even bring myself to look at you cause I'm scared it'll trigger something..."

"You won't! You just need to learn how to control it! Like you're a superhero or something!"

Jordan glanced at him, his eyes confused but quickly looked away again. "I... I can kind of control the teleporting... It's the more ender instincts that I'm worried about..."

"And that's exactly what you need to learn to control. Sure it seems scary at first, but I can guarantee that you'll get the hang of it eventually."

"But what if I can't? What if I hurt someone again?" He asked.

Tyler grabbed onto Jordan's shoulders and tried his best to fake the frown of a concerned mother "Jordan, if I hear one more belittling thing from you, I'm going to smack the back of your head and beat you into submission with how much I care about you and how important you are to everyone. Understand?"

Jordan couldn't stop himself from turning to him this time, confusion written all over his face. "...What?"

Sqaishey was surprised but beamed happily as she watched them.

Tyler glanced over at Sqaishey and smiled before turning his attention back to Jordan. "Now you better stop being so hard on yourself!"

"I-... uh... okay?"

Tyler loosed his grip and took a step back, feeling quite proud of himself.

Jordan slowly stood up and Jerry poked his head up from his spot nearby.

Sqaishey smiled. "Ready to go?"

"Yup!" Tyler held a hand out to Jordan.

Jordan accepted his hand and smiled a little, still a bit confused. "Let's go." Jerry latched onto his arm as they headed off.