Empathy on the Brink - Joshler

Chapter 5

Tyler's POV
When my parents saw my face, they flipped out. They thought I had gotten into a fight and they were mad, which sucked, but it was nothing compared to this. I hid it from him as long as I could, but he sees it now. Josh looks scared, and I feel like I failed him. I turn away to hide my bruises and tears. He was my only hope at a friend, and now he knows how weak I am. I say that I'm fine, but I'm lying, I'm so very far from fine. I want him go away so I can just cry, but he stays. Why is he staying? He asks me who did it. Why does he care? I nod when he asks if it was Harry. No one has ever cared. Why does he care? Josh is saying something. I try to listen, but the voices in my head are louder.

"Why do you care?" It slips out before I realize it.
He pauses.

"You didn't do anything to deserve any of it"

Remembering Harry's warning, I decide to skip tryouts and walk home. As I'm leaving, however, I realize that I don't want to let some jerk control what I do with fear, so I head to the gym. Everyone is already there, so I just stand in the doorway, hoping nobody notices me. I can hear Josh and his friends talking about someone, me.

"Did the little freak want something from you?" I hear one say. Josh laughs
.
"Yeah, he wanted me to do his homework for him." I want to scream. I thought that maybe, just for once, someone was on my side. I make a note to never hope for that again. Josh is playing with me, as a joke or something, but I've had it. I run, as fast as I can, towards my house, not stopping until I get there. I collapse on the front steps, out of breath, and lay there until my dad pulls into the driveway.

"Tyler, get up" he says, one hand holding his phone to his ear and the other fumbling for his keys. He isn't being mean, he just doesn't have time to find out what's up. He goes inside, and I follow.
The next day, I can barely bring myself to wake up, much less go to school. I try to convince my parents that I'm sick, but my mom doesn't buy it.

"You just haven't settled in," she says, "give it one week and you'll be fine."
At school, I ignore Josh, and everyone else for that matter, and try to focus on doing my work. I stop going to basketball tryouts. I try to write music, but nothing sounds good. I really don't have meaning right now.