Always You | Tyler Joseph

Chapter Four

"When you are young they assume you know nothing."

June 1999

"Lenny, catch up, slow poke!"

Tyler taunted a tired Lennon as they ran through the bright green forest. The summer sun peaked through the trees in bright beams, warming their tanned skin. Lennon tried to keep up with Tyler, but the muscles in her legs were taught and tired.

"I can't go that fast, Ty," Lennon huffed, stopping to catch her breath and wiping the beads of sweat from her forehead.

"Guess you're getting left behind, then," Tyler laughed, disappearing deeper into the woods. Lennon rolled her eyes and took off after him.

Ten year old boys were so annoying.

"You can't just leave me. That's not fair-oof!"

Lennon halted, running straight into Tyler who had stopped dead in his tracks; looking mesmerized by something in front of him.

"Lenny, look!" He pointed ahead at a big wooden treehouse in the middle of a clearing.

"Woah," Lennon gasped.

Both children walked toward it with curiosity, admiring the worn wooden structure. There were a few vines growing through it, but it was still in good condition. It looked like nobody had used it for a while.

They stared at the rickety ladder for a minute before Tyler said, "dare me to go up there?"

"Tyler, there could be dangerous animals inside," Lennon told him, eyes wide with fear.

"So?" Tyler shrugged. "I can wrangle them."

"You cannot wrangle a wild animal, Tyler," she said, rolling her eyes.

"I can too! I see it on tv all the time," he argued.

Lennon scoffed, crossed her arms, and said, "fine. Go up there, then."

Tyler had a triumphant grin on his face as he started climbing the ladder. Once he got halfway up, he paused before quickly coming back down. He looked at Lennon with fear etched in his features.

"Will you go with me?"

Lennon laughed and shook her head, saying, "I'll go, but I'm not wrangling any animals."

"Deal," Tyler agreed.

They both made their way up the ladder and into the spacious treehouse. They carefully surveyed their surroundings and found no animals to wrangle. It was a little dirty, but that was it.

"Cool, somebody carved stuff into the walls," Tyler exclaimed, calling Lennon over to see.

The initials B+D were carved inside of a heart with the year '82 carved under it.

"Woah, this was almost 20 years ago," Lennon marveled, running her finger over the indentions. "I wonder who they were. We should carve our initials!"

Tyler's face scrunched up as he said, "we can't put a heart, though. That's weird."

"We don't have to put a heart, we can just write our initials. Don't be a baby," she retorted. Tyler looked at her with his mouth agape.

"I am not a baby!"

"Whatever," she laughed, "just find a sharp stick we can use."

They both searched the floor for a stick good enough to carve with, but none of them seemed strong enough. They were about to accept defeat when Lennon saw the sun catch something on the ground.

"Oh, it's a screw!" Lennon held up the rust covered metal to show Tyler. "Will this work?"

"It should," Tyler nodded.

He grabbed the screw from her and the two of them walked back over to the wall. Tyler used the pointy end to carve through the wood, then stepped back to look at his work.

T+L
'99

"Hey, why is your initial first?" Lennon pouted.

"Because I was the one who wrote it," Tyler told her.

"Yeah, but I was the one who found the screw," she argued.

Tyler groaned and rolled his eyes before adding to the carving.

T+L
'99
L+T

"There. Happy now?"

"Yes," she said, smiling triumphantly.

The two kids sat on the dusty, wooden floor. Lennon picked at the sticky grass stuck to her shoe while Tyler fiddled with the screw.

"I had a dream I was a screw the other night," he told her. "I was being drilled into a wall, and the drill was spinning me super fast. It was weird."

This kind of thing wasn't new to Lennon. She was used to him always telling her his bizarre dreams. She liked to hear them. She was so fascinated by the things Tyler's mind could come up with.

"Cool," she said. "Was it like being on a roller-coaster?"

He thought for a moment before deciding, "no. It was more like riding the gravatron at the fair."

They went back to sitting in comfortable silence until Tyler's face lit up.

"This should be our secret hang out! We can come here whenever we need to run away," he said, jittering with excitement.

"That would be cool," Lennon agreed. "I feel like I want to run away a lot."

Tyler's smile quickly faded as he asked her, "how come?" She shrugged, sighing.

"My mom has been getting headaches a lot. Like a lot a lot, and she keeps having to go to the doctor," she explained. "She doesn't come out of her room a lot and doesn't cook dinner anymore. She was supposed to take me shopping for school clothes before we start middle school, but she says she doesn't have the energy. Dad said he would take me, though. He's been doing lots of stuff with me."

"Your dad is pretty cool," Tyler said, tugging at a loose vine.

"Yeah, he is. He takes care of me and mom a lot," she agreed.

"I'm excited to start middle school," Tyler told her. "Are you?"

"No," she shook her head, frowning.

"Why not? You could make some new friends," he suggested.

"I don't want to make any new friends," she said. "I don't like meeting new people."

"I was a new person, once, and you liked me," he reminded her.

"Yeah, but you're different," she mumbled, staring at her shoes.

"I think it could be fun! You really don't wanna make any new friends?"

No, she thought, you're the only friend I need.