Tyler had responded around ten saying that he'd liked the idea of hiking. There was a nature trail nearby that went up a mountain, which is where we had planned to go. Troye had made plans with Grace to record a "Not Too Deep" podcast, so I had some time to spend with Tyler. Troye had to leave at around ten thirty, and I had planned to go hiking with Tyler at eleven, so I dropped Troye off with Grace and went back to my apartment for a bit to change and put on a drawstring bag with water.
I wore a white racer tank with some gray print on it, and some black shorts. It was pretty warm outside today. The weather was actually kind of perfect, not too hot, not too cold. It was probably seventy five degrees Farenheight, or twenty four degrees Celcius. I also found some black sun glasses to throw on since it was a sunny day. I found some unbranded socks and wore my tennis shoes over them.
When it was eleven exactly, Tyler arrived outside of my apartment. I walked around my apartment nervously as I waited for Tyler to come to the door. Just as I was about to have a full-on panic attack, Troye texted me. "Hey Con, I'm sure ur worried about how things are gonna turn out with u and Tyler. Don't be too worried, I'm sure everything will turn out fine. Let me know how it goes afterwards :)" I smiled at my phone and typed back "I will :) <3" and continued to pace around my apartment. When I finally heard the doorbell ring, I knew that there was no turning back. I had to answer, and I had to talk to the person that I had hated so much for so long. But maybe this was for the best, maybe this really needed to happen.
I inhaled and exhaled dramatically before opening my front door. Holding my drawstring bag in my left hand, I unlocked and turned the doorknob with my right. I looked up to face Tyler. He looked as if he felt guilty. He was looking down when I had first opened the door, but then looked up at me.
It felt like I was in a movie, and someone had come to my apartment just to apologize. The only difference was, this was reality. "Shanghai." Tyler said trying to force a smile on his face. "Hey Tyler."
"Ready to go?"
"Yeah." I tried to force a smile on my face as well.
I got into the passenger seat of Tyler's car and waited for Tyler to walk to the other side to the car to get into the driver's seat. We talked. We actually talked. About normal things. Things like YouTube, and upcoming projects. We talked about stories from traveling, anything and everything.
We finally reached the nature trail and got out of the car. We walked to the front of the trail, which had distance markers, so we would know how far we had been hiking. The little markers said things like "0.1 Miles" and so on.
Tyler and I started our hike and got back into regular conversation with occasional pauses for panting and drinking water. Everything felt perfectly normal, like our friendship only had a pause, not an end.
I was expecting Tyler to bring up something about Troye, and he did. Right after I told him a story about this insane cab driver that I had. "So yeah this woman goes, 'Have the homosexuals gotten to you yet?' and I'm thinking 'What did you just say?'" Tyler laughed and then took out his bottle of water to take a sip. "Some people are just so insane." I said to him laughing subtly. "For real." He responded. We took a silent pause again. "Okay so," Tyler began to speak.
"We don't have to talk about this if you're uncomfortable talking about it, but I really wanted to address it."
"Yeah?"
"You're not still mad at me or anything, right?"
"Nah, I'm putting that behind me."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I mean, friends fight. It happens."
"Okay good. I don't have feelings for Troye or anything, please know that."
"I know, but I wouldn't even blame you if you did. He's........he's pretty something."
"I'm sure he is."
"I mean, he's not perfect."
"Yeah?"
"But he's perfect for me."
"I'm so glad y'all are happy together."
"We are too." I blushed as I looked down at my feet crushing twigs in the pathway. After addressing the Troye situation, Tyler and I continued to talk about regular things, until there seemed to be two new routes on the nature trail. "What the hell?" I said as I observed the two new pathways. "I don't remember there being two pathways." I responded to myself. "Yeah I've never seen this either." Tyler and I stopped at the intersection of the two paths and looked back and forth deciding which way to go.
We finally just decided to go left since we didn't see what was wrong with it. As we continued on the left side trail, the path seemed to end, but Tyler insisted on moving forward. We finally stopped after seeing a family of deer and finding ourselves surrounded by trees, which brought us to the conclusion that we were on a mountainside forest. "Well," I began, "we're lost." Tyler and I laughed.
In an hour, we arrived back at Tyler's car, and I decided to drive. I don't know how Tyler let me, but it happened. I almost crashed into three cars and probably hit a cone or two, but we were still alive.
I got home to my apartment, where Tyler and I exchanged our goodbyes, or "Dubais", and then proceeded to getting into my car to pick up Troye. As I started my car, I got a notification saying that Tyler had mentioned me in a tweet. "@ConnorFranta sorry for getting us lost on the side of a mountain this morning, oops" I laughed and typed up a reply. "@TylerOakley sorry for nearly killing us multiple times on the drive back" I smiled, texting Troye that the hike went well and that I was on my way to pick him up.
I'm glad I wasn't losing one of my best friends.
