The Cat on the Balcony

8- We Can Suck it Together

UNEDITED

I missed Tyler at school today. First off, neither of my parents could drive me to school because of their jobs, so I had to walk there. It's only a ten or fifteen minute walk, which isn't that bad, but it's not really something I want to do first thing in the morning.

Classes were okay; we started doing actual work today which I'm definitely not excited about. The teacher gave me extras of any worksheet that was passed out to give to Tyler; apparently his mom had called the school. I'd have to get the rest of the sheets from the others at the end of the day.

At lunch I sat with the guys. I joked around with them more today than I did yesterday; I really like having people to hang out with. Except when Jack starting trying to tell us in detail the "romantic evening" he had with his burrito last night. We all kept throwing bits of food at him and yelling at him to shut up. He'd just laugh and start trying to talk again.

After he finally stopped trying to tell us about his imaginary (I hope) evening, he said that in his first period class he shares with Alex, Alex had come up to him, high-fived him over what he did yesterday in Taco Bell, and sat next to him. A faint blush spread across Jack's cheeks as he told us the story. That boy has it bad.

During music the guys showed me the little bit of lyrics they had written for the song, and it looked really promising. And by promising, I mean ridiculous. It's a good thing Mr. Way has a sense of humor; otherwise we'd probably get failed on this project.

Chemistry at the end of the day was a bit awkward since Tyler was the only person I knew in there. There were three guys in the front row that glared at me when I was trying to decide where to sit. What did I ever do to them?

I picked a desk towards the back and tried the best I could to pay attention to what we were going over. I ended up drawing doodles in the corners of my notes because I was getting a bit overwhelmed with all the information he was dumping on us at once.

Finally, the day was over. I gathered up my stuff and met Brendon at his locker which was just a few rows down from mine. I walked with him and the others out to the parking lot, where they all gave me the other worksheets for Tyler. They offered me a ride home, but I declined since it was the complete opposite direction that they needed to go. It was good for me to walk a bit anyways.

After I got home, I walked straight into the kitchen to find something to eat. While last night's leftover spaghetti heated up in the microwave, I went up stairs to take of my jeans and put on some sweatpants. I'd wear them all day if I could. Halfway through my food, I remembered the papers I had to take over to Tyler.

I finished eating as quick as I could. I fished the thin stack of papers out of my backpack and made my way over to Tyler's house. I pushed the doorbell and waited a few moments until he opened the door.

He must've not slept well last night; he had big, dark circles underneath his eyes and his overall posture gave away his fatigue. "Hey, you feel any better?" I asked.

He smiled, "Yeah, a bit. Come on in. Thanks for getting my papers for me." He stood aside and let me into the house before shutting the door. I handed him the papers, which he quickly skimmed through, his frown growing deeper with each one.

"The guys showed me what they've gotten done on the song so far, it's ridiculous." I said.

"Good ridiculous or bad ridiculous?"

"Bit of both."

"Sweet; are you hungry or anything?"

"I'll take some water, but I already ate."

"You had spaghetti, right?"

I paused, and furrowed my eyebrows. "Yeah....were you stalking me? If so, I might have to end this friendship right here. Actually, even if you were I wouldn't. You're literally my only friend right now. Well, I mean I'm friends with the others, but I know you better."

I cut myself off before I rambled on any further. He's probably used to it with his mom though. Man that woman could talk.

He laughed, "Well good to know you wont get rid of me for awhile. And I wasn't stalking you; you have a noodle and some sauce on your shirt." He pointed to my chest before going into the kitchen to get me a water bottle.

I looked down, and sure enough there was a noodle and a big red stain on the left-side of my t-shirt. I cursed and picked the noodle off of my shirt and dropping it in a nearby trashcan. Normally I'd eat it, but I didn't want to in case Tyler came back and saw and thought that was weird or something.

Tyler came back into the room with a water bottle and a damp paper towel. I gave him an embarrassed grin and took the things out of his hands before trying to scrub some of the sauce off of my shirt.

After I finished and threw away the paper towel, I didn't know what to do. I guess I should leave; I don't want to be one of those people who overstay their welcome. Right as I was getting ready to make up some excuse as to why I had to leave, Tyler spoke up, "Can you go over a few of these sheets with me? Just so I can make sure I'm doing them right."

I grinned, "Yeah, no problem! Except for chemistry, I didn't understand that at all, I'd just confuse you more on that one."

"It's ok; I'm going to suck at chemistry too."

"Well, at least we can suck it together."

Tyler snorted and looked at me with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. I sat for a second before what I said processed through my mind. A blush spread across my face.

"Get your mind out of the gutter Joseph! I meant we can both do badly at chemistry together! I just used some wrong words and left a few out on accident..." I spluttered out, tripping over a few of the words in my rush to get them out.

A huge grin spread across his face, the kind that reaches from ear to ear and makes your eyes crinkle up a bit.

"Whatever you say Jim. Now, how the hell do you do this?"

A/N- I know this one is kind of a filler, and I'm sorry. The story is going to pick up soon, I promise! As always, thank you for reading, and don't forget to vote and/or leave me some feedback, I'd really appreciate it.