What are we?

chap 5

After school, Tyler quickly packed his things and walked out of class. He stopped right outside and door and glanced around, almost expecting James to be there waiting for him again. There was no one. Thinking back, Tyler did tell James to just wait at the gates for him.

He makes his way down from the classrooms to the school gates, there were cars coming and going but no sign of James. Maybe he's running late, he got held back by something. Tyler doesn't mind waiting.

He sets himself by the gates, with a good view of the crowd. James, being half a head taller than most people, could be easily spot this way. Tyler watched, sure that he'd be coming out any minute now. Ten minutes pass, then twenty. There was still no sign of him.

Why is he taking so long. He wouldn't have forgotten that he'd asked Tyler to meet him after school right? Maybe he got held back by something, Tyler though, and besides if he'd left, Tyler would've spotted him. With that, Tyler stood there for another ten minutes.

The people coming out of the school campus was getting lesser and lesser. It's been half an hour already, Tyler pulls out his phone. He does have a way of contacting James now, doesn't he. One text would do, Tyler types out 'I'm waiting at the school gates.' and hits the send button.

Another ten minutes go by and there's no response. He reloads the app, thinking maybe there was a glitch somewhere and he didn't receive James reply. Still nothing. What if James actually forgot, then Tyler would be wasting his time standing there not waiting for anyone.

Now would be a good time to call James. Tyler presses James' contact on his phone and his number appears on the screen. Something about calling James felt a little weird, Tyler never had any friends so he's never really had the need to call anyone. Even talking to Emma was done through texting. His mind wandered to this morning, James did specifically tell him to call whenever.

He presses the call button and the line rings. He brings his phone up to his ear and looks around. The school was almost empty now, with only one or two people coming out of the buildings every now and then. It rings and rings and finally, James picks up.

"Hello?" his voice appears at the end of the line. It's been ringing for so long Tyler didn't expect him to pick up. He scrambles to answer. "Hey! Uh, are you still in school?" He blurts out, he couldn't think of any other way to ask if James forgot to meet him.

"No, why?"

He didn't remember. Tyler's been standing there for the past hour for nothing. "What? Oh, um nothing I just-" He tries to think of an excuse as to why he would need to know if James was still in school. Maybe he could say he forgot to take something home.

There's a faint chuckle before James interrupts him. "I'm kidding, were you waiting for me?" Tyler stops pacing and stares at the floor as he processes what James just said. He's kidding? So he's still in school, right? Oh.

"uhh, I- yea?"

"I'll be out soon, so just wait a little while longer okay?" James waits for Tyler to hum his reply before hanging up the phone. He was still sitting in class with Simon who was being productive and doing some work.

His class had a clear view of the school gates and he was just watching Tyler the entire time. "So you're going now?" Simon turns away from his work and asks. James nods, this whole time he was just waiting for Tyler to call him.

"What was the point of waiting?" Simon asks as he joined James in looking out the window at the small figure standing by the gates. James shrugged, "I just wanted to see how long he would take to call."

Simon frowns at him, this is some next level shit. "If he didn't?" Simon didn't peg Tyler for the kind to just keep on waiting, he probably would have left sooner or later. James scoffs at him, "But he did."