Mr. Misty Eyed

Therefore I'm

I woke up in my room to the sound of Josh's drum set downstairs. In the middle of it, the drums stopped and all I heard was Tyler's voice.

"Gangsters don't cry therefore,
Therefore I'm Mr. Misty Eye
Therefore I'm" Tyler sang, and I got goosebumps. The way I did every time he sang. It wasn't the same as listening to his recorded tracks. Hearing his raw, flawed, imperfect voice was an amazing phenomenon that no human should have to miss, but millions of them did.

I got up and walked downstairs to the practice room. I sat on the couch that sat across the room from the drum set that Josh practices on. Josh and Tyler both smiled when they saw me. I don't watch many practices, but the ones that I do, I really enjoy more than anything in the world.

"It must be our lucky day, Tyler. Samantha came down to watch practice." Josh joked around and I threw my hands up as if to say 'I'm innocent'. Tyler laughed and I couldn't help but laugh, too. Tyler's smile always made me smile, and his laugh was contagious.

"Yeah. It's a once in a lifetime thing, but here I am." I said, smiling. Josh moved from his spot behind the drums and came to sit by me.

"Sick." Was all Tyler said, smiling at me.

"Hey, is it okay if Ashley comes over?" Josh asked me. He always asked me before he invited someone over... Unless it was Tyler, but we basically shared our two houses anyway. Tyler was always welcome.

"Yes! I love her!" I said without thinking. "Tyler, are you going to see Chrissy before we leave tomorrow?"

"No. We said our goodbyes yesterday before I came over. She's lost in her own little world." He told me. I nodded and leaned closer to Josh, laying my head on his shoulder.

"When's Ashley coming?" I asked.

"She should be here in 30 minutes if traffic isn't bad." He told me. I just nodded and he put his hand in my hair, twisting the ends around his finger. Tyler decided that he wanted to join the party and sat beside Josh, scrolling through some social media or playing some game or something.

"Hey, Tyler..." I said after a few minutes, not moving from Josh's shoulder. "You wanna play Black Ops with me?"

"Sure. Josh? You want to play?" Tyler asked him, trying not to be rude.

"No, I'm good. I'm just going to go upstairs and wait for Ashley to get here." He said, heading up the stairs.

"Okay. Call me when she gets here." I said, grabbing my controller and sitting on the floor. Tyler grabbed his controller and turned the game on before sitting beside me. We played a few rounds of Team Death Match online before we had to stop and stretch. I stood up and stretched my arms out before sitting back down.

"You're a pretty good competitor." Tyler said, smiling at me.

"I've been playing since the original Modern Warfare. I think I know my way around Call Of Duty games." I said, smirking.

"Yeah. I guess you do." He said, sitting beside me. We started another match and halfway through it, Tyler started moving. He lay down in front of me, slowly scooting himself back toward me until his head was on my lap.

"You comfortable?" I asked, noticing him.

"Yeah. Kinda." He said, smiling. He looked so fucking adorable. Why am I just noticing this? He's always looked the same. He's always been so adorable. I guess I had noticed it before.

I had a crush on him in junior high, but it had faded when we started hanging out more as a group, Tyler, Josh, and I, and when Chrissy came around, I avoided them as much as possible.

I never actually had the chance to just enjoy his presence. His existence. That's what I was doing right now. Enjoying his presence. That's all. And either way, Josh would hate both of us if we got together.

"Ashley's here, Sam." Josh came down the stairs to tell me, breaking me from my trance. I almost shot up from the floor, but waited for Tyler to get up first. Josh gave me a puzzled look, but walked back upstairs when he heard the door open. I heard him welcome Ashley into the house and started running up the steps with Tyler slowly following. I left him to shut the PS4 down and put everything up, but he was okay. He's a neat freak anyway.

"Ashley!" I said, walking to her. We hugged and she was smiling at Tyler as he came up the stairs.

"Hey, Tyler." Ashley said, kind of half waving at him.

"Hey, Ashley." He said, smiling at her.

"Sammy, Tyler, can I talk to Josh alone, please?" She asked. We both nodded and I walked upstairs to my room. Tyler, not surprisingly. followed me. I sat on my bed and he sat beside me.

"I wanna know what they're talking about." I told Tyler.

"Probably nothing important." He said, playing with his hands. Something he only did when he was nervous.

"What's wrong, TJ?" I asked, looking at him.

"I don't know... I just don't feel right." He said, pulling his phone from his pocket.

"If you're going to vomit, go to the bathroom please. I hate the smell." I said, making him laugh a little.

"No. It's not that. It's..." He paused. "Never mind. It's nothing."

"You can talk to me." I whispered.

"I don't know what it is." He whispered as a reply. Then, out of no where, his phone rang. "Hello?" He answered. "Chrissy! Calm down. Please...Are you serious?" He started looking at me. "I'll meet you at our house in 10 minutes." With that, he hung up.

"What's wrong?" I asked, worried for Chrissy and for Tyler.

"She needs to talk to me." He said, standing up.

"You want me to come with you?" I asked out of sympathy.

"Please?" He almost begged. I saw his eyes begin to tear and I almost cried, too. We ran past Josh and Ashley and out to the car. We hopped in, and I drove. We were at the house at the same time Chrissy pulled in. Josh and Ashley had both texted Tyler and I, but Tyler was too worried about Chrissy to reply to them.

"Chrissy!" He said, jumping out of the car as fast as possible. I stayed in my seat and watched through the rear view mirror as Chrissy clutched onto Tyler and cried into his chest. They just stood there for a while. I sat in my seat, not wanting to intervene.