School Bus Graveyard (Tyler X Adien)

Ch. 8

When Taylor leaves, everyone decides to head home.

On the walk home, Ben notices just how silent Aiden is being. He types out, "I'm sure he's safe at home with Taylor," before nudging Aiden and showing him. The blonde boy grunts out, feeling numb, and sore from what he's done today. The tall brunette senses that his cousin doesn't want to talk, so he lets it go. Ben then recalls a memory acutely similar to what happened to Aiden back in San Diego. This was one of the reasons why the Clarks moved out here in the first place.

Aiden had a boyfriend. He only met him a handful of times and saw many pictures of him over text. They were together for almost eleven months. It was close to the end of the year when they broke up. Apparently, (this is what Aiden told him) they just weren't compatible in the end. Like--the guy said that he was only using Aiden as an experiment or something like that. Ben thinks he recalls correctly, but he could be wrong. Aiden was pretty dodgy about the whole ending of the relationship thing. The tall brunette steals a glance at the blonde boy before turning back to look at the ground.

When they get back home, Aiden heads straight upstairs without saying anything to Ben which he's fine with. He knows that the blonde probably needs some space right now.

Aiden closes his door while throwing his school bag somewhere in his room before flopping onto his bed. He lays there face first on his pillows for a good minute before turning over and pulling out his phone. He turns it on and pulls up a message chat with Tyler. He types a few different texts out before deleating them all.

"Hey, I know how you feel--"

"If you ever want to talk about, you know, coming out--"

"Tyler, please answer me. Everyone's really worried about you. I'm worried--"

"I think--"

Aiden shuts his phone off and tosses it across his bed before shoving his head into his pillow again. He lets out a sad breath. 'I don't care that Tyler's gay..... Sure, it's surprising, but.... Fuck, why won't he answer??' Aiden reaches over and tries calling him again. He's still not picking up. Aiden tosses his phone to the side again and lays on back, staring at the ceiling this time.

'That video.... Who was that boy? Are they together? I've never seen him around before--or maybe I did and I just didn't notice....... Would he--no. I can't think about that. He can be really nice when he's not so grumpy,' he thinks remembering the time when they first met. This was before the Savanah trip.

"So, are you always this grumpy, Hernandez or it just that you've got something up your ass today?" Aiden asks with a smirk as he chews on some gum. Tyler glares at him and decides to not say anything. He does have baseball practice that he needs to get to. Aiden follows him through the less crowded halls and out to the school's giant field. When they get to the edge of the field, Tyler turns around and stares unimpressingly at the blonde haired boy. "You just going to follow me around, new kid or are joining the team?"
"Whose to say I'm doing either right now?" Aiden says back. Tyler rolls his eyes and turns away from him. Aiden doesn't follow him onto the field, no. He goes up into the bleachers and watches Tyler play. When the practice is over, Aiden stays up in the bleachers. Tyler takes a few glances at him before climbing up and sitting next to him.
"Really, what are you doing here? You're not joining the team, so.... You're some kind of stalker then?" Aiden lets out a laugh at that. "I wanna know more about you. I don't think that you're the type of person to be grumpy all of the time. I want to know what your deal is. Besides, I don't have anything to do after school right now. So I thought that I could--"
"Watch me? Not helping your case, new kid or should I call you stalker instead?"
"I have a name you know. Use it."
"I don't recall," Tyler says with a very sarcastically looking face. Aiden smiles. "It's Aiden. Aiden Clark."