Not-So-Scary Basketball Boyfriend | Tyrus

12

The happiness was short-lived.

Okay, so maybe TJ was being dramatic, but that doesn't change the fact that he was not happy. He was upset and jealous like an idiot but he didn't know how to make the feeling stop.

They were walking around the neighborhood on their way to the park to meet up with—

"Jonah!?" Cyrus said, excited, and it made something uneasy twinge in TJ's chest. He hadn't seen him in weeks and besides, they're just friends. They're just friends. They're just...

"Cy Guy!"

Friends had nicknames for each other.

"Oh, hey, TJ. I didn't know you'd be coming too." Jonah's smile was all dimples and confusion, but something about it still made TJ feel anger and petty jealousy. Things he hadn't wanted to feel in a long time. He thought they had already handled their beef with each other (thanks to Cyrus). A stupid argument based on a child's temper and an undiagnosed learning disability.

TJ put an arm around Cyrus's shoulder. "Where he goes, I follow. With uh...with permission, obviously."

"Oh," said Jonah, still confused. "Well that's cool, I guess." He turned back to Cyrus without another glance at TJ and it threatened to burn him up inside. "So Cyrus, you ready to try riding again?"

"I'm only marginally less excited than I was last time, but absolutely!" Cyrus patted his body down where he was covered practically head to toe in pillows and body padding, before reaching up and knocking on his helmet last. "I shall not be bested by the skateboard!"

TJ chuckled, but he could practically feel the soft smile slipping off of his face as Jonah laughed along too. He thought he had gotten over this. Thought he had dug this all-consuming fear out of himself. The feeling that someone was going to walk into Cyrus's life and replace him. The feeling that he needed to be the only person in Cyrus's sights. That was not what it meant to like someone. That was what Kira had done and he'd been miserable. He didn't want to make Cyrus miserable.

"Uh, be right back," he said quickly to both of the other boys before stepping away to get himself back together. Otherwise, he'd have to call Reed to break it down to him and he was kind of tired of having Reed reassure him that his own boyfriend still liked him. Not to mention that with the way Reed had been so smiley and friendly to Cyrus lately, he didn't think he'd like that option either right now. He growled to himself and ran his hands through his hair, pulling at the ends.

Cyrus was allowed to have friends. Friends that were guys. Friends that weren't him. Even if he hadn't quite managed to do the same himself. Sure he had Reed, but he'd always been more like his brother than his friend. He thought Kira was his friend but she was only trying to keep him away from Cyrus. He thought he and Cyrus were friends (and they were), but he had also been harboring the most massive crush known to man.

Why was friendship so...ughhh!

He heard a squeal as he walked back only to find Cyrus standing on Jonah's skateboard. He wished that was all he noticed, but he also caught sight of one of Jonah's hands on the small of Cyrus's back, keeping him steady and it dripped more fuel into the something dark within him. He crossed the lawn faster than he thought he was capable of when he was only trying to walk for goodness sake.

"You okay, Underdog?"

"Yeah, Teej, I'm fine."

"I've got'im!" Jonah cut in. "He just has to work on his balance a little more."

"Yeah, I guess it'd be pretty different from riding a motorbike." TJ was still trying to rein in his temper and the immediate craving to punch Jonah in the dimple.

"Have you ever given your life away to the skateboard gods, Kippen?" asked Jonah, not unkindly.

"I don't think so." TJ replied though he was definitely confused now. He looked from Jonah to Cyrus, trying not to focus on where Jonah's hand had moved up to resting on his boyfriend's shoulder. "But I thought you were jewish...?"

This comment was what finally pulled a laugh out of Jonah which sent an embarrassed blush to the back of TJ's neck.

"You're funny. That must be why you and Cy are friends."

"Yeah, must be." TJ hadn't really meant the comment as a joke, but now there was a new type of tension in the air and it was choking him in a way he didn't think was possible. He wanted to just go back to being jealous if this was what it felt like to be placed back into the proverbial closet.

"We're boyfriends actually," Cyrus said easily, saving him. Always saving him.

"Oh," responded Jonah unbothered. "So you like funny guys?"

"No, just really nice ones." Something about the way they were both talking about it so simply finally knocked a breath from TJ's chest and brought him back into himself.

"I wouldn't consider myself really nice, Underdog."

"Well of course you wouldn't, but you are."

"If Cyrus thinks so it must be true," Jonah said. As if that was all there was to it. And maybe it was. There was trust built there from time that TJ hadn't been around for, but as he looked at them he found that it didn't grate at him so badly anymore.

Cyrus didn't think Jonah would let him get hurt and TJ had to trust that. Had to trust Cyrus. It wasn't a shock to realize that he did, but he couldn't explain the unease that still sat on the edges of his brain.

With all of his therapist-parent wisdom and book smarts, Cyrus would know. But this was one problem his boyfriend shouldn't have to solve. This was TJ's issue and he could deal with it. Especially when it made Cyrus smile like that to be hanging out and trying new things with his friends.

He sucked in a breath, remembering to hold for 4 beats before releasing it and trying to recenter himself.

He was okay. Cyrus was okay. They were okay. And Jonah was here too, he added jokingly in his own mind. It was enough to ease his shoulders back down from where he had begun to hunch them up near his ears. He was here, Cyrus was here, and Jonah was here, but they were okay.

"So Beck," TJ began, but he wasn't quite sure he knew where he thought the rest of the sentence was going even as he opened his mouth to start it.

"Kippen." Jonah looked at him with his head tilted in a way that both he and Cyrus had in common that lowered TJ's hackles that much further. He turned away from Jonah to watch Cyrus riding the skateboard one push at a time across the bumpy stretch of asphalt that was the park's basketball court.

"Why skateboarding?"

"I like it."

"But I thought you were a frisbee-golf guy or something?"

"I am a man of many talents," the shorter boy said, full of fake wisdom and TJ couldn't help it; he laughed.

-&-

yo futher muckers
lifes just been hard yo idk
this has been up over on ao3 for ages
i do tend to crosspost so if you're looking for any of my work and can't find it here it is definitely over the lmao

hope yall
only the epilogues left
so ill leave the sap for that
love yall

-- angel janeé xoxo 💋