Society Killed The Teenager

Chapter Seventeen/And By Completely Lost It, I Mean I Went Bat Shit Crazy

I stared and I don't think I blinked for 2 minutes.

Staring in to my eyes is the boy that tricked me for so many years in to thinking that he loved me.

"What are you doing here Tyler?"

He awkwardly looks at the ground and rubs the back of his head.

"I heard that you were here and I just wanted to make sure that you were okay."

What?

I stare at him, not saying anything, just looking at him and trying to think about all of those countless times that I was glad he wasn't like normal guys and all mushy with me, but I can see all of that stuff in his eyes now.

"What the hell happened to you?"

Tyler laughs and moves closer to me, grabbing a chair and sitting on it.

"Well, you remember the girl that I left you for?"

I gulp and he nods apologetically.

"Of course you do. Sorry for that by the way."

What the actual fuck.

"Well we dated and she...changed me I guess. I stopped smoking cause every time she saw me with a cigarette in my mouth, she would dump water on my face. So that ended quickly."

He laughs, remembering.

"And I know that you're wondering why I didn't beat her up like I would have to you, but she made me take these classes and I can control my anger and I'm not hitting anyone anymore."

Holy mother of fuck cows.

"I have a job now. It's at this grocery store that I can never remember the name of, but yeah it pays pretty well and I'm thinking of asking Crystal to marry me."

I look at him and tilt my head to the side, wondering who I'm looking at.

He's cleanly shaven and he cut his blonde hair and it's nicely quiff-ed, a clean black shirt on his body and some clean skinny jeans.

There's not a cigarette hanging from his lips and his face isn't bruised from fights.

"Wow." Is all I can get out and even then it's just a whisper.

He laughs and takes a toothpick from his pocket and sticks it in to his mouth, just leaving it there, chewing on it gently.

"Ever since I stopped smoking this has been my bad habit but Crystal says she can live with it and it's better than cigarettes and marijuana."

I can't speak.

It seems like I'm meeting a whole new person.

Tyler looks at me and waves his hand in front of my face, trying to get me out of my thoughts.

I blink and bring my eyes back to Tyler, seeing a smile etched on his face instead of an angry one I was fearing in the back of my mind.

"I know it's a lot to take in. I actually saw my parents again and they didn't know who I was. They kept asking me these questions about my childhood like I was someone trying to impersonate her son or something."

He laughs and looks down at the ground again.

He stays like that for a while and I take that time to think everything over.

How he's acting, what he's said.

Most of all, the fact that it seems like he's being honest about everything.

"Why are you here, Tyler?"

I want my voice to sound big and confident like it always did when he was screaming at me, but it sounds timid and scared.

He lifts his head up and takes out the toothpicks from his mouth, rubbing his hands together and finally I can see the bags under his eyes and the demons that are still in him.

"All of the anger management was working and all and I've definitely made some amazing progress, but what keeps me up at night isn't all the damage I did to my lungs by smoking, but the fact that I hurt you."

My head snaps up and I see that he's looking directly at me, his eyes boring in to my soul.

"I'm sorry that I caused you so much pain that you thought you had no one left and even though it's not my fault, I'm sorry about your dad leaving you. And I'm sorry that he doesn't get to see his beautiful daughter all grown up and breaking hearts all over the place."

Why am I crying?

"I'm sorry that you feel like you have no one and I'm sorry I was a part of that feeling and I'm sorry about your mom not talking to you and I'm sorry that you had to grow up so fast and that when you were 13, you saw more darkness then any 30 year old."

By this time I'm sobbing in to my blanket.

He grabs my hand and squeezes it.

"I'm sorry, and even though I'm not in love with you, I want to be there for you and I want to be friends for..."

I wrap my arms around his neck and squeeze him hard, crying in to his shoulder, letting everything out and he doesn't seem to mind.

"...a long time." He finishes

He holds me and squeezes me back.

"You're not alone anymore, Bear. You have me."

I squeeze him tighter.

"You're not letting go are you?" He says with a light voice and a sniffle of tears

I giggle a little through my tears and dig myself deeper in to his shoulder.

"Never."

💀💀💀

I get out of the hospital the next day with my meds in one hand and my phone in the other, a smile on my face.

I talked to Tyler the whole night and when the made him leave, I texted him until 5 in the morning.

I really hope that his girlfriend is cool because I don't want her to think that he's cheating on her with me because he seems to really be in love with her and I wouldn't want to do something like that to my first real friend.

Tyler told me this morning that I could meet her tomorrow if I wanted to and I told him that of course I wanted to.

Walking out of that hospital I felt like I was a completely new person.

I was happier and for once in my life I was truly happy for someone else.

That is, until I saw Hunter standing by his car, swinging his key on his finger with sunglasses on and some rap music blasting in his car so loud that the doors were closed and I could hear every word loud and clear.

That's when it all sank.

Hunter didn't get better when I yelled at him, he stayed the same.

And maybe he's never going to change back to the person he used to be.

And that my friends is when this little thing called a breakdown happened.

I completely lost it.

And by completely lost it, I mean I went bat shit crazy.

(The new and improved Tyler Stephan pictured)