The thing about Troye

10

"Uh, um...er yeah, I mean um..." I giggle nervously, my eyes widening in surprise. Troye chuckles and his hand travels down my arm, before clutching my hand and giving it a squeeze.

"Come on Ty I'm just playing, now come on, we're going to miss the movie  if we don't get back onto the road."

"The movie. Right. Okay, yeah." I say, still flustered.

He brings his sleeve covered hands to his face and laughs,

***

After the movie, which was pretty much uneventful but cute, we drove back to the school. On the drive back I was staring unabashedly at the brunette the whole time, almost... hypnotized by the way his lips would turn up into a lazy smile and hum along to the radio.

I look at him now as we're walking into our shared room. He looks stunning in the low lighting. I shut the door behind us and smile, leaning against it. I smile dreamily and he leans down, almost leaning on me, capturing me in his warmth and coziness.

"Tonight was fun Ty," he slightly shocks me when he puts his hands on my hips. I smile up at him,

"Me too, we should do it again sometime."
"Well, uh, we kinda live together now. It's not like we won't see each other." He sasses. Troye gently pulls me into his arms and I snuggle into his chest, wrapping my shorter arms around his back. He nuzzles his face into the back of my neck and the contact of his lips on my skin produced a weird kind of shock- it was more of a tingle.

"Tyler."

"Yeah?" I mumble.

"Is it too early to ask you to date me?"

I swear I squeaked.

"N-No, not at all, go right ahead..."

"Ty, will you be my boyfriend?"

"I-I... yeah." My face is probably red as a cherry lollipop and he snickers, ruffling my hair.

"Nice." He closes his eyes briefly, flopping onto his bed.
"Come here, boyfriend." He pats the spot next to his and I climb beside him. Before I knew it, I was asleep and dreaming.

***

It was dark and unpleasant, the cold chilling him down to the bones as he searched around the forest for any sign of light or life. The air was dry. With every deep breath that he took, it choked him, making the young man go into a coughing fit. Tyler leans against a gray, out-of-fuel Mercedes and sighs, his hands gently going to the edge of his shirt, playing with it. The teenager slides into the car, double-checking the interior yet again for a phone, or at least something that could help- he knew he should've looked if he had brought it.
His dad's old house sat in the middle of nowhere, and he had forgotten to take anything because he stubbornly thought he knew the way.
Bursting into another fit of coughing, the boy wraps his arms tightly together over his chest to keep himself somewhat warm, and ducked outside of the car again, his shoes sinking into the soft soil. He tosses his head to the side to get his stray hair out of his face, and walks with determination over branches and logs, bumping into trees and getting hit by stray branches. He would stop every now and then to listen. Noises made by night creatures intruiged and scared him, but he eventually kept going.
These woods had to stop sometime, right?

***

I wake with a start, skin crawling and the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. I had just dreamed of myself from an outsider's perspective. What did it all mean? I shiver and notice I've woken Troye, who was looking at me groggily but still in concern.

"You okay?" He asks, his voice low and gravelly. I gulp and nod. He pulls me down on top of him and I let out a ragged breath.

"I'm Fine."