What are we?

chap 3

After school, James made his way to Tyler's class. He didn't show up during lunch and James hasn't seen him since yesterday. Maybe he's avoiding James on purpose

James walks through the door and scans the room but he's no where to be seen. "Hey" James stops one of the girls walking by him, "is Tyler here?" She takes a while to think, then looks to her friends. A few eyebrow creases later one of them widens their eyes.

"Oh! No he didn't come today." She says like there was some big discovery. James gives them a nod and they go off, whispering about who Tyler is.

Tyler doesn't seem like he'd skip school on purpose. Maybe he isn't feeling well. What if it was because of what they did yesterday? James hums as he walks in to the class and approaches a class prefect. "Hey is there any work that Tyler needs for today?" He would also ask where Tyler lives but seeing how the girls from just now didn't even know his name, he'll probably just get his address from the office.

He gets handed a thin stack of papers and he flips through them while leaving. The graded ones weren't that very well done and he even got some basic questions wrong.

The corner of James lips turn up slightly as he thinks of something before shoving the stack of papers into his bag. Now time to get Tyler's address.

---

This should be it. James took the train and came all the way here only to stop at his front door. Tyler would be glad to see James, right?

James gives the door a knock or two and a few long seconds later, the door swings open and a women stands in the doorway. They stare at each other for a moment before James clears his throat, greets her and asks for Tyler.

"Oh, are you a friend of his? Come in, but I don't think he's up for visitors right now."

She sits him down at the table and goes to grab him a cup of water. Their house is pretty neat, James thinks as he looks around and a little kid comes running out. "Hi!" She squeals and hops onto the chair by James.

"I'm Gabby! Who are you?" She's so full of energy. James introduces himself as Tyler's friend as the women from before, presumably his mom comes back with water and snacks. "Gabby, get down from the chair." She instructs and offers the food to James.

He takes some as she sits down too. "Did something happen to Tyler?" He asks. Gabby rushes to answer the question, "mommy says he's not feeling very good." She seems to like having a stranger over to talk to, especially since James is so handsome too.

The lady gives a warm smile and nods. "He wasn't feeing well enough for school. It's very nice of you to come visit him." James grins back at her, somehow he couldn't find the resemblance between her and Tyler. They don't look alike at all.

"Did you come to play?" Gabby asks with big hopeful eyes looking up at James. Children weren't really his thing. "Maybe next time."

"Actually I brought his papers, should I bring it to him?" James turns back to the lady and asks, really hoping to see Tyler. She was a little reluctant but luckily there was Gabby.

"I can take you!"

She hops off her chair and waits for James to grab his things. "Gabby! Remember what I always tell you, knock first okay?" They hear as they make it up the stairs.

They walk to the end of the hallway and Gabby eagerly rapped at the door. There's no reply from inside and Gabby goes, " Tyler! Can we come in, please?" She's so full of energy.

There's a slight ruffle of sheets from inside but Tyler doesn't answer. Gabby seemed to take the no reply as a yes and was reaching for the door knob. Tyler probably wouldn't like that very much.