save [joshler]

finally free

Tyler's pov

Month 2

"Okay, yeah, okay. Thank you, thank you, sir. I'll see you tomorrow sir, thank you again." He hung up his phone and slumped down in his chair. 

He's been acting weird lately. Like he's hiding something or avoiding telling me something. The worst part is that I can't even speak to call him out on it. Or just even ask him what's going on. I mean, technically, I could write it down and we'd go from there. We realized there's no point in me blinking or tapping my fingers anymore when I can just use a pen and paper. But! My point is, he's being shady. 

"Oh! Fuck Tyler, you have to let me know when you're awake so I can stop shitting my pants every time I see you're up!"

I roll my eyes and flip him off. What am I supposed to do? Speak? Kinda can't fucking do that with my mouth wired shut!

"So, a doctor is gonna come in to take your cast off." He said pointing to my arm. "I wont be able to be with you, I have some stuff I have to do. But I called Madison and asked her to be with you and she said yes."

See! I told you! Being shady! I roll my eyes and give him a thumbs up. 

"C'mon Tyler, don't give me an attitude! This is the first time I wont be with you in two months, I think you'll be okay." 

I flick my wrist at him, which is my way of saying "I don't care, go fuck yourself." Which kind of implies that I care, but I don't. Well I do, but that's neither here nor there.

"I wont be gone for that long, just a few hours, and then I'll be back, okay?" 

I nod, to the best that I can, and give him another thumbs up. It's not that I don't want to see my sister, I just want Joshua to tell me where he's gonna be. Why he wont be able to be here. I just want him to talk to me. 

"Tyler, please don't be upset with me." He said softly. "I'm sorry I wont be here for it, I just have a few things to do."

I gave him a look, and grabbed the pen next to me to write. 'what's going on?'

He read it and sighed. "I'm just trying to get my apartment back so you'll have a place to stay after you get released. I figured you wouldn't want to go back to your house so I'm just trying to have a place for you to stay." 

Okay, that's really nice of him, but I was planning on just staying with mom. I don't have the heart to tell him that so I just write, 'why didn't you tell me?' 

"I wanted it to be a surprise, I dunno. Like, on the way I would be driving back to my house and you'd be all 'oh, this isn't the way to my house' and I'd get to say something cheesy like 'it is now' or something, I dunno. But I mean, if you don't want to live with me, I could just talk to your mom and tell her you want to live with her. I already told her what I was doing..." 

Wow. This dude just keeps amazing me. 'of course i would live with you.' 

His face lit up and gave a toothy grin. "Really?" I nodded slightly and gave him a small smile. "I would give you a hug if it wouldn't cause you so much pain."

'i give you permission to give me the biggest hug when i'm out of here.' 

//

"So, how'd it go?" I heard him ask.

"It went well. He was upset that you couldn't be there. I think he likes you." Madison said.

She's not wrong. 

"Wait, really? Why do you think that?"

"I dunno, he just seems...hopeful. In my 18 years of being his sister, he's never ever been hopeful. And like I said, he was upset you couldn't be here today." 

"Do you really think so?"

"Yeah, I do." 

"Cause, I-I like him too, like a lot. I know he's been through so much shit, like I don't even know the half of it all, but I just want to make him feel better. I want to be the reason he smiles."

"Joshua, you already are. Every time I talked about you today, his whole demeanor changed. He looked happy just hearing your name. I don't know, I think you should give him time. He spent almost 8 full years being abused by the one man he thought loved him, I'm sure he's going to be sketched out by a new relationship, so just give him time and let him do whatever he wants. He's finally free, he needs to feel it too."